The Long Awaited Pictures (and a story)

We're finally home and doing well. We've had quite the adventure. On Wednesday night, we checked into the hospital because Heather's contractions were quite strong and pretty close together. They almost didn't let us check in, because she was only dilated to 2cm. But her extreme discomfort convinced them to let us in. Heather labored hard all night. We didn't get any sleep. At 5 am, she's checked again and still only dilated to 2cm. It was pretty disheartening after all the work she'd done. The contractions had been getting progressively more intense. At 6:30 am, Heather decided to take some morphine for the pain, so we could rest. We got about an hour and a half.

The OB resident came and told us that they want to give her pitocin to get the labor moving along. We ate breakfast, and by the time they got the pitocin started, she was dilated to 3cm. Yay! For a while, the contractions died down, but after her water broke, they started to pick up. We asked for the OB to come check her again, and when that happened an hour later she was dilated enough that we could start the epidural. We asked for the epidural.

The anesthesiologists took their sweet time. Over the next 45 minutes, the contractions became very, very intense. Heather did an awesome job staying focused and breathing through them. When the anesthesiologists did show up, the resident performing the procedure took two tries to get the thing in, failing, and then the attending physician stepped in and did it in two seconds. It probably took ten minutes to get in because of that.

Finally, Heather got some relief. She was able to get about a half hour of sleep, which she really needed. At 3:30 pm, she had dilated to 5-6cm, and Harvey had dropped to +1 station! (At +4 station, the baby is ready to be born.) The next hour was pretty easy going thanks to the drugs. At 4:30 pm, her dilation was 9cm, and she felt like she needed to start pushing.

The doctor wanted Heather to avoid pushing as long as possible. So it was over an hour before the doctor said she could go ahead and start. Harvey was in some distress during the contractions. The doctors decided to move us to an operating room, to allow for more options in case they were needed (like using the vacuum pump to help Harvey out). So she was rushed over their while I put a weird suit over my clothes.

By the time Heather got to the other room, Harvey was almost crowning, so they let her go ahead and push him out herself. She was brilliant. Harvey ended up having his hand up against his face and his cord around his neck, which was the cause of the distress. The doctors guided him out with Heather's stupendous effort.

Harvey David Hutchinson was born at 6:27 pm, weighed 7 pounds, and was 20 inches long.

After delivery, Heather developed a monstrous headache, which was diagnosed as an epidural migraine. If she stayed laying down, and had some pain killers, she was fine. But sitting or standing up became increasingly painful. Once we were home on Saturday, it got progressively worse, to the point where the pain was nauseating when she would stand. So we went back to the hospital around 4 am on Sunday, to get a procedure done called a blood patch, that could fix the pain. Thankfully, it worked, and as we left around noon on Sunday, she was feeling much, much better.

Sunday went well, but as the evening passed, Heather felt more ill and a bit feverish. The doctor who performed the blood patch had told us to come in if a fever appeared, so back we went, this time around midnight. They checked her out and determined it wasn't a complication with the blood patch, most likely it was exhaustion. Due to everything she'd been through, Heather had only gotten about 8 or 10 hours of sleep in almost 5 days. So they sent us home with a prescription for a sleep aid that can be used while breast feeding. She feels much better now that she's gotten some sleep.

Harvey is doing great. He's a champion breast feeder, knew what to do right off the bat, and helping Heather get it right. He's also very mellow, sleeping through all the chaos of going back to the hospital twice, and generally being awesome. We're blessed to have him.

Now the promised pictures. Here's a sampling of shots of our new tiny man.

What a cute face!


Okay, here's a real face picture.


And here's the entire outfit. Our little pumpkin.


Harvey next to his best-friend-to-be, Simon West.


This shot is included mostly for the great facial expressions of Heather and Simon.


Dad doing what he does best. (Harvey inherits my baldness, unfortunately.)


Mom with her baby.


You know what they say: Close with a close-up.