hudson's birth story

[ty & stef]

If you care to hear about Hudson's birth story you had better brew a fresh pot of coffee and prepare some snacks, because it turned out to be a long one.

Ty: On the evening of July 1st, Stefanie was having really steady and pretty strong contractions so we packed up our bags and headed to the hospital. We parked in the front parking lot of the hospital, and since we knew there was a decent chance that we could be going right straight back home, we didn't bring our bags in just yet. Almost as soon as we were admitted Stefanie's contractions got a little less intense and the nurses checked Stef out and said that the baby was not ready just yet. The whole process took about an hour and a half and we were on our way back to the apartment.

Stef: Honestly, I was a little relieved - for some reason I was SO against having a Canada Day baby. Who wants to share their birthday with an entire nation? Pfft! But beyond that, I just didn't feel...ready. Which is odd, considering how much I wanted to go into labour for a couple of weeks already, what with all the crazy walking and eating of whole pineapples and basil leaves and greasy chinese food.

Ty: Because of the steady Canada Day contractions, Stef's mom booked a flight from B.C. for the next afternoon. It was good to spend a few days with her before the baby came, but we were all eagerly awaiting the time when the little one decided that his or her time in the oven was up.

Stef: Okay, so the pressure was on to have this baby before my mom left the following Wednesday! As much as we had fun hanging out and playing Wheel of Fortune and tennis in 30+ degree weather (well...I was ball girl...sometimes...), we were all really just waiting for that moment where we could finally get packed up for the hospital to stay.

Ty: Starting in the late evening of July 4th, another string of contractions started, only this time they seemed to follow somewhat of a progression. They continued throughout the night (I think I slept through the entire thing). I should mention that I don't wake easily, so many times when things are going on I sleep right through it. I kind of give Stefanie a hard time sometimes for not waking me up when she can't sleep, because unless she does I just won't notice and then I feel bad for not helping.

Stef: Back up TJ. Saturday evening we went out with Ty's parents for supper, and during our conversation on when this baby would arrive, his mom mentioned that she had talked to a woman who bounced on one of those exercise balls for an hour, and her water broke. At the point, I was ready and willing for any suggestions, so the next morning, Ty's parents dropped off the elusive exercise ball and after church, I bounced for a good hour, and lo and behold, some light (but regular) contractions started. Me and my momma went for a good walk after that, and they got ever so slightly stronger, but still a good ten minutes apart. At times I for sure thought they would fizzle out like every other time, but at other times, I just felt different about these ones. They lasted through the evening and then into the night, where they started getting painful enough to keep me up, and definitely closer together.

Ty: At around 5:00 am the contractions started to really get going. Once we did start timing them they were already 2-3  minutes apart and lasting easily 1 minute if not more. We gathered the already packed bags, and made it out the door at around 6:00. We met Auntie Raquel and Uncle Darcy in the hallway so there was no fooling anyone as to what was going on. Excited hugs were exchanged and we left for the hospital (for real this time).

Stef: I'm so glad I had two people there to convince me that it was time to get to the hospital. I kept trying to put it off, saying that they would just send me right back home, not believing that this could possibly be it. But my mom and Ty apparently saw something that I didn't, and reluctantly I agreed to go.

Ty: I dropped Stef and her Mom off at the emergency entrance and went to park the car on the residential streets (a couple blocks away from the hospital, but when we paid for parking the last time it was $7 for less than 2 hours so I was not interested in finding out how much parking for 12+ hours would cost... I engaged in a battle of wits with the parking police for the following days we were at the hospital).

Once we were admitted Stef and I waited on an open bed for a nurse to assess her. They found that things were definitely moving along this time and since the regular rooms were all full, we were blessed with a luxurious private room on the high-risk side of the ward. When we settled into our room it was about 7:00 and met the nurses who were just about to finish their shifts at 7:30. The new batch of nurses (the ones that were going to be there all day) were amazing. We had an excellent RN named Chantelle and her equally excellent nursing student Maggie. It was very nice to catch them from the beginning of the shift because you could definitely tell that the nurses who were just leaving were kind of ready to get out of there.

Stef: Yes, much love to my gaggle of nurses and other staff members that seemed to be hovering around the room at all times! They were so encouraging, and actually before the contractions became unbearable, we squeezed in a few good conversations, especially with Maggie, who's dad also passed away not that long ago.

Ty: The next bunch of hours passed with many, many contractions and equally as many hip squeezes (this cool thing that we learned in our pre-natal classes for back labour where I kneel behind Stefanie and cup my hands upside down on her hips and squeeze in and up as hard as humanly possible). This is when I really realized how strong my wife is. She did amazingly well without anything for pain for about 6 hours and I can't even begin to imagine how tough that must have been. Once it became unbearable we decide to get the nitrous oxide mask hooked up to help Stef during contractions. This turned out to be a really good choice, not only to help ease Stefanie's suffering but also because it made her a little silly and quite entertaining for Mom and me. My two favourite quotes from after the gas had taken its toll were "we should have brought a laptop so we could have played Wheel of Fortune" and telling Mom "every time I look at you I think of the song Lady in Red." Another great nitrous moment was when Chantelle asked Stefanie a while later if the gas was helping to which Stefanie strongly concurred that it was, at which point Chantelle looked at me and Mom and whispered "the tank has been empty for quite a while now already."

Stef: Ha! It goes to show how much it can be a mind thing. Just to have that mask to groan and wail into when things got tough was obviously a huge comfort (that and those glorious hip squeezes). It's funny how true it is that you go a little out of your mind while in labour, especially near the end, and how that many hours passed by with every few minutes being in the throes of horrendous back labour, and I came out sort of sane, is completely beyond me.

