The Rory Story

Considering a certain baby is 4 months old today (WHAT?!), I guess it's high time we shared his birth story!

*Disclaimer, this post is about birthing a baby; therefore, words associated with birthing a baby will be used. You have been warned.

Dalan moved to Washington for work on October 8, before he began he worked it out with his manager to take unpaid leave for 30 days once the baby was born so he could come back to Utah and help me for the first few weeks. My due date was November 11, and my last day at work was November 2, Dalan scheduled his return flight for November 2 so I wouldn't be home freaking out all alone the week before.

37 weeks pregnant

I had my weekly checkup on October 23, where my Doctor declared my baby was definitely coming early, and that I would be lucky to make it until November. She offered to strip my membranes then and there! I slightly freaked out and declined considering Dalan's absence. We decided that she would strip my membranes on November 1 and that I would likely go into labor sometime on the second, just in time for Dalan to be there. I changed my last day of work to October 25th. It seemed like a good plan, but as I drove home I started to worry about the 'lucky to make it until November' part. I called Dalan and he agreed to change his flight to October 31, that way he could come with me to the November 1 appointment and would be here earlier, just in case.

On October 28 I lost my mucous plug, and then I just plain lost it (my mind). It could mean that labor is in 24-48 hours, or it could mean nothing. So terrified by the unknown and missing my husband, I called Dalan, sobbing. He scrambled to get everything together and come back to Utah as quickly as possible. He arranged for the next flight which wasn't until the morning, but he made it back by about 9am.

I was SO happy and relieved to finally have my husband with me! It took away a ton of the stress knowing that he wouldn't miss the birth. We spent that day doing a few of the last minute preparations like building the bassinet, installing the car seat, and buying a few forgotten items for the hospital.

I started having contractions on Tuesday (October 30), we decided to head to the hospital once they were 5 minutes apart. We had my bag and everything ready to go once they were 6 minutes apart, and then they just stopped.

Slightly annoyed at not getting to meet my little Dude yet, I decided to focus on two new goals:

1. do NOT have a Halloween baby
2. Wait until November 1, and then Dalan's new health insurance would kick in, and we would be double covered.

I took it easy and kept my legs crossed all day on Halloween. By this time I was huge, uncomfortable, and absolutely miserable. I don't know about this burst of energy that people talk about towards the end, I never got it.

That night I was so uncomfortable, I couldn't sleep at all. I stayed up reading a book and playing on my iPad and slightly drifted off around 3am. At about 6:30am I woke up to use the bathroom and discovered blood, lots of clots. I tried to shake it off and tell myself it was part of labor and the 'bloody show' as they call it. A few graphic google searches later though, I learned otherwise, completely freaked myself out, and decided to call labor and delivery.

The girl on the phone was very nice and said that while she couldn't offer medical advice, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to come in a get checked out.

In the meantime, I started having contractions. They were much more intense than they had been a few days before, and seemed to be progressing rather quickly. We gathered all of our things and jumped in the car.  This is the part where I sing praises to heated seats. I can't even begin to describe how much the heat helped ease the pain in my back with each contraction. By the time we arrived at the hospital my contractions were pretty intense and 6 minutes apart. It took awhile to check in since we now had new insurance (for 9 whole hours). Dalan and the receptionist filled out the paperwork while I gripped the counter and gritted my teeth.

Once we were checked in they took me into a birthing suite, I had a hard time taking everything in, I was only there to be checked. Right?

Obligatory pre-baby hospital photo. So flattering.

I had an examination where they declared everything was fine, and I was dilated to a 6. Given that plus my irregular contractions, they usually would have sent me home, but since we lived 40 minutes away from the hospital, they decided to consult with my doctor who said to keep me there for a few hours and monitor me.

After about an hour and a half my contractions were still pretty irregular, they would be 10, then 2, then 7 minutes apart, and the intensity was just as sporadic. My doctor decided that she wasn't happy with the lack of progression and opted to give me some Pitocin to regulate everything. At this point, I was informed that I would be having a baby, that day!

We made a few rushed phone calls to friends and family. Braden and Fran arrived so Braden could assist Dalan in giving me a Priesthood blessing. By this time the contractions were extremely intense, watching the needle bounce all around only made things worse. After feeling one bad enough where I couldn't breathe let alone talk through it, I informed my nurse I was more than ready for the epidural.

