The Birth

Makenna was born at 36 weeks so I was pretty terrified that Brody would come early as well and I did not have the extra days at work to take so I was pretty worried about that. But at 38 weeks he still wasn’t here. I had been dilated about 2CM and 40% effaced for the last 2 weeks. Dr. Riely told me she would give me another week and then we could talk about our options. So, at my 39-week appointment she gave me the option of being induced the next day if I wanted. Brody’s due date had always been May 24^th.  Chuck thought that was so awesome because his birthday is March 24^th, his older son’s birthday is January 24^th, and Makenna’s birthday is August 24^th. So, I told Dr. Riely if Brody doesn’t come on his own, then I want to be induced on May 24^th. Besides, I really didn’t have the extra days to take off and I was in the middle of reviewing my kids for their big ECA test at school.

We check in the hospital at 5 on the morning of the 24^th. I had started to feel small contractions already before we even left the house…maybe Brody was going to come on his own anyways. By 7AM the pitocin was started.  A couple of hours after that Dr. Riely came to check on me and broke my water….by 11AM I had my epidural.  All day long I kept updating everyone on facebook or through text messages on what was happening. It was so much fun reading everyone’s comments, “Hurry up and start pushing already.” “I can’t wait to see a picture of him.” “So excited to see the next update.” I loved my nurses that I had…we had good chemistry and were laughing and telling stories. I don’t remember having this experience with Makenna…maybe because she was my first and I was scared to death. Mom brought Makenna over around 1 or 2PM to see me and she had her new Big Sister shirt on and brought up a It’s A Boy balloon. She was so excited. We gave her her big sister present…a unicorn happy napper. She told me she couldn’t wait to see her baby brother through the window and I couldn’t wait for her to experience this…something that never happened. Sometime around 4PM it was time to start pushing. Chuck and I decided it would just be us in the delivery room this time around. I was worried about the pushing…I pushed with Makenna for 3hrs and still had to have an episiotomy and the doctor also had to use the suction cup to get her out (what can I say, she had/has a big head J). A little better with Brody…1.5 hrs, still had to have an episiotomy but no suction cup (thank goodness because I would hate to see what would have happened to his little head). At 5:46PM Brody Mann Curtis was finally born. I didn’t really think about it then, but Dr. Riely didn’t sit him on my chest after he came out like she did Makenna. She took him straight over to the warmer. I remember yelling out, “Does he have all of his toes and fingers?” but no one really said anything.  I told Chuck to go over and get some pictures of Brody. He had seen the discoloration on his arms, legs, hands, and feet but he said he just thought it was part of the afterbirth and stuff. He went over to where Brody was and this is what Dr. Riely said to him, “He has some discoloration on his extremities. I’ve never seen it before and I don’t know what it is. A team from Kosairs is already on their way over and he’ll be transported over there tonight.” She finally brought Brody back over to me wrapped in his blanket with a little hat on his head and told me the same thing. I just stared at him wondering what on earth could this be…most definitely not imagining in my wildest dreams it would be as bad as it was. They take Brody to the nursery to finish getting him cleaned up while the nurses got me cleaned up. The doctor that came over with the transport team came in to talk to us after he examined Brody. He couldn’t tell us anything except he really did not know what it was and they would have to do some research and probably skin biopsies to know for sure. He started doing the research before he even left the hospital to take Brody to Kosairs and said he thought it could be something called Barts Syndrome. He wasn’t completely wrong. Before he left my room to go to the nursery he said the only thing he could tell us at that time is that it looked like Brody had 3^rd degree burns on his skin. As soon as he shut the door I looked at Chuck and just started crying saying do you think I did this to him? I love taking hot baths, and they especially felt good when I was pregnant with Brody after working all day. Chuck just hugged me and said it isn’t anything that either of us did to him.

I go ahead to my room and a friend of my mine waits with me while Chuck goes to Kosairs for a few hours to be with Brody and then comes back around 3AM. I wasn’t expecting to be realeased from the hospital until some time on the 26^th at the earliest, but Dr. Riely came in around 10AM that next morning and said, “I thought about you guys all night. If you promise me that you will take it easy and get as much rest as you can, I will let you leave at 11AM today.”, and from what I heard Dr. Riely doesn’t normally let people check out early for anything. I was so thankful because all I wanted to do was go see Brody. 

When I got to the hospital, we had to put on masks, gloves, hats, and gowns to go in to see him. He was inside a closed incubator with bandages wrapped around his arms, hands, legs, and feet, no clothes on, monitors attached to his chest (this would prove to be very damaging to him) and a small tube coming out of his nose. He was so alert though and so very sweet. We didn’t stay long. By this point it was probably around 1or 2PM, I was tired, needed to go see about renting a breast pump, and I wanted to check on Makenna. So, we left our little guy with the nurses and headed home for the evening not knowing that our world would be completely turned upside down in the coming week.