Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Welcome to the world, Sweet Mary Hayes: Part 2

So after talking about it, praying about it, (crying, crying, and crying about it) and talking to my dad we decided to go ahead and stay.  We knew if she hadn't moved at all in five weeks, the chances of her moving in two days was pretty slim and this was I would get to meet my sweet daughter just a little bit sooner :)

At this point it was 4:30pm. They told me they would start cervidil at 6:00pm and I wouldn't be allowed to eat once they started that until the baby was born. Ben said he would run out and grab us some food. Well - it was Christmas day. Have you ever tried to find food on Christmas day? After driving around he found the one place that was open on Christmas day:  Waffle House!  He grabbed some waffles to go and brought them back to the hospital. You would have thought that after all the food we ate that morning, there is no way we could have possibly eaten more. But we did!

The cervidil started at 6:00pm and then it was just a waiting game. A sleepless night of waiting and chatting up the nurses when they would come in and check on me.

Monday, December 26, 2011


Monday morning rolled around and this message was waiting on the board in my room.

Don't you love Today's Plan? Happy Birthday Mary Hayes! I loved how optimistic my nurse was - haha! 

After a night on cervidil I had dilated a whopping 1.5 cm : DEPRESSING! At 6:00am they started me on pitocin. I was convinced this was my miracle drug and I would start contracting and dilating, and I would have a baby before the end of the day.  I did start contracting and thankfully they were pretty bearable. Around 11:30 they broke my water and those contractions that had been bearable moments before? Yeah, miserable now!  It didn't take long before I was calling for my epidural. Once that was in and working I was one happy, pain free girl!

The day went by pretty quickly. We had visitors in and out all day and both of our parents were there and waiting to meet their granddaughter. At 3:00pm they checked me and I was at 4cm. From 6:00am to 3:00pm I had dilated 1 cm, and Mary Hayes was still VERY high up. The doctor said he felt like at the rate things were progressing we were looking at having the baby around 4:30-5:00am the next morning.  There went my hopes of meeting my daughter that day.

6:50pm they checked me again. Mary Hayes was still WAY high and I was now 4.5cm. It had been almost 13 hours since starting pitocin and I had only dilated 1.5cm. At this point they told me they felt it was best to do a C-Section. The doctor, again, felt that she was just so big she would not come down and I would not go into labor anytime soon. And with my water being broken we would enter into a time where there was risk of infection. Something in my gut had told me all along it would end this way. When they told me the week beforehand that she was so big I just kinda knew I would have a C-Section, and even though it was  NOT what I wanted, I had a peace about it and I knew it would be okay. Ben was not as calm about it. He asked the doctor if we could wait a few more hours and just see what happened. They told him that a few more hours wouldn't make a difference and we should go ahead and do the C-section. Again we talked about it, prayed about it, and yes... called my dad.  Once we both felt a peace about it we told them to go ahead and get started.

Here are some pictures that Ben took on the way to the operating room and while he was waiting for them to come let him back.





At 7:41pm  my sweet Mary Hayes was born! And remember that BIG baby I was supposed to have? She weighed 7lbs and 8oz!! When they told us the weight in the delivery room I literally said "WHAT?! Are you serious?!?" haha!  I sent Ben with the camera to take pictures, he snapped three or four and was right back by my side. He said he couldn't stand to leave me alone and would wait until they got her cleaned up and brought to us.


After they got her all cleaned up they brought her to us. I was not able to hold her, but Ben got to hold her right by me so I could see her. She was crying when they brought her over, and as soon as she was in Ben's hand and we started talking to her she stopped crying right away and just watched us. It was the most precious thing I had ever seen!  We had about 10 or so minutes with her before I was taken into recovery and Mary Hayes was taken to the nursery.  The hour I had to wait in the recovery room was TORTURE! I was DYING to be with my baby.


Ben and I spent about 30 or so minutes with her then our families came up to meet her. It was such an amazing and, despite things not going as I planned,  perfect day. God was in control of the entire process and knew just what my little girl needed to get here safe and sound.  We are SO blessed to have a perfect and healthy little girl. She is very very loved.





4 comments:

Lauren@ Not Your Average Southern Belle said...

I can't get over how gorgeous she is! She has the sweetest little button nose and I am dying over those baby toes. Hope you're recovering well from your c-section...and thanks for cranking up my baby fever about 3 degrees :)

Whitney said...

I just read both of your recaps and I have tears in my eyes. I am so happy for you!!! Mary Hayes is beautiful!!!

The Morrows said...

What a long dady, huh?
Glad you made it and are now blessed with a sweet, precious baby girl! Give her some sugar for me.

Terri T said...

The details you captured is amazing! So happy for your family of THREE!!!!