Harper's Arrival

On Thursday Feburary 9^th at midnight, Will and I were heading to Sacred Heart Hospital Emerald Coast for a planned labor induction. We came to the personal decision on induction based on several factors that we felt were important to us. Throughout my exams during my ninth month of pregnancy Dr. Graham was confident that my body would handle an induction well if that was the road we chose to take. So with that said we picked the day!

Upon arrival at the hospital I was feeling calm and relaxed. I got dressed into my adorable “Posh Pusher” hospital gown that my friends got for me, then the nurses started the whole process. I signed a lot of paperwork, was hooked up to the monitors, and my IV drip, then given the first medication to start labor called Cytotec. This is a painless cervical pill that jump starts contractions. At 3:00 a.m. my contractions were at three minutes apart. By 5:00 a.m. I was started on my Pitocin drip which kicks contractions into high gear, but I still felt the pain to be very manageable at this point. At 7:30 a.m. I asked for my epidural in preparation for Dr. Graham to arrive and break my water. The nurse initially said it would only be about 30 minutes before the anesthesiologist would arrive. Dr. Graham was right on schedule at 8:00 a.m. and was pleased with my progress so she continued with the next step of breaking my water. I had heard that this was painful, and now I can agree, it hurt! Little did I know that true pain was on its way. I immediately started having extremely intense contractions every two minutes or less that were indescribable as far as pain I have experienced before. I was eagerly awaiting my epidural. After 30 minutes of no anesthesiologist, Will found out that he was still in surgery and also had an another epidural to do before me. So after waiting over an hour Will said that wasn’t an option because we were told it would be sooner. Our nurse was able to find another anesthesiologist in the main hospital that was willing to come over and luckily she arrived within 20 minutes. The epidural was nothing like I expected. I felt the initial numbing shot, but then after that I didn’t feel any pain from the 4 inch 16 gauge needle in my back that places the catheter. The hard part was sitting still through the contractions. The epidural could not have come at a better time because at this point my blood pressure was dropping, I wasn’t getting enough oxygen, and that caused Harper’s heart rate to drop. I was put on oxygen and this corrected those issues for both of us. I had to stay on oxygen for the next 8 hours until shortly after she was delivered. Thankfully, within 10 minutes I was relaxing and finally getting some relief. At this point I was 4 cm dilated.

For the next 2 hours I was able to rest very well and actually enjoy this small aspect of my labor. I was thinking I still had a ways to go when the nurse came back in to check me at noon. I couldn’t believe it when she said I was at 9 cm dilated and that we should have a baby in less than 2 hours! The epidural allowed me to relax for a speedy dilation. The nurses wanted me to lie on each of my sides to help get the last cm out of the way, then I had to sit up in bed to let gravity pull Harper down. This is when things started go wrong for me. When I sat up something happened to my epidural and I regained all feeling in my left side. Even only feeling half of a contraction was still very intense pain. The pressure sensation was also overwhelming. I told the nurse that I was regaining feeling but at this point she said I was to close to delivery to get my epidural fixed. This was a scary thought for me since having an unmedicated birth was no where in my birth plan. Especially after getting Pitocin all day which makes normal contractions much stronger.

Within minutes the nurses were wheeling in all of the delivery supplies and Dr. Graham came in and started giving me pushing instructions. It did not take long before Dr. Graham realized that Harper was transverse in position, basically meaning sideways and turned facing the wrong way. This obviously complicated things quite a bit for me since this position usually requires a cesarean delivery. Not only was I feeling WAY more than I thought I would because of the failure of the epidural, now I was faced with a baby that didn’t want to come out. I pushed for over 40 minutes before Dr. Graham stopped me and said it wasn’t working. I thought she was going to say I had to have a c-section but instead she said they were going to lay me on my left side with my right leg held up in the air to hopefully help Harper turn the right direction. She also said since we now had extra time she would send in another anesthesiologist to attempt to fix my epidural and give me a higher dose. I am glad she called him because it wasn’t long before I started to regain feeling on my right side as well, allowing me to feel even more intensity of the contractions and pressure. It took about 30 minutes for him to arrive and he said that the catheter had been placed 2 cm to far in so he corrected that then gave me another dose of medication. Thankfully this started to work and I finally did get some numbing relief after an hour and a half of agony. This was much to Will’s relief because I think he began to feel helpless in the final hours watching it all take place.

It was only about another 30 minutes after this before I told Will to get Dr. Graham because I knew I was ready to push again. After watching a few practice pushes, Dr. Graham was excited to see the improvement and called for the birthing team to come back in. Once again I was surrounded by many nurses who were all quickly getting things set up.  It took 40 more minutes of pushing before Harper was finally born. I was relieved that they didn’t have to use forceps, the vacuum, or even worse have a c-section to get her out. Will initially did not want a front row seat to the action since it can be a messy scene but he found himself compelled to watch his daughter born. I was very proud of him for overcoming his fear of passing out to help calm me and even watch Harper’s birth and cut the cord. She was very stressed immediately after delivery. She was a little limp and blue when they handed her to me but she was alert enough to look right at me.  The nurses quickly got her crying and their concerns diminished. Harper Elizabeth McCallen made her entrance into the world at 4:58 p.m. on Thursday February 9^th. She was 7 pounds 14 ounces and 20.5 inches long. This may not have been the way I thought things would go but since I went into labor and delivery with no other plan than to get my daughter here safely, all that matters is that I achieved that with the help of an amazing husband, an excellent nursing staff, and a skilled Doctor.

Now the soreness, the stitches, and all the other postpartum issues are all worth it. I have no regrets about my induction, labor, or anything thing else that happened that day. I get to hold Harper everyday now and I look forward to everything the future brings. I can even say I look back on this experience and treasure the memories I have about it. After all, this is what it took to get Harper here. After a year and a half of planning and creating this little girl and carrying her around for 10 months, what is a little extra hard work at the end. The only thing that matters is she is healthy and perfect in every way and Will and I are blessed to call Harper Elizabeth our daughter.


-Morgan