Koby’s Birth Story

Disclaimer: It should be obvious but I’m hoping to be talking about pregnancy, birth, and related topics. If you’re triggered by any of those, please hit that little ‘x’ in the corner of your screen. Especially if you’re currently expecting and anxious about giving birth. Birth and delivery looks so different for everyone and I highly encourage discussing any aspects you’re nervous about with your doctor or medical professional.

I suppose we should start at the very beginning.

We Had A Plan…Or So We Thought

After years of fertility and IVF treatments, we found out we were expecting our rainbow baby in July 2024. From the start, we knew we would likely be looking at an induction at 39 weeks. Now I know people have a lot of opinions about inductions these days, but this decision was based on advice from our reproductive endocrinologist and our obstetrician and backed by current data and statistics. (If you’re expecting a baby through IVF, highly recommend discussing the data behind a 39 week induction with your doctor and coming to your own informed decision).

Around 28 weeks, I experienced he dreaded glucose screening. And when I tell you my results were bad, I mean baaaaad. My doctor wouldn’t even suggest repeating a three-hour test. Instead I was immediately given blood sugar testing equipment, signed ups for a gestational diabetes class (which I’m not going to lie, scared the crap out of me), and referred to our MFM clinic for additional ultrasounds through the remainder of our pregnancy. Honestly, the extra ultrasounds were the one highlight of GD, though they came with an increased amount of anxiety on my part. Unfortunately for me, while I was doing a great job managing my daytime numbers through diet, my morning fasting number refused to get with the program. So I was started on nighttime insulin and given more doctors appointments to do NST tests.

And from that point, everything went great. Until it didn’t.

I Still Want My Korean BBQ…

Fast forward to week 38. We’re so close. Our induction date gets scheduled. We find a dog sitter to take care of the pups during our hospital stay. And prepare to say goodbye to laugh as a couple and welcome life as a family of three (well, five…can’t forget the pups).

You’ve probably guessed by now that things didn’t quite go the way we thought.

After hitting 38 weeks, I started to have trouble controlling my gestational diabetes. Meals that had worked great for me for weeks suddenly caused my blood sugar to spike. I was stressed and anxious but, at every appointment, baby boy looked perfect.

Our induction was scheduled for March 30. On March 27, we went into our final doctors appointment. 

We had planned for that day to also be a final date day before welcoming our precious little boy. After our appointment we were going to walk around the mall and look at baby things (not that we needed anything else). Then we were going to have an early dinner at on of my favorite Korean BBQ and hotpot restaurants.

Which, come to think of it, I still haven’t had a chance to satisfy that craving.

Instead, we went into the NST testing room for our appointment, got hooked up to the monitors, and the nurse checked my blood pressure.

And that’s where our day started to change course.

My blood pressure was high. Not dangerously dangerously high, but high enough to be of concern. The nurse gave me a few minutes to take a deep breath, think calm thoughts, and recheck it.

It was higher.

The nurse went to grab the OB and I started crying.

Bless my darling, clueless, husband who tried to calm me down. He asked me if walking around would be good for my blood pressure and thought that our plans to go to the mall after the appointment would help. But I knew what was happening and I knew, we weren’t going to the mall.

To The Hospital We Go

Sure enough, the doctor came in and recommended admitting us to labor and delivery immediately for induction. In her words, baby was already done cooking at this point and with our original induction date only a few days away, there was no real reason to wait and risk any further complications from preeclampsia.

Which is how I found myself being wheeled over to the labor and delivery unit of the hospital while Scott rushed home to get our hospital bags. (And he’ll remind me that he asked me if we should go ahead and put our bags in the car just in case and I said ‘no’.)

After being admitted to triage, the OB on call did a quick ultrasound to check on baby’s position and come up with a plan for induction. Because I was not dialed or effaced yet, we chose to insert a cervical ripening balloon and start pitocin. Because of my blood pressure, I also had to be started on a magnesium drip, which the nurse and doctor warned me, would make me feel icky. And boy, did it. It also meant I would be bed-bound until after delivery due to fall risk.

After transferring to our delivery room, the balloon was inserted, the pitcocin started, and we waited. Truth be told, it was a rough night. I felt slightly out of it due to the magnesium, nauseous, and experienced intense contractions. So when early morning came and the OB came to remove the bulb and check my cervix, I was hopeful that things were progressing.

And the universe laughed at me.

Turns out, I hadn’t progressed hardly at all in the 12 hours since treatment started.

At that point, point the OB gave us our options. We could try again with a different type of balloon (one they warned me didn’t usually work as well) or we could elect to deliver via c-section.

My mom had delivered both my brother and sister via c-section. My sister delivered both of her children via c-section. So I had always anticipated that I might also deliver via c-section.

But I had wanted to try.

The Best Option (Even If It’s Not What I Wanted)

However, Scott and I discussed both options and ultimately decided that a c-section was the way to go. The medications I was on made me feel pretty out of it. And I wouldn’t be allowed to stop the medications eat, or get out of bd until at least 24 hours after delivery. So, if we had chosen to continue trying to induce for a vaginal birth, it would have meant prolonging medication without any guarantee that it would work.

I was disappointed. I always thought I would at least get to try and push. But, turns out, we absolutely made the best decision and, had we chosen to continue trying a different induction method, we could have ended up in an emergency c-section situation.

A few hours after making the decision, I was wheeled into the operating room and given the spinal block to numb me from the waist down. Let me tell you, if you’ve never experienced receiving a spinal block and then having a doctor cut through seven layers of your anatomy to remove a baby, it’s a truly weird experience. I remember feeling the table beneath me shift as the doctors worked and as they pulled Koby from my body. But I couldn’t actually feel a thing.

What I did feel was surprise when they cut through that last layer of my uterus and announced that Koby was, in fact, breech.

Yup…despite being in the perfect position less than 24 hours before, our little boy so stubbornly refused to make his appearance that he flipped himself back around!

So while part of me regrets that my birth experience didn’t allow me to even attempt pushing him out, the other part of me is so thankful that we made the decision we did and avoided putting him or myself through a potentially dangerous and traumatic delivery.

In the end, I had always said my birth plan was to bring home a healthy baby.

And we did.

So I guess things went to plan after all.

If you’re interested in learning more about our IVF and infertility journey, you can check out some of these posts. Or, follow me on Tik Tok and Instagram.