We arrived on Tuesday 1/22 evening around 5pm. We’re immediately brought to a delivery room, hooked up to machines and began talking about the induction process. Dr Perkes called the room to comfort me and reassure me that he shared all my information with the on-call Dr and that she would take care of me until he arrived in the morning. We decided to start with a drug called Cytotec that would help soften my cervix and shortly after a foley balloon catheter would be inserted into my uterus to force dilation to 4 cm. Honestly, in all that we have been through this was one of the most painful things I have yet to experience. So much that Chris almost passed out from watching me in so much pain. I kept this catheter in for over 12 hours, between that and the meds it was forcing me to contract ever 2-3 minutes all while trying to sleep to prepare for actual labor. I finally called for some pain meds in the middle of the night to try and sleep. They ended up making me a little silly, I laughed uncontrollably for about 10 minutes before passing out for an hour.
At 8am, the nurse came in and said “let’s get ready for a baby”. I was filled with hope and excitement, as well as fear but she reassured me that everything was going to work out. She forced me out of bed to brush my teeth, and began repositioning my hospital bed into a position to help force the baby down. We tried so many positions through out the day. Dr Perkes finally removed the catheter and checked to see how dilated I was, only 2 cm... so we began more medicine that would make the contractions more frequent and more intense. 6 hours later...still at 2cm and my little love still wouldn’t drop. This happened a few more times and I began to feel defeated with exhaustion. Chris kept me comfortable, massaging my legs, telling me over and over how proud he was of me and the room remained filled with love and positivity no matter how I was feeling.
Dr Perkes began talking to me about other options and said we would decide around 11pm what we wanted to do. At the last check, I was still 2cm and contracting every 2-3 minutes for nothing to be progressing. Chris and I decided the best decision for us and our son was to move forward with c-section, we were both terrified of a major surgery, but we trusted Dr Perkes with everything that we have and knew he was the one meant to bring our son to the world, we told him our decision and reassured us that it was the right one. A few minutes later we were dressing for surgery and walking down the halls to the OR.
I entered with the nurses while Chris watched from the window. Dr Perkes held my hand while it took over 6 tries to get the epidural correct. Another painful and mentally exhausting moment. Once I was finally able to lay down, I felt sick to my stomach. Chris was immediately there talking me through it and rubbing my head while the anesthesiologist gave me a few shots of medicine to make the nausea subside.
Dr Perkes continued to talk to me through the procedure and tell me how well I was doing. And then the words, “here comes your son” were said, followed by the most amazing cry you have ever heard. It felt like forever before I could finally see him up in the air, he was finally here. The nurses continued to talk out loud so I can hear them while cleaning him up, Chris went to Brian while another nurse stayed to comfort me. Chris yelled out how perfect he was.
Then the most amazing part was my son instantly knew me, when they brought him close to my face, he stopped crying and began kissing and sucking me all over my face. I cried in happiness while Chris held him on my chest. Like I said, a room filled with love.
In recovery, Dr Perkes came and was emotional over the whole event, he later told me it was the proudest delivery he ever had.
Brian Luke, you were always meant to complete our family. You have filled us with love and joy from the moment we you were implanted inside me, we are so blessed to be able to love you and share your life with you.
Check out our whole story from beginning to end on The Dkol La Femme Project. We were able to document our whole story through pictures and at the same time share our story with others. We helped bring some awareness to this very important issue of infertility. Our story ends happy, but many do not, we are very aware of this and count our blessings every day. Head over to their site to see our story (much more pictures) and many more stories that are worth hearing.
