Adventures of the Baxters: Aiden's Birth Story

On October 30th I had a Dr's appointment. I found out that I was dilated to a 3 1/2. The doctor jokingly told me I would have a Halloween baby... at least I thought he was joking. After the appointment Zack and I went to Zupa's for lunch. It was nice to have a little date without any kids and before Zack started finals week.

When we got home I went to the bathroom and found out that I was bleeding. This freaked me out! I was so scared that something was wrong with Aiden. My heart would not stop pounding. I called the Dr. and it took a few hours for them to call me back. They told me that it was normal to bleed after the Dr. checked you. I was not convinced because it had never happened before. It did help calm me down a little. Zack was scared to go to class in case something happened. I convinced him that everything would be okay and he went to class.

After Zack got home from school we went to the airport to pick up Zack's mom. Karen was coming 10 days before Aiden's due date, just in case I went into labor during Zack's finals week. She also wanted to see Tallin dressed up in his Halloween costume. After we picked grandma up from the airport we went and had dinner at Taco Bell. I remember thinking I should not order a certain burrito because it gives me heart burn. But I decided to order it and eat it anyways (bad idea). As soon as we got back to our house Karen had presents for all of us to open. Grandma then watched Tallin in the bath as I did some housekeeping. A little after 8:00 p.m. I was standing on a chair putting crisco on door hinges (they squeek a lot) and all of a sudden it felt like I peed my pants a little. I then yelled to everyone "I think my water might have broke let me go check"!! I had a pad on because I had been bleeding earlier so I could not tell if it had broken or not. So I headed to our bathroom and sure enough my water broke. We then got everything ready and put Tallin to bed and said our last family prayer as a family of three. We gave Tallin a big kiss and headed off to the hospital.

When we got to the hospital we went to triage on the labor floor. The nurse there was not convinced my water broke because it was not constantly flowing out. She said that a lot of girls pee their pants and think that it is their water. That kind of frustrated me because I had already felt my water break with Tallin and I knew what it felt like. It was like she didn't believe me. She was not very nice either. She didn't try to make us feel comfortable or get to know us at all. It was frustrating because we could hear the other nurse in the room next to us being super nice to her patient and trying to get to know them and ours wasn't being friendly. She ran some tests and said she would be back in a hour to let us know if my water did break. During the hour I was having contractions every 2 to 3 minutes apart. They were not that strong yet, but they kept coming. Some would be stronger then the other ones. Finally, I told Zack I wanted to go to the bathroom. It had been about an hour and a half since she had done her tests. I was getting frustrated that they had not admitted me. I just wanted to get that epidural in as soon as possible. Zack helped me to the bathroom and I made puddles all over the floor from where I walked. I was so happy it did that to show that nurse I was not lying! She finally saw what had happened and was all "oh it looks like your water did break". Inside of me I was like 'duh, why would I lie about that or pee my pants over and over again'?? She told me that I probably had a little tear and that is why it was not all coming fast.

I finally got admitted to our room and I asked for the epidural right away. When I had Tallin it took them forever to give me the epidural and I had really bad contractions as the nurse anesthetist was trying to do his job. This time around I didn't want to have to deal with that. As soon as we got to the new room, I layed in a different position. My contractions stopped and I could not feel any at all! It was so weird. With Tallin they came fast and strong. It was nice to not have to worry about the contractions. Before the epidural they put an IV in me with fluids. I hate getting IVs because it hurts so bad and the pain doesn't go away for a while. At least for me that is. I think that it hurts worse to get the IV then it does to get the epidural. Then the anesthesiologist came in and gave me the epidural. He was so nice and friendly and talked me through the whole thing. I didn't even cry at all because he was so friendly and it didn't hurt and he made me feel comfortable. That was a total different situation from the last time I got one. The funny thing is that he is actually the ex-husband of one of Zack's Med school professors. So he started to talk to him about that for a while. He also went to Midwestern. After he left I felt good! My new nurse checked me and I was to a 4. I was having really bad heart burn so the nurse gave me some medication through my IV. It was a weird feeling because it tingled for a while. But it worked!!!

The nurse then started me on pitocin to try to get the contractions back and speed my labor. She then brought me a peanut shaped ball that I was to put between my legs as I lay on my side. It was to help the baby drop down to get ready for delivery. I had been laying like that for a few hours when I started to feel contractions on my left side. My right side was completely numb though, so the nurse had me turn over to my other side and wait 15 minutes to see if that would help. It didn't help so she decided to check me and realized I was a 9 and said "he is coming we have to call the Dr." Right after that a couple of nurses came in and got everything ready.
This is a picture of my delivery nurse.

Our Dr then came in around 4:00 a.m. and he had me start pushing. After 4 pushes he was out and Aiden was born at 4:08. I was shocked that it only took me 8 minutes to push him out. When I had Tallin, I had to push for 2 hours!!! It was a lot easier this time around because I could feel when to push because I could feel contractions.

Dr. Erickson

One of the nurses offered to take a picture for us.

We ended up staying in the delivery room for a long time! We think they forgot about us... an insurance agent came looking for us at one point and the hospital sent him to the wrong room. At another point they brought me another patient's food. It was like we were suppose to be in a different room but forgot to move us. But it was ok we were just happy to have another little boy!!

Tallin was so cute when he met Aiden for the first time.

I love all of these pictures of Zack with Aiden.

That night we finally got moved into the recovery room. We had to stay the night because they wanted us to stay for at least 24 hours. The nurse I got when I moved rooms was so awesome!

The next morning we got a new nurse and she was horrible!!! Every time I asked for medication she would take forever to get it to me. Then when she was in the room she didn't talk, hurried, gave me my pill, and left. She didn't even watch me take it, which I know they are suppose to. The night nurse had informed the day nurse we wanted to be discharged as soon as possible, but we had to wait for Aiden's doctor and my doctor to discharge us. Around 10 a.m. I asked the medical assistant when the doctors would come by, and she said they usually come in the morning. Then 12 o'clock rolled by and my nurse came in and asked when we wanted to be discharged today or tomorrow... we looked at her confusedly and said today of course. Then she came back and said the Dr. had already been there to check other patients out and asked if he checked me and I said no. This really frustrated me because we were very clear that we wanted to leave. They then said they couldn't get a hold of Aiden's Dr. A few hours later, the pediatrician told me that she came to the hospital earlier looking for me and the hospital had no records of me or knew where I was located!!! She apologized for all the craziness and said the hospital was operating with a new system. We were grateful for all of the excellent staff at Arrowhead hospital, but we were very frustrated at the lack of communication at times.

Welcome Aiden James Baxter!
Born 10/31/14 @ 4:08 am
6 lbs 11 oz
20 1/4 inches
13 inch head