Henry's Birth Story

On Monday, August 12^th, I went in for my 39-week appointment.  My doctor asked me if she had done a membrane sweep the last week, to which I replied, “No.” She asked me if I wanted it done, and I said, “Go ahead. We’re ready to meet this baby.”

I had only heard about this, but knew that it could possibly get labor started. We were two days away from his due date, so I wasn’t worried about anything.  At this point, I was still only 1 cm and 70% effaced.

The next day, I went to Aldi to get some groceries. I really didn’t know if I should be planning anything elaborate, but let’s just be honest…the last few months of pregnancy left me unmotivated in the kitchen.  I did buy a lot of things that had a long shelf-life, so I knew that if I did go into labor, the food would still be good.

That afternoon, I realized that I needed to text Kaitlin, our doula, to let her know my progress.  That was around 4 pm on Tuesday, and about 15 minutes later, the contractions started.  I was laying on the couch and realized that I had a couple contractions within a good amount of time.  I decided to start timing them.

At 4:47 pm, I texted Tyler to let him know that I was having contractions.  But I told him not to get too excited because they were 11-12 minutes apart.  Around 6:40 pm, I sent another text to Kaitlin, letting her know that I was having contractions and they were about 7-minutes apart.  She told me to rest up—which I had planned to do in early labor.

Resting was difficult.  I continued to sit on the couch, and then I eventually moved to my bed in hopes to get a little bit of sleep.  However, sleep didn’t come.  I moved back out to the couch so that Tyler could get some sleep, although, I’m not sure how much he got either.  My contractions were 8-10 minutes apart all night at a minute long.

Tyler took the day off, and his work decided that he was going to start his leave on that day. They cut all his communication. So he was stuck at home with his laboring wife. HA! I knew that I still needed to take my 40-week pregnancy picture, so I had him take it, which I'm sure was comical. We had to wait through a couple of contractions to finally get one that didn't look like I was in pain.  

I texted Kaitlin back and forth all day.  She was such a wealth of knowledge, and it was comforting to know that she was there to help us as needed.

She was going to come over to the house when my contractions were about 5:14 apart, but then they slowed again to 7-minutes. It was like that all day long.  They’d speed up, then slow down. She gave me a little workout circuit to try, and I got a little relief from the pain, but not a ton.

In the early afternoon, they really started to get painful. Like really painful. I was having to close my eyes, grit my teeth, cry, kick and scream…whatever it took to get through them.  Kaitlin was there for the ride…encouraging me and supporting me along the way.

She called me around 5:15 that evening to see how I was doing and how I was getting through the contractions.  She told me to give it a couple more hours before we head to the hospital.  Honestly, I didn’t know if I’d make it a couple more hours.  I had been walking around my kitchen and living room for hours just to cope.

I texted her around 6:15 and told her we were getting ready to head to the hospital.  I wasn’t sure how much more I could take.  The contractions were SO strong and some of them were 2-minutes long.

The ride to the hospital was awful.  I’m so thankful it was only 10-minutes away. I had to literally lay my seat back to get through some of the contractions—sitting was so difficult.  When we got to the hospital, Tyler dropped me off at the front door. I went and checked in.  They had me give a urine sample, and while trying to do so, I had THREE contractions. The nurse had to knock on the door to make sure I was okay. Evidently, they’ve had women try to give birth in there.  I would have found that funny, but I was in a lot of pain.

They hooked me up to the NST machine to watch my contractions, progression, and the baby’s heart rate. I had some of the worst contractions while sitting on that bed.  I was only 3 cm dilated, which was somewhat discouraging. Tyler was texting with Kaitlin at this point, and she thought they would just send me home.

I was literally praying that I would be admitted because if they sent me home, I wasn’t sure how I was going to get through the pain.  God answered my prayer because Henry’s heart rate kept dipping and they weren’t sure what it was.  They kept monitoring me, and during the awful contractions, his heart rate continued to dip.  They weren’t sure if it was because his head was being squeezed or if it was the placenta malfunctioning. They checked me again, and as they did, it sent me into another horrible contraction.

They called in the on-call doctor (by the way, my doctor’s office is on the second floor of the women’s hospital, so I knew there would be someone there), and she started talking gibberish at this point. I honestly didn’t know what she was saying, but the words “induce,” “Pitocin,” and “emergency c-section” were all mentioned. I know that she just had to cover all her bases, but it was somewhat scary.

