Hudson's Birth Story

Hudson was born at 7:07am on Tuesday, September 25th, but his story starts long before that. On Saturday afternoon I started having contractions. I'd never been in real, self-induced labor before (Kylie and Emily were both pitocin induced labors), and we were still about a week away from my due date so I wasn't quite sure how hard the contractions needed to be or how close they should be before I was in real labor. They went on for the rest of the afternoon and into the night and then I started to get a little more anxious when they were 3 minutes apart and getting much stronger. Finally at about 12:30am (the next morning-ish) I told Mike he needed to take me to the hospital. I had this fear of having the baby at home from waiting so long after a friend of mine had just told me earlier that day that that happened to her. That was not going to happen to me. We called our neighbors who thankfully came right over to stay at the house while the girls slept in their beds upstairs. We didn't tell the girls where we were going or what was going on just in case it was a false alarm and that way we wouldn't get them all excited in the middle of the night. 

Mike and I headed to the hospital in Orem and my contractions continued to get stronger. We checked in and got all settled into triage and the nurse checked me. I was only at a 2! Here I was afraid of having a baby in the car on the way... The nurse said I should wait there for an hour, see if I've progressed after that and then they would admit me depending. Based on my contractions the nurse and my doctor (who just happened to be on call that night) said I would definitely be having this baby by morning. I was ecstatic! So I waited, the contractions continued at 2.5-3 minutes apart and kept getting stronger. The nurse came in a checked me again... nothing. So I waited one more hour while Mike ran home to make sure everything was good with the girls, I mean, the doctor and nurse told me I'd be having this baby within hours so we had to be ready. 

After the second hour, the nurse came in again... still at a stinking 2! My doctor offered to just admit me and get some pitocin started but I really wanted to try to have this baby without being induced and since my body was already getting things going I turned his offer down. My contractions were still really strong but since I wasn't being admitted they gave me some pain medication and sent me home to sleep for a little bit, but not before assuring me that I'd definitely be back in the morning. By the time Mike got back to the hospital (with two sleeping girls in the car - it's now 3am mind you) I was completely loopy from the pain killers and could barely walk to the car. The good thing was though, it took care of the pain and I was able to get a few hours of sleep by the time we got home. The bad thing was, the next morning, my contractions had stopped completely. 

I was devastated. Seriously, I locked myself in our room and cried for a little while. I'm sure it was sleep deprivation and hormones that helped with that little meltdown, but I was so sure that I'd be having that baby that morning. My doctor even said I would. I went the whole rest of Sunday with no contractions, but I was okay with it after a little while, my mom wasn't coming until Thursday and we were really looking forward to her help with the girls while we were in the hospital. We didn't actually even have a back-up plan, so it was probably better that he hadn't come. 

Monday morning I went in for my last OB appointment. First thing when my Doc walked into the room he asked, "What happened?? I thought you were having a baby?" I gave him a pretty hard time about getting my hopes up, he still thought I would have had him by then. False labor doesn't usually last for 14 hours... I asked what he put in those pain killers, I'm sure that's the culprit right there. At the appointment he checked me again and I was still at a 2. Ugh. We confirmed my induction date for baby's due date, October 1st, and we went along on our merry, pregnant way. 

That afternoon, my contractions started up again. I was kind of annoyed this time though. It better not be false labor again. They were pretty strong, but nothing crazy. We had dinner, put the kids in bed, folded some laundry, and my contractions started to get alot stronger. I hurried and ran upstairs (or waddled slowly rather) to shower and curl my hair. If this baby was coming tonight I wanted to look cute for him. A girl's got to have priorities... :) I was literally curling my hair between contractions and by the time I was done we started making real plans and texting friends so that we could head back to the hospital. Mike was a little weary of heading back since the first time was a false alarm, but these ones were much, much stronger than the first time around. 

At a little after 1am our friend and neighbor, Danielle, came over to stay while the girls slept until my other friend, Christina could make it up to stay the rest of the night with her two little girls. Kylie and Emily still had no idea what was going on, they were sleeping peacefully in their little beds. 

