Sarah.jane.owens: Campbell's Birth Story

Posted Monday, September 13, 2010 4:32 PM

"Somehow Dr. Congo confused a full head of hair for a bum. How is that possible?" 

Forget the baby shower!

Let's start by saying my little guy is a party animal! I had a pretty "normal" pregnancy; inability to sleep during the first trimester, a little bit of morning sickness, breathing like I had run a marathon when I had only walked up the stairs, peeing every 5 minutes. You know, the usual. The biggest challenge that I faced was my lack of a relationship with my doctor. After she skipped out on 3 of my appointments without a phone call - at 28 weeks I decided to switch doctors. During my first visit with my new OB she did an ultrasound to check out the little fella and let us know that he was already 4 pounds!!! While I'm not skinny, I'm very short (5'1) and I have no torso. She said that we would reassess at 34 weeks but at this point she didn't think it was in either of our best interest for me to go 40 weeks. I'll ruin the surprise now, I never made it to 34 weeks. 

My shower was scheduled for 11:30 on January 23rd. I had taken the day before off from work to relax and pick up my girlfriends who were flying in for my shower. The first friend that arrived said I was "HUGE" and the second said "You don't look that pregnant". At this point, I couldn't wait to hear what my friends who were arriving on Saturday were going to say. We spent our evening going to dinner and laughing about all of our crazy memories. At 1 am I finally went to bed and at 4am I got up for my routine bathroom trip. I walked back to bed and before my head hit the pillow I had to pee again. I got up and started to stumble back the the bathroom and all of the sudden there was a gush of liquid between my legs.  While the nurse who taught my birthing class promised us that it won't be like the movies, that's exactly what it was like for me. As calmly as possible I told my husband, Justin, that my water had just broke and half asleep he lovingly told me "you just pee-ed yourself, come back to bed".  After I assured him that I didn't pee myself we now had to find our new doctors number because of course it wasn't in either of our phones. By doing this, Justin woke up both of my girlfriends. While he called the doctor, they helped me pack a bag. At 5 am the four of us were off to the Hospital.  

Inexperienced doctor 

While sitting in the maternity triage room, waiting for a nurse to confirm that yes my water broke, I was assured that I was not leaving the hospital with out a baby in my arms. While waiting for my doctor to arrive, the attending doctor came into check me. While confirming that I was in labor and I was 6 cm dilated, he let me know that he had spent the last three years in the Congo and had only been in the country for 72 hours. The attending, we can call him Dr. Congo, reassured us that everything would be fine because we were in America and in a hospital.  After I was moved to a birthing room, Dr. Congo came in to examine me again.  At this point he declares that the baby is breach and he must have moved since he last checked me and "he would prove it". The nurse rolls in the ultrasound machine and Dr. Congo doesn't know how to turn it on. The nurse helps him turn on the machine because well they don't have ultrasound machines in the Congo and on the screen shows a big baby head, not a baby bum. He asked if I had heartburn or acid reflux because he know believes that the baby will have a full head of hair. Somehow Dr. Congo confused a full head of hair for a bum. How is that possible? 

Campbell's party

Being the weekend and with her not having any patients due, of course my doctor was not on call and a different OB in the practice came to deliver little Mr. Owens. The partner Doctor came in checked me asked a couple of questions and then told me, everything would be ok. He would probably be 3 pounds, might not be breathing and I wouldn't hear him cry. They had already called the NICU and had a nurse on her way. For the next 15 minutes or so we chatted about the weather, my shower, my marriage. Finally I asked if I was poo-ing myself.  The partner Doctor took a look and said "nope, that's a head".  She told the nurse to have me start to push and she would be right back; she had something important to do.  Five minutes later, she comes back, still in her street clothes with a cup of hot tea!!!! Her important task was getting tea. She looked "down there" and let me know that now she needed to go change.  After another 15 minutes of pushing at 11:23, seven minutes before my shower was scheduled to begin, Campbell Allyn an almost six pound, screaming baby, with a full head of hair was born. Like I said, he's not going to miss a good party.

While he was 7 weeks early and needed to stay in the NICU, it was amazing to have all of my friends and family that had traveled to Ohio for the shower be able to meet Campbell. Two weeks later, Campbell came home and life ever since has been a party!