John Charles Peterson

It’s official, our lives will never be the same! John Charles Peterson entered the world at 5:57pm on Thursday, May 7, 2009. He checked in at 10 lbs, 6 oz, 21 inches long - it has definitely been discussed that Liz gave birth to a 2 month old child. Liz and I are adjusting to life with a newborn and wondering how it is possible to love a little baby so much when all HE has done so far is eat, sleep, cry, and poop. We definitely have our work cut out for us with my medical school graduation next weekend, our cross-country move in 2 weeks, and the start of my residency next month back in St. Paul, MN. In spite of the stress, we feel incredibly blessed and are so thankful for our friends and family who have supported us, brought food, and sent encouraging texts and emails.

Our little man is named after his grandparents, John Peterson and Charles Hutson, and for now likes to go by the nickname J.C. Check out his photo gallery for all of the official pictures! We had quite the experience bringing him into the world, and as it is a relatively lengthy tale we will share it here to minimize any left out details in case you otherwise hear it second-hand. 

Tuesday, April 28
The actual due date. Liz and I had a delightful day at home, no baby.

Thursday, April 30
Pre-natal visit #12, 40 weeks and 2 days. Cervix still closed, no change from last week. Her doctor decided to go ahead and schedule an induction for next Monday if nothing happens over the weekend. We were hoping to have seen some progress but we’re enjoying these last few days together before the baby comes.

Monday, May 4
40 weeks and 6 days. Still no baby. We gathered all of our bags (we were warned that the induction may take several days) and arrived at the Loma Linda University Medical Center at 5:30pm to check in. After setting up an IV and several fetal monitors her doctor arrived, checked her cervix (still closed), and presented the plan for the next few days: The goal is to dilate her cervix to 4cm and then start Pitocin, a medication to stimulate the uterus to contract. The medication was given, IV fluids were started, and her diet was restricted to apple juice and jello.

Tuesday, May 5
41 weeks. The doctor arrived at 6am to do a quick exam, and no change in the cervix. Disappointing, but not entirely unexpected. Several additional doses of medication were given throughout the day, and by evening Liz’s cervix was soft and not quite 1 cm dilated. As you might imagine Liz was hungry, her feet were swelling up from the IV fluids, and we both were developing a little case of cabin fever. Late in the evening her doctor decided to try a procedure which involved inserting a catheter into the cervix and inflating a small balloon to help dilate overnight, but after several traumatic failed attempts we had to regroup. The new plan was to go ahead and start the Pitocin at a low dose overnight, hoping that the contractions would help the cervix dilate on its own. Ok, fine, but now it’s starting to hurt.

Wednesday, May 6
41 weeks and 1 day. More IV fluids, more apple juice, more jello. By this point we had developed a bi-hourly bathroom ritual which required my assistance to coordinate an IV pump, several fetal monitors, and a very pregnant Liz. Another exam at 6 am and surprise, no change in the cervix. Now we began to wonder if this baby was ever going to come out. More medication was given throughout the day, and still no change by 6 pm. Now 48 hours into the induction, we began to wonder what our options were. We could stay the course and keep pushing medication indefinitely, quit and go home to wait for the baby to come on his own, or give up and play the c-section card. Liz was becoming physically and emotionally exhausted as she hadn’t eaten real food in 2 days and was tethered to the bed by all kinds of wires and tubing. We brought up our concerns with Liz’s doctor who agreed with our assessment and was determined to keep going, but she also said she understood the toll this was taking on Liz and reassured us that a c-section was a reasonable option when we had had enough. So… more medication and we settled in for the night. Or so we thought.

The night nurse stopped in at 7:30 pm to introduce herself and at first we were put off by her controlling personality. She strongly encouraged Liz to let her replace her IV with a better one, and repeatedly came in to adjust the fetal monitors. So far not a good start to the night. 2 hours later we realized that she was actually on top of her game when she stopped in again to tell us she had just paged Liz’s doctor because she was concerned that the baby’s heart rate was too high (180’s). I had noticed this occasionally throughout the day, but otherwise the heart rate pattern was not concerning and Liz was not running a fever. The nurse had gone back and reviewed the monitor data for the entire day and wasn’t comfortable letting it go any longer. Liz’s doctor arrived along with the ob/gyn physician on call and decided to place internal fetal monitors to better evaluate the baby and Liz’s contractions. This required her to break Liz’s waters and after a few quick minutes this was completed. Liz was now 3cm dilated, so the doctor decided to go ahead and start the Pitocin again at full strength and allow the anesthesiologist (who happened to be one of the best doctors either of us had ever met) to place an epidural for pain control. 30 minutes later we were alone again, epidural successfully placed, somewhat shell-shocked, wondering what had just happened, and very anxious for the arrival of a healthy baby.

Thursday, May 7
41 weeks and 2 days. Liz was now contracting regularly with the Pitocin (painlessly, thankfully), and baby’s heart rate had normalized. The 6am exam found her dilated to 4cm which means she was now in active labor on track for a mid- to late-afternoon delivery. Around 11am a nurse stopped in to fix the internal fetal heart monitor, and noticed that she was completely dilated. Wait, what??!!! Sure enough, Liz’s doctor quickly arrived to confirm that she was in fact 10 cm. So much for our plan B discussion from last night. The plan now was to let the contractions move the baby down a little further before Liz would start pushing. We were getting excited, and 2 hours later the nurse came back and we started pushing. And pushing. And pushing…. More pushing, and another 2 hours later still no baby. Liz’s doctor returned, conferred with the ob/gyn physician on call and together they determined that the baby might be too big, her contractions were starting to weaken, and her temperature was starting to rise (an indication of a possible uterine infection - not good for baby). At about 5pm the doctors had seen enough and started making arrangements for a c-section. Not the way we hoped it would go, but after 2 hours of pushing Liz was ok with this decision. Things proceeded relatively uneventfully after this (as far as c-sections go) and John Charles was born at 5:57 pm.

He is perfectly healthy and mom is doing great as well! We spent 3 more nights in the hospital for Liz to recover, thankfully while eating regular food and without IV fluids, and arrived home fittingly on Mother’s Day, May 10, with our little man. Again, we are thankful for everyone’s prayers, emails, phone calls, facebook posts, and text messages! We are overjoyed with our new addition and will be posting more in the future once we get settled after our move back to Minnesota.