Side note- this is all for me :) Here is how Halden came into the world :) Sunday night we called in at our alotted 8:00 hour and they said to come in at 10. Longest 2 hours of my life! But it was good we had that time because we were able to get a few last minute things done around the house and eat before we left. It was Father's day so we had spent the afternoon in Fielding and were running a bit late. Anyways, so we get there at 10 and they said it had been super slow that night and that they would be back in a few minutes to get us settled in and started. As it turns out, suddenly a few ladies came in and it was busy so it took a bit to get going! I also was fortunate enough to have an intern training so that meant twice the cervical checks...yay!! Jolene was the head nurse and Brenda the intern. Just before midnight I got my first oral dose of Cytotec at 1 cm and 80% effaced. Baby was low, but I had a hard/rigid cervix.
At 3 AM Tyler was totally out of it on his couch-bed, and I was trying to get sleep, but it wasn't working so well. I got my second dose of Cytotec internally, no sign of progression yet. But the contractions were getting stronger and I could feel them throughout my whole belly. At 5 AM I got Fentanyl to relieve some of the pain.
At 7:30 they gave me an epidural which was super nice because the pain wasn't even bad yet, but he was headed in for C-sections or something and wouldn't be available for another few hours. And they suggested getting it before breaking my water.
Dr. came in at 8:30 to break my water and there was a TON of meconium....not good. That meant no skin to skin immediately which was kind of a bummer. They checked me again at 10, I was 3 cm and 100 % effaced! that was when things started to take off. They did end up giving me a bit of Pitocin in the early afternoon when I was around a 6 because things had slowed down. But Halden did not like the pit and they ended up turning it off for a while.
By 5:30 I was finally ready to push!! And I pushed...for a long time. They thought that with how good of a pusher I was that he would be there within an hour. But that time came and went. Finally at 7:30 my doctor came in and told me that I had a very small pelvis and his head couldn't get through it and that it would probably be a C-section. But with how hard I was still pushing she said she would consider using forceps if I wanted to try...YES! So we still tried for another half hour to get him here the normal way with the help of forceps and the vacuum and her hands in me up to her elbows and she still couldn't get him to come out. Tyler could see his head with each push and I really thought it would happen.
But then it turned into an emergency C-section. His heartbeat would drop with each push and now it was getting a little scary. The hospital also exploded with laboring moms and everything was chaos and short staffed. We finally got into the operating room and his heartbeat was getting slower. After she got me open she couldn't get Halden out. I had pushed so hard that he was jammed in there. She had to call in 2 other doctors to help pull him out while a nurse pushed on his head from the other end. All I remember hearing is her yelling trying to find a male doctor in the hospital to come help because like I mentioned there were so many other births happening. When I talked to her a couple days later she said that it was the only time she had to request help with a c section, that babies often get stuck...but not that bad. But they finally got him out at 8:23!!
Anyways, so I was out for the next little while. They just stapled me up and I was so drugged that I passed out for an hour. Thank heavens because I don't think I wanted to be awake while they took care of Halden. Halden got taken to the table where he was immediately put on oxygen and his stomach pumped. He scored a 2 on his APGAR and things did not look good. They told Tyler that they would probably be flying him to Mckay Dee. But all of our praying worked out, after an hour (no NICU!) his tough body healed up and he scored a 9 on the APGAR. Tyler showed me a couple pictures and brought him over for me to see for a second before they took him away, but I was so out of it I don't remember, which makes me really sad. By that time I was awake he was doing well enough, so they brought him down to me and he nursed amazingly well. And thanks to our fabulous nurse, Whitney, he as able to come directly to my recovery room with me for the rest of our stay.
My body also healed super quick and we were able to come home Wednesday afternoon. We got lots of help and support and have been doing amazing ever since. Here's to modern medicine! Neither of us would have survived without it.
