Baby Helm #2 is here! Hayden Titus Helm was born Wednesday, December 28, 2011 at 12:51am. He was 8lbs 4.8oz, 21" long, and head circ 14.5cm. We are so happy he his here and momma and baby are doing great! December 28 is my parents' wedding anniversary, so this makes the day even more special. This year they celebrated their 48th year of marriage. Wow, awesome. I would love to have a marriage just like theirs and be parents just like them. I am blessed to have such a great example to look to.
Labor and delivery with Hayden was great. His head and face came out bruised and swollen, though - all purple, and his eyes are still a little bloodshot. That is all from coming out so quickly. This bruising and swelling is gone now and didn't seem to bother him at all.
Now for the birth story:
Over a few weeks, I was slowly dilating and effacing. One week I was 2cm 80%, next week 2 1/2, then 3, then 4cm on Dec 27 at my 9am appt. I had several episodes over a couple weeks of regular contractions when I thought Hayden would be born. I never went to the hospital for them, though, and they always went away. I came to not get too excited over these episodes, so when I started having contractions and pain on the 27th, I thought it was probably nothing. But I ran a bunch of errands and kept moving much of the day to help things along, just in case. Around 6pm as Stephen and I were at the grocery store, I noticed them being about 2-3min apart and not stopping still. I told him that if they stayed this way, I wanted to go to the hospital around 7. They were very close, just not very painful. Still, I called my parents and they came and got Tenley. After putting away the groceries, we set out for St. Mary's. I felt silly telling them I thought I might be in labor because I was just not in pain. They checked me and I was 4-5cm, 80-90% effaced. Not much change from the morning. I was disappointed. We walked around the hospital for almost an hour, the nurse checked me, and no change. Ugh. We sat and thought about if we should go home or stay. I called one of my doulas, Jessie Mason, and she was close by, so we waited for her to come and talk to her to see what she thought. We just sat and watched TV and I didn't move around at all. We decided to go home. We told the nurse and she said my contractions were like 2min apart now and getting stronger, and if we stayed 20 more min she would check me again. So we did, and I was 5-6cm, 90-95%! I loved that sitting did more to progress me than walking. :) So we stayed. It was about 9:30pm and they started antibiotics for me because I had tested positive for group B strep. My doctor, Dr. John Reid, didn't think they were necessary, but I had to fight so much on things with Tenley that this was just one thing I was willing to get and didn't want to fight about with the nurse. I should have listened to him. I am allergic to amoxicillin, so they gave me vancomycin instead. Turns out I'm allergic to it too! I got itchy all over and wanted to scratch my skin off it was so bad. I started turning red and getting hives too. So they stopped they antibiotic, gave me benadryl, and I refused any more antibiotics. I was better in 15 minutes. Thankfully contractions weren't hard yet. Jessie communicated everything to my other doula, Mary Schwambach. Around 11pm things got hard, and Mary came in too. Things got HARD - FAST. My guess is I was about 7cm then. I labored on my side because my back hurt from my SI joint issues, and I had heard that laboring on your side could make things move quicker, although also more painful. My nurse, Wendy, was incredible. No fighting this time around. She knew my birth plan and did everything she could to follow and support it. Such a blessing. She even checked me on my side without me specially requesting it and sat next to me to monitor Hayden for short periods instead of strapping me to a monitor 15 min every hour. Contractions got so hard and came without much break. Finally I started to push lightly at the end of them for a little relief. I didn't want to push too soon, but needed to do something. All of the sudden I pushed a little harder and longer and felt him crowning! No one had confirmed I was 10cm, but I knew it now! It was bout 12:45am probably. I said he's coming now! And the nurse and Dr. Reid came over to catch him! It was one long, hard, painful push to get his head out. A short break and another push and he came out as my water broke. Dr. Reid handed him to me as he said he has a bruised face, but he's perfect. Hayden nursed well almost immediately and the placenta slid out on its own. No pitocin for bleeding - Dr. Reid said I didn't need it because Hayden was "saving my life" by nursing. I have the best doctor. 2nd stage was so much different than with Tenley. So much better. I had a brain and could function and have conversations afterwards this time. I wasn't so exhausted. The pain was more intense, but didn't last as long. I might have died if that kind of pain lasted longer. Well, that's how I felt. But it was all totally 100% worth it.
Life is much harder adjusting to a newborn when you have a toddler. Thankfully Tenley is an excellent sleeper. Stephen went back to work today, but it hasn't been as dreadful as I thought. God has brought me this far and will continues. He is good all the time. The first few nights home, Hayden did not sleep well at night. However, the last 2 nights have been great. Last night he had a 5 1/2 hour stretch of sleep, and ate every 3 hours other than that.
Right now Tenley is napping, Hayden is waking up to eat, and once I feed him I'm going to take a nap too! Goodbye! :)
