What is going on? You know, Robert Sykes keto
Savage.com. And today I have special repeat
guests, my lovely wife and my son rigel, Robert rigel Sykes.
We are doing a another pregnancy update to podcast.
We did a first trimester podcast, the second trimester
podcast, a third trimester podcast and we were going to do
a fourth trimester podcast, but we decided to do a whole
Standalone podcast about the birth experience specifically
because it was very different than we had originally
anticipated. So this is all the nuts and
bolts in the details behind our birth experience.
Again, definitely took a turn differently than we had
anticipated. But I feel like we learned a lot
from the journey and we just want to share that in document
that and have you all come along for that Journey.
So without further Ado, sit back, relax and enjoy the
podcast conversation with my lovely wife.
Crystal and guest appearance from rigel who didn't say too
much. He kind of just slept the whole
time but he's he's passing some gas right now.
So I'm gonna go change a diaper. Not this podcast is And so,
hopefully enjoy the show and we'll Dive Right In.
And we are live. Babe.
How are you doing? Great.
Like I normally have a more energetic intro.
Like people listening can tell that a little sleep deprived
right now. Yeah, you feeling.
Okay, it's tired. Yeah, I feel your way more tired
than I am. I don't don't get it.
I think it's my Stress and Anxiety.
It's gone through the roof because you're the one that's
been in labor. You once had a surgery and I'm
just like, tired because I'm thinking about all these things.
Alright, so we are back. Like we have done through the do
not know. We have, then a first trimester
podcast. The second trimester podcast a
third trimester podcast. We were originally only going to
do one more, a fourth trimester podcast, but we decided to do a
whole podcast about the birth because it was so extremely
counter to what we had anticipated.
And then we'll do another one for the fourth trimester, which
is basically the month or six weeks, or so after birth.
Yeah, whole healing process, all that, all of that.
So for anybody that has not listened to the previous
trimester podcast, they should definitely do.
So to kind of be brought up to speed but a quick recap is that
Crystal has been pregnant for the past nine months and then
beyond, but prior to that we have been basically setting
ourselves up for success to do a natural birth.
A home birth. You can't want to give a quick
little recap as to why you wanted to go.
That round because you were like super Passion about this, you
still are super passionate about this.
You did a ton of legwork. I've always said that just as I
am really interested and passionate about business and
bodybuilding. You have that same intensity,
but all towards motherhood and parenting.
So like just as I put myself in those things, you've poured
yourself into this thing and that is the route that you had
in your mind to take. And why was the motivation for
going around? What was the motivation?
I think this is kind of falling a little bit Mike.
Yeah. Yeah, but I think it just
stemmed from really wanting to do what I thought was going to
be best for our kids. And as I just started looking
into like the different options, like there's birthing centers is
birthing at home. There's you know, sweets at the
hospital. There's just going to the
regular Hospital. There's a whole bunch of
different options. And as I started looking into
like, what was available. Arkansas.
Which I originally wanted to have a birth at a birthing site,
talk. I'm a fiction - okay as I wanted
to do as I found myself wanting to, you know, get ready to have
babies. I decided that I wanted to do a
birthing center. But unfortunately, those do not
exist in the state of Arkansas. The, we used to have one and we
no longer have one. So I I thought, well, I don't
really want to have a birth at a hospital if I can help it.
So then I started really digging into homebirth my brother and
his wife has had for home births.
So I started taking a lot more into that and like, what is all
involved in finding a midwife and finding, you know, all the
different ins and outs of it. So, I don't know.
I just, I like to do things as naturally as possible and not
that other ways are bad. It's just The way I wanted to
try to take our family. And so, instead of trying to do
this halfway. I decide to like go full in and
try to do the best I could by, you know, doing all the research
and finding out, if it's safe and all of that kind of stuff.
So and I feel like every time I talk about, bird feels like
preface the conversation by saying.
Hey, look, this is what we wanted to do.
This is what we learned. This is the direction we took.
We're not here to pass judgment on people that have done it
differently. Like we always have to have that
disclaimer, but I was super ignorant to the whole birth
process. I kind of, you know, I was born
in a hospital, you were born in a hospital.
We just kind of, it's one of those things that you just kind
of, that's the way it's done. So you just do it that way.
But kind of like the way it's done with regard to nutrition,
not necessarily being the right way, like what the standards are
in place for you, no governmental policies around
nutrition. What the standard American diet
is, like all these things that you're told.
The right way and these are diving into the ketogenic diet
and you kind of take a more holistic approach.
You learn about all the misinformation around there, you
know, at their about nutrition and you kind of become aware of
the fact that, hey, look, maybe things aren't as black and white
as they seem and then I kind of had that same Epiphany with
regard to pregnancy and birth and how things are typically
done versus how things are probably optimally done.
And optimally is not generally with a ton of of medication with
a ton of standardized procedures that kind of put you into this
like, you know, like I don't use the word factory, farming was
kind of like that towards birth. Like just as you have factory
farming towards food production, you almost have that same
process with the birth process. I mean, it's like a very
standardized process. Very unnatural.
You go in you often times get pre induced.
You have to take a bunch of drugs.
You just kind of filtered through this system.
That is very far from natural and Probably not ideal for the
infant. Yeah, usually one intervention
leads to the next intervention. So that was kind of my thing is
like if I can stay away from the first Intervention, which would
likely be going to the hospital and getting induced or membrane
sweeps or anything like that. If I can avoid those things then
I'm going to have a better better, chance of having a more
natural birth, but going to the hospital and then, you know,
making things sound. Sound.
Very typical like oh yeah. Everyone gets membrane sweep.
