remember when’s week… hello baby hutch

Remember when baby Hutch was born?!

Today is Hutch’s first birthday. It is amazing how fast time flies and yet it’s almost hard to remember life without our little boy. It has been a wonderful year watching our little guy grow and change and develop his fun, sweet little personality. We have loved every fun, cuddly, exhausting, frustrating, sweet moment of this past year and we look forward to many, many more.

I can’t help but think of what we were going through last year on this day and of our very first look at our son. I haven’t written out my labor and delivery story yet. I have intended to do so, but once Hutch came along I just never found the time… imagine that. So, I’m finally going to write it and share it, more for husband’s and my benefit than for anything else. I know I’ve already forgotten so many aspects of the day… but it’s fresher now than it will be tomorrow.

My labor started late in the evening on Sunday, October 24th. I started having some strong contractions sometime after dinner… maybe between 7:30 and 8:30 pm. By 9:30, they were fairly strong and regular at 9 minutes apart… and my contraction had sent my dinner back up. At around 10:30, husband and I went to bed to try to get some sleep, but that didn’t last long as my contractions were getting stronger and closer together. I also started having back labor, which meant derick was having to massage my back with every single contraction… exhausting for both of us.

I don’t remember too many details from this time until we left for the hospital, but our goal was to labor at home for as long as possible. After we realized that we weren’t going to get much sleep in our bed, we went into the living room and lit the fire. Between contractions, I remember sitting in front of the fire, looking into its glow, while sitting on my big excercise ball. This is a nice, warm and fun memory. I also remember leaning against the wall or kneeling on my hands and knees with each contraction so that Derick could rub my convulsing back! Not as fun of a memory.

By around 6 am-ish, my contractions were at about 4-1-1… 4 minutes apart with each contraction lasting at least a minute, for just about an hour. So we called the doctor and they said to come on in. So Derick started gathering all our last minute stuff to take it to the car… at which point, my contractions decided to get even closer together. So Derick would run around the house and down to the car as fast as possible, knowing that in a minute or two he would need to be back to rub my back for each contraction. I can tell you, neither of us were looking forward to that car ride to the hospital… but we just prayed that my contractions would ease up for the drive… and thankfully, I only had one mild one on the way to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital just before 7… the same time those who are being induced arrive. We waited for and rode the elevator with one of those couples… it was clearly evident who was being induced and who wasn’t! They were clean and dressed nice, her hair was done, they had their nice compact wheelie luggage bags and their pillows, and they were just patiently waiting. And there we were, frantic to get upstairs, me breathing all heavy, leaning on a wall of the elevator with Derick massaging my back, just trying not to fall over. Definitely a funny picture to look back on!

I remember arriving in the maternity center and being very cheerfully greeted by all of the nurses. “It’s baby day!” It was definitely fun waddling in to such a happy greeting. By 7:30 am, we were admitted and checked and I was dilated to 6. We felt pretty good about that. We didn’t feel great about the fact that as soon as we got to my room and they put the monitor on me to check the baby I started throwing up again. Unfortunately there wasn’t a lot to throw up so my body was just convulsing making me feel awful! And apparently the baby wasn’t a fan of this either, because his heart rate dropped really low. Because of this, they wanted to continue to monitor him which meant I was stuck by the bed connected to all kinds of wires.

But within a few hours, I had dilated to 8 cm and things were seemingly progressing fairly quickly. My water still hadn’t broken but they kept saying it looked like it was about to. Shortly there after I dilated to 9… and here is where things start to get fuzzy and where they slowed down dramatically. At some point they broke my water, hoping that would get things moving again… it didn’t help other than that my contractions starting lasting even longer. I was at 9 cm for around three and half or more hours. All the while, Derick was faithfully rubbing my back and the front of my legs… ask him how hard it is to rub both at the same time! My contractions stopped having breaks between them and if they did it was for maybe 10 seconds. The intensity would get a little less, but it never dropped off… so we weren’t getting any rest breaks. So by this time, Derick’s own back was killing him from bending over so much, and he had hardly eaten anything and I’m sure was starting to lose his energy. And then there was me. We were definitely exhausted!

