Part II - Hilton is here!

We got to the hospital around 6pm.  After all the paperwork was done and I was hooked up to everything, I got started on Pitocin at 8:30pm.  I was already dilated to a 3 and 75% effaced, so now we just had to wait for the medicine to kick in.  And it didn't take long for the contractions to pick up speed!  I got an epidural at 10:30 and was dilated to a 4.  Just like with Savannah Kate, the epidural didn't work on my left side.  I guess I have some kind of weird nerve thing on that side.  At 11:45pm my water broke, I was dilated to a 5 and then the pain really kicked in.  Sometime around 12:30 I was given something else for the pain to help with my left side, don't remember what it was, but I was finally able to relax and I even fell asleep for a little while.  I had been up since 6 on Monday morning so I was excited to get to take a nap!

Then I remember people running into the room around 1:30am and putting a shot in my iv.  My blood pressure had dropped too low causing Hilton's to drop too.  After getting the shot I felt like my heart was going to beat right out of my chest.  Not long after, my bp dropped again.  This time I could tell something was wrong because I felt like I was going to faint and everything went black.  I also started vomiting.  This went back and forth a few times.  I got really scared and started crying.  I was just so ready for Hilton to be in my arms and didn't want anything else to go wrong.  I was given some oxygen and then my bp finally settled back down to normal.  I was thankful that part was over.

At 3am I was fully dilated and started pushing.  With SK, I had to push for 2 hours so I was prepared to have to do that again.  Thankfully, Hilton did some of the pushing himself and it only took 30 minutes.  The nurse actually told me to stop pushing and wait for the doctor.  At 3:31am, Hilton arrived!  I love that he was born at 3:31 because our anniversary is March 31st :)  Immediately after, he was laid on my chest and I didn't want to let go of him, ever.  My emotions overwhelmed me.  I was finally holding my miracle baby!

As the nurses were getting Hilton cleaned up and checked out, it became evident that something wasn't right because Hunter wasn't getting to hold him.  After a couple minutes a nurse said that they were paging the NICU to come take a look at him, but not to be worried.  What?  The NICU?

After spending some time with Hilton, the NICU doctor explained that he was having a little trouble breathing normally.  He was having to work too hard at it and you could tell by the way his chest was rising.  He was given a CPAP that blew air into his lungs and helped keep his lungs open in between breaths.  The doctor assured us that this was very normal for term babies (he was considered term, not full term) since they are born just a little early and it was even more common to happen in boys.  We were told that the CPAP would help him transition and he shouldn't be in the NICU very long, but they wanted to monitor him for awhile.

They brought him over to me and let me hold him for a minute and let us take a quick picture.  It was so sad seeing Hilton taken out of the room, knowing he was being taken to the NICU.  I knew he was in good hands, but I just wasn't expecting this.  Nobody does.

6 lb 13 oz

20 1/2 inches long