The Daily Hailey

You’re in for a LONG one, folks!!

*****

I woke up on July 2nd, 2018, alert and ready for the day. It was 4:00am. Shoot. I knew today was the day we were all hoping for to be baby day, but there was no guarantee until I got that coveted call from the hospital. I lay in bed for a while but started feeling a little crazy, my mind wandering a bit too far. I opted for playing on my phone to pass the time. After a while, I heard Brady giggling. I looked over at him, thinking he was watching me and maybe I had made a face of picked my nose or done something awkward, but he was fast asleep, eyes closed, with a big dopey grin on his face. (I later learned he was dreaming of eating burgers at Montana’s. The firecracker burger, to be specific. Hold the spicy chicken, though, and the spicy ranch, right Brady?)

We had set an alarm for 7:00, knowing the nurses shifts switched over somewhere around there. Soon after, they’d look at their list of inductions and make decisions about who they could take that day, and then make their calls. We didn’t want to risk missing our call. Brady got up and made us coffee and breakfast. We waited and waited, and it seemed like today wasn’t going to be our day. Brady went to get the kids up for breakfast and I stayed in bed and sulked. Around 8:30, my phone rang. It was Dr. Guselle. She basically was giving me the inside scoop, that things were running behind this morning and they were just getting to their list of people to call, but she wanted to reassure me that I hadn’t been forgotten. Seriously, who else has a doctor like that?! I love her.

At that point, I decided to stop pouting and go join my family. I got dressed and “ready” sort of, but didn’t load those last minute items into the hospital bags just yet. It was a beautiful day, and Brady and I both decided to enjoy it as much as possible, regardless of what came or didn’t come from the hospital. We still had a whole bunch of kids to entertain! So after breakfast, we went outside to ride bikes and play. It was cute. Apparently I don’t have pictures of all the kids though, so I’ll say we were cute! Haha!

Cher also dropped in to take our FINAL belly pictures!

And around 10:30, my phone rang again. And it was our call!! Except the nurse was sneaky, and definitely let me believe we were getting bumped for a second there! She said “Dr. Guselle had requested you be induced today, aaaaand it seems liiiiike we can accommodate that!” Eek! I thanked her profusely. She laughed at me and asked how soon I could get there. It would have to be an hour-ish, to give Jerilee time to get to us and time for us to get to the hospital. She said an hour was fine, and hung up. We excitedly texted out to Jerilee and Brady ran to pack the rest of our stuff up while I stayed out with the kids.

Jerilee arrived around 11:00 (THANK YOU!!) and we were on the road shortly thereafter.

Cher wasn’t far behind, ready to join us with her cameras and mad skills. As we drove, I prayed and had a little teary moment, asking God to keep our little Bambina safe until we could get her. I was completely thrilled that it was delivery day, but honestly still so scared that something awful would happen. How would I ever survive if she didn’t?? Ugh.

We got to the hospital and made a ridiculous video for Cher to find the building that we needed to be in. She met us up in registration. It was so dark and quiet, I was right away hopeful for a relaxed day, a private room, etc. SO nice when its not bustling. No joke, the lights weren’t even on. We waited just a few minutes before our first nurse, Krista, came and introduced herself to us. Off we went with her to begin the exciting stuff!

It began with monitors. About a half hour. Baby was aaaaall over the place, and our poor nurse had to keep coming in and repositioning them. Over and over and over. I didn’t mind, and asked that the sound stay on. I liked hearing her heart beat.

She also did my IV. It was probably the slowest IV install ever of my life. She went from hand to hand to arm to arm and back again, tapping veins and locating the spots she didn’t want to use, etc. Finally, she nailed down what she felt was the prime spot, and POOF! IV was in, painlessly and quick. Crazy! I guess being so specific about its location really paid off! I appreciated that effort so much, because the IV is one of my least favorite things about delivering a baby. No joke.

Dr. Guselle came in and we briefly celebrated that today was the day! She did a quick cervical check to get a starting point, and made a comment about how she hadn’t gotten to check me yet this time around. I laughed at her choice of the word “gotten,” and said something back about “Well, lucky you.” We had a bit of a laugh, and I realized that I could laugh at a joke and look her in the eye, and carry on a conversation while she checked my cervix. I’ve come a LONG way from that first pregnancy! I’m so comfortable with her 🙂

I signed a form and consented to my induction. 1:17pm. Oh, and I ate a popsicle. Because celebrating. And also because no food for the labouring.

