Hayden's Birth Story
(Be sure to listen to "The Miracle of the Moment" by Steven Curtis Chapman, playing now on my Player)
Saturday and Sunday (Feb 16 &17), I was miserable! I just could not get comfortable, nothing sounded good to eat, and apparently I was extremely grouchy (this info given to me by my mother!!) So I was determined to beg my doctor to induce me the next day when I went to my appointment. Well, little did I know that I wouldn't have to ask.
Conner and Mari Cate were out of school on Monday for President's Day, so my parents offered to let them spend the night. We jokingly told them to get their "hospital bag" (they had each packed a little bag too) together...just in case.
About 3:00am, I woke up having contractions that felt different than the ones that I had been experiencing. These were going all the way through to my back. At this point, they were about 10 minutes apart and weren't really painful, so I just let Frank sleep for awhile. At 4:30, I sat up in the bed and asked me what was wrong. I told him that I thought these were probably the real thing, but they were still about 8 minutes apart. So we layed in the bed trying to decide if was the real thing or not because he had an extremely important meeting in Atlanta that day. Well, apparently, someone else had a very important meeting that day too!! : )
At 5:30, we had decided that this was going to be the day, so I decided to get a shower and make myself presentable for my new son! By 6:30, my contractions, were 4-5 minutes apart, so we called the doctor. We got to the hospital around 7:30 or so and they put me in a little room to monitor me and make sure I was really in labor, I guess. I guess it was around 9:00 or so that they moved me to a huge labor room. My contractions were beginning to get stronger and more painful too. I was dilated to 3-4cm at this point. They came in to get an IV started and ended up having a heck of a time with my veins, so this took quite a while. Mari Cate was in the room while this was going on and saw me start crying after the 4th try and got pretty upset too. That ended up being her deciding factor of whether she would stay in the room during delivery or not.
I couldn't get my epidural until I had had one bag of fluids, so the pains got, well, quite painful! As I said before, Frank was supposed to go to a very important meeting that day, so he spent a lot of the morning on the phone getting updates. Well, apparently at one point during a contraction, I looked at him and said "Get off the phone!" Honestly, I really thought that I just "thought" this and didn't actually say it, but obviously not! ; )
So about 12:30 I got my epidural and enjoyed the rest of the day! haha Seriously, the rest of the day went by pretty quickly (at least to me) and I got to visit with everyone and it was actually quite enjoyable. Shortly after my epidural, I was 7cm dilated, so we thought this was going to progress pretty quickly, but not.... My contractions pretty much stopped, so they gave me some pitocin to get them started again. It helped a little, but not enough. So several times they kicked it up some more. The nurses really began to think I might have to have a c-section. Dr. Wolf new that I really didn't want to, but obviously I wouldn't endanger Hayden's life. I guess since he continued to be "happy" as they put it (not under any stress), then we continued on. Finally I was dilated completely and began pushing by around 8:15 or so. At 9:09pm, our precious little boy entered this world, weighing 8 lbs. 5 oz. and measuring 20 1/2" long.
Obviously Frank was in the delivery room as my coach, and what a good one he was. He is so calm. And believe it or not, Conner stayed in the room also! Part of the time he had his head covered, but he really did well. When Hayden was coming out, he was so excited, he told my mother "Feel my heart, Nanny!" Tears were streaming down his face when he saw him!! As I said before, Mari Cate got scared when she saw her Mommy in pain from the IV ordeal, so she was afraid to see me in pain during the birth. We tried to talk her into it, but were only successful to the point of her getting to see his head crowning. I really wish that we had known that I wouldn't be in pain, wouldn't be screaming, etc. to convince her to come in there, but we didn't. She regrets not being there, but she was in there immediately after. My mother also got to experience the birth. She wasn't sure if she could take it either, but she is so glad that she was.
We got to keep him in the room with us until about 11:30, then he went to the nursery to get cleaned up, while they moved me to a post-partum room. We actually got to get a few hours of sleep before they brought him back to us. I stayed in the hospital Tuesday night also, and we came home Wednesday shortly after lunch.
You know, we worried some through this pregnancy, especially at the beginning, but God gave me comfort and peace throughout the 9 months. I really enjoyed being pregnant and feel I basically had an easy pregnancy (aside from a few hoops to get through). I was not miserable until about the last week, but isn't every woman by that point?? Except for the hard contractions before the epidural (which were still not totally unbearable), I must say that I totally enjoyed the day of my delivery. If I were younger, I would totally consider doing this again, but I am so thankful and count my blessings that I got to experience it to the fullest and enjoy it as I did.
Our family is complete. Thank you Lord!!
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