Oh, yeah, everyone gets induced. Oh, yeah.
Everyone becomes a normal thing. So my thought was if I just
don't have that first, but I got intervention.
It won't lead to the next. So that was that's also a big
thing that people don't really recognize that.
Once you start taking one medication kind of leads to the
next medication. It kind of leads to the next
one. So just me for myself.
I was trying to avoid Yeah, and you obviously what we wanted to
do from the very beginning is do what's right and healthiest and
best for you and our son? So in an attempt to not leave
anything to chance and not to be ignorant about the whole subject
matter, I mean, you've literally read every book.
You can get your hands on you, listen to the podcast.
I've been doing some research and that basically led to our
decision to do a natural home birth from a nutritional
standpoint. You have literally tracked, your
Macros for the hit throughout the entire pregnancy.
Team stayed on top of your prenatal vitamins, got the best
pint of vitamins. You can, you've been incredibly
active throughout your whole pregnancy, never once really
missing a workout. I mean, you did everything right
checked. All the boxes to set yourself up
for Success doing this thing that we had planned to do in a
very natural healthy, beautiful way, and that did not happen at
all. In fact, what happened was the
farthest extreme on the opposite in the Spectrum from what we had
planned to do. It was a pretty emotional roller
coaster to say the least, and you all, I mean, best laid plans
of mice and men as the saying goes, but, you know, this was
something that it was hard for me to see you.
Be as passionate about this, as you are and know that you are
and then to have all that stripped from you, you know, in
a moment. I mean, so the last time we
recorded a podcast, we basically War.
We were like a Week and a half past the 40 week Mark in the
state of Arkansas. We kind of talked about this in
the last podcast, the state of Arkansas.
You cannot have a certified midwife come to your home and
help you deliver a baby after that forty two week Mark.
So on that 42nd week or right before that point, you know,
basically final our home stretch, you know, you were
going to the Midwife. I mean, you're literally doing
everything. Like you're doing the walks, you
doing the curb steps, you're taking people with the right
food. Crazy.
All these suggestions you were doing all of them.
I was doing all of them, all of the things.
And the first thing that I didn't want to do that, I ended
up having to do, was a membrane sweep.
I was just like, I don't want to do this, but I also want to
birth at home. Yeah, and so we ended up doing
that first and or not first that.
But that was like, one of the big steps for me.
That was already like a little bit heartbreaking.
I really didn't want to have to do that.
But so when it did in a timeline basically on, so Wednesday would
have been the 40s. Second week at like midnight.
Yeah, going into that. And so on Monday, that's when
you get the membrane sweep, right?
You went to the Midwife, you went to see what the dilation
was. You were at one and a half
centimeters dilated, which is not much and you headed to the
membrane sweep. Hoping that I would get things
moving. Yep, with the plan of using
castor oil as like a last-ditch effort, on Tuesday.
Because that's supposed to get things moving as well as have
opinions on Castor oil whether to use it or not.
Please don't tell us. A lot of people have a lot of
opinions and yeah, we didn't want to do the castor oil.
We didn't want to remember and sweet but we wanted to do that
more than we wanted to go to the hospital, right?
You know, so that was like, the most sensible thing to do and
then after that membrane, sweep on Monday, we had a meeting with
the health department scheduled. So we Went to the health
department. And what was the reason for that
again? So once you are, so once you
pass 41 weeks, you have to have another what they call in the
state of Arkansas risk assessment.
So these risk assessments are really to assess your risk of,
you know, the baby having complications you having
complications, you know, they just need to check everything,
make sure that the heart rates, good, all that kind of stuff.
So we had to do that at 41 weeks, but we were kind of able
to put it off a little bit until the Day following.
They didn't really have any appointments available.
So we had on Tuesday, which is the day before I would be 42
weeks. You're kind of sweating bullets
at that point. When I, okay.
We're definitely running out of time.
This doesn't happen in the next, you know, if I don't, the thing
is, I had to go into labor. I had to be in labor considered
to not have to go to the hospital on Wednesday, Feb, 24
cm, right? Yeah.
So if I wasn't then I would have to go to the hospital.
Little yada yada, so, we had our risk assessment on Tuesday.
And that was a frustrating ordeal because they had
scheduled it on Monday and they lost track of the scheduling, so
we can get there on Tuesday, and they didn't have us on file.
You have a meeting. So I was, I was getting pretty
perturbed. We're just waiting there.
Yeah, four hours. Yeah, just for a someone to come
get us and just do this because I had illegally had to make sure
I had an appointment. So I just There was awful.
Yeah, so then they bring it into the room at the health
department and the people they were nice, I can do.
No nice, no, knock against them at all.
And then they, what did they do that?
They check to see your dilation. Now, they checked, like my
urine, they check the dilation. They checked his heart rate, all
of that, kind of just a normal checkup stuff, my blood
pressure, all of that. And they were saying that you
were about one and a half, maybe two centimeters dilated and
about 80%. I faced.
So I literally had not moved from the memory membrane sweet,
like it did it just didn't work. And at that point they're like,
okay, what do you want to do? So we're like, let's just go
back to the Midwife talk with her.
So we went back to talk to her and we're like, hey, can we use
the castor oil down? She's like look the fact that
your two centimeters dilated, you know, at best and not really
fully effaced yet. The Castro is not going to do
anything. So that was kind of a aha.
For us. Because at that point, we both
knew that we couldn't have the baby at home.
Yeah, so we were we were really upset like leaving the health
department or leaving my midwife's house.
We were both just like this. This sucks.