I peed. Yes, this is important to note. Lol! I was still in my regular clothes so I took that opportunity to change into the bralette I planned to wear for labour, and a gown. Shortly after that, I asked for my epidural. I wasn’t in big pain yet or anything, or even especially dilated, but I know my own history, and when I start labouring, it moves fast. We were off to a bit of a slow start, however, and had to keep increasing the medicine to get things moving, and I was nervous of the pain to come. I signed another consent form and ate another popsicle.

The anesthesiologist showed up and went through the motions with me about getting an epidural. I am pretty familiar with the process, so he went forward with it pretty quickly. He warned me that sometimes, people get a sore feeling on either side, in the leg or the hip. Its happened to me once before, with Dekker, I remembered. But it was nothing like the zing I got this time around. WOW! I’ve never come so close to jolting away from the pain. My right hip hurt SO BAD! I told him, he continued doing his thing, and the pain lifted. It wasn’t long before it started working and my feet got tingly. My nurse, Krista, came and ran ice along my body to confirm that, yes, the epidural was working its way up and down my body. Win!

Brady, Cher, and I continued to shoot the breeze for a bit. Brady ate a popsicle. Cher did not, and is still pretty bitter about it. Dr. Guselle made a couple of appearances. I found out there is a term for people “like me” (which I’m pretty sure means people with a handful of kids) called “grand multipara.” I’m not sure how it happened, but I heard “grand bottom.” It was all downhill from there, especially when the term “super pubis” made its appearance. We had some great laughs that eventually led to our nurse asking if we knew whether or not Dr. Guselle was taking patients. Haha! I loved that 🙂

Around 3:00pm, Dr. Guselle and Dr. Khatra arrived together. Being that Dr. Guselle is teaching, I basically became Dr. Khatra’s patient, and the “work” was up to him. The next move was the cervical check and we talked of breaking my water to get things moving. But my poor student doctor 😂 He became the butt of ALL the jokes very early on that afternoon. Unfortunately (for me, mostly) Dr. Khatra has massive hands. MASSIVE. There is nothing dainty about them whatsoever, to the point where the hospital does not possess gloves that fit him properly. Its a bit nerve wracking, as his patient! He briefly ducked out of the room to try and find gloves for his monster hands but it was to no avail. He came back and settled for the gloves a half size too small. The whole room was far too interested in watching him try to put them on, which likely didn’t help the process. By the end of it, he couldn’t really look anyone in the eye. Hopefully it felt like more of a “laughing with him, not at him” situation. It was a healthy mix of both. Or we were just laughing at him… Lightened the mood, anyway!

A lighter mood was handy, considering I had barely progressed :/ He broke my water but almost nothing trickled out. I knew there was more to be had in there, but you can only do what you can do! So we continued our wait. And wait and wait and wait.

Things kept taking their time, and I had the “pleasure” of the catheter-forced pee. There is something so strange about hearing myself pee into a plastic box and feeling none of it. Our nurse gave me a cloth to wipe up the antiseptic (or whatever that orange stuff is) and I casually mentioned I had to “clean the things.” I’m very mature, I know. My doctor referred to myself and “the thing” separately from there on out. Another good laugh there. Seriously, SO MANY TIMES I was left wiping my eyes from laughing super hard 🙂 Who can say that about their labour??

It was becoming clear that things were just going to go slow. Baby wasn’t dropping much, I wasn’t dilating much, etc. So the peanut-shaped ball made its appearance. My pain was also resurfacing, and  got the all-clear to start pushing the epidural boost button. I lay on my side with the huge ball between my legs in hopes of making more space for the baby to come down. It did its job slowly but surely, while also accomplishing the task of KILLING my pelvis. Like the exact OPPOSITE thing that I’ve been doing for my pelvis over the last nine months. My pubic bones no longer were even related by the end of it. OUCH! We moved to a very upright sitting position after a while, and it was as I was getting into that setup that I leaned forward and Brady commented that I had a bulge in my back. He said it looked like there was fluid under my skin. I rang my nurse and asked her about it. She was super calm, but agreed that it wasn’t normal, and she tried to reach the anesthesiologist.

The one who had put the epidural in was unavailable, but another came just a few minutes later. He examined it closely and said it looked in order, though he suggested it didn’t look quite like what the paperwork said it should be. He did something (I truly don’t remember what) and said this particular dose of medication should be more than sufficient, and to lay off the button. He returned 20-30 minutes later and it hadn’t touched me. Not. At. All. My epidural wasn’t even functioning anymore. The ice test was icy cold from my hips to my boobs and back down to my knees. It was just gone. So he offered to redo it, and I accepted. But I peed first, before I lost all feeling again. Win for peeing in a toilet hat and NOT in a box! The anesthesiologist was incredibly meticulous about finding his spot for it, almost like massaging my love handles and tracing up and down my back, finding the EXACT right place. And he nailed it! When it was placed, it was completely painless and easy! I thanked him profusely and he laughed at me, saying he appreciated being appreciated. As soon as that sucker was in, we started pushing that button to get it moving. I was scared to suddenly fly into crazy painful labour with absolutely no pain management!

