Asher’s Birth Story

Starting a few weeks before you were due, every doctor I would see would comment on how they thought you’d be a little early or close to your due date, but probably not over like your older brother did. I was dilated 1½-2 cm at weeks 37 and 38, and then at week 39 I was to a 2-3. I wanted to be patient and let you come on your own, but when at 38 ½ weeks when I went in for my routine checkup, Dr. Astin noticed that you had turned transverse breach. This means that your head was on the left side of my abdomen and your legs were on my right. This late in the game, the chances of you turning were pretty slim, but Dr. Astin performed what’s called a version on you and manipulated your body so that you were head down. I was so surprised that it worked and even more so was he and the nurses. I asked him how often that works and he excitedly shouted, “Never!” He was pretty proud of himself and when his nurse came in and he ordered a stress test to be performed on me and she asked “why” he told her, very proudly “I just flipped that baby!” I really had no idea what was going on or how uncommon it was – I just told him “Do what you have to do so I don’t have a C-section.” Since you had flipped and there were still 10 days until your due date, the chance of you flipping again were not uncommon so I wanted to have you as soon as I could – naturally of course. I looked up everything in the books and tried about half of them to naturally induce labor. Eating Chinese food and fresh pineapple (not together of course), bouncing on an exercise ball, walking, and even drinking castor oil – that was disgusting and only made me sick. On the Wednesday, the 11th – the day before you were due, I woke up in the morning with a few contractions. It was only minor and a slight feeling, but I knew something in my body was preparing for labor. I felt a few more later in the morning and then into the afternoon, but nothing consistent. I went to Chick-Fil-A with Aiden, your Grandma Hyatt, Uncle Brad, cousins Kameron, Spencer and Drew. There I saw a family friend – Annie May Heider - who is a labor and delivery nurse. I told her that I was in labor and joked that I hoped she would be working the next few days. She got excited and said she actually was scheduled the next two days! She ended up being my post-partum nurse. One of the workers that had been clearing a table next to us, must have overheard our conversation, because the manager came over to us a few minutes later and congratulated me on being in labor and was surprised to learn that I was eating out a restaurant. I wasn’t really in any pain yet, so it really wasn’t too big of a deal. After lunch, I asked your grandma to come to the mall with Aiden and I to speed walk. We were there around an hour and a half, just talking and walking. Toward the end of walking, I was having contractions about every 8 minutes, but it wasn’t a hard contraction that made me stop in my tracks like I had remembered with your brother. We decided it was best to stop and for me to just go home and see how I felt if I wasn’t actively trying to go into labor. I went home and tried the exercise ball for a bit, but was really exhausted from all my labor inducing activities the last few days that I decided to take a nap. After I woke up and your dad had gotten home from work – around 4pm – I realized that the contractions had stopped and that I hadn’t felt anything since the mall – so around 1pm. I called your Uncle Brad to see if contractions could really stop like that in real labor, he said yes. I wanted to see if I had dilated any more since my appointment the day before (when I was at a 2-3). Your Aunt Jamie mentioned to me a few weeks back to not be afraid to just go into the doctor if I want to be checked – that it’s all part of the “baby package” we’re paying for, so I decided to do that. I knew it was pretty late and that the receptionists would probably be a little annoyed about squeezing me in 30 minutes before the office closed – which they were, but I went anyway. Dr. Allen was the one who saw me. He checked me and I was still at a 2-3, but he suggested stripping my membranes since no one had done that yet and I was one day away from being 40 weeks. So we did. Shortly after I got home, I started making dinner. My instincts were telling me that this was going to be my “last supper” before the baby, so I cooked exactly what I was craving – chicken, stuffing scalloped potatoes and corn. I started some contractions while I was cooking, so I knew I was on my way. After dinner, your dad, Aiden and I went mall walking again – that’s where I started some of the harder contractions. We walked for about an hour and a half again. Aiden saw Santa about 