I have got to write down Harriet’s birth story before I forget all the little details. And apparently I only blog anymore when I have a baby… the last time was literally Henry’s birth story (here--which is what I was hoping to have a repeat of!), but apparently my girls like more of a dramatic entrance (Amelia’s birth story here). Well, where to begin…
Harriet is our little miracle baby. We have seen so many tender mercies throughout this whole experience. I had been wanting Harriet to show up early, but then the weekend I wanted her here, I got a nasty cold! I was seriously so mad! I had a sore throat I was trying to fight off, but the night before Harriet was born, it moved down into my chest. I started feeling those mild period-like cramps on Monday evening, Sept. 11 around 9 pm. I had those cramps/contractions all night--enough to keep me awake, and by midnight I texted my school secretary and my maternity sub that I was 98% sure I wouldn’t be at school the next morning. I was also awake starting to really cough and cough. I was lathering my throat and neck with oils, had some diffusing, spraying my throat with chloraseptic--literally anything I could think of to stop this cold in its tracks! I think I maybe got 2 hours of sleep that night. I lost my mucous plug around 4:30 am and was pretty sure that this baby would indeed be coming today, September 12.
However, when I got up for the day (and had already told Austin to tell his boss he wouldn't be coming in today), my contractions really started to ease up. I started feeling pretty good--I even curled my hair and did my makeup. I was starting to think that I should have just gone into work after all. I get so stressed about deciding when I’m truly “in labor.” I hate calling it. Well we got the kids up and got Amelia ready for preschool. We dropped her off and then took Henry over to Peggy’s. We then drove over to my parents house so my dad and Austin could give me a blessing. I was getting pretty discouraged at this point about my contractions stalling out. My other labors always seemed to keep progressing. Austin gave me the most beautiful blessing. He blessed me with comfort from the Holy Ghost--and that I would be able to listen to my body and follow its promptings. He also blesses the doctors, nurses, and hospital staff that would be working on me. But he really talked a lot about the Holy Ghost being my comfort--that’s what we both really took away from his blessing. Looking back on that blessing now, it couldn’t have been more tailored to how my experience would end up unfolding. Austin rarely gets emotional, so I lost it at the end of my blessing when he expressed his love for me and how much I mean to him. We were both in tears, and I just got to hug my husband and feel so grateful for him. I sure love that boy of mine. I didn’t know just how significant that blessing would become as the day wore on.
Right when we got home, Austin convinced me to go on a side-by-side ride in the maverick to kick labor into gear. Ha. We were supposed to only go around the block, but then I decided I wanted to see the new golf course they are building out south of Hurricane, so it ended up being a pretty legit ride. Once I got home, I hopped into the bath to soak, and lo and behold, my contractions started back up. Yay! I listened to my hypnobirthing tracks and just tried to relax. After my bath, I told Austin to go get me a breakfast burrito from Alberto’s (that’s what sounded good!) I sat on our exercise ball while I waited, and by the time he was back, my contractions were speeding up--fast! They were consistently 2-3 minutes apart. I called my mom so she could come switch us cars so she could pick up my kids later. Austin still needed to take a shower, so I told him he better hurry up because I was ready to GO! We were hurrying kind of frantically by the time my mom got there. These contractions just really came on so quickly. We headed out around 1:40 pm. Of course once we were on the road, my contractions started being sporadic again. 3 min apart, then 7 min, then 10. Ugh! I kept wavering back and forth if I wanted to go directly to Labor & Delivery or try and walk the temple grounds for a bit. After a few really strong ones, I decided we just needed to go get checked. Mainly for my own peace of mind. They will only admit you to the birthing center (the birthing suite inside the hospital that we used with Henry) if you are dilated to at least a 5. Once they finally got me all situated and checked, I was at a 6.5, but the nurse couldn’t feel baby’s head--only my bag of water. She got my doctor who was already next door delivering a baby (seriously it was so busy!). They did a quick ultrasound and Harriet was indeed, transverse (side-lying). She was head down just last week! I was so angry and pretty much lost it--mainly because I knew that a C-Section was a serious possibility at this point, and I’ve always been super scared of them. Our doctor said she would try an aversion to see if she could flip her from the outside of my belly. I had heard it was pretty painful, but was willing to try anything. She seemed pretty hopeful. So they put in in an official L&D room, but we were all rooting that this would work and that I could return to the birthing center room and move forward with our original plan. Plan? Ha!