The anesthesiologist was on his way to a C-Section, and I was told it would be at least an hour. They offered me some Fentanyl to help with the pain until then and I gladly accepted (sidebar, all of you women who have opted for an unmedicated birth, kudos to you. I could never do it!). Let me tell you how freaking awesome the Fentanyl was. Not only did it help with the pain immediately, but it made me completely relaxed and super fuzzy. I was so out of it I didn't even really know what was going on. This is actually a very good thing for me, I am such a worrier, I was way too stressed up until this point. And then a mere matter of seconds after receiving the Fentanyl, the anesthesiologist arrived to give me the epidural, he decided to stop by before the surgery. I think drugged up was the absolute best way receiving the epidural could have gone. I tend to pass out at the sight of needles unless I am completely in control of the situation, but on the Fentanyl, I could care less. I leaned over, got the shot, and then laid back down, ready for a nap. Dalan couldn't believe that I was so composed after being stuck with a needle so large.  My doctor then came in to break my water, and I didn't realize until a few days later that Braden must have been in the room for all of this (uh, sorry brother). I asked my doctor no less than three times after she broke my water if she had really done it.

Dalan and Braden quickly gave me a Priesthood blessing (which I sadly don't remember). Then the nurse measured me and informed us I was now at an 8, and it would be a few more hours until the baby came. I was encouraged to take a nap in the meantime and was more than happy to oblige. My parents arrived just before I fell asleep, and they decided to go get Dalan something to eat since he hadn't had anything all day. Only a few minutes after they left, I began feeling a lot of pressure in my back, I assumed that the epidural was staring to wear off, and I relentlessly began pressing the 'give me more' button. A nurse came in to check me and you could see her starting to panic at what she saw.

Apparently the baby was crowning, it had been less than an hour since we were told we had a few more to wait, and there was nothing ready. Turns out the pressure I was feeling was not a faulty epidural, but actually the urge to push (oops).

Labor and Delivery was understaffed that day, and since when I originally arrived, I was only being checked/measured, none of the appropriate paperwork had been presented to us yet. I was still super groggy and numb from the drugs and I had one nurse shoving paperwork in my face (I still have no idea what it was all about, hopefully I wont find out I signed adoption papers or something), and another nurse yelling at me, 'DO NOT PUSH!' They had a hard time locating my doctor and it was a stressful 15 minutes until she arrived.

When my doctor showed up she was shocked. Apparently she didn't believe them when they said her patient was ready to deliver, she assumed there was confusion over a different patient, because there was no way I had progressed so much so quickly.

Once the doctor was suited up, they told me to push. I really couldn't feel much thanks to the epidural, but apparently did something right because after only 2 pushes (and in the middle of asking the doctor a casual question) I had a baby. I was mid-sentence when the doctor held up the little red lump with all the dark hair. I still hadn't come to terms with the fact I was having a baby that day, and BAM! there he was. Only 6 and a half hours after checking into Labor and Delivery. I was informed by the nurses to never tell anyone how easy my labor was, because I would probably lose friends over it.

I've never been good with babies, and I was surprised to find that as small as he was, he fit perfectly on my chest. I've always been intimidated by how tiny newborns are, and scared that their heads might fall off, but I'd carried him for so long already, I knew exactly how to hold and carry him now.

I couldn't get over how perfect he was. I examined every single hair on head and traced out the details of his face. We had waited so long for him to come, and he was finally here.

First Family Photo

Grandparents and the likes came to visit him, I really don't remember much of anything that happened over the next few days. That baby brain is pretty serious stuff!

The big question everyone had now was, 'what are you going to name him?' We had come to the hospital with 2 names in mind, and decided we'd wait until we met him to pick. The names we were debating between were Wayland and Grady, turns out neither one seemed right. We started to panic about picking a name, the constant amount of text messages didn't help either. We revisited a lot of the names that we had decided against to see if any suited him. Jokingly I asked Dalan what he thought about Rory. Rory is a name we had casually thrown around a few months before, it is the name of a character on Doctor Who, but we threw it out since it rhymed with my mom's name. It actually seemed perfect for our little guy though. The middle name was foreordained, so that took off some of the stress. We made it official on the birth certificate Rory Jay Hilton, and there was no going back from there. (a few months down the road and I'm wishing we had spelled it Roary instead, we call him Ror more than anything else and Roar looks so much cooler!)

The rest of the time in the hospital wasn't great, we decided to go home after only one night so we could bond without the constant interruption that a hospital stay brings.

While being a parent has brought many challenges, some of which I'm sure I'll complain about, we wouldn't trade our little Rorasaurus for anything!

I've been documenting his growth each month with a photo shoot, after I take his 4 month photos today, I'll share what we have so far.