The Birth of Hayden William

I had just gotten home from my 1st deployment to Afghanistan. My husband and I had long ago talked about having a baby, but figured we’d wait until I got home because I wanted to volunteer for this deployment. So I went off to the “Sand Box", as us military people call it (2010-2011). We talked about it while I was overseas, and then I finally came home. I was so happy to be home, but the both of us were so excited for a new addition. So we didn’t use any protection and just did things like we always do. I knew I couldn’t use any schedules or calendars and all that or else I would drive both myself and Seth crazy (hehehe).

June 17th 2011 some family/friends threw me a welcome home party (I got home May 7th,but they wanted me to settle back in first :) ). It was awesome and I have to say this, only because it pertains to the next part of the story. I was completely drunk (I don’t drink very often at all,but this was an occasion on my behalf). Well, the next day I woke up with the weirdest hangover. Usually my hangover consisted of a terrible headache, nausea and just feeling ugh. This time it was only NAUSEA!! I looked at my husband and said “Wouldn’t it be funny if I was pregnant!”.
   
Later that evening, I took a pregnancy test and just sat there staring at it waiting patiently. Finally I looked at it and POOF!! There it was ,one obvious pink line and another slightly faint pink line. I was so thrilled and excited. I was jumping up and down (silently) in the bathroom. I came out and showed it to the hubby, he said “Well, we’ll have to go to the doctor to make sure”. We were both happy about the journey of a new beginning. But of course this was on a weekend I might add. So I ended up going through about 10 more tests, because I couldn't believe it!! I finally went to the doctor's office and they said yes, it was definite “Congratulations, you're pregnant”.

We slowly told our closest family members and friends, but it was SO hard NOT to tell anyone until after the first trimester. Let’s just say that I didn’t make it even close to the end! We finally made the big announcement to the rest of the world. Of course, everyone is generally excited about new babies. This was also Seth’s parents soon-to-be first born grandchild! Lots of excitement! We hadn’t really thought too much into how we wanted to do things, though I was okay with going to a hospital and getting an epidural instead of  having to push and scream and yell and all of what I see on TV, but I was not okay with breastfeeding at the time (due to a traumatic experience as a very young child).

When I was younger, my niece (who is older than me because I was adopted into an older family) had a baby. She breastfed her for who knows how long. I was a kid and didn’t pay much attention to detail. One day I walked passed the room while she was feeding baby Sabrina and BAM the baby bit her nipple! I will never forget that awful screetching,crying, screaming sound that came from my niece's mouth. I always told myself from that moment on, that I would NEVER breastfeed. But of course,when you are the one who’s pregnant,your mind seems to think otherwise. My husband had always been pro-breastfeeding, even after I told him of my experience. So we talked and talked and talked about it and I came to an agreement that I “might” try it and see how it goes. Of course the further along in the pregnancy I got ,the more I felt that I could do this,and that the baby would benefit so much by me doing it. So I decided that breastfeeding was the way to go. 
   

The beginning of the pregnancy was really tough, with morning sickness and going to the hospital all the time. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. From pains,to occasional bleeding and so forth. I continuously told myself that if this was what pregnancy was all about, this child will be an only child! We found out at 17 1/2 weeks that we were going to be welcoming a beautiful baby boy! We couldn’t be happier, I was even more so, because I just had a feeling that the baby would be a boy. We already had his name picked out ,and from that moment on it was all about bringing Hayden William into the world safely.

After finding out the gender of the baby things were as okay as they could be until it got worse. I had morning sickness the whole pregnancy. I started going to the hospital even more frequently when I hit 24 weeks,because of contractions but no dilation (thankfully). I was exhausted and just wanted the pregnancy to be over with already. Funny enough, at 37weeks Seth’s mother came to stay with us. The day she showed up, I stopped contracting completely!

Finally we had made it to our official due date February 28th 2012. There was no baby, no contractions, no anything. We had a visit to the OB and we were scheduled to be induced March 6th, 2012. They told me to call at 5pm and then they would tell me when there was an available time for us to come in and start the process. The night before I was too excited and emotional to even sleep, but I did. I wasn’t even awake when I got a call at 6am! A lady called and said,"Hi this is so and so from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, we were calling to tell you that we have an opening right now, if you are able to come in?” With the biggest grin on my face I said 'YES!', trying not to yell it out. I went to Seth and after a shower and putting on some clothes, we were on our way!