Ty: At about 2:00 pm Stefanie was checked by one of the doctors and mistakingly assessed to be 10 cm and ready to start pushing. Chantelle took over from there helping with the delivery until she stopped everything because she was concerned that she saw a blood vessel that was in the way of our baby's head. The senior resident doctor was called in to check it out as soon as she did she immediately asked who assessed that she was 10 cm (at this time the doctor who actually made the call let her younger doctor in training take the blame). It turned out that what looked like a blood vessel was actually not 10 cm and should not have been pushing yet. The next 1/2 hour was one of the hardest of my life as I just did not see any way that this baby was ever going to come out. It was also very hard for Stefanie to go from pushing during contractions (which felt like the natural thing to do at the time) to being told that she needed to stop.

Stef: One of the few times I actually opened my eyes to check out what was going on in the room happened to be when Chantelle was standing at the end of my bed and talking about this supposed blood vessel. Being a nurse, I recognized that look on her face -  the "something is really wrong but I'm going to talk about it calmly so as not to scare anyone" look. As much as I was concerned about this, I was still at peace, believing we'd still have a healthy delivery, and were in the hands of very capable people. But that half hour trying to control the urge to push was EXTREMELY difficult, as it was by far the worst of the contractions, and my body was so ready to just get that baby out. But my mom and Ty were so so good to me, massaging me until their arms hurt, scrubbing my face with a cold cloth, reminding me I was so close to getting that baby out into the world.

Ty: In the next 20 minutes, we did all that we could to make Stefanie as comfortable as possible. Mom provided a cold facecloth for Stefanie's face and I continued with the hip squeezes (which proved particularly awkward as Stefanie was laying on her back at this time). Finally Chantelle gave the much anticipated news that it was time to start pushing again. After a short time the doctor came and started setting up all of their equipment. It was just about time to meet our little baby! Once again I was just in awe of my strong wife who, after 10 hours of the worst pain anyone could imagine, mustered the strength to try and get that baby out of there.

Stef: "Okay, time to push again". Such sweet sweet words, even though I knew I was in for a challenge (the little guy was facing up, which makes for a much more difficult voyage).

Ty: Chantelle discovered sometime during the labor that the cord was wrapped around the baby's neck (I think that sounds worse than it actually is). This meant that during contractions, the baby's heart rate would drop, so it was something that they really needed to keep an eye on. When the time was drawing near for the little one to come, the doctor was worried about the baby's heart rate and prepared the dreadful steely salad tongs that are the forceps. I asked her to hold off with using them unless it was absolutely necessary as I really did not want to have to see my baby being yanked and twisted into the world by their little head. The doctor assured me that if his heart rate continued to drop so much during contractions, we really just needed to get him out of there. With the next contraction, and set of pushes, the baby was oh so close and I knew we were just one contraction away from meeting our special little guy or girl. Waiting for the next contraction seemed like an eternity for me, but when it finally came, so did out little... boy! This was indeed the most amazing moment of my life. The slimy little guy was immediately placed on Stefanie's tummy and the doctor asked me if I wanted to cut the cord. I definitely did want to, so I snipped it off and gave Stefanie a few kisses on the forehead and began to check out our little guy. The doctor then accused me of trying to steal her scissors and I remembered that I did indeed still have them. We let Mom and the nurses know that his name was Hudson Joseph and just reveled in awe of the miracle that just happened. One thing that was really neat is that Chantelle and Maggie's shifts really ended 1/2 an hour after Hudson was born, but they said they had invested a whole day into this so there was no way they were leaving before the baby came.

Stef: What an amazing feeling for that child to finally come on out! I was a little out of it still, but I managed to pry my eyes open to look - and saw a little boy!! Then they plopped him on my chest and he cried and peed all over me, but I was just SO happy to have a son and that he was so beautiful and perfect.


Ty: When it was time for Hudson to be cleaned up and checked out he was taken over to the little station under a heat lamp and was surprisingly calm the entire time. He really did not cry much at all, just a little bit right after being born and was immediately calmed when he got to cuddle his Mommy. During the checks, the nurse commented that this was the cleanest newborn baby that she had ever seen. I had nothing to compare him to, but he sure was clean and smooth.


Just the day before I was talking to my friend Ivan from church (who has two little boys) and he told me that for his first son he had talked to him every day during the pregnancy. Then when it was time for him to be checked over just after being born he was crying and crying until Ivan went over and talked to him and at the sound of his Daddy's voice he calmed right down. Hearing that story encouraged me, but also made me paranoid that I had not talked to our baby enough in the past 9 months (I did talk to him quite a bit, but not every day). Well back to Hudson, he was very calm until it was time for the shot in his thigh. The nurse warned me that babies always scream as they have to inject it very slowly, so I prepared for the worst. As she started, Hudson winced, welled up, and started to whimper, then cry. I told my new little buddy that it was ok and that he was going to be fine and he calmed right down! That was the proudest moment of the day for me.

         

That evening, just 3-4 hours after he was born, Hudson got his first visitors. Papa, Grandma Lill (names inherited from Amber's girls) Auntie Raquel and Uncle Darcy, Auntie Amber and Uncle Erik. He was fairly well received.

So that is Hudson Joseph's birth story. Hudson is such a good baby. He let's us know when he's hungry without crying, only really fusses when he has a dirty diaper, and he will go for quite a while sometime completely awake but content, just kind of looking around and checking things out. We've had so many congratulations from friends and family. My favourite is when people say that he looks like me. This is a huge compliment because in my biased opinion he is the cutest little baby I've ever seen. Also, people saying he looks like me kind of makes up for everyone commenting on the pregnancy photos that Amber took of us saying "oh, Stefanie looks SO beautiful" when clearly there are two of us in the picture. (I am 100% joking. Obviously I know that the men in pregnancy photos are simply a formality).