Like we have to go to the hospital and just like how
looking at each other. Like, we don't have an option
and I was really upset, like, I was crying and it not that going
the hospital's the end of the world, but it was just like,
Every dream, every thing that I had in my mind was now just
changed like, all of a sudden. Yeah, and I didn't really have
an option. Like it was mandatory for me.
That was the first moment like up to, like, that whole week
were like, kind of sweating bullets because like, look,
we're running out of time, and that was the moment where it's
okay. This is the fork in the road in
which we are not going to be able to do.
We had wanted to do, which was kind of disheartening, for sure.
That was super emotional for you.
You were crying a lot that day and I was just trying to Jim,
and then from there, we decide to go to the hospital that day.
So we basically, I think the health department or the Midwife
one and Health Department called the hospital at Willow Creek and
they were like, okay, we have this couple.
They don't have a doctor. They don't have an OBGYN
Specialists. They haven't been working with
somebody because they've wanted to go the Midwife route.
They can only go to the Midwife round.
You're going to have to go to the emergency department and
just see who's on duty. So, like, if you're planning on
going there. All right, from the get-go.
Like you meet with an OB, you have a relationship with them.
They usually typically will meet you at the hospital.
Sometimes they won't sometimes. Like they're out of town of
they're doing something, but typically you get your own.
Okay, and we didn't. Because obviously we're trying
to the Midwife routes. So that was kind of a big.
You can have some issues with it.
Sorry. I'm just trying to make sure it
bends the right way. Just flip that thing up.
And then we get to the the hospital knowing that we weren't
going to know our doctor know that we weren't going to know
any of the staff because we never planned on going that
right. Anyways, we go to the emergency
department. Makes me walk in the front door
like the main door and we're like, okay.
Yeah. We're here to have a baby.
Yeah. She's like are you in Labor?
I'm like, no. I'm just I need to have a baby
because I'm 42 weeks. And she's like, okay, I'll take
you down there. That's so we go to our emergency
department. And then they basically we
listen to the triage. They have a sit in the triage.
They have the doctor on duty at that time come in and she was
kind of wanted to like automatically go to the pitocin
route. I was kind of weird.
Like that's one thing we certainly wanted to avoid having
to automatically do pitocin but there's another drug called
cervidil which basically you insert that vaginally and then
it's, it's your cervix for 12 hours and that's supposed to
soften the cervix. And help get things dilated and
move things along faster. So, we asked, if we could go
that route and stick, that's more natural path than going to
church pitocin. So she agreed to do them.
So she gives orders for that. They gave us an ultrasound what
we were in the triage to make sure that he wasn't too big.
It took measurements of him via the ultrasound.
They guess they gave an estimated weight of about 9
pounds and they said, okay, we're good to go.
So they will this to the hospital room, inserted, the
server do drug. Just basically like a little
second. That's almost like a tampon.
It looks like a shoestring. Yeah, it's really long and the
top of it has the medication in it.
And then there's a string that they can like pull it out.
Yeah, and then with that gets pretty much put that in the
wait, 12 hours. Yeah, so we went in and we got
that inserted 5:30 on Tuesday afternoon.
And then we stayed up 12 hours, basically, try to get some
sleep. But like there's a lot of pretty
high we can only sleep and then the next Next day, like, because
they come in every hour, every two hours to like, turn the
light on and see how you're doing.
So, we didn't get any sleep and we're like, just on pins and
needles the whole night. So then 5:30 morning rolls
around and they take out the server do.
And we're hoping, okay. Great.
We are ready to go. Let's go.
Let's get this baby out of here. We are dilated and ready to rock
and they check you and your two centimeters dilated.
Yeah, so nothing. No, no movement, whatsoever.
They said that your cervix was a little bit softened, but that
was it. You didn't feel.
Different and that point were like, okay, I guess we're going
to have to do pitocin and the main reason we wanted to avoid
pitocin and pitocin is oxytocin, which is basically a natural
hormone, but given this context, it's it's not only natural to
take pitocin, but your body naturally produces it.
And so they're like, oh, yeah, your body already produces it,
don't worry about, also naturally produces testosterone,
but you won't think about testosterone exhaust earnestly.
So, yeah, kind of a little bit misleading there.
Some kind of homework, but That was the only viable option next
up. So we started a super low dose
of pitocin. That was a really emotional
thing for me. That was super emotional.
Yeah, sort of crying them. And we started the lowest dose,
which was to mg an hour. I believe, and then every hour
and a half, they increased it by another two units of two.
So we did that, you know, we did that for 12 hours.
Basically that with pitocin contractions hurt a lot more.
So I was trying to not do pain relievers, was it was make, it
was going to make it that much harder.
So with, every time that they upped it.
I was just like, kind of getting a little bit more anxious
because I knew that my contractions were just going to
get worse. So anyways, that was another big
reason why I didn't want to have to take the pitocin because it's
so much stronger than a natural delivery.
That that like the contractions are so much stronger and so much
more painful than it would be in a natural delivery.
I've never Urhan contraction, but I'm assuming they're gonna
hurt no matter what, but the people that take pitocin your
body, it basically forces your body to have contractions.
Unnaturally. So like you can't really even
feel like you're not really in control of the contractions and
unites in tune with the contraction.
So and correct me if I'm wrong here, but that's basically
what's happening, which intensifies the strength of the
contractions. So that's why most people that
have to take pitocin wind up, having to take the epidural
because the pain just becomes too much to bear.
Yeah, so you had Up to 8 mg an hour was the highest dose at
that point. You had been in labor for about
12 hours, 10 to 12 hours in the contraction.
We're getting pretty intense this whole time.
