Hayden Paul

So it's been a while. I actually really needed a break from this blog. I had become overwhelmed and sad by it actually. But I missed it.

I tried writing elsewhere, retreated to a private instagram and FB account, and it wasn't the same. This blog is a sort of home for me. It holds all of my sweetest memories of Noah, our journey, and some funny times in between. It makes me happy to write here. So I'm back. I will probably keep things simple. Just documenting our lives, hopefully sooner rather than later. I need the outlet, especially now.

A lot has changed since my last post.
We ended up adding another boy to our little family.

So without further adieu, here's his story...

***

Tuesday night, around 11:30, I started having pretty regular contractions. They were about 10 minutes apart, but they weren't really getting much worse. The funny thing is that it took me a while to figure out I was actually having contractions. It felt more like someone was sitting on my chest. There wasn't much pain involved, just a weird tightness. Since I was induced with Noah, the only real contractions I'd felt before were insanely intense (thanks Pitocin...). Our buddy Chase was on standby anyway, just in case we'd have to go to the hospital. I really hated the idea of making him drive to our house so late just for me to say, "Whoops, false alarm!" He was super sweet though, and he reassured me that it was better to be safe than sorry. Plus he'd rather spend the night than have to come at 3am. :)

We all stayed up late talking, while both the boys kept asking how I was doing. The contractions started to taper off, and I finally got comfortable enough to fall asleep around 3am.

And then I woke up at 6am. Contractions were back, and they were getting stronger. I still didn't want to go in for a false alarm, so we hung around the house for a little while. Brad ran to McD's for breakfast and grabbed me a plain biscuit. I'd told him I didn't want anything, but I'm glad he made me eat. I would've been starving by the time I got to eat again. We called my OB's office, and they told us to go ahead and go to the hospital. Turns out my Dr was already there, so she said she'd check me when we arrived.

So we headed to Charlotte... a new system took over called Novant, but everyone from here still calls the hospital "Presby Main" (the big Presbyterian hospital close to downtown... and well, if you're not from here, you'll call it "uptown" haha). Basically everyone in my family was a "Presby baby", so that's where my babies will all be born hopefully.

Anyways...

We got to the triage place, where the nurse got me in a gown, I peed in a cup, all that medical stuff. She checked me, and I was only at 1.5cm, which is where I was at my last OB appointment. I was a little disappointed. No way did I want to go all the way down there for nothing. She also told me my blood pressure was a little high and I had a little protein in my urine (I'd had pre-eclampsia with Noah and had been fine up to this point with this baby). She suggested we spend the next little while walking around the hospital. If it really was labor, I'd progress. If not, the contractions would stop, and I'd get to go home.

So Brad and I walked the halls for a good two hours, stopping once for her to check me. I wanted to check out the nursery... you know, give me some motivation... but turns out, the nursery doesn't really exist there anymore. They now require all babies to room in with the parents, unless there's a legit reason they need to put the baby under observation of course. I love the new procedure, but I was still a little bummed not to see all the sweet babies lined up in their plastic cribs. After the second hour, I was feeling ridiculous. And frankly, I looked ridiculous. I was wrapped in two hospital gowns wearing my tennis shoes. Least unattractive outfit ever. I told Brad we were probably going to get sent home, and I felt like we'd wasted all that time. We came back to the room, and my OB followed us in shortly after. She checked me and cheerfully responded, "You're a 3!"

The triage nurse looked pretty shocked... I think she thought we'd be going home too. They prepped a room for me and got me moved pretty quickly. We spent the next couple hours in the L&D room just relaxing (well, sort of...). Lots of Farm Heroes Saga, instagram, etc. Smartphones should've been invented for this purpose alone a long time ago. Perfect distraction! Brad napped a little, and I chatted with my nurse. She was so amazing.

My OB came in a couple hours later to check on me. I hadn't progressed any, so she decided to go ahead and break my water for me. And of course, that got things moving fast! Right after she did that, they went ahead and got my epi put in. Somehow I think I ended up with every top doctor and nurse that night. He was the head of the anesthesiology department. Also, my OB was named among the top 20 most influential women in Charlotte not long ago. I really lucked out.

Anyway, after my water was broken, things really picked up. After that miscarriage over a year ago, I realized how fragile these little unborn lives can be. Every visit at the OB, I would pray for a heartbeat. My heart would fall in my stomach if it took her a minute to find his heartbeat. So when my contractions got stronger, and his heart rate would drop in response, I immediately began worrying and praying. Brad assured me he was okay, just to breathe and get plenty of oxygen to him. So I did. Unfortunately it wasn't enough though. The nurse and my OB weren't concerned, although they did continue to monitor it closely. But I was nervous. As his heart rate dipped dangerously low a few times, they decided to put me on oxygen. It definitely helped, which allowed me to relax some (as much as one can relax in active labor...). Both my nurse and OB were amazingly calm and reassuring through the whole thing.  Brad was awesome and talked me out of a panic attack as well. :)

I think it may have been about 45 minutes between when she broke my water and when it was time to push. He was definitely ready to meet us! It only took like 3 or 4 pushes, and he was here. Beautiful and perfect.

And my OB knows me too well. As soon as I had him, and she told me he was beautiful, her next words were, "You're skinny again!" hahaha.

Because Noah had a rough birth experience, I didn't get to hold him immediately. This time, they didn't hesitate to hand my baby to me. It really does make a difference. It took a few days for me to feel bonded to Noah, if I'm being perfectly honest. We didn't get to do immediate skin to skin, nor was I able to breastfeed. So to have this experience was absolutely amazing.

And with that, I'd like to introduce you to Hayden Paul.
Hayden, because we're 80's/90's kids and watched a million Coach episodes while I was pregnant. And Paul after Paul McCartney. ;)

The stats:

Born at 7:51pm

Weihjed 7 lbs 5.5 oz

Length 21"