Sweet little Barrett Flynn Halgren was born on April 27th. He was 7lbs 14oz and 19 3/4" long. He was healthy and very happy to be on the outside!
Here is some background info to the days surrounding Barrett's birth:
The week before the whole family came down with an awful flu. By Wednesday night I had it. I spent all night with my flu symptoms (I won't get graphic...we all know what the flu does), and by 3am I was completely dehydrated. By 4am I felt Barrett drop down lower in my uterus and stop moving, and a short time later my feet, hands and face all started to tingle. So, by 5am I called my friend Stephanie to come take me to the hospital. When I got into labor and delivery they checked Barrett and his heartrate was a little low but not anything that was an emergency. They gave me an IV and when the doctor came in she ordered an IV of potassium since I was so dehydrated. Barrett's heartrate stabilized, he started moving again, and I started feeling somewhat better. After a few hours on the IV's, I was sent home. I rested and finally by night the tingling in my face, hands and feet was gone but I still was a little nauseous.
The next morning (Friday) I had a doctor's appt. I dropped Raleigh off at school and ran to Target to get some pull-ups for Heidi since she had officially run out. I felt really strange that morning and had trouble walking but I figured since Barrett was so low that it was throwing me off. I was also having horrible contractions but I have always had really strong Braxton Hicks contractions so I was trying to ignore them. After I hobbled out of Target with Heidi and Audrey we hopped in the car and headed to the doctor's office. We hobbled up to the office and met with my doctor. She gave me some more antinausea medicine (which I never ended up getting since everything happened so fast) and measured my uterus. Barrett had definitely slipped down in my uterus but there was no signs that I was going to soon be in labor. Oh, and she didn't check my uterus because I had my audience there and I had just gotten over the flu so I wasn't feeling like having anyone go anywhere near me. I figured I would just check it later if I wanted to know.
I drove home with the girls, picked up Raleigh, picked up lunch and then we all took a nap. We woke up about 4pm and did our normal after nap snack and playing. About 4:45pm Trevor came home and I went online to order some groceries. I knew I couldn't make it around the whole grocery store with the pain I was in from contractions and loose ligaments. As I was ordering groceries I felt my water break. I went into the bathroom and sure enough, it had happened. It took me a second to plan what I should do because this was 3 weeks before Barrett was due and I was completely unprepared this time...completely unprepared! Trevor was upstairs cleaning the bathroom (I think he sensed something because he went crazy cleaning as soon as he got home which is totally out of the norm. He must have been nesting for me.). So, I calmly yelled for him to come downstairs since I didn't want the kids to come rushing down. He told me to hang on since he was cleaning, haha. So, I called my mom and told her, and finally Trevor came down after about 10 minutes so I told him. He was in shock and his mind went totally blank on him. He had no idea what to do.
After running through my list of contacts in my head I decided my friend Stephanie was probably available to come spend the night since it was a Friday night, and our kids have known each other for a while so they could keep themselves entertained. I called Stephanie a little after 5pm and told her to come over by 7pm. But, by 5:45 my contractions were so close and strong that I asked her to rush over. She did and Trevor and I hopped in his work van (which seemed SO loud and SO bumpy) and headed to the hospital. All I could think of was how horribly messy the house was and how I had left Stephanie with hardly any food and no bread! We DID have the flu all week so household stuff had been put on the backburner.
When we got to the hospital the nurses were just about to change their shifts but they were so helpful. Barret was born a little over an hour after I had gotten to the hospital and he would have come earlier but I had to hold him in for about 20 minutes waiting for the doctor to get in. That was torture. We were all fully ready for the nurse to deliver Barrett but the doctor made it. Everything went really well, Barrett was healthy and we had gotten over the shock of him coming so early.
But, after a couple of hours my bleeding hadn't stopped and it was getting really bad. The nurse had to keep weighing how much blood I was losing. Finally, they told me I was having a postpartum hemorrhage. They didn't really know why but they ended up giving me misoprostol and then they gave me pitocin to start contractions again. Although this worked it was SO painful and my epidural had already been taken out. It was awful. I ended up having a blood clot that was keeping my uterus from contracting down and stopping the bleeding. So, once that finally was pushed out my bleeding got better. I had lost half of my blood and had a point where I thought I was going to have to go to the operating room. My blood pressure dropped so low it was scary. They gave me an IV (yep another one) and by 9am Saturday morning my contractions had stopped...just in time for my mom to visit. I almost had a blood transfusion but the hospital I was at has fairly conservative standards and the doctor decided to wait and see. They also hooked me up to an IV of iron. I guess the iron and potassium IV's are not used in labor and delivery so I was a guinea pig. All of the nurses came in to check them out. It has been a month and I am just now feeling like a normal human again. I wasn't allowed to drive for 2 weeks and I had to really limit what I did. Luckily my mom stayed and helped out the first week. We had panic attacks when she left but we survived. This was the only time I had to stay 2 days in the hospital instead of 1.
The nurses at the hospital were amazing and I am so grateful that they were there. I was the only one in the labor and delivery for the most part so I got all of the attention. And Barrett was (and is) so laid back and slept the whole time so I think that helped me recover in the hospital.
A week later the whole family caught a cold...even Barrett. But after tons of saline and nose clearing we recovered from that and now we are all settling in to our family. It seems like Barrett has always been here. I can't imagine a time without him now.
The other kids are amazing helpers and they love to do anything they can. They even take dirty diapers to the trash without flinching. They all went through a really mischievous stage since they knew that when I was watching Barrett I wasn't watching them, but I think we are slowly getting past that. Okay, now for some pictures....
1 comment:
Lauren- You don't know how many times I've thought "I've got to call the Halgrens". I figured you guys had had the baby but I didn't know it was such a dramatic event. I've wanted to just stop by but haven't- obviously.
Glad your new guy has arrived. He's so cute and I love his name.
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