Here's the story of bringing our first little one into the world. It was quite the adventure, and one I don't want to repeat any time soon! Before leaving our house, I was a mess. I was nervous about what was ahead...labor, delivery, becoming a mom. James gave me a blessing, and then we headed out the door. We stopped by Amy's to drop off my car for my mom to use while we were at the hospital. I bawled again. She had already been in town for a week planning to help with this baby who was in no hurry. He had his own schedule, that's for sure! We checked into Lone Peak Hospital Sunday night at 8pm.
They got us all set up in our room and I got hooked up to all the monitors. I signed all sorts of papers, and by 10pm, we were ready to start the medicine to get cervix to start thinning out (I was still only dilated to 1cm). I can't remember what the medicine is called, but it's a pill about the size of a sesame seed that they place directly on my cervix. I could take up to 3 doses of it every 4 hours. The hopes were that it would get me dilated some so that I could start on Pitocin in the morning. They told me I would probably start cramping but to get as much sleep as I could because the next day would be exhausting. Sleep with all sorts of beeping and monitors and alarms going off? I don't think so. As soon as I would fall asleep, the baby would move so the monitor couldn't read his heartbeat which set off an alarm. Then the printer ran out of paper...another alarm. Then before we knew it, it was 2am and time for the next dose of medicine. James slept through everything. I was still only dilated to 1cm.
Then it was back to try sleeping. The cramping started getting a little more intense which made sleeping nearly impossible. I watched the 20/20 episode on my phone where Diane Sawyer interviewed Bruce Jenner about his decision to transition to becoming a woman. Blew my mind. Then it was 6am and time for my last dose. I was hopeful that things were starting to progress. Still 1cm! So frustrating! This baby was just in no hurry to join us.
At 10am, my doctor came in to check to me. This was the first time I had seen Dr. Sloan. It was nice to see a familiar face! My fingers were crossed that something had started to happen or I don't know what they would have done. Sent me home? Possibly. I was dilated to 4cm!! James and I were sooooo excited! Dr. Sloan decided she would break my water and see if that started some contractions. I was dilated to 4cm with no contractions. Crazy! I'm not complaining! When she broke my water it felt so weird. It was like a waterfall coming out of me. Almost immediately, the contractions started and I have never felt such pain. Prior to James and I getting married, I had some weird ovary/ovulation pains that were atrocious. I worked with my doctor for months to try to figure it out. She thought I was having cysts burst, and I thought I was going to die every month it was so painful. Well, that was nothing compared to contractions! The anesthesiologist couldn't get there soon enough with the epidural. I just remember saying, "owie owie owie" over and over again. James was a champion coach through each contraction and always had to remind me to keep breathing. There was a huge monitor right above my head that would show my contractions so he could see when they were starting and ending. By the time the epidural man got there about an hour later, I had dilated to 6cm. Everyone started rushing around the room getting it prepped to deliver this baby. One nurse said she thought for sure we would have a baby by noon with how fast I was progressing. They thought I might not need to do Pitocin at all. I couldn't wait for this all to be over and for the baby to be here!
