Samuel's Birth Story

Samuel Emmit Franks was born on July 29, 2022 at exactly 3 PM weighing 6 lbs. 11 oz., 20 3/4 inches long. The sweetest little bundle ever!

My Sammy was a complete surprise. Having had gone through IVF with Emma, Jeremy and I never thought that we would be able to get pregnant without medical intervention. For Thanksgiving that year (2021), we visited family in Ohio and even though my cycle was late, I did not think anything of it. I couldn’t get pregnant! Not without a Doctor anyway. It wasn’t until I was crying in the backseat of the car on the way home watching Moana with my daughter that I thought something was wrong. Boy was I right! Fast forward a few weeks to a blood test confirming that I was in fact pregnant and we are having a boy. We only have girls in our family, this would be the first boy!

This pregnancy was 100% different than my last. I had zero nausea with Sammy. I was also carrying a lot lower, did not have the heartburn as I did with Emma or the trouble breathing but I slept like CRAP every night.  No matter, we had a healthy baby growing, and life was good. Around week 28, they started monitoring me a little bit more closely. Fundal measurements started coming back a little smaller than normal, but only a centimeter or so each time. The doctors were not overly concerned, thankfully. Week 38 came and went and my blood pressure remained normal. The Doctor who had delivered Emma was going to be out of town on my due date so at my 39 week appointment, we pre-scheduled an induction for when she would return (nearing my 41 week appointment if I made it that far). I felt at ease because I trusted her, I wasn’t dilated much and we had been through this once before so I knew what to expect. However, Sammy had different plans! My water broke at 11:30 PM that night! I called the physician on staff and they requested I come in as I needed to be put on antibiotics for at least six hours prior to delivery.  We called my mom to come sleep over at our house with Emma and checked the midnight run to the hospital off of our bucket list! After we were checked in and put in our delivery room, the nurses started noticing Sammy‘s heart rate dropping periodically on the scans. After a couple hours my labor was progressing but I had lost too much fluid when my water broke. They suggested we insert a catheter that flooded my whom with the fluid he needed. This seemed to help initially but as my contractions got stronger, his heart rate dropped more and more each time. Although I was progressing well, they suggested we add Pitocin to an IV drip to speed up labor. I knew all too well what Pitocin felt like and was ready to get an epidural. I labored naturally until 7 cm and the pain started getting pretty intense, however not unbearable. They had instructed me to let them know an hour or two ahead of time when I thought I would need the epidural as the anesthesiologist was in surgery all day and may take some time to get here. I did as told and got an epidural within five minutes. Hindsight is 2020 as Sammy arrived less than an hour later! Thus began the scariest hour of my life.

After the epidural, Jeremy and I stared at the monitor watching his heart rate drop with every contraction and then bouncing right back up when it was over. It was like he was riding the wave with me. The pain management helped the fluctuations partially and it seemed like he was faring better. It wasn’t until the heart rate monitor went silent and we could not find him that I started to panic. The next 30 seconds are still a blur. I remember a flood of nurses and the physician coming into my room. I remember a panicked look on my husband‘s face as he grabbed the heart rate monitor and started searching on my abdomen. One of the nurses strapped an oxygen mask to my face and I knew in that moment I would be wheeled away for an emergency C-section. It wasn’t until Jeremy yelled, “I found it,” that my heart began to settle. Sammy had dropped low into the birth canal. It was time! When the physician checked my dilation, I was well past 10 cm. Everyone scrambled to get the table set up and when they asked if I could push, we saw the head. Two pushes later and Sammy was here! It was as if God himself knew he needed to get into my arms fast! I cannot even begin to describe the fear and happiness I experienced all within an hour. He is the sweetest little boy. Smiles all the time and laughs at anything his sister does. The blessing I didn't know I could have and still do not understand how I deserve it.