We're like sleep-deprived are like not super emotional because
none of this is the home birth. We had hoped for and I planned
to eat through my labor and they wouldn't let me eat.
Just let me eat breakfast. And then that was it.
So I wasn't eating and people other people will do popsicles.
But I wouldn't do the Popsicles because I sugar in it the IV
that we were on the you were on an IV.
Drip of just, you know, electrolytes was I looked at
that there was no, there's no sugar in there.
No. Next row.
So it's just sodium, chloride, potassium, and I think
magnesium, a b and c were on that.
They had you up to a feat that hooked up to a fetal monitor.
So we're getting the heartbeat of ride to the whole time.
That was all super steady. He was a rock star throughout
the whole ordeal. His heart rate was like so
Flawless. Yeah.
But you started experiencing quite a bit of pain and there
towards the end after about 10 hours or eight hours of
laboring. You had a partial break in your
water that increase the pain quite a bit.
Yeah, and then somebody had checked, you one of the nurses
checked, you broke your water even more.
Yeah. I don't fully, I don't know if
that was on purpose or on accident, but it definitely
happened when her fingers rub their chicken.
Yes, it definitely did. Did and it hurt.
Yeah, so bad. It was like, immediately when
she broke my water. Like, rigel just started like
freaking out, crazy in there. It hurt so bad.
Yeah. I mean, like, we think about it.
The, once the water breaks, you've got like, that soft
pillowy cushioned from the fluid.
Once, there's no cushion. It's basically just rigel and
his all of his shapes and what not hittin you straight on.
So a lot more pain at that point.
The pitocin was up. Like I think eight at that point
and then I was 5 cm at that 425. They never said five.
Yeah, so still not nearly enough to have a baby.
Yeah, but we kind of knew it was like okay, you know like this is
starting it more painful. Like we're we can do this
because we're halfway there. You know.
I miss one thing before that moment.
Before the water broke. They were checking you and they
felt his brow. Yeah.
They thought it may have been his eye or maybe just a soft
spot in the school where the the school hadn't fused together
yet. So they were concerned about his
positioning. So they had you doing different
positions and you were like all over the place doing positions,
bouncing the ball doing like, you know, hands and knees.
And you know that stuff every time you had a contraction for
the 12 hours. Like I was rub it on your hips
and try to comfort you there, but they were basically just
worried about his positioning being wrong and then, That 10 to
12 hour, mark, when the pitocin was up, the pain was the highest
you started taking you don't wanna do the epidural.
So you took nitrous oxide instead.
Yeah. After she broke my water.
I had several contractions and then it got to the point where I
was just like I don't know like do this.
This is awful. Yeah, so he started taking that
nitrous oxide and that helped you basically just breathe in on
that and held that while you're having a contraction.
Yep, and at that point, the total like I had totally failed
myself. Elf like I was just like, I've
done too many things already like that was that was awful.
That was sad. Like, I looked at you and you
said I feel I don't want to fail him.
That's what he said. He said, I don't want to fail
him. And you said, I don't know if I
could do this, because the pain was so great.
This is before the nitrous oxide came in and I looked you don't
like looking at a failure, doing everything, right, and you're
getting teary-eyed right now. So now I'm trying to Then I
can't say that I'm gonna make it all the way through and yeah,
that was just a super emotional moment because at that point
it's like look I can tell she's in pain.
Are we going to have a vaginal birth without an epidural?
Which is something we definitely wanted to avoid.
It was like, do not let me end up at her all, but I could tell
that you're in a lot of pain. But I don't want to do right by
Raja, but I don't like seeing you suffer.
And then I don't like seeing you feel like you can't do something
to completion and feel like you're a failure.
Like that's like all of like Perfect Storm of emotions right
there. And then they come in and they
check you again. The doctor checked, the doctor
comes in and check. This is a different doctor.
This point, then like a shift change.
The last girl that checked me. She was like, I need the doctor
to check you because I'm pretty sure what I'm feeling is.
Good. She thought she felt a nose.
Yeah, which quick little intermission here.
That nurse was a rock star. Like oh that's amazing of all
the people on staff, that nurse her name was Emma.
She was from Britain or London, or something like that.
She had like a British accent. We gave her a hard time about
from the very beginning, but it was like all fun, but she was
like a true Rock. So like she made the whole
experience so much better than it would have been.
Had she not been there. We trusted her.
So shout out to him. Were there.
But she, that she said, she thought she felt a nose but
wasn't sure she had the doctor come in to check after her.
This is a new doctor that we hadn't yet met because they
didn't shift change. And we don't have an assigned
doctor because we're doing this, all off the fly, he feels and he
feels a knows for sure. And then he says look he's faced
presentation, which this is all news to us, that we know and
stuff was so we look that up and face.
In happens, like what would you say point two percent of the
time? Something crazy low?
Yeah, like one one in every eight hundred births is a face
presentation and then with the face presentation and basically
what that means is like normally you want the crown of the head
to be the first thing that comes out because then like the baby
spins slightly as he's being born and then with that crown of
the head, And that's like the smallest diameter portion of his
head and everything is able to come out smoothly which is what
is supposed to happen. Some people have a sunny-side-up
baby, which basically means he's born crown of the head still.
But then, like facing the the mom's stomach versus facing the
moms back, which is what normally happens.
Face presentation is what we had basically means that rigel his
face was what was coming out first.
Not the top of his head like from the from his, the top of
his forehead to his chin that was facing.
Yeah. Outward and of the face
presentation instances, you know, one in every eight hundred
birds being a face presentation, an even smaller percentage is
what we had, which is, what's it called again posterior.