The anesthesiologist had a hard time getting the epidural in my spine. He said my vertebrae are slightly tilted upward so he had to kind of jimmy rig that thing in there. The epidural helped a ton but it definitely wasn't a painless bliss like some people say it is. I could still feel pain especially on my left side. Everyone kept telling me to get as much rest as I could. Ya right! Once the epidural kicked in, my progress slowed way down. At 12pm, I had made it to 8cm. They kept increasing the Pitocin little by little, but it was still slow-going. Around 2pm, I had dilated to 9.5cm, and it was at 9.5cm that I stayed for next several hours. That last little bit just would not disappear. The nurses were positioning me in all sort of crazy positions to try to get the baby's head to push out that last 0.5cm but nothing was working and it was SO uncomfortable. They would come in a check periodically, still 9.5cm, still 9.5cm, still 9.5cm. Finally at 5pm I had made it to 10cm (yes, that's 3 solid hours at 9.5cm, who does that?), but the baby was still way to high up to start pushing. Apparently there is a scale from -4 to 0 to 4 that measures how far down the baby is. We were at -4, so basically no where. They like you to be around a 2-3 to start pushing. So they told me to relax and let the baby descend. I started feeling a lot of pressure like my hips were splitting in half. The nurses assured me this was a great sign that the baby was moving down. Around 7pm the baby had come down to the 0 position, which still wasn't low enough to start pushing. More waiting and "relaxing". At 8pm, he was at -1, and they decided to let me start pushing to see what happened. Trying to push a baby out of me is the most exhausting and awful things I have ever done. I thought I was going to die right there. When I would feel a contraction coming, James would grab one the and the nurse would grab the other and would pull back on my knees and hunker down and try to push this baby out. It hurt my neck and ribs so much. The babies feet had to be directly in my rib cage. After an hour of pushing, I was pretty much done. In between contractions I would cry and say the funniest things to James, like, "I would rather run 8 half marathons that be doing this." I barfed a couple of times during this time and had major adrenaline shakes at one point. Pregnancy and labor do the most odd things to a woman's body! Dr. Sloan would come in periodically and see how things were coming. After about 1.5hrs of pushing she came in and watched me push through a contraction, and she said, "you've still got a ways to go, keep it up." That was about the worst thing I had ever heard. She came back an hour later (10:30pm and 2.5hrs of pushing behind me) and the baby was still in the exact same position. They could see the top of the head, but he just wasn't making it past my pubic bone. So much for that having a baby by noon scenario! The baby's heart rate was perfect through this whole ordeal, so they weren't worried about him at all, but something just wasn't quite right. They thought his head must be tilted a little funny so he wasn't fitting through properly. Dr. Sloan suggest we start thinking about some other options. He still was maybe only at station 1 so he was still too far up to try forceps or a vacuum. She thought I would probably have to push another 2-3 hours to get him out. That was simply out of the question for me. I was so exhausted both physically and emotionally. James asked her what she would do if she was in our position, and she said at this point she would opt for a c-section. This was definitely not part of our plans but we trusted her and signed the papers. I was in quite a bit of pain by this point because we had let most of the epidural run out so that I could feel where to push better. I asked for the anesthesiologist to get there ASAP to numb me all up. They said it would be 15-20min until he could get there and I cried. I felt like I could only handle 15-20 seconds! At one point with all the scurrying around and people coming in and out of my room, James and I had a few minutes alone and he gave me another blessing. I immediately felt calm about the whole thing and even though I could still feel the pain, somehow my ability to cope with it was strengthened. Before we knew it, they were wheeling me down to the OR. Side note...James and I had taken a tour of the hospital back in October. I remember the nurse pointing out the OR where they do c-sections. James and I both commented that we hoped to never be there. Little did we know! They got me all set up and moved to the operating table, I barfed again, and then I heard Dr. Sloan say, "scalpel."
Then I felt all kinds of pressure and all of the sudden my huge belly was gone. Baby boy was born at 11:24pm. Everyone in the room almost in unison said, "Whoa!" I'm pretty sure a woman who just gave birth doesn't want to hear every doctor and nurse exclaim "Whoa!" about her baby. Was there something wrong? Was he 15 lbs (because he sure felt like it)? Did he have an extra arm? Then it seemed like an eternity until we heard his little cries. They told James not to come over to see him for a few minutes. I was so nervous! Finally we heard little squeaks and James and I cried. James was given the green light to go over and take some pictures. This was my first view at the little guy...
