Slade's Birth Story

Our story begins when our little boy was still in his mommy's tummy. 
32 Weeks Pregnant to be exact and we were in labor.

Christmas Eve morning around 2:00am
Slade's heart rate slowed to 60 bpm on the fetal monitor
The doctor ordered an ultrasound where one rhabdomyoma was found on Slade's heart.
We were all worried. Until this second, we were having a perfectly healthy baby boy.
This was the first time I heard about Tuberous Sclerosis Complex.
We did not know much about the disease and were both in panic. 
What was wrong with our baby?
Is this something they can fix?
What will his life be like?
The doctor was able to stop labor.
We were sent home with a doctors appointment at UAB for December 27.

On December 26 I was to see my obstetrician. 
Everything went well at the visit, everything looked good!

Later that night, I went into labor again.
This would be my second hospital stay at a different hospital in the same week.
(I have never, to my knowledge, stayed overnight in a hospital... this was new to me.)
They were not able to stop labor.
The doctor slowed my labor enough for us to make the trip to UAB to the high risk obstetrician.

When we arrived at UAB they did an ultrasound and I knew something was not right. 
I was in labor again and it was steadily progressing!
Throughout the ultrasound I watched the clock... one minute apart.  (Maybe I should say something)
This is when our news became a little worse. 
We had been told our baby had one rhabdomyoma on his heart, after this ultrasound we were told there were multiple. 
Once again we heard those three words, Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC).
Still in shock of something being wrong with our baby I turned away from the monitor.
I didn't want to see anymore.
I wouldn't accept that anything was wrong.
My baby was perfect.
They wanted me to see a pediatric cardiologist for him to do another ultrasound on his heart before I gave birth. 
Of course, we agreed. 
I then thought back to my contractions, which weren't going away!
The doctor looked at me and said, "Mrs. White, are you in labor?"
For the third time this week ma'am, yes I am in labor and my contractions are one minute apart.

I was directly admitted to the Maternity Emergency Department for observation. 
They wanted to stop my labor so I could go full term.
From the MED, I was sent to see a pediatric cardiologist who told me the same thing as the obstetrician, "Your son has multiple rhabdomyomas on his heart, we will see him after he is born and will be able to tell you more then."
After hours of observation, I was admitted to the high risk floor. 
Their plan was to observe me over night until I had gone 6 hours without contractions.
Then I would be sent to another floor to stay until my due date: February 7, 2013.

My contractions weren't slowing down.
Slade was ready to be in the world and he was not taking "no" as an answer!
On December 29, after multiple weeks of contractions, I said "no" to the pain medicine that was slowing labor and decided we were having this baby!

On December 30, 2012 at 00:00:37 Slade was born!