There's anterior where they can deliver vaginally, and then
there's posterior where they cannot, but they're telling by
the where the chin is in the Mom, so yeah of that of the face
presentations. So like in it, like if, if his
chin is past your pelvic bone, quite understand, it fully like
it's kind of confusing. Yeah.
Something something like if his chin is past your pelvic bone
and in face presentation, you can still have a vaginal birth
if it's not past your pelvic bone and he has faced
presentation. His chin is up.
Then you run the risk of basically snapping his neck.
Yeah, throughout the pressure either should look up this like
Picture of face presentation like posterior face
presentation. It is freaky looking like yeah,
it looks like their neck is going to snap off.
It's the weirdest-looking thing. It's not common at all.
Yeah. It was that it's like Point 1 to
point. 2 percent of all face presentations and face
presentations are already rare. Yeah, so we just got the lucky
straw which because of this that's the There's just a larger
circumference, when his face is like that.
Which is likely why you weren't dilating more because he wasn't
moving down the birth canal faster, and further because of
his positioning and none of this, you know, you're not able
to tell any of this until like pretty much when it's happening
because you weren't dilated enough to check.
You have to be, I think they said in the second stage of
Labor, like they have to be able to get in enough to be able to
tell what's going on with his position.
So you can't really tell from the ultrasound that we got.
We can't tell from, you know, like the early checks that we
had. So and we were checking early
enough done and they can feel his head.
So we knew he was like headfirst, which is good because
like some babies are born breech or whatnot.
He was not that. So we felt, you know, we were
good. He's had first, she's in the
right position, but then we couldn't tell that he was face
presentation until you were that dilated.
We couldn't tell that he was in that type of face positioning
until basically the final hour and with With the type of face
presentation that he was, you cannot have a vaginal delivery,
like some of them you can't some of them you can't.
With the way he was. We couldn't or else.
We would risk. Basically snapping his neck and
paralyzing. Yeah, there's like, there's like
the chance that he could snap his neck.
There is like brain damage. There's, you know, spinal
damage. There's and there's a whole like
a whole list of things that could potentially be wrong with
him. Cerebral palsy palsy like all of
These different issues that if I was like, no, you know, I'm
gonna just still do this vaginally.
Which first of all would be excruciating because he just
wasn't progressing, like he was not moving down because there
just wasn't enough space. But if I were to proceed forward
it could it would just continue to bend his neck backwards and
cause long-term issues for him. So yeah or death.
Yeah. Yeah.
So at that point, you know the doctors like look you can't do
this anyway. Away, but a C-section.
So I looked at you, you looked at me and that was like the
moment cuz like the whole time. This is all going down.
It's like we've done more than anybody else.
I know to make this happen just the way he wanted to just like
perfectly, you know, sweet and safe and everything.
And then like every step of the way it gets farther and farther
and farther from what we had intended and then that moment
comes and it's like look we have to take an emergency C-section
right now, which is literally the farthest thing from what we
had wanted. So that was super emotional.
We did have Our Midwives there the entire time, so like she was
able to kind of help us understand like this is not
something that you can mess with.
Like you, you need that. So you need to be here and you
need to do this because, you know, she knew exactly what we
wanted. She knew how to, you know, stand
up for us and things that we didn't want that we did want and
could help us to make those decisions and like understands
medical. Jargon.
All that kind of stuff. So I mean, one of them because
it's sad to say, but a lot of people are kind of pushed the
route of C-sections that don't need to have C-sections.
There's often times. They're oftentimes told, you
have to have a C-section but you often times don't have to have a
C-section like a lot of times those two sections will be made
out of convenience for the doctor out of you know cost.
I mean, there's like some really bad reason.
C-sections happen. Yeah.
It don't look happen. You can look up each.
ER, Caesarean rate. So, if it's a high rate, then
you know that they're probably leaning towards like if there's
anything wrong, they're going to put you into a C-section, or you
can go to one that has a low Caesarean rate, who is probably
more prone to figuring out like, okay, how can we avoid this?
So you can look it up on different doctors, but when you
happen to just stroll, into the emergency department and are
given whatever doctor you're given.
You don't know what their rates going to be, you know.
Yeah, but when we kind of did some digging on as to what I was
going on, it was very clear that this is a legitimate, emergency
situation situation that requires an emergency C-section.
There is no other option unless you risk, you know, paralyzation
or death of Ryan Jewel, which we obviously didn't want.
And then unnecessary risk for you, which I obviously didn't
want either. So, you were actually pretty
chill. Like, when they said that, you
have to have a C-section. I looked at you thinking that
you would be totally broken. No, but you were actually
holding up pretty good at that point.
I think it was like, almost like an internally new.
Like I knew something was not right?
And I honestly, I thought it was me.
I just thought my cervix is not opening.
My body's not responding right, like, something's wrong with me
and it really wasn't my body. I think my body would have
responded really well, if he was pushing the right way and if he
was pushing the right way, it would have opened everything up
just naturally, as you would, in a normal.
Earth. So I think I kind of knew
something was happening. That didn't feel right?
Like it just I was like something's happening.
Whether it's me or it's him or something.
This isn't, right? And I have even said something
earlier. If we have to have a C-section,
make sure they do this this this and this and Roberts.
Like we're not going to have to have a C-section on like we
might have to like we are in the hospital.
There's a reason that we are here.
I don't know the reason but there's a reason we're here.
And if I have to like, this is what we need to do.
So, I think when that moment came I looked at you and I was
like, do you realize like this is what we have to do?
Like, there's no other option. You're like, yep, like there's
no other option. So at that moment, it was just
like all the power was taken away from me.
