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.