Henry Wallace Skelton is the baby boy that Taylor and I prayed for daily and dreamt about for years, long before we were married. We decided not to have children while our life was in limbo with him being totally consumed by anesthesia school. It was the hardest decision to wait, but good things come to those who wait, right?
On Tuesday, July 14, I woke up suddenly at 1:30am. I had no idea what woke me, and then I felt pain; like a mixture of cramps and contractions, something I dubbed cramp-tractions. I decided to wait it out and not wake Tay. Within an hour I told Tay I think we are having this baby today. The 'cramp-tractions' continued all morning and then suddenly stopped about 5:00am. We had a doctors appointment that afternoon and I just knew she would send us straight to the hospital. Apparently not. Even though I was cramp-tracting, no progress was made...
After gestating for 40 weeks and 4 days, we were scheduled to be induced on Wednesday, July 15. We were both leery of an induction, we had read the literature and not on board with the idea, but the doctor insisted since my blood pressure had been consistently high throughout late pregnancy.
We arrived at Methodist Germantown Women's Pavilon at 5:45am for our 6:00am induction and we were both the biggest ball of nerves you could ever imagine. But we still had our humor.
We were checked in and showed to our room where we would meet our Tater Baby! And our goal for the day was pretty damn clear...have a baby.
After settling in, the nurses started my IV and started administering Pitocin; soon thereafter my doctor arrived and broke my water - weirdest feeling ever! And it doesn't stop, no matter what you do or what position you get in. A constant "it feels like I'm peeing myself".
From 7:30am until about 9:15am everything was fine. And then Tater Baby's heart rate would drop with each contraction, panicking me, Tay, and the doctor. Tater Baby didn't like the Pit or the contractions...and let's be honest, mama didn't like them either!
The words C-Section entered my mind, but my doctor never said a word about it. If the situation became too dire or Tater Baby was showing even more signs of distress then it wouldn't even be discussed, and we were ok with that. I was then put on oxygen to ensure that Tater Baby was ok. Did I mention that I throw up when I have an empty stomach? Due to being induced, I couldn't eat or drink anything from midnight till baby arrived. So while wearing the oxygen mask, I was also throwing up every 30 minutes. Talk about miserable!
At 11:00am the contractions became more than I could bare. Tay was sitting right next to me holding my hand and said he saw a "single Indian tear" roll down my cheek. It was time for the epidural. And I was estatic! Within 20 minutes of requesting it, the CRNA showed up and went over all the complications. I understand, let's sign the damn form and give me some medicine!
Getting an epidural was not like anyone had described. For me, it was painless. The only thing I didn't like was that you could feel the catheter being moved inside your spine and then a TON of pressure. But within minutes the pressure subsided and the contractions were a distant memory. I had found my happy place and my sense of humor had returned. I know Tay was happy about that!
The rest of the afternoon was spent laboring relatively pain free. I could no longer feel the contractions in my abdomen, but I could feel them in my back. The CRNA returned to our room 3 more times to ensure I was taken care of. Dennis the CRNA, I lika you :)
I continued to labor and was starting making some progress, praise the Lord! I was checked at 2:45PM and was 5cm...halfway there! Everyone in the family was taking bets on when baby would arrive. A few people said between 8:00 and 8:30, but Tay and I just knew baby would come late, sometimes past 11:00PM because that's when baby was the most active throughout the pregnancy.
The doctor came in about 7:30 to check on my progress...8cm...baby should be coming soon! The doctor told me to rest and that she would come back and check within an hour or so to see how I was progressing and to check on our Tater Baby.
The doctor came back at 8:30PM and said that baby was in distress and it would be time to push soon...what?!
The doctor had me do a "test push" to see if I was pushing correctly and immediately noticed meconium - Tay and I both panic. Hospital procedure requires the NICU staff be present for a meconium delivery. When this happened our hearts sank. Our poor Tater Baby. At that point extra staff came in along with members from the NICU. The doctor suited up (Barney Stinson anyone) and we got the show on the road.
I had joked with my labor nurse that I expected this baby to just walk out. She said she would expect nothing less!
I officially started pushing at 8:50PM. Each time a contraction would come, I would push 3 consecutive times for 10 seconds each time...in doing this you pretty much have to hold your breath. At one point I remember joking with the doctor that I was a former smoker and holding my breath was damn near impossible. Everyone laughed. And I was thankful I could lighten the mood because unbeknownst to me, Tater Baby was in more distress that we originally thought. Along with the meconium being present, once his head was delivered, the cord was wrapped around his neck. I'm thankful that I didn't know any of this at the time.
Once his head was delivered, I was ready to keep pushing and get this baby here! But the doctor made me stop...I didn't know why at the time, but it was because of his cord :(
In the movies, when babies are born they are pink and perfect and cry. Tater Baby was neither. His extemeties were blue and he was not crying nor was he stimulated by the nurses. He was immediately rushed to the NICU staff set up in the corner of the delivery room and intubated just as a precaution to remove any meconium he may have ingested.
I remember telling myself it's OK if he isn't crying, he was getting oxygen from me throughout the delivery. But it took a while and I still didn't hear him cry. Tay left my side and went over to where our Tater Baby was being assessed. And then I heard the most glorious noise I have ever heard in my life: our son crying for the first time. Upon hearing him cry, I immediately broke down and started crying. Tay asked me what's wrong, and I just remember saying "I'm so happy. I'm just so damn happy."
And in the next breath, "go get the camera and give me your cell phone, we have pictures to take!" So about a minute after delivery I went into photographer mode to make sure the birth of our son was documented.
I don't even remember the whole "it's a boy" due to the commotion.
I hope this little bundle of love, our Tater Baby, our Henry Wallace, our H Dubs, our baby Hank is a good enough reason to explain my absence in the past (and coming) weeks. We are way too busy learning to be parents and soaking up all the newborn goodness and sleepless nights that we can.
Also, we've had people ask why we named him what we did. The moment we found out we were pregnant, we knew that if it was a boy, his middle name would be Wallace after Tay's daddy. There was no discussion, this was just a fact that we both knew. And we tossed around other names, but ultimately decided on Henry after having an Indiana Jones marathon one day; and since we both agreed that Harrison Indiana was too big of a name :)
Enjoy the pictures of our little man. The little man we waited for and prayed for and dreamed about. He's perfection.
Post a Comment