The preface to his story really begins in April. Without going into many details, after a few scary weeks, doctors determined that I had an unfound birth defect ASD, which is a hole in my heart. This was causing tachycardia in my pregnancy. However, nothing could be done to fix my heart until after he was born. It did cause me to reduce my work load and hours and activity level to basically nothing.
We were told that this condition combined with my hypothyroidism could be risky and would have to be closely monitored in the weeks leading up to delivery and might result in an early delivery as early as 37 weeks.
July: BABY MONTH! At this point, we knew it could really be any time. With much rest, my heart-rate was stable and my thyroid was beginning to become more regular. My doctor decided on a natural delivery with an early epidural to speed things up (hopefully) and he also said we would keep on going until 39 weeks or if he decided to come on his on. We had several false alarms along the way but we finally made it to our induction week which was scheduled for July 27th (his great-grandmother's birthday!)
Tuesday July 26th: Apparently it was baby boomer week at the hospital. We had been warned that our induction may or may not go on regular schedule for July 27 which of course left me very anxious as it was MY turn and I was so so ready to have this baby. My sweet momma cooked me my favorite dinner as my "last supper" before going in to be induced the next morning and I decided it would be an early night once we returned from my mom's for dinner. We tried to go to bed early, but I was really crampy and of course uncomfortable. I kept feeling the urge to pee at least every 3 minutes. I attribute that to pregnancy and nerves at this point. I think I got a total of one hour sleep that night. I saw every hour and really don't think I drifted off until 4. At 5 my alarm went off and I was so excited because it was Baby time! I was still nervous they would call me and cancel my induction though... I guess God and Ayden had that detail under control because not even 2 seconds later, my water broke. It was scary and caught me off guard because I wasn't prepared for the "water" to include blood all over my new bathroom floor. From that point, I think we both showered, got dressed, called our parents, fed the dog, and loaded the rest of our car in less than 10 minutes and was on the road to the hospital. Poor Rob was so worried he'd have to deliver me on the side of the road even though I assured him it wouldn't happen that fast. By the time we got to the hospital, I was having regular contractions and they immediately took me on to my birth suite since I had already had an induction scheduled. We arrived right before shift change, so one nurse did my intake and got me settled in and then my next nurse would be with me for the day. (Another God moment- I had the BEST nurse that day. I could not have asked for a better nurse for my crazy day.)
My doctor arrived around 8 and confirmed that indeed my water had broke and I was at a "tight: 4 cm. My pain was intensifying and after he left my nurse (Katie) had a talk with me about my epidural. This is when I knew she was amazing. She said, "look you don't have to prove your tough to anyone, I can see the pain you're in and you need that epidural. Let's get one." I felt like it was okay at this point to go ahead and ask for one. I received my epidural (which wasn't nearly as bad as I had imagined) and Rob didn't even flinch! My blood pressure dropped so she had to give me something for that and stayed in my room for an hour to monitor me. During this time, I became soo sleepy that I drifted off to sleep. Around this time, our family began to arrive. I was in and out and not feeling any pain so I took advantage of this time to sleep.
Around 1, I started to feel intense pain again. I was checked and was told I was almost a 7! (This was going pretty fast). Katie gave me an exercise ball to put between my legs to help him move down the birth canal. It was also helping my pain. I was so hungry at this point, so I was really hoping the last three centimeters would go quickly. I told Katie she wasn't leaving her shift until my baby was born. She agreed, she thought she would definitely be a part of his delivery.
All was great until 3 and then the pain was intensifying so quickly. Rob, my mom, and Katie were all by my side. She suggested I moved my position again. (She was amazing at having me move every so often to help as much as possible and had had me moving positions since 9 that morning). It slightly helped and I asked for popsicles and coke because my mouth was so dry. I crushed the popsicles (Which would be bad later on...but then they tasted so amazing!) Around 4, she checked me again because she just knew I was at a 10, I was over 8, but so disappointed I wasn't further. She called the anesthesiologist because she had pumped all of the medicine she could without having him do it again. He came and re-did my epidural. At this point, things got extremely scary. My heart rate went really high and Ayden's dropped. Katie wasn't able to get my dr to give me a beta blocker for my heart, so she re-contacted the anesthesiologist and he gave me a beta-blocker for my heart. (Another sign of an amazing nurse. She followed her instincts and did what she had to do). By this point, I felt like I was on another planet. My best friend Tay came in during this point and she had probably been there close to 30 minutes before I realized she was there.
**I can't say enough things about how supportive my people were that day. My husband and mom were my constant rocks and were both by myside (literally one on each side) the whole entire day. My mother-in law, aunt, and cousin Alex were all there as well and visited the birthing room frequently. Tay was also by my side after work. Having her there gave me a sense of peace. I am truly thankful to have a best friend that loves me enough to see me in labor. ( :
The hours of 5-8 pm were such a blur to me. I remember my MIL leaving and told me when she came back I better have had her grandson. I remember it storming and the TV alarms going off every 5 seconds. I remember the amount of pressure I had and desire to push. But that's about all I remember. Katie left around 7:30 and I got a new nurse. I wanted my Katie back.I do feel like things would not have gone as awry had she been there for the night shift too. The new nurse did her job, but did not provide me with a sense of peace and comfort like Katie had. Around 8, my fever had spiked really high, my heart rate was still sky high, and his was low. My doctor came back in and said, "his head his stuck and because of your conditions and his heart rate, we're doing an emergency c-section." At this point, I completely lost it. I had it in my heart I wanted to do it naturally. I had worked so hard all day and we were so close. I felt like such a failure and was so mad that it ended like this. Within about 1 minute of him calling it, my room quickly filled up. Everyone was talking to me, poking me, inserting more IV's, asking me questions, prepping me,prepping Rob... My mom had disappeared to go tell the family and as they were getting ready to wheel me to OR, I remember asking where she was. Before she had left she had a heart to heart with me and told me everything I needed to hear, but she hadn't said goodbye so I wanted to see her again before they wheeled us off. Just at that moment, she appeared. I was so thankful to have her and my husband there for those 2 seconds before I was wheeled off. I also remember my MIL kissing my forehead and telling me thank you for doing what I had to do to get Ayden here and for enduring all of the pain all day. It was really sweet, I wish I could remember her exact words.
Once in the OR, things went really quick. I was terrified that they'd forget Rob so I think I asked them at least 20 times when Rob could come back. ( I had so much medicine at this point, it's a wonder I remembered anything). Before long, Rob was by myside and they said, "Carleigh, we've already started, Ayden will be here in just a few minutes". I felt a lot of tugging and then time stood still. We heard his first cries and we both burst into tears. HE WAS HERE. OUR SON WAS ALIVE AND WELL. They handed him over the sheet to me and we snuggled for approximately 0.5 seconds before I turned to Rob and said, "you gotta take him, I'm gonna puke". For those that know my pregnancy, you'll find that funny because I literally puked from the day I found out I was pregnant to the moment right after he was born. Once Rob took him, I puked all in my hair and all over the nurses too I'm sure. It seemed like it took forever for them to sew me up and get to recovery. On our way to recovery, we met all of our family in the hallway. What a tearful, but joyful reunion. We stayed in recovery for about 2 hours and finally got to our rooms.
This was definitely not the birth I had planned out in my mind, but I had a feeling it could have ended like this. I am beyond thamkful for the people who took care of me that day- medical professionals and family. They all gave me peace about the day and made me feel like I was a rockstar through the pain.
Ayden Reed Joyce
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