Here is a little timeline to Henry's arrival:
3:45 a.m.: I wake up suddenly to contractions. Of course at the time I thought they might just be Braxton Hicks and didn't think anything of them, but they just kept coming! That's when I decided it was time to start counting them, sure enough they were very consistent for an hour at 8 minutes apart.
5 a.m.: After confirming "this was it" I decided to get up and start getting ready. I even turned on my hair straightener and got the make-up out (ha!), after all, I had time. My doctor told me not to come to the hospital until my contractions were 5 mins apart. As I am about to start the beautifying process (again, ha!), my contractions suddenly seemed way more painful. I quickly abandoned my original plan of getting ready and quickly woke Jesse up to tell him we needed to go.
5:15 a.m.: My water broke. Game on. Suddenly contractions seemed to be very close together and all over the place, oh and much more painful. I immediately called our preachers wife, Tomya, to come over and stay with Emerson.
5:30 a.m.: Tomya arrives, takes our picture, and out the door we went.
Last picture before Henry arrived.
6:15 a.m. We arrive at the hospital and head to the ER. By this point, my contractions were about 2-3 minutes apart. It was happening too fast!
**Honestly my time frame after this is a little fuzzy. I just remember pushing for about 45 minutes and then boom Henry was here! But in between that, things got a little crazy.
As soon as I was up in the hospital room, my contractions did not seem to let up and it felt like I was in some cheesy Hollywood movie. I was screaming and hollering for drugs, telling Jesse to get away from me and being pretty cranky. The pain was more than I was expecting. I was already dilated to a 7 when I was admitted, so the nurse pretty much told me it was too late for an epidural. Umm, that was not in my plan, therefore it did freak me out. I had not prepared mentally at all for a natural birth. I told the nurses I wasn't going to have this baby unless I had the epidural and their reply was "sure, but you don't have a choice."
Finally I told one of the nurses, I had to push. She checked my dilation and that's when things got scary. Suddenly the nurse gets a little panicky and told another nurse in the room that she was not able to "find the baby." How in the world do you loose a baby, was my thinking, but I guess little Henry decided to stop his heart from beating so he could not be easily found. Before I knew it, there were several nurses surrounding me, flipping me around and getting oxygen on me. The nurses seemed very panicked, which did not help me at all. It seemed like forever and a day had passed before they found his heart beat again and things calmed down a bit.
Once the heart beat was found, the nurses told me it was time to push. The doctor had not arrived yet, but Henry did not want to wait.
That's when scare number two happened. As Henry was making his entrance, they discovered that the cord was wrapped around his neck, not once, not twice, but THREE times! Again, this caused quite a bit of excitement and although I am down playing this some on my blog, it was by far the scariest moment in my life. They cut him free and then took him beside me to be worked on. It took forever to hear him cry.
The neonatal pediatrician said he had a heart beat, but wasn't breathing. He also told me I should by a lottery ticket because it is really rare for a baby to somehow get the cord wrapped around his neck that many times.
Before I knew it though, I heard his little tiny cry and they let me hold his sweet body. I was so overwhelmed with joy. Finally he was in my arms and he was OK.
Despite my super fast labor (4 hours), nothing going to "plan," and Henry's scare into this world...he came out perfect and healthy, and that's all that matters.
Proud daddy.
My recovery has gone so well and so much better compared to when I had Emerson. I had no preeclampsia, no crazy medicines pumping through my body, a healthy (sleepy) boy and a very happy family of four.
Emerson visited his brother that night and surprisingly did very well with Henry. He was not jealous and would go over and give his baby brother sweet hugs.
Giving hugs to Henry.
The giant cat Henry gave his big brother. Emerson loved it!
My heart is full!
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