20 times since we kept circling the mall and Santa was right in the middle of it. We promised him we’d stop to see him after we were done and we felt so bad that by the time we were done – Santa had gone home to sleep. We put Aiden to sleep soon after we got home and I called Grandma Hyatt to suggest that maybe she should come over and spend the night, just in case we have to leave in the middle of the night. She agreed that would be best and started packing. By the time she came over, it was 10pm and I was feeling the pressure from the contractions. I started packing and then one thing led to another and I was putting my shoes on to leave. Your dad looked at me (he was getting ready for bed) and said, “Ummm, are you thinking we’re going to go tonight?” I guess my body was telling me to get ready without me really cluing in your dad - my contractions had gotten so much closer together, that they were about 6 minutes apart. I went into the room where my mom was reading her book and told her we were leaving for the hospital. She was surprised as well and said, “Well it’s a good thing you called me and I came when I did! ☺ “ We probably left about 20 minutes after she got to our house. Since it was late at night, we had to enter the hospital through the Emergency Room. We got there at 10:45pm and had to wait until around 11pm for someone to come down and transport me up in a wheelchair. The nurse that got us set up in the room had me change into the gown and monitored me for a bit. She checked my cervix and I was at a 4-5. Dr. Astin was on call that night and I wondered if he remembered me when we passed by him in the hall when he said hello. He was the same doctor that turned you when you were breach the week before. He came in at 11:45pm and suggested that we go around and walk for 30 minutes – giving us time to be “officially admitted” on a Thursday, which would be cheaper for us to not be billed for any time in the hospital Wednesday night. That was so nice of him to mention that. He told us for sure we’d be admitted, so your dad went down to the car and got our stuff. I went up and down the same halls for about 20 minutes and was really feeling the contractions hard. I’d have to stop for a few minutes here and there and my knees felt like they were going to buckle. Finally I saw your dad in the hall and told him that we should just head back, I didn’t want to walk anymore. When we got back, the nurse didn’t check me to see the progress the walking caused. They did that with your brother, but I didn’t mention anything. We hung out in the room and I labored for about an hour. It was really hurting, and I mentioned to my nurse that for some reason I had this fear that I was going to miss the window of opportunity to get an epidural. She assured me that it’d be ok and that even if I got to a 9, that I’d be able to get a spinal block. My nurse was a little flighty and I kind of felt like a baby through all of the pressure I was feeling. I wanted to cry, but didn’t want to be “one of those” patients that can’t handle the pain. I’ve always thought of myself as having a pretty high tolerance for pain, so I just buckled up and took it. I just kept saying to Michael, “Ummm, this really hurts. Like REALLY bad.” The nurse still didn’t check me. In retrospect, I should have mentioned this to the nurse since I knew it was kind of weird, but I’m pretty passive in stressful situations, so I didn’t say anything. When she was putting my IV in, the tubing had a hole in it, so she had to call in another nurse to grab another part to replace while she held the needle in. It was really painful. Then she decided that the vein wasn’t good enough to work, so she tried it in my hand. Ouch. And then she came to my left side and finally got it in my arm. She told me that I had to go through a whole bag of fluid before they gave me the epidural. I don’t remember this with Aiden, but then again, at the time I was getting my IV I wasn’t in as much pain as I was with you. I can’t remember how much time passed, but when she came to check on my fluids and was surprised to see none of it gone, she realized that the tubing had been kinked the whole time – therefore delaying the epidural. I asked the nurse when the epidural was coming, and she said that the nurse anesthetist has 30 minutes from the time he’s called to get there. I looked at the clock – 1:40. He had until 2:10 and I was watching that clock like a hawk. Once he finally came in, I was so relieved. The contractions had become almost unbearable. I even told the nurse, I hope I’m not being a baby, but she just responded, “Well everyone responds to pain differently.” I didn’t know how to react to that. Was she alluding to the fact that I was being