I feel and I just had to give in and just say, okay, and I have
to, I mean, say you're pretty impressive throughout that
because I got that point, like I'm almost mad.
Like I'm a little and because it's like, This isn't fair.
And I know like in saying this and even I knew it the moment
you like. I'm trying to be very stoked all
this stuff. But like in that moment you
allow yourself to be a little bit mad.
You like, look this is not fair. Like we did all the right
things. We had all the right.
We did everything. We did everything.
And this is happening to us. And then you were taking the
approach of like, look, this is why we're in the hospital and
not at home. Because we had this weird crazy
fluke situation, and this is just what has to happen for the
safety of Everybody. So you were you're pretty strong
at that moment. And at that point that is
exactly what I said. I was like, this is why we're
here. Yeah, like because I knew as
soon as I knew that we had to go to the hospital.
I told robbers like there's a reason.
There's a reason that this has to be the way it is.
And whatever that reason is. I don't quite understand right
now, but then when they told us that I was like, this is the
reason this is a reason we are here and to make sure our son
gets here safely, you know, yeah.
So from that point, it was just super fast like crazy fast.
They come in, they they have, they introduced to the
anesthesiologist. You meet her.
They bring some other nurse Tech in, he gives you a nausea drinks
that you don't have nausea throughout the surgery.
They check your vitals one more time.
They tell me what's up, and it was like, before this happened.
I told the doctor. I'm like, hey, man, I To be as
involved as possible. Like, I want to be pulling the
baby out. I want to be delivered.
I want to do everything, and he was totally on board for.
So I got appreciate that. And then when all this changed,
and obviously, we had to have a C-section.
He's like, look, man, you're not going to be the one cutting,
you're not going to be sterile enough to pull now.
So, um, but like he tried to let me like he let me come into the
operating room, but they basically, they give you that
nausea anti-nausea medication. You meet the anesthesiologist.
We will you out. Out into the, the lobby.
That's where we get separated. We have not been separated at
all up to this point. This is now, what day is this?
It was Wednesday. So we got there on Tuesday at
like 5:00. Well, we got there Tuesday, like
2:30 2:30, but this is Wednesday.
I like 5:30 p.m. Probably.
Yeah, they take you into the operating room to get you
prepped. They give you an antibiotic.
They give you a spinal tap. You lose all feeling from the
breast down. Basically, at that point.
They have a separated. They leave me in like the main
room and they gave me some scrubs to put on and we're
separated for like 20, 25, 30 minutes at that point, like 5
minutes to me. But Robert is out there like
five years for me. He's he has about ready to bust
those doors that I'm like, where's my wife?
Where's my kid? I'm not separating from, but
they had to get everything situated in the operating room,
which is why they separated us they gave me.
Me that gown and jumpsuit basically and then they let me
come in when you are ready to go.
And then that was just a whole weird thing.
Like that whole like the actual surgery.
I was there. I saw the whole thing.
I'm looking at them, making the incisions.
I'm looking at them. Pulling your uterus out of your
body. You can't feel any of it, but
you're totally coherent because you're only desensitize from the
breast down. Your heads totally there.
You're looking at me asking if everything's okay.
I'm looking at you. Like, you, you seem strangely at
peace and calm with it. Um, probably because you're no
longer having painful contractions that point of
drugs, it was weird, but that spinal tap.
It was like immediately, the pain went away.
So when we got moved into the operating room, I couldn't have
the Nitric nitrous, whatever you No, the nitrous oxide through
yeah, couldn't have that anymore.
And Emma are amazing. Nurse was there the whole time.
Like she literally was like, cradling me, like, just like,
holding me rubbing my back. I had to go through a lot of
contractions during that that time, and it was just like they
had a hard time. Getting the needle in the right
spot because of all your muscles in the back.
Yeah, which is crazy. And like does nobody have muscle
here. How does this work?
Like, what do you do with like grown men, you know, but they
had no comment. They aren't given birth, but I'm
sure they've had things that make them to where they have to,
you know, it's probably time. I don't know.
Yeah, I don't know. But yeah, that and I could feel
it when they were sticking me like I could feel it.
And then at one point they like hit a little bit of a nerve and
I'm just like, I'm gonna go crazy.
And then every time I had a contraction, they had to stop
because I was Contracting and everything was tightening up.
Yeah, so that was awful. Yeah, but yeah, they finally let
me in the room. Umm, you're totally desensitized
and that point, it's like, okay. I have to be the advocate.
I have to make sure everything's getting done properly.
Nobody's doing anything that we didn't want to happen.
Which was super stressful because I'm paying attention to
your face and pay attention to your incision.
I'm paying attention to rigel and painted all the nurses and
the doctors in the room and they're all over the place and
it's all happening like instantly.
So I'm getting like super worked up like Make sure everything's
going according to plan and I'm holding your hand looking at
them, cutting you open, and then trying to comfort you.
And then they pull rigel out. But they're having a hard time
pullraju out because of his weird positioning, so they have
to use a vacuum on his head and the doctors telling me this
like, hey, you gotta use a vacuum.
I'm like, don't ever think it's a good thing.
You know, he's like, it's all good when I got to use that much
pressure or much suck. And because it's just the way it
is, heads turned, so they vacuumed his head with his
little suction cup. Things only a vacuum.
It's like a suction cup. I don't know why they call it a
vacuum, but then they pull them out with this little vacuum
thing, suction cup thing. And then he just starts crying.
And then that was, that was a weird moment like the moment you
and I heard him cry. We're looking at each other and
I think we both went like teary-eyed at the same time.
