Tanner Chase’s Birth Story

May 28, 2016 by Drafts & Crafts

It goes without saying, baby’s are ready to come when they are ready to come! Our son decided to surprise my husband and I by arriving a few weeks early. I am excited to share with you the birth story of our first child, Tanner Chase Colding.

On Tuesday, May 10th I was 37 weeks and 2 days pregnant. Since I was past 36 weeks, I had my weekly OB appointment every Tuesday. If you know me or have been following along, then you may know that I had been extremely swollen since about 28 weeks. As soon as 36 weeks hit, I was counting down the days until baby was due since I was uncomfortable from swelling. With that being said, I was anxious to hear from my doctor if my body was starting to prepare for delivery (i.e uterus softening and any dilation). The nurse checked my vitals that Tuesday morning, all was good except my blood pressure was a slightly high, but “not high enough to be concerned though.” Then the doctor told me that I was not showing any signs of labor, so he would just see me back the following Tuesday.

I left the doctor, went home, had some lunch and decided to go grocery shopping. After finishing up at the grocery store, I spotted the blood pressure machine in the corner of the store by the pharmacy. I thought to myself, I may be a little crazy but I want to take my blood pressure because I thought it was high at my doctors that morning. I was not nervous to take my blood pressure and in fact I was thinking, oh it probably has gone down since this morning. I was shocked to see that I had gone up way higher, 184/99!! So I waddled over to the pharmacist and asked him if the BP machine was accurate. The pharmacist assured me that it was accurate and that someone comes to calibrate the machine monthly. The pharmacist encouraged me to sit down for 15 minutes take some deep breathes and take my blood pressure over to get a second reading. The reading the second time was 180/106 so I called my OB’s office right away and they told me if I felt safe to drive the come back in so they could check my BP. Sure enough it was around 180/100. My OB sent me straight to the hospital to have further testing for preeclampsia. Preeclampsia is simply high blood pressure during pregnancy. Usually the only way to get a mother’s blood pressure down is by delivering the baby. If the mother is considered full-term (around 36 weeks) it’s extremely important to get the baby out because high blood pressure puts you at high risk for having a seizure or stroke. The 3 signs of preeclampsia are high blood pressure, protein in your urine, and swelling.

Jason left work and met me at labor and delivery. The nurses took blood work, urine samples, and checked the baby’s vitals. My blood work looked good, yet there was protein in my urine. The nurse told me that they wanted to hold me for 24 hours and collect a 24 hour urine sample.  Jason and I slept overnight in the hospital. After collecting my urine for 12 hours (I know, doesn’t sound pretty) the high-risk OB for the hospital came in to check me. She took one look at my chart and said that she would have delivered my baby today if it was up to her. She said that she was going to call my OB immediately and tell him that I needed to have the baby ASAP. The nurses were great at keeping me informed. They let me know that my OB was on his way to talk to my about my plan for delivery. After spending 24 hours in the hospital, my doctor came into the room and told me he was scheduling me for 7:30 AM C-section the next morning, May 12th. It was a wild feeling knowing that it would be just the next morning that we would be holding our son for the first time!!

I was pretty upset because I wanted to try to have a vaginal birth, but since I had no signs of labor the doctor did not feel like it was safe to induce me with high blood pressure. At 6am on May 12, I was woken up to prep for surgery. I was pretty nervous because I had never had any kind of surgery, but I kept reminding myself that c sections are extremely common and that this was in God’s hands. I was wheeled into the operating room at 7:45 and Tanner Chase was born at 8:16 a.m. I never felt so relieved to hear a baby cry. Jason carried him behind the curtain so that I could see him for a second before they had to clean him and get his vitals. Tanner weighed 6 lbs 8 ounces and was 19.5 inches! Seeing Tanner for the first time completed our lives!

The total C-section was about 40 minutes. Then I was wheeled  back in my room to recover and hold our sweet angel. After holding Tanner for a few minutes, he was making a low, shallow whimpering noises and would not cry loudly. The nurses had to take him and try to get him to cry. Since he was not reacting to anything they were doing, the nurses decided to take Tanner to the NICU. The doctor determined that Tanner swallowed some amniotic fluid during the C-section. Babies that are born vaginally come through the birth canal and all the fluid that they swallow gets pushed out. Our little dude was having trouble breathing because he had fluid in his lungs.

To make a long story short, Tanner was in the NICU for a week. It was by far the hardest and longest week of our lives, but each day he was doing better and we were getting good reports so we were remaining hopeful that our baby boy would make a quick recovery. After one week, Tanner was able to come home with his mama and dada!!! My parents were here from South Florida for two weeks and they drove me back-and-forth to the hospital each day to see Tanner since I was not able to drive from the C-section and the high BP. They also made sure Jason and I ate well while they were in town. I think it is safe to say that our hearts have never this full and we are so happy to be Tanner’s parents and grandparents. I think Jason and I are doing a pretty good job and adjusting to our new schedule and life. We are definitely tired at times but we wouldn’t trade it for the world. So, if you are still reading this, thank you for making it through my long birth story and THANK YOU to everyone that showed us continuous support and prayers for our new family!!!

Keep in touch,
Dani, Jason, & Tanner!