We knew that the process could be anywhere from a couple hours -24hrs, so we had to be patient. I was all giddy inside. They started out by taking my blood pressure and running thru the whole paperwork process and asking how we wanted to do things. Before they even poked me with anything they took my blood pressure and noticed it was a little higher than my normal, but nothing to be too concerned about. Then I got an IV and went from there. They inserted a pill vaginally to help dilate my cervix. Not much progressed, so they went ahead and started the Pitocin. They checked my cervix continuously, but I was dilating so slowly. I hit 4 cm and the contractions were getting bad. They asked if I wanted the narcotics or epidural. I knew the drugs wouldn’t harm the baby, and I wanted to hold out on the epidural as long as I could.

After I started the dilated (narcotics) I was in and out most of the time. They had me on an IV drip. All I remember is that I kept falling asleep and when I woke up I would throw up ,because of the morning sickness and the meds. I couldn’t take anything for the nausea either. So I continuously woke up, threw up, mumbled and talked for a few minutes, then passed out for a while. After a few hours of this the contractions got worse. I don’t know what I was dilated to at this point since I was on meds and don’t remember a lot. They came in and Seth told them that I wanted the epidural now, that I was ready for it. The anesthesiologist came in with another partner. The partner was either a student or just hadn’t done very many epidurals in his time and he didn’t get it right the first time. He veered a little teeny tiny bit to the right and boy was it painful! The anesthesiologist said to take it out and step aside..... two seconds later he said he was done and I could lay down. I didn’t feel a thing.

33 1/2 hours later the doctor came in and told me that my blood pressure continued to rise. It was now at 172/?? Which is pretty high. Also, my body stopped progressing at 8cm and Hayden was becoming stressed. I also got per-eclampsia. I was told that with being anemic, if I did try to push Hayden out I would lose a lot of blood and would end up getting a blood transfusion. They gave me the option to either have a C-section,or wait a few more hours, which they didn't really want me to do. Things were going on a downward spiral. I was exhausted beyond belief. I wanted to stop throwing up. I wanted my baby to not have to be stressed out anymore than he already was, and know that if I did wait longer, there was a possibility that something worse could happen, I said no. I looked at the doctor and said in the nicest voice “I don’t care what you do, just get him out of me”.

Within 5 minutes, I was in the OR prep room. It was as if they had been planning this already, and knew what I would say. Next thing I know I was wheeled into the OR and they asked me “Amber, can you feel this?” I replied with a no and the doctor said “Okay good, because I’m cutting you open”. Being someone else, I could see the reaction on your face as you read this. But if you knew me in person,  I’m a very humorous girl and even being pregnant ,drugged up ,exhausted and everything else,  I still find humor in the most tense situations.

 At 20:05 (8:05pm) we welcomed a healthy, happy, screaming baby boy into this world. I just remember seeing him and Seth holding him. After that I was in and out as Seth left to go be with Hayden and get his measurements and watch him get all cleaned up. But the process for me was yet to be over with. As they were finishing closing me up, I started to have a sharp pain at the end ,like I could feel them closing me. So they used a local anesthetic,which should have been just fine, but it wasn’t for me. Everything else went fine and I went back to the recovery room where I would be staying for a few days.

Once they brought my precious baby Hayden back after his test and all, I put him right up to the boob and he latched with no problems! I was a happy mama. Things were going okay so far. After a couple days, they moved us to another room, and that’s where it all began. I ended up getting fevers a lot, and they didn’t know what the cause was at the time, until they figured out that I had an infection from the local anesthetic. They gave me antibiotics, but I still seemed to be getting fevers and chills. Next thing I knew I was staying an extra day, and every time I spiked a fever it would be another 24-48hrs before I could go home. That was how long I had to go without a fever before I could be discharged. A couple days later I ended up having to get a blood transfusion anyways because I still had lost too much blood. I ended up getting a couple fevers from that, which was to be expected. I was ready to go home already ,but I would go 16hrs with no fever and then BAM! The last time I went 20hrs with no fever and thought, 'this is it! I’m going home soon',but NOPE. A week after having Hayden, I was finally released! They kept us both together until I was released, that’s just how that hospital works. It was very nice though and helped, since I was breastfeeding.

Before my birth, I swore to myself that I would not get a c-section because I did not want to be cut open. But the thing about making a decision like that is you never know what the true outcome will be in the end. By the time the doctor came in to ask me, it was as if I already knew that the worse case scenario was just about to happen. All in all, the more I think about it, the more I tell myself that this was something that was meant to happen. I was supposed to have this C-section and Seth and I were supposed to make this decision. Who knows what could have happened or would have happened if we waited any longer. That is something I’m not too worried about. I have my precious baby boy who is now 16 months old, and I couldn’t be any happier with how he got here. Just as long as he was healthy and happy, we were happy.