It all started on November 22nd. I had just finished my sixth graveyard shift in a row at 7 am. I took Hunter to class and the dogs on a walk. Our plans for that evening were to go to dinner at a fish place we had been waiting to try (Stowe's) and see Hunger Games. Because of this, Hunter had opted to wear nicer clothes instead of just something comfortable because of this. I went to bed around 9 am. Around noon, Kenobi started to make a lot of noise and put his paws on the bed right by my belly then loudly clang them to the floor. He repeated this 4 or 5 times before it finally woke me up enough that I realized I needed to pee - like a typical 39 week pregnant lady. I got up with the intention of going to the bathroom then taking the dogs out - because that must have been why Kenobi was freaking out. However, my plans changed when my water broke when I went to the bathroom. Hooray for no messy clean up or soaked sheets! haha. Needless to say, our Friday night plans were definitely changed in that moment. I called my doctor and got an appointment to make sure all was in order before heading to the hospital. I had about 45 minutes before I had to leave my house so I finished preparing my things, took the dogs out, and then did the dishes - I don't know why I opted to spend my time that way, but it worked. The doctor confirmed that my water had broken and that he could see hair (which totally freaked me out!).
I headed over to the hospital and started my check in process - it was about 2:30. At this point, I was having contractions but nothing super regular or particularly painful. The plan was to go and check in, get my antibiotics started because I was group B strep positive, and see if I had started contracting more. If not, I would have to be given pitocin to get things going. In the mean time, Hunter was in his last class for the day which ended at 4. His plan was to head over to the hospital (literally across the street) as soon as he was done. When I told the nurses who were taking care of me that Hunter wouldn't be there until 4 they said that it's amazing how the body knows to wait and get things going at the right time - generally when the significant other arrives. This couldn't have been more accurate. I was talking and visiting all the way up to 4 o'clock. One of my really good friends (who delivered her little girl 3 days later) was visiting until 5 minutes before Hunter got there. I was completely fine - happy and chatty with minimal pain and by the time that he arrived I was dying in pain. I got the Yoga ball to help manage the pain because it was ALLLLL in my back. My plan was to see how far I could go without drugs and if it got too bad then I would happily accept the epidural.
Shortly after things really ramped up my body started really freaking out. I was hot hot one minute then freezing cold the next. Then came the nausea. I couldn't keep anything down. I ate a bowl of cereal before I went to the hospital (cheers for no more carb restrictions!) and quickly lost that. They tried to have me eat some Jello. I took maybe 3 bites and lost that too. I tried drinking water and I couldn't even keep that down. It. Was. Miserable. By 7 pm I couldn't take it anymore and asked for the epidural. I think that I might have been able to handle the pain of it if I hadn't been so sick or maybe if I had had more sleep, but I didn't so drugs it was. It took about an hour before they were able to give me the epidural (they had to check me - I was dilated to a 4 - and get the anesthesiologist) and a lot of painful contractions including the few I had to suffer through sitting on the bed (which is the WORST possible position for back labor) while they were prepping me for the procedure.
Getting the epidural was the best decision I could have made. I was a completely different person afterwards. I was able to relax and even take a nap. All feelings of being sick went away and even though I still was having temperature regulating issues, life was good again.
We continued on for the next few hours with nothing very eventful happening. Around 9 pm I was checked again and was dilated to a 6. We just hung out, slept on and off, watched random tv, and tried to decide on a name for our baby because there wasn't much time left before that decision had to be made. Around midnight things started to get a little more interesting. The fetal heart rate started to drop with every contraction. It wasn't too bad at first and was fixed by me changing positions every half hour or so. Closer to 1 am it started to get worse. His heart rate was dropping with every contraction and starting to drop lower than acceptable and taking a long time to rebound. I had to change positions with every contraction in order to get it back up. At 1:45 his heart rate dropped to the 50s and took about two minutes to get back up. The doctor came in at this point and checked me, I was fully dilated, and said we have to start pushing with the next contraction. He also said that if things didn't get better we would first try vacuuming him out depending on how well the pushing went and if that wasn't successful we would have to go in for an emergency c-section. People started filing into the room to be prepared to rush me into surgery if needed. The contraction came and I pushed with everything I had. Baby moved a loooot with that first push, but it was still touch and go. The doctor moved his head around a little bit which helped minimally and then I pushed again with the next contraction and that helped a lot. His heart rate jumped right back up to where it should and stayed that way. It even rebounded a little higher than normal, which apparently happens sometimes but they had to check me for a fever to make sure I wasn't getting toxic - which I wasn't. We pushed with every contraction for the next 30 minutes or so and then his heart rate started to fall again so I changed positions back to my hands and knees and pushed in that position for a while. Around 2:45 the doctor came in again and had me roll back over to push from my back again and at this point we started to make significant progress again (I was told not to be frustrated if this part took a long time since we started to push before I was ready). At 3:13 am on November 23, 2013, our sweet boy was born weighing 8 lbs 7 oz and 20 3/4 inches long.
We were very happy to have gotten the best case scenario out of our little scare.
First family picture!
Hunter's first time holding him:
For the first hour or so of his life he kept holding onto his face like this. He would put his little thumb in his mouth and hold onto the whole thing. It was so funny. In every ultrasound we had of him his hand blocked his face so it was very fitting.
And a couple more shots of him in the hospital:
The nurses always had a magic swaddle. Anytime the baby was upset (any baby) all they did was wrap them up tight and all was well with the world. I had never seen anything like it.
This was taken right after his very first bath ever! Look at all that hair!
And some shots with daddy...
And the final picture before we went home! Hunter was in a mandatory there is no way you can miss it kind of class that Monday morning but he was able to sneak out to see us off and into the car. We were especially lucky to have him be able to see us off because Yale was on lockdown that day due to a suspected shooter (which ended up being a hoax). One of his teachers took pity on him since it was all going down on the old campus and they had no problem discharging me 100 feet away and snuck him out. I greatly appreciated that.
It took us almost a full day to determine what we should name him, but we decided on Kellan. It just seemed to fit him more than anything else we had been considering. The next closest contender was Asher (which jumped to the top after he was born).
Welcome to the world, Kellan Gates Paddock.
