Hayden's Birth Story

It's a tradition in my family for my Mom to tell us our birth story on our birthdays. For some reason, I've always loved hearing my birth story and always ask my Mom to tell mine. This greatly annoys my sister. I guess when you've heard my birth story 32 times, it starts to get old

I know that we are already 10 days past Hayden's birth but I wanted to record her birth story here.

On Wednesday, September 1, I went out to dinner with my friend Melissa and her son Everest. Steve went out to dinner with Mary. I went to bed around 9:30 and Steve finally rolled into bed around 11:30. I was barely sleeping when I started to feel something strange. I tried to roll over in bed and suddenly I knew - my water broke! I jumped out of bed and said to Steve 'Oh! My water just broke!' and ran to the bathroom. Well, I've never seen Steve move so quickly. He jumped out of bed and started running around the house like a madman. While I called the labor and delivery floor at Froedtert to talk to them about what to do, Steve ran around the house burning off his nervous energy by watering plants, doing dishes, folding laundry...who knows what!

I was told by the nursing staff that I needed to make my way to the emergency room at Froedert. I didn't need to rush, but I needed to go soon. So, I took a quick shower, put a couple of last minute things into our hospital bag, wrote one last entry into my pregnancy journal that I will someday give to Hayden, and Steve and I left our house for the last time as a family of two.

In my journal, I told Hayden that carrying her in my belly was the pleasure of my life. It really was.

We drove slowly to the hospital since I wasn't in any pain or having any contractions yet. We were both so pumped full of adrenaline and excitement. I tried so hard to take it all in, every emotion, every look on Steve's face, the night sky, the cool air...our lives were about to change forever. I couldn't believe the day was finally here.

We got to the hospital just before 1 a.m. and were taken to the labor and delivery room. My contractions started on their own and I progressed very quickly. Even though my contractions were going well naturally, they gave me a little bit of pitocin to help my contractions come even faster.

Around 5 a.m. I decided to get an epidural since my contractions were getting very strong and were coming very quickly. The epidural was very scary - both Steve and I were worried about getting a needle stuck into my spine. Thankfully the procedure went smoothly and I felt relief from the pain quickly.

We were lucky that our OBGYN is scheduled to be at the hospital every Thursday so the woman to cared for me and Hayden throughout my pregnancy was there to deliver me.

Around 10 a.m. it was time to push! I pushed for two hours. Steve was an amazing coach. He encouraged me through every contraction and helped me rest in between them. I am so grateful for his support and encouragement.

They started to see Hayden's head and I started pushing even harder, thinking we were getting close to the delivery. But when the doctor checked my progress she discovered that Hayden's head was just becoming cone shaped with every push, that she herself was not progressing down the birth canal.

So, they decided to try and turn her over inside of my tummy so that she was face down. Three different doctors tried to turn her while I pushed through another hour of contractions. I pushed so hard because I wanted to do everything I could to avoid a c-section. I would have pushed for three more hours if the doctors thought I could eventually deliver her but they didn't think it would happen. So, after a very quick and natural progression and three hours of pushing, we all accepted the fact that she just wasn't going to come out naturally. We had to have a c-section.

Steve and I were so emotional during this time. We really didn't want me to have surgery. But we knew there was no other option. I signed the consent form and it seemed like within minutes I was lying on the operating table.

I purposely tried not to notice too much about the operating room or the people in it. I closed my eyes and thought of our baby while they prepped me for surgery.

Steve was brought in and he sat next to me and distracted me from the surgery with conversations about our trip to Italy. I felt no pain, just lots of tugging and pressure. It was not long before they asked Steve to stand up and watch Hayden being born. They held up a mirror so that I could see her too.

There are no words to describe that moment.

Steve and I were shocked to see that she was a girl. The doctor asked Steve if he wanted to call out the gender and he said 'Is it a girl??!!' He was so surprised - we were entirely convinced the baby would be a boy. We laughed and cried and kissed. It was surreal.

They very quickly whisked Hayden out of the room to be checked over by a team of doctors from Children's Hospital. I told Steve to go with her and he got to spend her first few minutes of life with her. He was even able to cut some of the umbilical cord. I wish I would have been able to be with them during that time.

After a few minutes, Steve was back by my side holding our precious baby girl. She was amazing, completely wide-eyed and gorgeous with this thick dark head of hair. As soon as she heard my voice she turned her head toward me and calmed down.

It was as if time was standing still - Steve holding Hayden close to our faces and us whispering words of love to her and each other. I will never forget that moment.

They eventually took her upstairs to the nursery for some additional looking over and Steve stayed by my side as the doctors finished my surgery and I recovered in the recovery room.

We called our family and gave everyone the good news. We invited everyone to come to the hospital later that evening to meet our precious girl.

It took ages to get me from the recovery room to the room where we would spend the next four days in the hospital. Our family started to arrive before I was even able to hold Hayden for the first time. My mom, Auntie Erin, Uncle Bryant, Steve's parents, Uncle Mike, Auntie Debby, Janessa and Cyleena were all there to visit Hayden on her birthday.

When they finally brought Hayden into our room and I got to hold her, I felt my whole world change. Again, there are no words to describe the moment. Everything was good and right.