Timelines are fuzzy, but somewhere around here, both Dr. Guselle and Dr. Khatra’s shifts ended, and they kicked around. They hung out together down the hall and worked on her big list of tasks. Because they are the BEST.

Once the epidural was set and starting to work, we began the flipping from side to side with the peanut ball again. It was right around then that it was brought up that baby was having some decelerations after each contraction. I tried to keep track of contractions with the clicker. I was terrible at it, though.

My doctors showed up and we talked about it. They explained that sometimes a contraction can squeeze the baby’s umbilical cord a bit, so baby’s heart rate will drop a tad, and as long as it comes right back up, we’re in the clear. Just something to watch, not to worry about, they assured me. But as you know, I was on pins and needles, almost waiting for the worst to happen. So this was NOT reassuring for me. It became clear that she was neither happy on the right side, nor the left, and I was asked to hang out on my hands and knees for a bit. Now I know some people LOVE this position but I do not. They cranked the head of the bed up for me to basically drape myself over, and then I had the pleasure of sticking my butt out for the world to see while shoving that ridiculous peanut ball under me. Nothing – I repeat nothing –  about this was flattering. I super didn’t care for this position, also, because my legs were shaky from the epidural, obviously, so I was tired pretty early on. My nurse could tell I was shaking (considering she was basically under my body, holding the monitor on my belly) and she called Dr. Guselle in to talk to me about options. They brought up the little probe monitor that they could place directly on the baby’s head, and that way I could maybe lay down more comfortably. I didn’t nix it, but I didn’t love it, and it showed. My nurse was lovely and said she was more than willing to hang out and hold the monitor in place as long as I wanted to stay on all fours. (Somewhere in there our nurse switched over, by the way! I don’t remember when, but this nurse wasn’t Krista. She was Danna.) While I didn’t love this position, it was one of the nicest parts of my labour. Both of my doctors came and hung out for a bit, and we all just talked about baby names. I’ve always liked keeping the name private for the big reveal at the end, and this was the first time we shared with the room what the baby’s name would be. We talked about names we had previously considered for other kids, and what names we possibly liked for the future. Our nurse said Rowan was on her list of boys names that she was hanging onto for the future 🙂 I loved that. It was so normal and nice.

Things seemed stable after a while, so we tried to relax again. Brady went to find Tims but was unsuccessful. Cher teased me about apologizing too much and started to keep track of how many times I said “sorry” on a whiteboard. Danna came in and out, asking questions about how I hoped the rest of my labour and delivery would go. A couple more cervical checks. Very little progress. Slowwwww!!

After a while, out of nowhere, I felt a big goosh. I thought maybe more of my water had broke, and that usually means we’re on the way! I was excited! My nurse was right there, and I mentioned it to her. She lifted my sheet and confirmed that, yes, there had been a goosh, but I was actually bleeding. She, like everyone else had been all day, was super calm about it, but rang Dr. Guselle and Dr. Khatra right away. They came and examined the special fun that had just exited my body, and also very calmly told me they were going to call obstetrics to get their take on it. I think the panic showed on my face, because Dr. Guselle reassured me right away that there was no need to panic, and we were still on track for a vaginal delivery, BUT obs might want to move me to the operating room to deliver, just in case. She has this AWESOME way of calming me down. I love her.

An OB showed up within just a couple of minutes to check my cervix. She said I was at 7 cm, but she said everything on the inside was good and stretchy, and if suddenly baby was in trouble, she could easily stretch me to a 10 and grab her out with forceps. Now, I KNOW, that is not ideal at all, but it was an option that felt safe and avoided surgery, so I felt some reassurance there. It also helped that I didn’t keep bleeding and bleeding. Just that one yucky gush of fun. We followed that all up with another break of my water. There was definitely more in there, but it still didn’t seem like much compared to my usual crazy amount of fluid.

And as history would dictate, it was just minutes after that break of my water that I felt that pressure that you’re supposed to feel! I was instantly in quite a bit of pain, as epidural #2 had been great but had never completely caught up, regardless of our diligent button pushing. I rang for our nurse, who then called my doctors. I know the pressure feeling, and I know I only feel it basically when the kid is crowning. I tried to breathe calmly and fought the urge to push. I was only a bit panicking.