Kaitlin had arrived at the hospital at that point. She was the only one who had a good head on her shoulders and could understand what was going on.  At one point, Tyler had left the room and it was just Kaitlin and me. She knew that our plan was to have the baby and then call our parents after he had arrived. I was in tears at this point and she asked me if she thought we should call our parents and let them know what was going on. I told her that there were a couple of points that I did just want my mom.

Tyler got back to the room, and they decided to admit me. We walked over to my labor and delivery room, and the nurse was getting me hooked up to the machines again.  Another nurse was in there, trying to start my IV, but apparently, I have small veins. Who knew? She stuck me 4 or 5 times just trying to get the IV in. I’ve never been stuck that many times before, but I’ve also never had to be in the hospital. I do give blood regularly, and I have never had any problem with them sticking me in the arm, but trying to get it in my hand was a different story. She ended up putting the IV in my arm for the night.

Around 12:30 am, Kaitlin, Tyler, and I were all discussing my options to get an epidural. I was 90% sure going into this birth that I would be getting it.  At this point, I was 300% positive that I needed it. So Kaitlin asked for me, as I was literally giving it all I could to get through my contractions. The anesthesiologist came in around 1:30 am and took his sweet time putting it in.  However, as soon as he got it in, I had immediate relief.

Once the commotion died down in my room, Kaitlin told me to rest. She was telling me that she thought getting an epidural would allow my body to rest and do what it’s supposed to do. She went home to get a little bit of sleep and to be able to take her kiddo to school the next morning. Tyler and I were able to get some small naps here and there.  The nurse kept coming it to try to reposition me, and let me tell you—it is SO weird not to be able to feel your legs. She literally had to push me over to get me to change sides.

But our little Herbie was a stinker. He did NOT like the different positions he was being put in. He only liked it when I was laying on my right side.  At one point, the nurse came back in because his heart rate kept dipping and they couldn’t figure out why. But I was still oblivious to how serious this could have been.

At 7 am, the nurse came in with a doctor—not my doctor. This doctor explained that my doctor usually takes Thursday mornings to be with her boys at home and she rounds on my doctor’s patients. She also explained that my doctor does this with her patients on a different day. I thought that was kind!

The nurse checked me once again, and I was finally 100% effaced and dilated to a 6! Hallelujah! My body was doing exactly what it needed to be doing! The doctor broke my water, and Tyler texted Kaitlin to let her know what was going on! She responded pretty excitedly!

Kaitlin got back to the hospital around 8:30 that morning, and we were just playing the waiting game. They were still trying to position me differently, but Herbie wasn’t liking it. So I continued to lay on my right side.

Around 10, the nurse checked me again and she surprisingly said I was at a 9.  Everyone was very excited, because they thought that they would need to start me on Pitocin that morning. Thankfully, I didn’t need it.

The nurse started to make preparations, and so many thoughts were going through my mind. I couldn’t believe that this moment was already here.  At this point, Tyler went inside his shell. He knew what was coming, so he found a chair by my head and sat in it.

When I was 10 cm, the nurse had me start pushing. Kaitlin was such a wonderful cheerleader, giving me tips along the way. I mean, I had no idea what I was doing. I pushed for 20 minutes or so, and then the nurse called all of the people that needed to be in the room to prepare for our birth. She even got ahold of my doctor who did indeed make it in time to deliver Henry.

At 12:05 pm of August 15th, after just about 44 hours of labor and 45 minutes of pushing, our little Henry Calvin was born.  I will never forget the moment I looked into his eyes. I literally couldn’t say anything and just started crying.  I looked over at Tyler and he also had tears in his eyes.  We had done it. Henry was here. I got to cut the cord, which was so cool. And Tyler announced his name to the entire room, since we hadn’t shared it with anyone.

It was fun to call our parents and siblings to share the news. Our parents made the trek down, and my best friend (who's also my sister from another mister) came as a surprise to us! I was so glad to have her there. <3 

Diane was sick that day, so I don't have a picture of her with Henry at the hospital.

Going home!

He was so tiny in his carseat!

Introducing Scout to his new brother!

Kaitlin, our doula, came over about a week after Henry was born for a little postpartum meeting. I was so thankful for her, and I will definitely hire her again for our next kiddo! 

We love our little Henry so much!!