Finally! The Story of Hayden!

After 40 weeks and 3 days of the joys of pregnancy (ha!) a new little person made his way into our lives and hearts! Seeing as I'm so overdue with the telling of this story, I'll just get right to the point and try to get this post finished!!

After church on Sunday, September 5th Scott and I took Kalia and Oliver out for lunch in Morris for chinese food, and then came home in the afternoon to relax and just hang out as a family. Around 4:00, I started having uncomfortable contractions, that were all about 10-12 minutes apart. This was nothing unusual for me, though, because I'd been having braxton hicks contractions since very early in my pregnancy and they had been getting more and more uncomfortable as the end of my 9 months drew closer. Just the day before, I had been having a few hours of contractions all at 5 minutes apart, only to be disappointed that nothing came of them. So, needless to say, I was wary. Plus, I had been to the doctor on the Thursday before, and he had been put off that the baby was still quite high and that my cervix wasn't starting to open. So, I kept track of the contractions and sent a 'just in case' text to my mom, making sure they'd be around to watch the kids if we had to go in, all the while not believing that this was "it". After the kids were done napping, we decided to go outside and enjoy the beautiful weather. And I figured, what better way to find out if the contractions were real or not than by a change of activity? So, the four of us went out on a walk. My contractions continued about every 10 mintues, and I couldn't walk through them. Sometimes, I could hardly even stay standing! But somehow, I was still not convinced. Over the next couple of hours, the contractions didn't get any closer together, or any stronger, so I figured they must not be the real thing. I tried really hard not to show my pain to the kids and keep on a happy face by concentrating very hard on other things. While we were eating supper I had a contraction and Kalia asked me "Mom, why are you staring at the light?" Ha. Even as I write this I think I'm crazy for thinking that I might NOT be in labour!! We were invited to a birthday party bonfire in the evening for one of my best friends Amber, and I didn't want to miss it, so after gobbling down a pizza for supper, the four of us went of to Amber and Erik's place to party!As soon as we got to the party, Amber told me that something looked different with me and I said 'I think I might be in labour!'. As soon as the girls there saw me go through a contraction they were convinced. My friend Becky got out her stopwatch and they all began helping me time them. Another friend of mine, Sherri, rubbed my back through the pain (God bless her!)



We decided to sneak a quick picture of the girls in just in case Scott and I suddenly rushed off to the hospital. Does my smile look a little forced?? Right as the picture was being taken, I said through clenched teeth "I'm having another one!!". Love these girls. They definitely made my labour experience more fun. I felt bad about stealing Amber's attention at her own suprise party, but I have to admit that it was really fun to share the excitement and talk about the upcoming baby with these girls. We didn't even make it to the presents or the cake because my contractions (which had still been at 10 minutes apart up until then) jumped to only 5 mintues apart. I told the girls that if I had two more contractions at five minutes, then we'd be out of there, but that never happened because the next two were only 3 minutes apart! I told Scott that we had better get going, still hardly believing that my baby was coming soon!
So off we went! I called the kids over and gave them each a quick hug, and explained to Kalia that Scott and I were going to the hospital and that I might have the baby. Amber had offered to keep the kids there at the party until my parents wanted to come and pick them up for the night. Scott and I hopped in the van and drove home to get the phone number for the hospital which was for some reason not with my hospital bag. We called to say we were on our way, and then we called my mom to tell her what was going on, but Amber had already called her to make arrangements (so nice to be so well taken care of!)
We hadn't called Scott's parents, but were suprised when they called us along the way to say that they had passed us on the road, and were we on our way to the hospital?? Funny how things like that work out. As it turns out, the nurses had been in a panic at the hospital after I called, becasue when they looked at my records (a 4 hour and 2 hour labour, and with both in the hospital for less than an hour) they were worried I'd have the baby in the car. Luckily, we made it, though. We got to the hospital Scott brought me in and wheeled me up to my room in a wheelchair and then went back to park the van and get my bag while I settled in and they called my doctor. By this time my contractions were one on top of the other and pretty much unbearable. They checked and found that I was 6 cm, and then called my doctor to come right away. It didn't take long at all for me to get to 10 cm, but they told me that I couldn't push yet because the baby's head wasn't far enough down. They broke my water hoping that would help, but it didn't seem to move things along. Finally (felt like forever!) they told me that I could try pushing the baby down. WOW was that ever hard work. Not only having to push the baby out, but down first? Ugh. My whole body was under a huge amount of strain and it turns out that the baby was turned slighly the wrong way. The doctor said that he could see the baby's head spiral on the way down. So now came the time to get that baby out of there. Those of you who have had babies know how this part goes, and those of you who haven't don't want to know, so I'll spare you the details here and skip right to the words 'It's a Boy!'. My first response to this was to say "WHAT?!?!" and Scott too, looked shocked and said "Yup, it's a boy, I can see all of him." I guess Kalia had us all convinced that the baby was going to be a girl!

Luckily we'd had a boys first name picked out already, so all we had to come up with on the fly was his middle name. Hayden Xavier came into our lives and stole our hearts at 9:34 pm on September the 5th, weighing 8 pounds 8 ounces, and measuring in at a shocking 23 1/4" long. But the drama didn't end there. They gave little Hayden to me and I noticed instantly that his coloring was not right. I told the nurse that he looked really pale, and they whisked him away from me. For a long time they had him under the heating lamp, and then they let us know that they were monitering him for a while because he wasn't breathing properly. Somehow they were able to tell us this without freaking me out. They inspected him and realized that his tounge was not detached from the bottom of his mouth and told us that they needed to cut it so that he'd stop being in distress, and also be able to nurse more easily. He barely cried during this procedure, and then I finally had my baby in my arms again.

It's amazing how soon the horror or labour fades when you look into the eyes of a new little baby. He is such an amazing blessing from God and the perfect addition to our family. He is such a happy little guy and has been such a joy already! We all love him to bits and I am so thankful that he is happy and healthy. It's great to have a newborn around again!