You just yeah, it was pretty emotional.
Then they take him. Over to this like warming table
and they start patting him down, but we didn't want them to Pat
him down too much because he wanted to leave some of that
vernix on them. So I'm trying to make sure not
doing too, much of their give him any drugs.
We don't want any type, then try to make sure you're okay.
Try, make sure they're stitching you up properly.
So I walk over there. They clamp the cord after
enough. Time has passed.
I cut the cord. They did wait for the cord to
stop posting. Yeah.
I went like a minute. Then I cut the cord.
And then I grab him bring him over to you.
Are they grab him? Bring them over to you.
And let me share they put them on your neck.
So now we're all three there together on one side of the
blanket and I'm like hugging you all but then also kind of
peeking over to make sure they're getting used to each
time. The doctor says he's having a
hard time getting the blood to stop flowing.
So he's holding pressure on you. Stitching you up that whole
thing takes a while. Yeah, and this time I'm like,
I'm not Still bleeding. Yeah, what does that happen?
You know, I'm just looking at Robert and like I said
everything. Okay, and I'm also like in this
moment with him like oh my gosh. I have the baby on my chest.
Yeah. It was.
Well, yeah, we did have a pretty good knocked it down.
Like he was pretty chill before he.
Like, when he came in to get me to say, you can come in now.
He said, hey man, don't worry about it.
I watch the Youtube video before hand.
So we're all good. So that was thinking, super
comforting. You know, he was just joking
them, but the whole time they were cutting you open.
He Talking about his waterskiing adventures this past weekend.
So I feel like if he's talking about that.
He's probably pretty relaxed. I could not hear any of that.
So, I'm so glad I couldn't. Otherwise, I'd be like, shut up.
I'm having a baby here. Yeah, but yeah, it was total
chaos. And then, after after that, what
happened? Next?
We take, you back to the room. We have rigel our side.
He's not, I don't think. After side, nope, at all.
He's not left her side. So from the moment, he's been
pulled out of you until now we have not lost sight of him.
I think it's back to room. You're recovering slowly.
Getting feeling back in your toes and whatnot.
We're I'm holding rajul. You're holding Roger.
We're doing. Skin-to-skin making sure he's
trying to nurse. He's able to nurse pretty quick.
Oh, you guys look a. This is like one of the best
parts. I was so proud of this moment.
So they put him right after he was.
You know, born they put him on my chest and he literally
started like routing routing around and found my nipple and
that wanted to start breastfeeding they can within
yeah. Within like this second that
they put him down. He was like, rooting around
trying to find it and it was like, This is so natural, you
know, like such a natural human instinct.
That like, literally immediately was put on his mom and new.
Oh, I need to start looking for food, you know, it was just so
cool. And that was comforting because
one of the main reasons we didn't want to go the route of
the Epi Durham is because the epidural goes to the fetus and
goes to the baby. And oftentimes, the babies are
much less attentive after birth, and they don't really have as
much of a connection. You lie after birth, with that
skin to skin contact. So the fact that he was
instantly rooting around, totally attentive, totally
wide-eyed and looking for your nipple, kind of gave us some
comfort knowing that he's, he's good.
Yeah, he wouldn't drugged up at all.
So then, yeah, we get back to the room start.
Coming back to our senses, holding Raja having skin to skin
contact and just totally, you know, in all about the whole
situation. Yep.
It's pretty well hours passed and we finally called RV.
Families. Yeah, call them.
Let them know that all is well. They didn't know we were having
a c-section when we went in because we just don't have time.
Like they knew her in the hospital, but they had no idea
that that was all happening. So they were just kind of like
waiting around for us to like Update him.
Yeah, and then yeah, it was that evening.
We told them. Yeah, he was born at 6:15 on May
18th, and he weighed 8 pounds, 14 ounces and that is Robert
rigel Sykes. And now we got discharged on
Friday morning, Friday afternoon.
So, we basically, they're from early Tuesday afternoon until
Friday afternoon. So pretty much all week.
Haven't slept still haven't slept hardly at all.
But now we have him at home. He is breastfeeding like a
champ. He's pooping like a champ.
I'm diaper-changing like a champ.
You're feeling pretty good and recovering, pretty good.
You're able to get up and in and out of bed and out of the
vehicle that too much issue. Yeah.
I'm sure we'll talk about this on the next podcast, but the
whole recovery from a C-section is a lot different than you
expect from a vaginal delivery. So I just feel like my whole
world had been like completely rocked and I just hadn't really
mad now so we don't know, we didn't share that.
We had have a C-section really previously, other than Robert,
put it in his newsletter, but I think it was like a weird.
Super personal thing to me like the fact that everything had
changed and I was having a hard time like processing it, I think
and I still get really emotional.
I'm so glad I made it through this whole podcast without tears
falling down my face. I'm surprised I know me too, but
I've been I mean, I've been on and off crying and it's not the
fact that I'm like, so sad that we gave I gave birth to him that
way. It's like I sad.
I didn't get what I wanted in in the state of Arkansas.
It's illegal. I say illegal that seems like a
strong word, but you're not allowed to have a home birth
after you've had a C-section. So that's like a vbac.
It's vaginal birth. After cesarean.
You're not allowed to have a home birth after having a
cesarean. So it was like, instantly
everything that I had wanted was stripped from me.
Not just with this, not what just with his birth but with
Like potential future children and things like that.
So it was just like it's been a lot to process and I just I
don't think I was like ready to share and then we have our like,
a vlog Style video that we did at the hospital and I was like,
I don't want to put that out because I feel too emotional
about the situation that like, I don't think people will capture
how stressful and anxious and like, Internal family unit.
