We soon found out that the reason for all our troubles was because of a condition that my wife had all along, but no one knew it. She has what the doctors refer to as an “incompetent cervix”. Her cervix just isn’t strong enough to withstand the forces of gravity pushing against it during pregnancy.
Although Jenny remained dilated and was forced to stay in bed the next few days went by extremely slowly and were somewhat uneventful. Every morning a nurse would come by surprised to see us still there.
On the 10th of January one of the nurses discovered that my wife’s water was slowly leaking and ultra-sound showed that two thirds of the fluid around the baby was no longer there. To make matters worse it was clear that the baby was in a breach position which could only lead to more complications during birth. In full-term babies if they were breach a doctor would recommend a c-section, but with the doctors advice we decided to have a natural birth if the baby was going to be born before 26 weeks. This was an extremely difficult decision to make because if the baby's head gets stuck during delivery it could harm the baby.
On January 13th around 3am my wife woke me up because she was having strong contractions. Unfortunately this time they would not subside. After more than 12 hours of of labor the doctor decided that it was time to for my wife to start pushing. Since Noah was only 24 Weeks the neonatal doctor was called in to attend the birth. At which time she asked us if we wished to resuscitate him. This was certainly the worst decision either of us have had to make in our lives. I wasn't even sure how to reply at first. We eventually came to the agreement with the doctors that they would try to resuscitate and continue to do so as long as he continued to be responsive.
Just a few minutes later my wife gave birth to our son Noah at 4:13pm. He came out butt first with his hand and arm hanging down. Fortunately his head did not get stuck for any period of time and Jenny only had to push a few times since he was so small. He weighed 1 pound and 11 ounces and although he required resuscitation, he was very responsive.
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