We had to wait for a bit (another delivery) for my doctor to come in. She finally did the aversion around 4:30ish? It worked! And it actually wasn’t even that painful. Dr. Walker (I normally have Dr. Chalmers, but she was on call this week, and I decided I really like her) was worried because Harriet was still so high. She hadn’t dropped into my pelvis at all. So she broke my water in hopes that her head would drop and press against my cervix. So they broke the water. Normally this doesn’t phase me one bit. However because baby was so high, they really had to get up in there to break my water. It was weirdly WAY worse than the aversion. Water finally broke and they gave me pitocin to help get things started again. My contractions had kind of stalled out at this point--which is what we wanted since we didn’t want my water to break before we could do the aversion. So my dreams of not having an IV were out the window, but I was still holding onto the idea of going back into the birthing suite and having a good soak in the tub when all was said and done. However, doc wanted to monitor us a bit longer to make sure baby would drop. She was concerned about an arm, or worse, a cord coming out before baby’s head.
At this point, everything moved FAST. Austin and I were alone in the room just chilling through contractions when our nurse came in. She said she was a little concerned with baby’s vitals and needed to check me. She definitely looked concerned, but I didn’t freak at this point. She checked me (again, can I just say how uncomfortable these checks were because of how high Harriet was sitting?) and turned and looked at Austin. She told him to run out in the hall and yell for Dr. Walker and tell her we had prolapsed cord (I guess the call button wasn’t working or something? I don’t remember). From that point on, she did not remove her hand until someone else could take over. Austin did a great job because Dr. Walker was fast. Honestly everything at this point was so insanely fast. I had a billion nurses in my room and they quickly started wheeling me to the O.R. Another nurse took over and had her hand up there to hold Harriet’s head off the cord. Her head was cutting off her oxygen supply. The nurse hopped on my bed on top of me and did not take her hand out until I was completely out. I started sobbing but that started to push Harriet’s head down more, so I had to try and remain so calm. I just remember thinking about my blessing from earlier about being comforted--that really helped. I felt like I was on an episode of Grey’s Anatomy because everyone was so frantic. Austin followed us but couldn’t go into the O.R. I was so, so scared. I just remember saying “take care of my baby!” Then when we got into O.R. they tipped my bed down so hopefully gravity would help Harriet’s head lay off the cord. I remember hearing the nurse say she couldn’t feel a pulse. I was so terrified and just remember yelling “hurry!” They assured me they had the nicu team right there ready for her. They finally got the mask on me and I was O-U-T. Poor Austin just had to wait outside the door and some doctor kept trying to make small talk with him.
Next thing I remember was being wheeled back into my L&D room. Austin was sitting there with a little bundle in his arms. It was very surreal. I felt very weird coming out of general anesthesia, and was struggling to get on top of the pain. They told me it took them 12 minutes to get her out and she had an APGAR score of 9--so amazingly healthy and perfect. What a miracle! I guess Austin just got to chill with her for a good 20 minutes or so while they finished working on me. He facetimed a few people--they all got to see my baby before me! It was amazing when I finally got to hold my girl. I was still a little loopy, but I was with-it enough to realize what a blessing this little chick was. The hospital staff and my doctor were so on the ball and acted so quickly to get this girl out safely. Austin’s blessing really hit me hard.
Because of the emergency C-Section, I didn’t have an epidural or any pain medication before going into surgery. So getting on top of the pain was a little harder than a typical C-section. They did give me a nice morphine shot in the butt, but it wasn’t until my pitocin drip was emptied and I could finally eat and take some percocet that I finally felt the edge taken off. But honestly, I was just so happy to have a healthy baby in my arms. My emotions were all over the place. Another miracle: my cold! The one that had me up coughing the night before was completely gone. And it is STILL gone, a week and a half later. I can’t even imagine having to cough with this incision. I’ve had to do it a couple of times, and it was torture. So…. that was a huge miracle for me. No sore throat, no cough, nothing!
The next couple of days/nights in the hospital were rough, but I honestly cried more when I got home--missing the hospital. I wanted to go back so bad. Mainly because I had constant care and could send Harriet to the nursery at night for a few hours to try and sleep. It was just so hard to get out of bed and go to the bathroom even. Don’t even get me started on all the air/gas trapped inside of me from the surgery. I had no idea C-Sections were so dang HARD. I mean, I super grateful at our outcome, but man alive, I sure hope I never have to do this again. I will spare you the details of my recovery so far because they are not so pretty. But I will say this, my family and friends and ward family have been absolutely amazing. We’ve had meals brought in and my older kids have been well taken care of. I couldn’t do it without the help of so many awesome people, especially my mom and mother-in-law.
I was just so sad this birth didn’t get to be documented by my awesomely talented friend, Shannon. We pretty much held her captive all day with updates and were just waiting to tell her to head down to the hospital when we thought things were getting close. But then everything happened SO fast, and she was OUT. And not in the way we expected. So no birth pics for Harriet. That’s what she gets for having such a dramatic entrance. Hopefully we will get some newborns done soon though when I feel a little better. Meanwhile, I am just so, so grateful this beautiful baby girl is here safe and sound. I truly feel so blessed. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been pretty discouraged and have had many shower cries, too. If anyone wants the nitty gritty details on recovery or to commiserate, I’m an open book. Meanwhile, here’s some iphone hospital pics we do have.
