Baby Nicholas’s Birth Story

It always amazes me how to completely different each birth story is. When I was pregnant with my second son, I fully anticipated my labor and birth to be similar, maybe just quicker based on what I had heard from other moms. On the contrary, my second born birth was completely different. With our first son, I went into labor in the middle of the night and had my son naturally by 10 AM. With my second son, Luke, I was on a walk with my mom when my water busted wide-open like a scene from the movies. His arrival took well over 24 hours, medications to get the contractions going, it was just not as smooth sailing. Because my first two boys were so completely different, I had no clue what to expect with baby Nicholas.

My due date with baby Nicholas was December 1st and he made his arrival on December 5th. I went into labor around 2 AM on December 5th and he was born at 10:16 AM. When contractions started, I decided to wake up, take a shower and throw a few things in my hospital bag just in case. I started tracking my contractions around 3:30 and they were about 10 minutes apart consistently until about 7:00 they started getting closer together. Luke and Giuliano woke up around 7am and I noticed my contractions picking up when I was walking around the house with them and helping to get G ready for school. Giuliano was so precious and so excited when I told him that I was in labor and the baby was probably coming today, he started jumping up and down. Around 7:30 I had a few contractions that were extremely close together and it freaked me out, it reminds me of transition with my previous births and I knew that I needed to be at the hospital soon. I called my mom and my father-in-law so they could come help with the boys while Nick and I headed to the hospital. My mom brought Giuliano to school and my father-in-law stayed with Luke while we headed to the hospital around 8 AM. The entire drive to the hospital my contractions were consistently five minutes apart and lasted for about a minute long. They were extremely intense and I was breathing through them. The entire time I was in labor I had the Built To Birth meditations in my ear, this was such a game changer for me and I wish I had this with each of my births. If you are pregnant and looking to do a natural birth, I would highly recommend looking up Bridget Teyler on YouTube! Her content is incredible and her meditations kept me so calm the entire labor.

When we arrived at the hospital they told me that they had to make sure I was actually in labor and they stuck me in a triage room before actually checking in. I can’t tell you how annoyed this made me because I was so obviously in labor, especially after having two kids before I think I know when I’m in labor lol. Anyways, when the nurse came to check me to make sure “I was in labor” she found that I was dilated to a 10. They were shocked. In your face people, check this pregnant lady into a dang room ha ha.

Finding out that I was at a 10, my thought was that I would start pushing anytime soon. At this point though my water had not broken so my body wasn’t naturally starting to push. They told me they wanted to check my platelet levels prior to breaking my water for me. I have low platelet counts and so every time I am pregnant it’s a bit of an issue. They tend to drop around 100 by the end of my pregnancies, which typically removes the option for an epidural. Hence my great appreciation for the meditations I mentioned above. They tested my platelets and hooked up an IV to get me some fluids and around that time my contractions got really serious, they already had been but at this point I was definitely in transition. When the test results came back that my platelets were okay, I asked the midwife to break my water for me. I was ready to get things going and start pushing. I don’t remember the timeframe from the time she broke my water to the time I started to push, but I know that it all went pretty quick. After she broke my water contractions got even more intense. I finally decided that I wanted to try to go pee, just in case my bladder was full and preventing the baby from coming down further. This is where my labor and delivery story gets quite interesting. I went to stand up to start walking to the bathroom and Bam just like that my body was ready to push. The moment I stood up on the side of the bed, I started saying “oh no oh no” because I knew it was time to push. If you’ve had a baby before, you know that once the pushing urge starts there’s really not much you can do about it, your body just starts pushing. It’s an uncontrollable urge. I pushed for under five minutes, I think only about two contractions and then baby Nicholas made his dramatic entrance into the world right there and on the side of the hospital bed. I was literally standing up holding onto Nick with one arm and the side of the bed with the other. I didn’t realize this but Nick said he was holding me up with one of his legs as I pushed. The moment baby Nicholas entered the world, my first words were “oh my goodness he looks just like Luke”. It was astonishing, he was literally a replica of our second boy. It’s so interesting to say that now because one month later I think he looks more like Giuliano did when he was a baby. It’s amazing how babies are a mix of their parents and relatives!

Now for the dramatic part. When Nicholas was born, the umbilical cord snapped. The midwife notices right away and I could see the concern on her face when she noticed that it was no longer attached to the placenta. She frantically started telling the nurses to grab her a clamp. What Nick and I didn’t realize in that moment is that baby Nicholas was losing blood through the cord, so not only did he not get all of the cord blood from the placenta into his body, but he also lost blood out of the cord being broken. One of the midwives later told me that she had been doing this for 20 years and she’s only seen this two other times. The cord breaking is extremely dangerous because you and your baby are at risk of bleeding too much. On top of that, baby Nicholas was not crying or breathing, right before our eyes we were watching our baby turn from a pale white color to purple. They quickly rushed him over to help him. I quickly told Nick to leave me and go pray over our baby. Within minutes those angels that we call nurses and midwives got my baby breathing, clamped and gaining color in his skin again. I can’t tell you how grateful I am for those amazing women who are there to help you and your baby during any scenario. When I was delivering the placenta, my midwife told me that he could not have been born without the umbilical cord physically snapping, it was simply too short for him to be delivered. I asked her why they didn’t see that on the ultrasound and she told me that that it’s not something that they can tell from an ultrasound. I can’t help but feel like the Lord was watching over my baby. I keep running scenarios in my head where this could’ve gone very very wrong. For example, the fact that I pushed for under five minutes is a miracle. With my other two boys I pushed for over 45 minutes, and had that been the case with baby Nicholas he might not be with us today because he might have bled too much in the process. It is truly terrifying to think about the what ifs with his birth, but when I do the only conclusion that I come to is that the Lord was looking over him and knew exactly what he needed. I am so grateful that he is healthy and safe.

Nicholas was our biggest boy, at 8lb 7 oz and 21 inches. He looked like our other boys but had long fingers and toes! We couldn’t be more in love and grateful for our third and final baby boy, Nicholas Michael Greco.