The first thing I said was, "Oh good, he's cute!" He looked healthy and normal, so I wasn't sure what all the fuss was about. It turns out, he was covered in meconium when he came out and the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck three times. My doctor said that she had never seen an umbilical cord so long. No wonder the poor little guy wouldn't come out the traditional way! His head was tilted the wrong way a little too. The cards were stacked against him! Dr. Sloan later told us that things could have gotten really scary if he had come out vaginally, so the c-section was the way to go.
 |
| Here's here finally! 7lbs 4oz |
I remember hearing how much he weighed, and then I was shaking uncontrollably from all the adrenaline in my body. It was the most bizarre thing! Then I started feeling so much pain and cramping. It seemed like it took Dr. Sloan an hour to get me all put back together and sewed up. The anesthesiologist must have given me some good stuff, because I don't remember anything after that. The next thing I knew, I was back in our room and I was breastfeeding. Talk about strange! The first time I lay eyes on my baby, James and a nurse are trying to get him to breastfeed. I was so knocked out, I couldn't even function.
James helped the nurse give him his first bath.
And just like that we were parents. What a day! Have you ever seen anything more precious?!
 |
| I had some trouble keeping me oxygen up for the first day or so, especially when I slept. |
Our families were beside themselves wondering what was happening. Finally around 2am, I was coherent enough to call my parents and siblings. They were all shocked to hear he came via c-section. Everyone was just happy he and I were both happy and healthy!
The rest of these pictures are all of our 5 day stay at the hospital. Looking back now, it was almost like being on vacation. People came and cleaned our room everyday. We got delicious food brought to us on demand. The nurses (minus one who made me cry) were amazing. It was just James and I and our little baby. Heaven!
Everyone that came into the room would ask what his name was. We weren't quite sure yet. We had three names written up on the white board...Porter Allan, Porter James, and Andrew Porter. We finally decided that this little man was definitely Porter Allan Taylor. We love him and can't wait to tell him all about his two great-grandpas who he named after.
 |
| Newborn photo shoot. The prints were far too expensive, so this is one that James took while the photographer was there. |
 |
| That face! |
Let the visitors begin!
 |
| Porter and Nana |
 |
| Brandon and Noelle |
 |
| Amy - no kids were allowed on the floor. I was so bummed that Amy's kids couldn't meet him for a few more days! |
 |
| Granny Jannie and Dedo |
 |
| Amy again and Dan |
 |
| Jake and Olivia |
 |
| Everyone's first comment when seeing Porter was how much hair he had. Baby mullet! |
 |
| Hilary and our abundance of snacks and treats behind her. |
 |
| Here's a view of were we lived for the first 5 days of Porter's life |
 |
| James' couch bed which he said was quite comfortable. |
 |
| Our last night at the hospital, we got to have a celebration dinner. It was awesome! And this is our first family photo! |
 |
| Can't get over how perfect he is! |
 |
| After comments on his hair, the next comment was always about how alert Porter was. |
Our days were filled with breastfeeding, sleeping, eating, taking meds, lots of visits from friends, family, nurses, and hospital staff, and going for walks. I was really encouraged to get up an walk around as much as possible to help me heal more quickly. We would put Porter in his little bassinet and push him around the hospital floor. The nurses were blown away at how much I was up walking around after a c-section. I want to heal quickly, don't I?! One nurse told us that 19 laps around the floor was one mile. My goal was to do 19 laps before we left. I only made it to 9 laps. It was pretty hard work! I was happy about my half mile!
On our last day, we had to wait for Dr. Sloan to come check on me before I could get my staples removed and Porter needed to pee before we could be discharged. Dr. Sloan said I was healing up just great, so then it was just waiting for pee. Who knew pee could be so important?! He finally did it, and we got the green light to check out.
 |
| Headed home! |
I was pretty emotional about leaving. I felt like all the nurses were our best friends we had been there so long. I regret every minute that we didn't take any pictures with them or Dr. Sloan. We were ready to get home and get to our new life. We feel so blessed to have a healthy baby and to have had such a wonderful hospital stay! Until we have our next baby (which will be a while from now at this point!) Lone Peak Hospital! Let the adventure of parenthood begin!
