Straton's Birth Story

Straton Terry Styler 

7lbs 8 oz 20.5in 

Born at 8:33 pm 

I love my Dr because he schedules me to be induced at 39 weeks no questions asked, so we scheduled my induction for October 6th! The morning of the 6th I got a call around 6 am. I told them we would be there in an hour and a half we hurried and got ready and left the house! The drive from Enterprise to St.George has never taken so long!! I literally about had several anxiety attacks on our way down there! I had noticed that morning that the baby had not been moving very much, I felt one little kick when I hopped into the Jeep but that was it. We arrived at the hospital about 7:15, I got hooked up to the IV and started getting my antibiotics for group b, such a pain! In the meantime they noticed that the baby's heart had no fluctuation to it at all! It would go down a tiny bit with each little contraction I was just having on my own, but would not go up, ever and he still hadn't moved! I was already dilated to a 3 and 50 %  effaced at this point! Dr. Benham came in at 9 to break my water but didn't want them to start Pitocin until the baby's heart stopped dipping. Luckily just breaking my water brought on plenty of contractions and I started dilating on my own without any pit. I don't know at what time it was but the baby's heart took a big dive because I had back to back to back contractions, they have a fancy word for those kind of contractions but I can't remember it! The nurse checked me and I was at a  5 almost 6 and started changing my position to get the baby's heart rate back up which luckily it came right back up. I was in quite a bit of pain by this point. When the nurse walked in she made the statement, wow you finally look like you are in labor, you've been so calm this whole time! Talk about a rush when that happened. I was in SOO much pain from those contractions, freaking out because my baby's heart rate dropped SO low and there were about 20 nurses and doctors in my room within about 2 minutes! The nurse called my Dr to come check on me and to tell us what direction to go. The nurse was preparing me mentally for a c section while he was on his way down. She was so pleased that I told her I was completely fine with a c section, I just needed my baby to get here safely! My Dr said he was fine if I just kept laboring as long as the baby's heart was coming back up into a safe zone after the dips! So we went on laboring. After the big dip they noticed that I had meconium in my water, they figured he pooped during the big dip when he was under all the stress! So they said that NICU was going to be in the room when I delivered, which they would've been anyway with the way baby had been acting!  I finally got my epidural when I reached a 7! I know I no where close did anything natural but I was pretty proud of myself for getting to a 7 without any meds. They were hoping that I would be able to relax and my body could finish the job off, and get to complete without any Pitocin. The baby had a few more scary dips, but nothing as intense as the first time! This whole time I was changing positions to try and keep his heart regulated and was on oxygen. Six o clock rolled around and it was nurse change time. I was so sad that the nurse I had had all day wasn't going to be there when I delivered, if I ever did at the rate things were going. haha My new nurse was AMAZING though! She came in about 7 o clock and said I'm going to start you on Pitocin. If the baby can't handle it we need to know, but if he can then we are wasting a lot of time and he is in so much stress he just needs to get out of there. So she put me on the lowest dose of Pitocin and he didn't love it, but he handled it better than we thought he would. About 8 he had a very scary drop. The nurse rushed in and checked me hoping that I was complete and he had dropped which was what caused the drop in his heart, and that is exactly what had happened! I was a 9 + and 100%. They had already called Dr B so they said he would be there in 7 minutes while everyone just sat there starring at my monitor watching baby's heart, praying! Dr Benham got there, got in position took one look at the monitor, looked at me more serious than I have ever seen him and said Lashel we need to get this baby out now! So I mustered up some super woman power, not sure where it come from because I was SO exhausted physically and emotionally, and pushed through the 9+ and got him out pushing through 2 contractions! They sat Straton up on me, he was this limp little grey baby so different than my other crying pink babies ! Dr. B handed the scissors to Trev and said hurry dad, hurry cut the cord, and as soon as the cord was cut the NICU came and took the baby over to get him all sucked out and breathing. I was a MESS!! I have never not had my baby just lay right on my chest after they are born, I kept asking if he was ok. My Dr was reassuring me that he was in the best hands, and was going to be fine. He kept yelling over to them mom wants to know how baby is doing, finally they said we have a really strong pulse... but that was it. Then what seemed like forever later they said he was breathing on his own. They kept him over there for such a long time trying to get him to cry to see if he would pink up, but he wouldn't cry and was staying so pale. The respiratory therapist said take baby over to his mom and let her breastfeed, a breastfeeding mother will fix everything, he just needs his mom! So they brought my baby to me and he lifted his head right off my shoulder and just starred into my eyes for the longest time! I couldn't believe his strength and how he knew me so well already! I fed him and he started to pink up! I was SO SO happy to finally have my baby boy in my arms!
After my DR delivered the placenta he looked it over really good to see if there was something wrong with it that was causing so much stress for the baby. He discovered that the cord wasn't attached to the placenta very good and that is what was causing it. My nurse told me that is the number one cause of StillBorns and that I was very lucky I had scheduled an elective induction that day. I think I probably would've known something was up and would've gone in anyway since he wasn't moving. I am just so grateful that we were able to get Straton here safe and sound!

The first morning at home!

Koleman & Kiptyn were in HEAVEN!!!