Hunter's Birth Story

Crazy! That's how Hunter's birth story starts but it ends pretty easy.

His original due date was January 24 but I had been measuring a week early for awhile so they moved it to January 18. Like last time, my cervix never really dilated even though I had hard contractions for the entire month of January. I went to my Dr on Thursday and they decided to induce Friday January 24. So I went home & freaked out about what the next day would involve. I honestly didn't imagine that scared emotion. You would think that doing this for the 2nd time would be no big thing but I don't believe that crud about how you forget the pain of delivery. I just did this 18 months ago & I knew what I was in store for and that scared the crap out of me.


Here's where the crazy starts. Friday morning we woke up at 5:30am so we could be at the hospital by 6:30am. Overnight, Southeast TX received snow, sleet & rain. It literally NEVER gets that cold here so of course the day I need to deliver my son, there's a freaking ice storm. Just as we were about to walk out the door, the phone rang and it was a nurse saying that we were on "hold" this morning because some of the nurses couldn't get in because the roads were so bad. I was totally happy with that and thought they would just reschedule me for Monday and I'd get the weekend to relax. They called back 3 hours later and told me to start heading to the hospital. By then I had lost my nerve. I wasn't prepared for it and didn't want to go. I especially didn't want to be on the street with all the crazies who don't know how to drive in ice & slush but I had no choice. I said goodbye to Paisley & Momma T and Todd and I were on our way. What should have been a 15 minute drive took us 1.5 hours. Parts of the highway were closed so we had to take back roads to get there. There were a ton of accidents and Todd literally went 25 mph so it took us forever to get there. I'm sure the people that passed us up thought he was a 85year old woman driver! I'm sure they had no clue he was driving his 10 month pregnant wife to the hospital to give birth. We finally got to the hospital at 11:30am and once there, things moved really quickly.

 I was terrified at the thought of Pitocin since it almost killed me last time. You want to torture somebody? Give them pitocin! I insisted that they give me an Epidural immediately. On my very first visit to the Dr back in May, they told me that I had to pay for my epidural now because people were not paying and they were denying patients the medicine. I paid for it that day and I kept my receipt in my purse for 9 months just in case someone even thought about refusing to give me an epidural! When the anesthesiologist came in, I asked him if he wanted to see my receipt and he looked at me like I was crazy. I told him the whole story about carrying it around in my purse for 9 months and he laughed.

Once the epidural was in, I chilled. I took a few cat naps and was happy to hear that I had progressed to 4cm. Since things didn't get started until noon, I thought it would be midnight before I had the baby. It took over 12 hours last time with Paisley so I prepared myself mentally for a 12 hr day. They came to check me at 4pm and said I was 9cm! I told the nurse she smoked crack. There was no way! Sure enough! Within 30 minutes, they had the room prepped and the doctor came in.

I had a friend take photos of Paisley's birth and I cherished every picture from that day. I had asked my cousin Jessica to take pictures but I realized that she worked full time and had a family so I knew that depending on when I delivered, there might be a chance that I wouldn't have those some pictures with Hunter. Well God allowed Jessica to be there just in time before I started pushing. I was so happy!

Just like last time, the pushing didn't last long. I think I pushed for about 10 or 15 minutes and Hunter James Craig entered the world at 5:18pm. He was 7 lbs, 12 oz and 20 inches long. Strawberry blonde hair just like his sister (I have NO clue why Todd & I have these red headed babies). He looks like a skinner version of Paisley when she was born. And he's just perfect. 10 toes. 10 fingers. Perfectly healthy baby boy!

Another thing that I have worried to death about was Paisley's reaction to Hunter. She has lived with 4 adults for the last 8 months and is the center of everybody's world. We just moved into our house a month ago which was a huge transition and now she has to share the lime light with a younger sibling. I have been so anxious about her reaction but she has done really well. She came to the hospital on Saturday and I thought that she would be upset to see me in a hospital bed so I got myself ready & forced myself out of the bed. It worked because she couldn't have cared less about me, she wanted to hold her brother. She kept poking at his face and touching his eyes and his nose. I was a nervous wreck the whole time because I didn't want her to hurt him. The only time she got upset is when we took him away from her. So I guess all that anxiousness was for nothing since I had been praying about it for so long. (Phil 4:6-7)  Don't you just love the green couch at the hospital. I mean who really wants a green plastic couch in all their pictures???!!!

Since there were no complications with the delivery, we were able to leave Sunday. My milk has already come in & he latched on right away. Hunter is a great nurser and a great sleeper (praying that continues). We have now survived a week with 2 kids under 2 and I'm proud to say everybody is still alive.

Thank you to all who have prayed and called and checked in on us. We are doing great and look forward to figuring life out as a family of 4.

"Every good & perfect gift is from above" James 1:17

Much love,
Candice

P.S. Todd is working  on a birth video for Hunter so stay tuned..............