Max’s Birth Story

On April 20, I went to bed with my alarm set for 9:00. I had my 38 week doctor’s appointment scheduled for the following morning at 10:30. I slept horribly that night. Worse than I had in a long time. I woke up around 3:00 a.m. and couldn’t get back to sleep until 7:00. When I got up, I put on some makeup and opted to not go with the sweats since I was going to have lunch with a girlfriend after my appointment. It was the first appointment that I was going to without Bryce, because he had a really important meeting in St. Louis that day that he had to give a speech at. When I was called back into the room, the nurse took my blood pressure and she made a face. She took it again, and said, “Your blood pressure is really high. I don’t like this. Let me get the doctor.” My normally goofy, chipper doctor walked in, suddenly very serious and worried-looking. She told me that my blood pressure was really high and that they wanted me to wait a few minutes to check it again. She said if it didn’t go down that I would have to go to the hospital to be monitored, and possibly have the baby that day. I couldn’t believe it….he wasn’t supposed to come until his scheduled C-Section on May 2 (because he was breech). They took my blood pressure again, and it was 140/90. They sent me to the hospital. As I sat in my car, alone, I called Bryce and cried. He told me he’d be there as fast as he could. After trying to call my parents without answer, I called my best friend, Victoria who spoke the sweetest words of comfort to me on the phone as I tried to gather myself together enough to drive to the hospital.

When I got to the hospital, they took me to triage and started monitoring my blood pressure every 10 minutes. Bryce made it about an hour later, and sat with me, holding my hand as we nervously listened to the blood pressure monitor. When it got to 186/113, they determined that I had a sever case of pre-eclampsia, and that I needed to have my C-Section that same day at 4:00 p.m. Not only that, but they needed to put me on Magnesium Sulfate, a medication to prevent seizures and strokes due to the incredibly high blood pressure. I can’t even describe how awful that medicine made me feel–my skin was on fire, burning and itching, and I didn’t feel anything like myself. They moved me to my room, and I just started crying when I saw the bassinet in the corner of the room. It hit me that in just a few hours, there would be a sweet baby boy sleeping in that very bassinet, and I couldn’t believe it. Bryce and I sat together for the last two kid-free hours of our lives, and we decided to make predictions on what our little boy would look like. We snapped one last picture of us together before they took me in for the C-Section.

I said goodbye to Bryce, and they took me in to the operating room. They gave me the epidural, and I immediately started throwing up. From that point on, I threw up the entire time. I even projectile vomited on one of the doctors (oops!). I kept fading in and out of being awake because of the medication that they gave me, and whenever I was awake, I was throwing up. I don’t remember being conscious when he was born at 4:46 p.m., but I remember them bringing the incubator over to me so that I could see him briefly as they wheeled him out. I just remember seeing his pink skin and dirty blonde hair. The next thing I remember, I was in the recovery room a few hours later, and my parents had just arrived. I still hadn’t seen my baby longer than the brief moment they wheeled him by me, and then the NICU doctor came in and told me there with Bryce and my parents that we had a very sick baby boy, and that they had to resuscitate him because he had fluid on his lungs. I couldn’t see him because he still was on a breathing machine, and I still wasn’t stable. Bryce couldn’t hold him, but he took my parents to go see him. Bryce took some pictures of him so that I could see him. I couldn’t believe it…it felt so surreal…especially since I hadn’t seen him or held him yet. I remember seeing this picture of him and just longing to snuggle him.

I really don’t remember anything else until about 11:30 that night when the nurse knocked on our door and wheeled him in. The tears flooded as she wheeled him closer to me. I honestly don’t even remember holding him for the first time, but I’m so thankful that the nurse took a few pictures for us.

When I saw these pictures later, I didn’t even recognize myself. I was so swollen from the pre-eclampsia. For the next 24 hours that I was on the Magnesium Sulfate, I really don’t remember much. I vaguely remember waking up to try and feed Max, but that was it.

I was pretty much unconscious until they took me off of the medication the next night at 8:00 pm. By the next morning, I was a new woman! I felt like my old self again, and managed to take a shower. My blood pressure was still ridiculously high though, and Max’s jaundice levels had gone up, so they had to put him on the Biliblanket and under the Bililight in the afternoon. I was so desperate to just hold my baby now that I was awake and felt that I had missed out on those first days…and then I couldn’t hold him….except to feed him a half hour at a time. But before they put him under the light, we were able to get some serious snuggle time in, and so were the grandparents.

Max had some more special visitors at the hospital too from far away! His Uncle Nick and Aunt Bekah (my brother and his girlfriend) came from Indianapolis, his Grauntma (Great Aunt Sherri) and Great Grandpa Smith came from near Huntington, West Virginia, and his Auntie Madisson came from Chicago. It was hard for our visitors because Max was under the Bililight and couldn’t be held, but we managed to sneak a few snuggles in near feedings.

From day one though, Max was already entertaining us with his adorable faces. I’m SOOO incredibly thankful to my dad who was able to take so many great pictures of him those first few days when I was out of it.

We were finally able to go home on April 26. My blood pressure stayed too high, and the doctors didn’t feel like it was safe for me to leave until it was regulated. I was soooo ready to go home! The doctor popped his head in before we left and said they were going to have to rename our room from 328 to “The Joyner Room” since we were there for so long.

Max in his ADORABLE going-home outfit….just slightly too big for him! (I was convinced that the Newborn size would be too small for him, and I’d have to send my mom to Target to exchange it for a 0-3 months size so I left the tags on it!)

I’ll end this post by saying how incredibly thankful I am for my this man right here. He didn’t leave my side the whole time that I was in the hospital. He loved on Max when I wasn’t able to. He changed diapers when I couldn’t walk to get him. He lifted me out of bed. He helped me in the bathroom. He wiped away my tears. He held a cool washcloth to my forehead. He laughed with me. He woke up in the middle of the night with me. He encouraged me. And he prayed with me. He truly was (and is…and will always be) my rock….such a model of Christ-like, selfless love. I’m so grateful to be Max’s mom now…but now more than ever…I’m SO incredibly grateful and blessed to be Bryce’s wife!