It was 4:30am on September 14, 2012 I woke up to go to the bathroom, for the 4th time that night, and turn the TV off. Chris and I had been watching the Lorax the night before and forgot to turn on the sleep timer. The DVD menu was playing over and over and it was driving me crazy. When I got out of bed I felt a trickle of water run down my leg and I thought to myself “how embarrassing I peed my pants” when the “pee” didn’t stop running down my leg I said “Chris I think my water just broke” he woke up out of a deep sleep and jumped out of bed. I went into the bathroom to try and get the water to stop trickling but it wouldn’t stop so we gathered everything up and headed to the hospital. Chris took a wrong turn on the way to the hospital and by that time my contractions had started getting strong (about 4 minutes apart and lasted 60 seconds) needless to say I wasn’t too happy about the detour. We made it to Timpanogos Regional Hospital and the nurses showed us to our birthing room (room number 1).
It was approximately 5:30am when the nurse, whose name was April, came in and checked my cervix which was dilated to a 4 and I was 90% effaced. She started the IV in my left hand and I bled all over the place. The IV was definitely the most uncomfortable part of the whole labor experience. April finished her shift at 6am and we got a new nurse named Erin. By that time I was contracting every 2 minutes and each contraction lasted about 80 seconds. My contractions were getting stronger and I knew it was time for my epidural. The anesthesiologist came to my room at 6:30am and by 6:45am I was numb. I LOVED the epidural! I even remember saying “I want an epidural everyday”. I was very relaxed and Chris and I finished watching the Lorax. My mom, dad, and Lori had arrived at the hospital by that time and it was a waiting game. When the Lorax finished my contractions were not progressing so the doctor order Pitocin to be given to ripen my cervix. The pitocin made me dilate from a 5 to a 7 in 1 hour; but it had some bad side effects such as shaking/shivering and nausea. The shakes reminded my mom of a mini seizure. I never threw up but I don’t think I have ever been so nauseous.
My mom sat by my bed a played with my hair to try and help me relax. She did French braids in my hair and then rook them out and put my hair in a ponytail. We sat around till about 11am when my epidural started to wear off. I could feel the contractions which were 1 minute apart lasting 90 seconds and they HURT BAD! I could also feel a lot of pressure where baby’s head was pushing down. The anesthesiologist had to come back down and give me an epidural booster. The booster took away the pain almost instantly and I was relaxed again. After that I dilated from a 7 to a 10 in an hour and a half and then they had me start pushing. I remember being very scared that pushing would hurt but the nurse reassured me that I would barely feel it with the epidural. I pushed for about 30 minutes and Hudson William Hawkins was born at 1:26pm.
Doctor Aagard from Valley OBGYN delivered our sweet baby boy. Hudson weighed 7 pounds and was 20 inches long. They took him and cleaned him off and then I got to hold him for the first time. I remember crying because he was so beautiful. Chris came over and held him with me and I will never forget the overwhelming love I felt at that time. The nurse took Hudson and did his first assessment and they discovered that he was breathing at 98 breaths/minute.
Hudson was wisked off to the NICU because newborns are only supposed to breath 40-60 times/minute. It was very scary to have my baby taken so quickly especially because I didn’t fully understand why they were taking him. The doctor ordered a chest x-ray and discovered that Hudson had a lot of fluid in his lungs. Dr. Whiting at Alpine Pediatrics suggested that we start him on Amphicilin and Gentimyacin (penicillin derivatives) for 48 hours as a prophylaxis to pneumonia. After 2 days his gram stain for pneumonia came back negative and his respirations decreased to 45 breaths/minute. The doctors felt like Hudson was well enough to go home and Chris and I were very happy. The next morning we got a call from the hospital saying that Hudson's bilirubin level was at a 19.5 and that they would be readmitting him to the NICU. This was devastating because we had just barely gotten settled. Luckily Chris and I were able to meet with Dr. Alba at Alpine Pediatrics where we discussed having bilirubin lights brought to our home.
The doctor decided that it would be better for our family to keep Hudson at home and the bilirubin lights were delivered that afternoon. We had to keep Hudson on the bilirubin lights for 3 hour periods. We were able to take him off the lights every 3 hours to feed him and change his diaper. We called him our little glow stick baby. He loved the lights and got a nice little tan. He was on the bilirubin lights for 3 days and his jaundice levels decreased to 11.5. We had to take Hudson to Timpanogos hospital everyday that he was on the lights, to get his blood levels checked. They had to prick his foot each time and when he was done he had 6 pricks on his left foot and 5 on his right foot. Our little man never cried when his foot was pricked; he is super tough.
We love having him off the lights because now we get to play with him and cuddle himJ. Mom and Dad love cuddling with the little munchkin!
