Angel Baby
Charlie My Little Angel
Charlie was what they call an “angel face” delivery. (And he is a little angel face too right!!) It is also called face presentation when the face is coming first and the chin isnt tucked under like usual.
Face presentation is quite rare, occurring in 1 in every 500 births. About 4% chance. It can either develop during the pregnancy, which is rare, or the baby can move into a face-first position as labor progresses, which is more usual. This sounds very scary when described, as the head is bent backwards till it is resting on the back shoulders. It appears like the baby is going to break it’s neck coming out! The top of the baby’s head will be resting (uncomfortably!) on the mother’s backbone. Labor will likely be slower since the face or nose is not an ideal canidate to dilate the cervix. Which means extra pain for you.
The back pain was extremely intense and even the pain meds just barely take the edge off. And you have no urge to push since the head was not hitting the proper nerves. When they did the internal exam to check how much I was dilated and i think i only got to 1 and 1/2 and you need 10. During the exam they went to feel the head and instead felt his nose and little mouth and he bit the Dr’s finger (not hard of course, but you know that little stinker!) She was shocked, laughed and amazed because she never felt it before.
Since St. Barnabas is also a teaching hospital, the others wanted to check it out also and at that moment I really didnt care so I said go ahead. I knew it was a rare thing and prolly cool and I woulda wanted to also, so i did. So I guess he was kinda stuck. That’s why he also had some bruises on his face (angel kisses they call them) but they went away before we left the hospital. Plus his heart rate was fluctuating very high and low, prolly cuz bigboy was stuck! They say you can still possibly deliver them…and my Dr said I could wait a few more hours to see if he moved but i said no way and he said it was prolly best for him.
After 18 hours of labor it was enough for both of us to handle. The C- section was quick and painless. Poor Dan accidentally looked over when they were sewing me up and saw a quick flash of my insides and said he never wanted to see anything like that ever again! I love blood and guts but I know I would feel weird looking at someone I love all cut open! But I basically had very little pain which is scary enough to want to do it again.
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