The nurses suggested that a number of times that an epidural might give us some breaks and relax me just enough to get me to dilate to 10. So after about 4 hours of being dilated to 9 and after 8 hours of being in the hospital, I got the epidural around 3:40 pm. I was annoyed to have gotten this far only to get it when I was at 9 cm! Are you kidding me?! But Derick was completely exhausted and needed a break, and I was almost willing to do anything if it meant helping get this baby out.

The epidural did help slightly… it got me to 9.5 cm pretty quickly. The doctor said he might be willing to let me push at 9.5… but the baby was turned in the posterior position. This was the likely cause of my back labor and most likely the main reason why I wasn’t dilating. So the doctor tried turning him multiple times, but he wouldn’t budge. He said he either wanted me to fully dilate or for the baby to turn before I could push.

So I sat at 9.5 cm without any progress for another 2 hours. Then, at around 5:30, they administered pitocin to try to get me to dilate to 10. Still nothing for another hour or so. The doctor started suggesting a c-section… I asked if he could try turning the baby again so he tried… but no luck. Shortly thereafter, the baby’s heart rate started dropping again… from about 140 down to 70. This was very concerning to them. They said if this continued, I would definitely need a c-section. So, Derick and I sat watching the monitor, praying with each contraction that baby z’s heart rate would hold steady!

At 7:30 pm, the doctor came in to check on things. The next thing I knew I was being prepped for a c-section. I asked the doctor if he could check me again and check the baby again when we got to the operating room and if I dilated and the baby turned, I asked if I could still try to push on my own. He didn’t look very hopeful, but said maybe and that he would check.

So as they continued to prep me and wheel me to the operating room I closed my eyes, tried to relax as much as possible, tried to just breathe, and I prayed, prayed, prayed that I would dilate and that the baby would turn. When we got to the OR they sent Derick out of the room as they continued prepping me. My eyes were exhausted and I couldn’t get them open. I really wanted to rub them but due to the medication they gave me for the surgery, I couln’t move my arms. They felt like limp noodles. I asked them if Derick could please come back in and while one of the nurses went out to get him, the doctor checked me one last time. And can you believe it? I had dilated and the baby had turned!! So the doctor told me I could push on my own.

Derick came to my side still thinking we were having a c-section. I asked him if he could rub my eyes and help me open them. I told him I couldn’t move my arms or open my eyes… I had no idea how I was supposed to push when I couldn’t feel any part of my body. And he was like, “What? Push?! You get to push?!” And with the coaching and help of my husband, the doctor and the nurses, I pushed and pushed with each contraction right there on the operating table. And about 45 minutes later at 8:44 pm our baby arrived… A boy! 8 lbs. 4 oz. 20 in. long

My first time holding our baby and my first look at my baby boy’s beautiful face.

Our first two family photos.

Dad’s first time holding his boy. They sure are having quite the sweet bonding moment.

Just loving my boy… Oh, sweet boy!

October 25, 2010 was a hard and exhausting day filled with many emotions. And although it didn’t go exactly as I had hoped with a very near c-section, I was very satisfied with and thankful for my labor and birth experience. I was very thankful for the doctors willingness and patience to check me and let me push once I was in the OR… I don’t imagine most doctors would do this. The whole labor and delivery process was a major exercise in patience and communication for Derick and I as I, in my major pain, tried to kindly tell him what I needed and how he could help and he tried to patiently and quickly respond to my incoherent half-sentences as best he could. I felt closer to him and more in love with him this day and in the days following than I ever had before. And the day ended with us holding the most precious little gift we could ever imagine. How could we not be satisfied and thankful!

We love you Hutch Wilder Zeulner! Happy Birthday little man.

We thank God for you every day!