Dr. Guselle and Danna helped Dr. Khatra into his baby-catching garb,

and everyone around me moved quickly. In moments, I lost my blanket, the end of my bed, and all modesty, haha! All of it, GONE! I couldn’t lift my own legs because they were so dead with the epidural, so Brady grabbed one and my nurse grabbed the other.

I was mid contraction when the set up was ready, so we just started halfway through! I gave a good push, without any real direction, counting, etc. Just went for it. Her head was out right away. The millisecond her head came out, a torrential waterfall of fluid and blood followed, clocked her in the face, and came back ALL over me! It was bananas! It soaked my chest and neck, but Brady says the nurse basically caught it in the air and stopped it from soaking my whole head and face! She was on the ball! Thank goodness for that towel over her shoulder! Two seconds later, as she was wiping my chest off, I gave my second push and out came the rest of our baby!

The room was celebrating her arrival! She’s here! Look at her hair! She’s perfect!

But there I was, panicking and crying, because my daughter wasn’t crying! I asked “Is she ok?” over and over and over.

Our nurse was right nearby, wiping her down, with a HUGE smile on her face! “Yes, she’s great! She’s perfect!” And she was right. Our baby was fine. MORE than fine. She was just peaceful and content. And GORGEOUS!!!

Our daughter was finally in my arms! Waverly Violet was born healthy and well on July 2nd, 2018 at 10:46pm. Her doctors stayed over 5 hours later than their shifts to be part of her birth, which soothed her mommy’s soul. Wavy weighed only 7 lbs 14 oz, and was only 20″ tall! The teeny one of the family! She had a FULL mop of hair, the biggest (grossest) umbilical cord I have ever seen…

and tiny everything else, from her ears to her nose to her hands and feet. They’re all SO LITTLE! She had wide, alert eyes, and a little sticky outty tongue. She had the clearest lungs of any of my kids thus far, likely thanks to her longer labour. She found her fingers to suck on right away. She must have been practicing on the inside. Her little hands were a bit blue, which I assume was her one “lost point” on her APGAR score, but I only just overheard that even. There was NOTHING to worry about.

Probably my FAVORITE picture from the day 😭💗

I admit that most details are blurry and out of order from here on out. I was clearly FAR too preoccupied with the new little girly on my chest than anything else. I remember hearing something about three stitches only. So thats not much! I’m happy about that. I remember Dr. Guselle checking the placenta over and commenting that the blood clot from earlier was probably just blood resting in a funny place because my placenta was tearing away a little early, maybe. I don’t remember the details, but it all made sense to her, and we all know I trust her implicitly. This right here is a FABULOUS woman!

Cher ducked out once things had settled down for the most part, and graciously brought us back some Subway. She knew I was super hungry for it. (Cher, did I ever tell you I ate mine at 3:30 that morning?? Best night snack ever!) Now Brady says Wavy was weighed and measured in delivery while Cher was gone, and Cher says it happened upstairs in postpartum. I remember neither 🤷 I remember that I still had a super numb right leg so I couldn’t get a shower or even stand on my own by the end of delivery. Danna lovingly cleaned me up herself, and then called another nurse to help her get me into the wheelchair to transport me and Wavy upstairs. It was actually a bit hilarious, because for some reason, the wheelchair we ended up with didn’t have foot rests and as much as I wanted to just hold my legs up, that right leg would not be controlled AT ALL. So I was legitimately sitting cross legged for my wheelchair ride up to postpartum! Lol!

The day couldn’t have ended smoother.

Waverly was a touch on the cold side, so she and I were draped with a good stack of warmed blankets and left alone for about an hour, and then another half hour or so until her temperature stabilized. Just she and I. Brady was there, of course, but it was a good time for him to sleep. I had my little deary aaaaall under control. Aaaaall to myself. While it was not the smoothest day, or the smoothest delivery, I can clearly see God’s hand it in. Clearly. If labour hadn’t gone so slowly, I wouldn’t have had time for my second epidural. My bleeding was scary but there was a simple, non-scary solution. Both of my doctors willingly, happily stuck around long after their shifts were done. All kinds of things worked out so beautifully, and I credit it ALL to God! Thanks to HIM, Waverly is here, and her family is THRILLED!

*****

Thank you, all who prayed along with us through this pregnancy, and the last year or two of our lives. We are SO fortunate to have who we have in our amazing circle of support! We do NOT take you for granted, friends.

Tomorrow, we CELEBRATE together!!

*****

ALL photo credit goes to my girl, Cher Andrea Foto. She went pretty far out on a limb to make this session happen for us, and we are THRILLED with the results!

SO much love to you, Cher, from all of us over here!