We got to the hospital and Mike dropped me off at the door since it was pouring rain and he went and parked the car. The nurse that I had in triage that first night was working again. She was excited to see us back. I got all settled in again and she checked me. I was at a 4. Thank you!!! I had to sit there (and by sit there I mean whine and moan about how horrible the contractions were and try to breathe through the worst pain of my life- no biggie) for another hour before they would officially admit me and when they finally did I was at a 5. Lucky for us, the nurse really liked us, so she walked us to the biggest room with the best view and I was officially admitted to have this baby. Finally!

By the time we got to the room I was in so. much. pain. Each of my labors have been horrible back labors and this one was no different. We called for an epidural as soon as we got settled and waited through the contractions until that magical little happy needle came. I felt kind of bad because they had to call in the anesthesiologist who was sleeping at home, but not really that bad... My new nurse, Courtney was amazing. She did this counter pressure thing on my knees every time I would have a contraction, seriously, it was the greatest thing (well, next to the happy needle)! This is my third kid, why didn't I know about this little secret?

The anesthesiologist finally arrived and I was finally able to really relax. Oh, that thing is heavenly. (props to those that can go au natural, but for me, it is epi all that way.) The rest of the night we just waited. My nurse would come back about every hour to check me, and every hour I progressed but my water never broke. Since it was the middle of the night, the on-call doctor wouldn't come in and break my water because of something about inducing in the middle of the night mumbo jumbo, I don't really remember, I just know they wouldn't do it. So I had to wait until either it broke on it's own or until my doctor got there for his shift in the morning. (And since I couldn't get up and walk around to help it along, it ended up being the latter.)

I was finally complete a little before Dr. Harward came in (and I'm sure it would have been much sooner had my water broken but I'm actually so glad it worked out the way it did so that he could deliver). I also got a new nurse, Jana, and she was amazing. 

I was so happy to see Dr. Harward! And I like to think that he was excited to see that we were back too. He got suited up and we were ready to have a baby just like that. 

Finally my water was broken, but baby was still at station +2. He said, well let's see what happens if we give a little push, so I did one push and the baby was almost out- what? It hit me right then that we were really having a baby, right then...

I did one more tiny push so that Dr. Harward could unwrap the cord from his neck - we knew it was there and it wasn't anything to worry about - and then one last small push and he was here! He went immediately onto my chest and belted out the most beautiful cries. He sounded just like a Kirby baby, I was completely overwhelmed. He was beautiful and so perfect. After a couple emotional minutes the nurses took him over to clean him up and check vitals.

When they brought him back to me we had some skin to skin time. I'd never done that with either of the girls. What an amazing bonding experience. As soon as he was laid on my chest he calmed right down and was so peaceful. It was perfect.

I finally passed him to Mike when I noticed how eager he was to hold his son. I love watching him hold our brand new babies. I had a whole 9 months to bond with our little boy so when I finally got to hold him it was like I already knew him, I definitely already loved him, he was already mine. But for Mike, it is like they are meeting for the first time. It's a beautiful thing to watch. 

We snuggled for a little longer, he nursed for the first time and was a little champ, and just enjoyed the quiet of Mommy, Daddy and baby. It was the perfect morning with our perfect little boy.

His tiny nose, his puckered lips, his porcelain skin, his red hair and that sweet sweet newborn smell. I just spent the rest of the day (and every day since) soaking it all in. I fell in love instantly with someone that I've loved my whole life. He's finally here and he's perfect.

After taking our little boy for his first bath in the nursery, Mike went home to tell the girls about all of the exciting things that had happened while they were sleeping. I stayed and snuggled with my new little boy in complete silence and watched the rain fall outside our window. It was a great day. 

For those of you that might be wondering, our birth story was photographed by the amazing Jessica Kettle. I knew this time around that I didn't want to worry about taking pictures ourselves and I am so so grateful that she was there to party with us all through the night. These photos, and the other hundreds that I haven't shared here, are some of my most prized possessions. I will cherish them always. We already invited her to the next party :)

Hospital Gown by: Gownies