Peyton Wesley Huff!

Our beautiful baby boy finally made it out of his Mom at 2:06 pm on Thursday August 9^th 2007. He weighed 6 pounds 2 ounces, was 20 inches long and by all accounts healthy.

We made it to the hospital on Wednesday night about 5 pm to start the long process of inducing labor. At 7 pm the doctor gave Jen something called Cervidil (I’m guessing on the spelling) which was a little stick (sort of like a tampon) that was supposed to help loosen up her cervix. Also when it was time to go to sleep they gave her a splash of morphine and maybe one or two other things to help her sleep and help her cervix along. They also had her hooked up to external monitors which constantly monitored the baby’s heartbeat and logged any contractions that she might have.

I spent the night on a chair that pulled out into a sorry excuse for a bed. We both slept ok and when 7 am rolled around (3 hours before we normally get up) it was time to start the day. After breakfast, a shower and a little walk it was time for action.

At 8:45 the nurse hooked Jen up to an IV and started giving her Pitocin (a drug that will help induce labor) and explained that everyone needs a different amount to get things started. So she started with a very small amount and increased the dosage every 15 minutes. A few minutes after 9 Jen started having contractions. I expected them to be very far apart when they first started, but she was having one right after the other. She probably had 30 or so 20-45 second contractions in the first hour and a half.

At 11:15 Jen was only at 3 cm dilated and needing to get to 10 cm before she could start pushing, we decided she should get an epidural (a local anesthetic administered through the spine). The nurse called the anesthesiologist and once he arrived and got everything working, Jen felt much better.

It was about noon at that point and I decided I should go get something to eat and make a few calls. They said on average it would take one hour for each cm that she had to go, so I was figuring 7 pm for the start of pushing and 8 or 9 for the actual birth. I told Jen I’d be back in half an hour and to call if anything was happening. At 12:30 I came back and they said “She’s at 10 centimeters, the doctor is on the way and when she gets here we’re going to start pushing.” Holy Shit!

Sure enough the doctor arrived about 1 and by 1:15 we were pushing in earnest. We’d noticed earlier that the baby’s heartbeat was dropping when Jen was having contractions from its normal range of 130-160 down to about 110. The nurse told us it was likely because the umbilical cord was wrapped around him in some way. When Jen started pushing it started to drop into the 60’s during the contractions which wasn’t good.

The doctor said it was time to get him out and she was going to try to use a vacuum attached to his head to pull him out. If that didn’t work it was time for a C-section. We knew about the vacuum possibility and weren’t thrilled with the idea of using it, but figured it was better than a C-section. We had to wait for about 10 minutes for all of the right people to be there (we were waiting for someone who knew how to push on Jen’s stomach from the top in the right way) and at that point I started to panic a little. I was worried about my baby and my wife and I started to get a little misty. Jen looked up at me and said “I love you!” At that point I started to cry pretty heavily.

We finally got everyone there and with one person on each leg and someone else pushing on her stomach and Jen herself pushing the doctor stuck a vacuum on the babies head and pulled him out. He was a little blue, but he started to cry right away and turned a nice pink in about 90 seconds.

Unfortunately the placenta didn’t follow him out. It was stuck on Jen’s uterus and she was bleeding heavily. After letting her hold the baby for about 10 seconds they wheeled her off into the operating room to get it out (I was given strict instructions to not leave the baby for an instant). She managed to avoid having surgery, but it was still 2 hours before she made it to recovery.

Meanwhile I was with my son. He got a few shots, had some blood drawn and got a bath. Eventually we made it back to his Mom who was more than eager to see him. He looks great and has been very well behaved so far. Both he and Jen are doing well.

I’ll have more of the anecdotal stories in a day or two as well as some pictures, but now I have to get back to the hospital (why couldn’t I write 900 words in 40 minutes when I was in college?)! Jen’s parents are there with her now and we’ll all be coming back tomorrow morning! We can’t wait to show Peyton his new home.