Linden’s Birth Story
Tuesday, June 14th we were 41 weeks and 2 days pregnant. I had a midwife appointment at 11am where we talked about induction for the next day (Wednesday, June 15th). We talked about the options, etc and had a physical exam including my fourth stretch and sweep. My blood pressure was again high (145/92) at this appointment, meaning I would have to go into the hospital that afternoon for a Non-Stress Test and blood work to check out the baby’s condition. I was not looking forward to bringing a 4 year old with me to sit on a stretcher for an hour!
Coincidently, the midwife on call came into the office saying she would love for me to be induced that day, as she was confident that by just breaking my “water”, I would have a smooth labour. Unfortunately, there had been over 8 unscheduled C-sections at Abbotsford Hospital in the last 2 days, so they just couldn’t afford to give up the room. But there was a slim chance they could squeeze us in that night. I understood and headed out for my tests, thinking we would just be inducing the next day anyways.
I had to take Lily home for some lunch before heading to the tests. I was ok with taking Lily with me, as I had had these tests done before and they were straight forward. But something inside me made me call Kevin at work to give him an update. He said there wasn’t much work coming in and he might as well head home. I kept telling him that it was ok for him to stay at work but I kept saying to him, “I don’t know why I’m kind of panicking and feel weird about this…” I also called my mom, who NEVER has her cell phone on, to give her the heads up that we most likely will be induced tomorrow but there was a small chance it might be that night. She actually answered and offered to come and watch Lily while I get my tests done. So, when my mom arrived, she convinced me that she should just take Lily over night, as we were most likely going to be induced the next morning anyways. We agreed this made sense. Lily was sort of flustered by the change of plans, not understanding that we were preparing for her brother.
Kevin and I arrived at the hospital at around 1pm and checked in for the tests. I told Kevin to relax as I hopped up on the bed to be hooked up to the fetal monitor and was poked for bloodwork. I was really only there because of one random high blood pressure reading, so we both took things easy. The baby sounded great and even the nurse who was previously very busy was relieved that things looked good. His heart rate was sitting at an awesome 150 beats per minute.
All of a sudden everyone in the room could hear the drop in heart rate on the monitor. It has a definite different tone to the sound. I looked over at the monitor and it read in the 70’s (anything under 100 is alarming). A couple of other nurses popped their heads through the curtains asking if we needed help. I saw the panic and then heard, “We need an IV start here!”, which is not good news. They started flipping me from side to side trying to get a better reading on baby. He rebounded a couple of times, giving us hope that he was ok. They started ripping off my clothes and put me in a gown. I looked over at Kevin and said, “It’s going to be ok” but we both knew things weren’t going right. The midwife on call arrived after being paged and checked me. I remained 4cm’s dilated with at favourable cervix. She said she was looking to see if there was a cord in the way that he could be pressing up against. She then said in a strong voice, “How long has he been down”. The nurse replied, “4 minutes”. Then my midwife made the decision to call a “Code OB”, meaning, emergency C-section to get baby out FAST!
They kept trying to flip me from side to side while running me towards the OR, taking off my jewelry, clothes, etc. Kevin was thrown a pair of scrubs. I remember hearing all the staff being confused, as we had no OB, no surgeon, no pediatrician, etc. I started to panic, as this meant that there was no one to take care of us! All of a sudden, a surgeon arrived asking for my consent. Then an anesthetist arrived, telling me about the procedures I would be getting. It was happening all too fast, but I knew this was for the health of our son and it WAS happening. Only once did I think to myself, Wow, this is major surgery I’m about to have and I better be ok because I will now have 2 kids and a husband to take care of. I kept asking my midwife if Kevin was ok and if he understood what was happening. Everyone assured me that he would be taken care of. They then took me into the OR without even saying goodbye to Kevin. I remember praying for Kevin, for confidence in the people caring for us and for our son who was already having trouble with this world.
I was lucky enough to have just a spinal and not general and within 15 mins from when we called the code, they had opened me up. Kevin was now at my side. We barely spoke, as it was just all to fast and unreal. We just kept our eyes locked on each other. I remember looking at him deeply, apologizing for all of what was happening to us. He squeezed my hand and we both prayed. After what I know was the Dr pulling our son out, I heard them saying, “Very low amniotic fluid” and “Cord wrapped around his neck”. They didn’t even have time to show him to us over the sheet. But I do remember vividly hearing our son’s cry at 2:27pm. Kevin squeezed my hand and I closed my eyes and gave thanks to the Lord. We both started crying. I was so grateful and so relieved and so overwhelmed by how God truly put his hands on my life in that moment, taking control, guiding the right people to help us and blessing me with a healthy son.
Kevin went over to the table to see him being looked over by the pediatrician and midwife. He got to cut the cord. My midwife came over to tell me about what they had found (cord and low fluid) and this was most likely the reason for his distress. He weighed 7lbs 2oz, measuring about 18.5 inches long. The pediatrician said he was healthy and that we were very lucky to have gotten him out. June 14th, Linden Gary Edward Mitchler was born.
They brought him over to me all bundled up with his Canucks green toque on. I gasped when I looked at his bright eyed little face. He looked just like Lily! Same nose, same eyes, same lips. He was gorgeous! He was calm, just looking around, very content in Kevin’s arms. I was then told we would be moving into the recovery room. The three of us together… never separated.
We spent about 2hours in recovery, not having a phone or any of our belongings. Our midwife offered her phone. We called my mom to let her know what had just happened. I can’t explain the emotions I was feeling telling her that her grandson had just been born without any warning. I guess there’s just something about talking to your mom, needing to hear her reassurance in a desperate moment in your life. We felt bad that we didn’t have time to share the news right away with every one. Our boy was doing great, totally awake the whole time. Had his first feed, which felt great for me, as it had been a long time. When I was finally able to move my legs again, we were wheeled into our room on the maternity ward. Room 16… Trevor Linden’s jersey number.
When settled in our room, we called as many people as we could. It was emotional to share our happy but surprising news. I don’t think we had completely reflected on what had just happened. It is still hard for me to think back as it was very sudden, and very scary not knowing if your child would be ok or not. But we did know right after how blessed we were, how lucky we were, how in love with our son we were.
On our car ride home with Linden 2 days later, Lily’s favourite CD was playing, “God is So Good”. Tears started streaming down my face, knowing He is indeed good to me, as I was sitting beside my strong, loving husband taking our healthy son home to meet his big sister. God was there, causing my blood pressure to be high to alert us that something was wrong with babe… He was there, making sure my Mom would be able to drop everything to take care of Lily that day… He was there, making sure Kevin could come home from work that day to be with me for the whole scary ordeal… He was there, guiding the nurses and midwife to make the difficult decision to have an emergency c-section… He was there, collecting all the professionals within minutes to help get our baby out… and He was there, breathing life into our son when it was all out of our hands. God is SO good!!