I don't know just like how it is.
Such a personal thing that you go through that, like all of the
emotions that we went through. I just didn't want them to be
pushed aside. Like, oh, that sucks, that they
had to have a C-section. Oh, well, you know, it was just
like this was a huge thing in my life and I didn't want to just
put it out there in the world, like, willy nilly.
So we thought we'd do the podcast.
Kind of like, Just do a review over overview on all of it.
Yeah, and now, I mean, the in the day, we feel very blessed.
Very fortunately, we have a happy healthy rigel happy
healthy. Crystal rigel is is he was
breastfeeding now, he's just sleeping.
Looks like can you hold him up for the video?
Like for people that are on the video.
Maybe we can like have him speak into the mic, little bit speak.
I'm just I'm really good. Just like sleep in them seem
like totally own. Yeah.
Lee totally conked out. Can we see that over there?
I get those cheeks. Yeah, he's pretty much the
greatest thing on the planet. We cannot get enough of him.
We just keep saying. Oh my gosh, he's just so cute.
He's just so perfect. Like this lip.
It's weird because like before you have a Kim and we just had a
kid's life like this fresh Mount before you have a kid everywhere
that does have a kid. They're always talking about
their kid. They like, oh my gosh.
Shut up. About your kid, other send you
pictures of the kid. Like, I don't want to see more
kid pictures. It's just like, you get
irritated with other people's kids, you know, Ad nauseam.
And then you have a kid, might be an extreme over here.
And then you have a kid and you're like, you can't stop
looking at him. Like I literally spend all day
looking at him and he's just the cutest thing ever.
Like he's the future of the Sykes name and you think about
how you want to be as a father. You think about how you want to
be as a mother? You think about how you want to
Them and you just you didn't even know how to put into words.
The emotions that you have towards this little tiny human
being that you made with your wife.
It's just this is weird. It's just crazy.
You know, it's pretty crazy. It is it like I don't even I
don't have words. I just like a miracle or
something. Yeah, it's pretty wild.
Have sex in this little human pops out.
You know, it's like how does that happen?
But he's perfect. He's perfect in every way.
We're excited about him. And yeah, as sad as I am that, I
didn't get what I wanted as far as like the birth ever.
Aang. I feel like there's a huge
lesson to be learned in all of this and I don't know that I
fully captured what that is, but there is a lesson and I love it.
And I and we both know that like we both are able to like take a
step back and say like this was supposed to be our story and I
think that was the hardest part. Like when we talk to Anna and
knew that we had to go to the hospital.
I was like she was like, I know that this is not what you want.
And I know that like this goes against Thing and I was like,
well, that's just like not our story.
Like, that's not my story. It's not rigel story.
And feel like there's peace though in knowing that like, it
wasn't like we had, you know, taking a few shortcuts.
And this is what happened. Like, we literally did
everything. You literally did everything
that you could possibly do. I mean, you tracked, your
Macros, you track your intake, track your food, you track your
training. You tried everything, stayed,
active hiking, all moving, stretching, doing mobility
stuff. Like the prenatals like anything
that a female can do to set their child up for the utmost
success possible you did. So the fact that this happened,
I mean no no dietary intervention.
No movement. Intervention could have changed
the way his face was positioned. The way it was hospitalized.
You have the hospital. They had me trying different
positions and it was like, he just kept moving in the wrong
direction. Yeah.
We're just not meant to be. Yeah, but he's here now.
He's happy. He's home.
It is checkup today at the doctors and everything's going
good. Yeah, he's already back up to
his birth weight, six days later and yeah, rocking it rocking
this thing. He's sleeping good.
He's pooping good. He's doing everything good.
So we feel very blessed, for sure.
Yeah, we're gonna go to go stare at them.
Now. I'm gonna go stare at him now.
So y'all take care. We've done many of these but
we're people go to find out more about you.
Chris on Instagram is the adult lady dot Savage website is Lady
Savage.com. I also have a private Facebook
group for women only and yeah, and we have.
So I've got the keto, Savage, Instagram and website.
We have the live savage, Instagram that I had made as a
backup when I lost my Instagram key.
Savage, but now that I've got keto Savage back, we're going to
make live savage and dedicated brand as well and it's going to
be more. So about like the homesteading,
the parenting like just lifestyle type stuff.
Trying to not blow you guys up with baby stuff on our personal
Pages, you know, keep it Fitness Nutrition.
Yeah. Also family-oriented, but we
would like, to live savage to be more.
Yeah. So if you want more of that
stock content, definitely check out the live savage, Instagram,
because we'll all I'll update the current posts on there, like
will get that more revamped. That's where all that stuff is
going to be going, but we just want to say thank you for all of
y'all that tuned in and like gave us like we have received an
overwhelming amount of positive support, emails, messages, phone
calls, text DMS, everything like y'all have been with us
throughout this whole journey and we truly can't.
Thank you enough. Even though the the journey took
a Twist, took a turn, we I have arrived at the final destination
in the same destination that we had always wanted which was to
have happy healthy range of a happy healthy Crystal.
So we're happy. We're blessed were fortunate.
We thank you all for tuning in and being part of this journey.
And we're excited about this next chapter in our lives.
That's All She Wrote. You got anything else babe?
Just thank you guys all for supporting us and loving us and
All the things. We always feel so blessed.
Any Deep Thoughts, fragile. No, he's still sleeping.
He's over here. All right.
Well, I'm gonna tune out. Probably go change the diaper
right now. So I will talk to y'all next
time. Love, y'all and tata for now.