“I’m going to
go check myself into the ER” are never the words you expect to hear your
husband say hours after you’ve given birth. I chuckled when I heard them until I realized he actually wasn’t
kidding – he really was going to leave me to go to the ER downstairs.
Hours earlier
we’d been joking with Paula, our angel labor and delivery nurse, that our
deductible had well been met this year between all our sickness and doctor
visits, Krys’s tonsillectomy and the birth of Vienna, so we were trying to
figure out what other procedures we could have done this year for cheap, hah!
That sure
jinxed it because off Krys went to the ER while I sat helpless in my hospital
bed with a two-hours-old Vienna Maeve in my arms.
The week
leading up to Vienna’s birthday, Krys had a terrible stomach flu and missed
work Friday because of it. We had
wanted Vienna to come early but I felt so relieved when she didn’t because of
how sick Krys was. Saturday rolled
around and he wasn’t feeling 100%, but he had enough strength and energy to
take me to the hospital in the evening and stay awake with me all night as we
worked on getting our little one here! #tendermercy
It was an
easy and relatively painless labor, thanks to modern medicine. We checked in the hospital at 8:30 and by
1:30 I was ready to start pushing.
My doctor, who came in when he wasn’t on call (Hallelujah!), was dead
asleep in the other room and totally surprised that I was progressing so fast
with an epidural, no Pitocin, and with my first baby. He told me that we would “rest and descend” for an hour and
start pushing at 2:30.
At that
blessed 1:30 hour though, Krys got a bloody nose. He gets them a lot.
He always has. So we didn’t
think much of it. But when 2:45
came around and it was time to start pushing, the bloody nose hadn’t gone
away. All the usual tactics just
weren’t working to get it to stop.
In between pushes he was lying on the couch shoving all kinds of tissues
and tampons up there to get it to stop, but to no avail. My right leg was totally dead from the
epidural, so Paula and I laughed and laughed as we attempted to hold my legs up
alone every few pushes when the blood was gushing too much for Krys to even
stand up. The poor guy. In some ways it nicely took my mind off
the increasing intensity of pushing, but I felt awful that I couldn’t be more
help to him. And he felt the same
about helping me.
Around 4:00
the bloody nose suddenly stopped.
Krys was able to be with me for the last 30 minutes of pushing and
witness the birth of our beautiful little girl. We enjoyed an hour or so of bonding time as a family and
just as Krys was handing Vienna back to me, the blood faucet turned on
again. It bled and bled and
bled. The first time I used my bed phone to page for help it was for Krys… “Um….
Can you come check my husband?”
Jody, our new nurse, laughed but when she came in and saw the blood bath
in the restroom, realized I was serious and suggested he go to the ER.
Hours later
Krys returned with a “balloon tampon” up his nose – an ultra glamorous medical
device that is exactly what it sounds like. He was instructed to keep it in his nose for 3 days!! This was a 3rd attempt to
get the bleeding to stop after having him sniff cocaine (yes, cocaine) and
cauterize it. When neither of
those proved effective, balloon tampon it was. We didn’t take too many good first family pictures because
of it… ;)
The best part
of this story is how infamous Krys became among the staff at the women’s center
at Mountain Point Medical Center.
Even the nurse who came in the next day walked in and said, “So you’re
the one with the bloody nose…” I think he secretly enjoyed all the attention
and I secretly resented it… Hello… I’m the one that just birthed an 8 pound
human over here! In all
seriousness though, the hand of the Lord is in our lives every single day. Next time we have a baby though, I’m
hoping Krys will leave the blood bath to me ;)
