~ The Paul's ~: Hollister's Birth Story

My parents arrived late (11:00pm) Monday night to be with Hayden on Tuesday morning. We got them settled in and Hayden off to bed, then I received a fathers blessing, and we were all off to bed around 12pm. I think I got around two hours of sleep the whole night. I had too many emotions running through my body!!! Excitement, nervous, anxious, scared, and my mind just kept running. I honestly thought I would settle down knowing all the little details when, where, and what would be happening the next day and that Hayden would be well taken care of BUT nope that wasn't the case. I finally got up early, got myself ready, then woke up Jon. We arrived down town at St. Alphonsus Hospital around 6am. It was very quiet and peaceful as we entered and got to our room. I was still very nervous and if you know me really good then you know when I get nervous I have to pee. When I was in high school and did high jump I always had to go pee two to three times before jumping and it became a little joke. Well I hadn't experienced this kind of nervousness in quiet sometime but within the hour and a half that we arrived to surgery I had to pee three times and it was inconvenient to say the least with all the monitors and iv's hooked up to me. . . Plus a certain someone was making me laugh very hard as well!!! It was finally time to go back to the operating room. I was very nervous for the epidural because I had never had one and I didn't want to be with out Jon for the first 10 to 15 minutes of prep but I was just glad that he got to be here this time and that I got to be awake. I was also worried about pain but the epidural & surgery/birth was the EASY part. Once I got numbed up I was completely calm and just wanted to dose off to sleep. By this time they let Jon in and he held my hand through it all. I was so excited when Hollister came out and I got to see my little angel. He was very quiet when he came out and it worried me at first but he's still a very quiet little boy to this day. Doesn't cry at night just makes little fuss/whimper sounds. I instantly shed tears of joy upon seeing my little miracle. After 10 long months he was here and perfect and competly healthy! The doctor's and nurses first words was he's a big one. When they said big I was thinking BIG as in bigger than Hayden but when I found out his actual weight and length (7lbs, 12oz & 20in) I realized not big at all compared to Hayden (8lbs, 6oz & 21 1/2in). I'm not the type to ask for help and having all the doctors/nurses do all my moving for me was very strange! I wasn't sure if I was moving my legs or not and yet felt like I should be helping them. It is there job though and I'm sure they didn't give it a second thought, that's just my personality. The next part was the worst! Shortly after feeling so good and relieved I got very nauseous. They had to try two different medications on me and thank goodness the second one worked better. I felt so light headed and hate throwing up especially after having your mid section cut wide open and stitched back up. After having two good throwing up episodes I felt much better. I ate a ton of crackers & water. I finally got to our main room and shortly after had Hayden and my parents come to visit. Hayden was so excited! He was proud and happy! He only got sad later when he realized mommy & baby had to stay at the hospital for a couple days. Hayden had previously bought Hollister a cozy little blanket and Hollister had a gift for Hayden (Thomas The Train toys) The next day Jon also took Hayden on a walk with the boys while I fed Hollister and they came back with a cute bear for him. This is Hollister's birth story in a nut shell. It was a planned c-section so nothing too eventful but his due date did change 3 times. It was the 14th then the 7th and then the 11th. It's a long story why it changed but they wanted to prevent or try to prevent what happened with Hayden and not have it be an emergency c-section this time so they moved it up a week but then forgot to schedule my surgery so it got moved to the nearest available date, September 11th, 2012. It's hard to put all my feelings and all that happened in a short period into words but for the most part it was a truly AMAZING experience. Being a mom is the HARDEST but BEST job ever! ! !

Me waiting for surgery