Hayden was born on a beautiful, sunny Wednesday morning in the spring. Hayden made his debut into this world on May 18, 2016 at 11:33 a.m. Welcoming our first baby into our family was such a rush of so many emotions and such a great experience. Hayden's story is something I never want to forget.
It was Tuesday, May 17. Dalan and I had gone down to the doctors for my 38 week checkup. I was 38 weeks and 5 days pregnant. By this point I was ready to have this baby! I was trying everything to put myself into labor. All in all, I knew that my sweet baby would come when he was ready. The Sunday before my doctors appointment I went into labor and delivery because I could have sworn this baby was coming! I was dilated to a 2 and 70% effaced but when I got to the hospital my contractions had stopped. So I got sent home! :( Well a couple days later at my appointment my doctor wanted to check me and strip my membranes. During this process he stops and says, "Whoa. I think.. I think your water just broke." I sat up abruptly and said, "Seriously? Are you sure?" He tested the fluid and sure enough my water broke! My doctor told me to walk on down to labor and delivery and get checked in. Was this seriously happening? I couldn't even believe it. When my doctor had gone in to strip my membranes the sac was so close that he knicked it and broke my water. He said that he has never had that happen to him before, but my water would have broke at any time since it broke by him just doing that. So my water would have broke at any time.
I am so glad Dalan came down with me to this appointment. He hadn't been with me the past two so this was truly meant to be. When I was leaving the house to go to the appointment I thought to myself maybe I should just bring my hospital bag with me just in case. But I didn't. I also had a thought, maybe I should leave the back door unlocked just in case and my family can come and grab my stuff. Again, I didn't listen. Moral of the story, listen when you have those promptings!
After my water broke on the table in front of the doctor he said, "well, head on down to labor and delivery and get checked in. And then I'll be there when you are ready and we can meet this little guy." I couldn't even believe this was real. I had been so excited up to this point and so ready to just have my baby in my arms but just then I realized that I was really going to be having a baby and we were going to bring him home. Dalan and I could hardly wait.
Here I am right before I got changed into the hospital gown. SO PREGNANT!
We called my mom and she brought down all my hospital supplies that I had already packed. She brought my whole family down. They were just as excited. Little did they know what they were getting in for. They came in and said hi but sat in the foyer and waited and waited for this little guy to be born. My mom and Dalan were the two people I had with me in the delivery room. My plan was to have a natural birth using Hypnobirthing. Dalan and I had been practicing many techniques and ways to help me through labor and I was excited to have this experience. I was excited, nervous, and scared all at the same time. We got settled into our room with the nurses coming in and out and asking us a million questions. They checked me when I was first there and I was dilated to a 2 and 80% effaced. Because I was going natural I didn't want to be strapped down to the bed with those monitors. So I asked for the new wireless monitors they had just got. I was one of the first patients to use the wireless monitors which was pretty cool. I loved them. It wasn't strapped and heavy all over your belly. Just a few sticky pads and they tracked the contractions and baby's heartbeat wirelessly. I was able to walk to the halls and move around in my room which was so great! My contractions weren't very regular but they said it may take a little while. So all on my own I decided to walk the halls and see if we could get anything moving! Dalan and I roamed the halls and bounced on my birthing ball for a long time. Contractions would sometimes pick up but then they would slow down the minute I decided to stop moving. We were getting anxious and wanted to see some progress. So the nurse checked me to see what progress I had made. I was dilated to a 3! Yay! My hopes were still up and I knew I just needed to keep working to see more progress.
