Samuel's Birth Story

My husband and I decided to have another baby, and after one year of trying, we finally got pregnant! We don't know why it took so long, as we didn’t have any problems getting pregnant with our four other children. Unfortunately, I miscarried after eight weeks and was devastated. We decided to try again, and this time I got pregnant right away.

When I was three months pregnant, my doctor ordered a routine ultrasound. This ultrasound showed a "band" in my amniotic sac so he ordered a high definition ultrasound at a larger hospital when I was four months. This ultrasound showed that there was no "band" but there was a healthy baby boy! We were excited because we were hoping for a boy, but my daughter was devastated because she was going to still be our only girl. My due date was August 9.

On June 10, I was sick with the flu and went into premature labor. We went to the hospital and my contractions were four minutes apart. I received a dose of medicine to stop my labor and also a fast-drip IV. Twenty minutes later, they were going to give me another dose but couldn't because my blood pressure was not cooperating. The IV hydrating me finally stopped my labor and we went home.

On July 17, I went into labor again, and this time they were going to let me have this baby! Well, after four hours of contractions at three minutes apart, he decided he wasn't ready and my contractions stopped! On July 19, we went for another ultrasound to check the size of baby Samuel to make sure he wasn't too big for a vaginal birth (I had gestational diabetes). Much to our surprise the tech said he only weighed six pounds! We had our last doctor’s office visit on July 26 and I was very miserable because of how low I was carrying Samuel. My doctor stripped my membranes and said if I didn’t go into labor by July 31, he would induce me. That evening I kept hoping for contractions, but none ever came so I went to bed. I woke up at 12:50 AM to use the restroom. My husband woke up too and asked if I was having contractions. Well, I didn’t know because I had just woken up so we decided to time some. He was frantic because they were five minutes apart. We were getting out of bed to go to the hospital and my water broke! At this point, my husband was really frantic because with my previous labors, when my water broke we had a baby within 15 minutes and we live 30 miles from the hospital! I called the hospital to let them know we were on our way.

We got about 13 miles from the hospital and I needed to push. My husband called the hospital again and told them they better have the doctor there because I was ready to deliver NOW! We arrived at the hospital at 2:04 AM, my doctor arrived at 2:05 AM and I delivered at 2:08 AM. During delivery, Samuel was born sideways and his clavicle was broken. He weighed in at a healthy eight pounds, nine ounces, not anywhere close to what the ultrasound technician had predicted!