a baby? Oh well, I didn’t think too much about it. The nurse was the charge nurse, so she had to constantly be responding to phone calls at the most inopportune times. As I about to be administered the epidural, I was hunched over and she was holding my shoulders, she took a phone call – right in the middle of it! I was so annoyed. The nurse anesthetist stuck me anyway and I about died of shock. Right after I got the epidural, I had about 4 contractions, the first 2 were still bad and I told the nurse and she said it would start to taper off. The third was better so I let my body muscles relax and then the fourth one was the worst one I ever had and I about cried. It lasted forever and I told the nurse, “Just so you know, this is really bad, like really, really bad. Just so you know!” She decided to check me (this is seriously only the second time she’s checked me over the 3 ½ hours of laboring). This is how the next conversation went. Nurse: “Oh my gosh! You’re complete! (meaning my cervix was at a 10) And you’ve got a bulging bag!” Enter Dr. Astin: “Oh you haven’t broken her water yet? Let’s do that now.” Me: “Umm, my water’s about to break. Like right now!” I could feel my water break and I caught most everyone off guard, including your dad who went into the corner behind the monitoring equipment. He was trying not to look, but saw most everything. I think he was just concentrating on keeping his dinner down. The next thing I knew, 3 or 4 nurses came rushing in and started prepping the room for labor. I told Dr. Astin I needed to push like right now. I waited a few seconds until he gave me the go. The first 2 pushes were easy and I could feel lots of pain, but it was a different type of pain than the contractions. This pain felt rewarding because I knew the end was in sight. Dr. Astin told me to slow down and only do a half-push so I didn’t tear. And then one more push – 4 in total – and you were out. I couldn’t believe it. It all went so fast! I had told Dr. Astin that I didn’t want you cleaned off before he put you on my belly, so I was the first person to hug and love on your. You were beautiful and looked so much like your brother. In fact, it was a little bit of déjà vu when I saw you. In that moment, the last 3 ½ hours of laboring and pain escaped my mind and all I could think about was this little boy who had come to me straight from heaven. The next few hours we just hung out in our labor room, waiting to be moved to post partum. I felt like we’d been a little forgotten about. No one came and got you to bath you. But it didn’t really matter. I nursed you and you latched on just great. And I just wanted to cry because I knew that you were mine and I was yours. I missed your brother so much. I had not been away from him for that long in a while. I felt a bit guilty that he was asleep at home and he didn’t even know that we were gone. I knew if he woke up in the middle of the night and went into our empty room, he would start crying and be scared. I just wanted him there at the hospital with us – so we could all be a family together and I couldn’t wait for him to meet you. He loves babies. He always has. He loves on all of his cousins that are littler than him. I knew we’d have to watch him closely with you or he’d be picking you up and proudly carrying you around the house. We got released to our post partum room after a while. Your dad tried to sleep but there’s just too much going on to get any of that done around there. People in and out. Asking you questions, turning on more lights, checking on Asher, checking on me. One nurse turned to your dad with the pillow and said half-jokingly, “Good luck!” That day we had visitors from lots of family and friends who were excited to meet you. It was perfect. But the most perfect of all was the moment your brother Aiden came in. He had the biggest grin on his smile, complimenting the shirt he was wearing that said “Guess whooo’s a big brother - Aiden” with a little owl on it. I had made it when I announced to your dad that we were pregnant again. Grandma Hyatt brought Aiden, along with your Dad who’d gone home to shower early in the morning. “Baby brother!” Aiden yelled, “Mom!” He came over and gave me a big hug and then just started at you. He didn’t say much, just contently stared and then would smell your hair (He still does this and you’re a month old now). “I smell him!” he proudly said. He gave you a kiss or two on the head and then went back to sit with Grandma. “He’s a Hyatt,” Aiden said. We all just busted up laughing. Aiden’s only 2 years and 3 months old – who says that? We posed long enough for a picture with the 4 of us – a family of four. I knew I could get used to that idea. You were already perfect for us.