My contractions were starting to get a little more intense and I could definitely feel them coming on stronger. It was probably around 10 at night now and I was bouncing on my ball in the delivery room and BAM! Water went everywhere! I guess when the doctor broke my water it hadn't completely broke, so we could safely say now my water had completely broke. It was a mess, I was a mess but hopefully this meant things were going to start moving along. Nothing. My body was doing nothing. Midnight rolled around and I was still at a 3! :( The nurses were suggesting to put me on pitocin. I was really dreading that and just really didn't want to have to get pitocin because it can make labor so much more painful if you don't have an epidural. I first said no, give me like thirty minutes and let me see if I am progressing any more, if not we could start on a small dosage. We walked and walked and walked. And we bounced and bounced and bounced. Nothing was changing. My contractions were slowing down. I was getting discouraged and wasn't sure what to do. I agreed to have them me start on the pitocin. They started me out at 0.5. Which is extremely small compared to what they normally start you out on (4). Slowly as time went along they kept upping my dosage until I was at a 12 (drops per minute, I think)! I still had nothing for the pain and my contractions were starting to get very, very intense. I just knew I had to be so close and this baby was just about to get here! When I was checked again, by this time is was probably about 4 a.m on May 18, the nurse said, "well, I would say you are dilated a 3.5, barely." WHAT?! A 3.5! I wasn't sure how much more of this I could take. I had already been in labor for 12 hours! And had only dilated 1.5 cm more than when I started. I didn't know how much longer I could go like this if it had taken me that long to just get to there.
The contractions had become so intense. The pitocin really makes your contractions worse then they would be without the pitocin. It was hard for me to keep my body in a relax state and calm after hearing that. Then the thought popped through my head, how long can my baby undertake this? It is one thing for me to have a goal of having my baby naturally but then you have to think about when does this become harmful for my child? They nurses offered me an epidural and I just wasn't sure what to do. So Dalan and I discussed what we thought would be best for baby and myself. Even though Dalan and I had worked hard to have a natural birth we felt that it was becoming unsafe and could eventually lead to a C-section if I stayed in labor long enough which neither of us wanted. We knew with an epidural that we would be able to speed the process up and help our little boy into this world. And Dalan and I had agreed before coming into the delivery room that if complications came up or something happened that we would be open to getting the epidural which that time was now.
5 AM-May 18. The anesthesiologist came in and gave me the epidural. This did not hurt as much as I thought it would. I was more scared than anything of the epidural but also my contractions were so intense it may have taken away from some of that pain. Then they cranked up the pitocin to the highest amount they could give me. That went smoothly and now I was laying on my bed, losing feeling in my legs and being able to relax. Contractions were a cinch now. I was able to actually lay there and rest a little bit. So Dalan, my mom, and myself all decided it was time for us to lay down get a little bit of sleep since we had been up all night.
7:30 AM- The nurse came in woke me up and wanted to check me to see if I had dilated any since. She checked me and I was at a 5! YAY! Progress. This was the best news. We were so happy that we were making progress. We decided to sleep a little more before the little guy made his arrival and from our exhausting night.
10 AM- The nurse came to check me again and I was at a 9! It's a miracle what those epidurals and pitocin will do to ya! ha. We could hardly wait. The nurse said we were going to start preparing for him to get here! It was finally here. 15 hours later and we were getting ready to welcome our baby into the world. We started to move positions and get him ready. Less than a half hour later I was almost to a 10. My nurse was bouncing back and forth between myself and one other patient who was at about the same point as I was. They were short staffed so she was trying to be there for both of us.
It was about 10:50 and the nurse said to be I think you are ready and I want you to start pushing. So she told me to push for 10 seconds during every contraction. My mom and Dalan were holding my hands and helping me push while the nurse was coming and going out of my room! What if I pushed the baby out and no one was there to catch him. This made for a very nervous mama. As I was pushing the nurse came in and was helping me when she said, "looks like he has a lot of dark hair!" I giggled while I was pushing and said, "Really?" I wanted my baby to have lots of hair so badly! She turned to Dalan and said, "Do you want to see it?" Dalan was so excited and said yes! And then the nurse turned around and left the room. Dalan was so confused because he was so excited to see. Finally she came back and Dalan could see all of his hair and got so excited. Not much longer after that my doctor walked in and was there for about 5 minutes while I finished pushing and there he came! Our little boy was born at 11:33 on May 18!
17 hours later!
He was here! They passed him right up to me and I was able to hold him on my chest while they cleaned him off. I can't explain how close to heaven I felt in that moment. Heavenly Father had sent me this sweet baby boy and he was straight from heaven. I felt so much love in that moment. I was so grateful to finally have my little boy in my arms. Dalan and I hadn't decided what we were going to name him yet. We had two names in mind, and I told Dalan that he could decide. Dalan took him in his arms and immediately said he is a Hayden. Dalan and I couldn't be happier to have our Hayden with us and that we were soon going to bring him home.
