Henry's Birth Story

It all started on my due date, August 6th. We had our 40 week doctors appt in the morning...no progress but the dr did strip my membranes and we set up my induction date for the 12th in case little Henry didn't want to come by then. Oh and the dr estimated Henry to be about 7.5 pounds :)

After the appt, I went to work as usual. Toward the end of the day...all of a sudden as I was writing an email half the letters on the words I was typing weren't there. I thought maybe something was wrong with my contacts so I got up and tried to walk around and get a sip of water. It didn't help. Then I was up at the window helping a student when I tried to talk, the words that were coming out of my mouth were not the words I was thinking in my head. It was the most bizarre thing ever. Some of my co-workers became concerned when I continued to talk nonsense and my vision was still off. I called the doctor who told me to get to the hospital right away...so I called Ryan who came to get me. As I was waiting outside with one of my co-workers, my right hand and right side of my mouth became numb. I was really starting to freak out.

We got to the hospital within 10 minutes and headed straight up to Labor & Delivery. They checked me and I was dilated to 3.5cm...woot! I was SO happy to have some progress from the morning's appt. I was also having pretty consistent contractions...which I hadn't really noticed with everything else that was going on. The sent us down to the ER to get checked out by the internal medicine doctor because essentially they thought I was having or had a small stroke. They drew a bunch of blood and sent me to get a CAT scan. They had more tests to complete but had to wait until after Henry was born. After that they sent me back up to Labor & Delivery where they were admitting us since I was officially in labor...woo hoo!

We got all settled into our room and we called our parents to let them know they we were having our baby! They were all too excited to wait at home so they all came up to the hospital around 9pm. By this time my contractions were getting much stronger so the nurse suggested I take a bath to try and relax. I got into the tub when all of a sudden I had to scream for Ryan to grab the garbage because I was about to loose my cookies. Well he didn't quite make it in time and I threw up in the tub :( And then continued to throw up into the garbage which made Ryan start throwing up so the nurse rushed in and took over for Ryan.

I got out of the tub and they checked me again and I was about 5 cm but the contractions were out of control. I was having the worst back labor as Henry was backwards so the back of his head was pressing on my back...it was seriously awful. My plan to go as med-free as possible was slowly dwindling. I finally asked for meds and they gave me a dose of Nubain...which I will never have ever again. I instantly felt drunk and the room was spinning. It also was slowing my little man's heart rate so I was on oxygen for the remainder of the labor. I don't even remember talking to Ryan's parents when they came in the room to let us know they were there. Not good at all.

After about 30 minutes of Nubain nonsense the nurse came in to let me know that there were a few other women in labor that are requesting epidurals so the anesthesiologist was coming up and if I wanted one now would be a good time. I thought about it for a few seconds and decided...what the heck! So they put me on the roster. What only seemed like a few minutes later and he was there ready to stab me in the back. Ryan kneeled in front of me as they started the process and literally less than 5 minutes later- no pain and I was done. Seriously the easiest thing ever. My legs instantly became knumb and I could no longer feel any of the contractions.

My mom and sisters came in a few minutes later and still feeling the effects of the Nubain, I was apparently saying that I wanted to meet "Mr. Epidural" and he was my best friend. :)

They checked me not too much later and I was already 8 cm. The nurse was very suprised that I was that far along already...but Mr. Henry didn't want to move down any further...he was still way high. Ryan and I tried to rest for the rest of the night and it worked somewhat but with all the checks it didn't really happen.

The next time they checked me it was about 9am and I was 10 cm!!! BUT again Henry was still very high so they didn't want me to start pushing quite yet. The dr came in and decided to start me on some Pitocin to get things going a little stronger to try and move him down. I will say that the contractions got a lot stronger but it wasn't really pain that I was feeling...more strong pressure- which was very uncomfortable.

They checked me every hour or so and luckily the Pitocin started to work and Henry was slowing moving down and by 11am I was ready to push. Well I had no idea what I was doing at first and wasn't really moving him but I finally got the hang of things and started moving him out. Suprisingly Ryan was all about watching the whole process which he told me he was not going to do.

After over 2 full hours of pushing our little baby was finally here! And let me say that it was by far the most amazing moment of my entire life. Unfortunatly he had a bowel movement before he was born so the baby nurses had to tend to him before I got to hold him but Ryan was able to watch over him while they stitched me up (I had to have an episiotomy) and tried to stop the bleeding as the dr said I was bleeding quite a bit more than normal.

About 20 minutes later they finally brought Henry over to me and it was love at first sight! I couldn't believe he was finally here. He was a big boy at a whopping 9 pounds, 5 ounces and 21.5 inches long but I wouldn't want him any other way. He is just perfect and has the longest eye lashes I have ever seen :)


The next day I had a few more tests...a heart echo and 4 MRI's to make sure everything was fine with my brain...and thankfully all those tests came back perfectly normal and my stroke like symptoms were just my body's reaction to going into labor.


On a funny note, the dr we had our 40 week appt was on call the next day and came into our room to say she was way off in estimating him to only be 7.5 pounds :)