Welcome... Hayden Briggs Campbell (Better late than never)

 On Saturday May 12th, we welcomed Hayden Briggs Campbell into the world.

Birth Story...
On Friday afternoon, I started having contractions again.  I decided to take a nap because this usually helped them go away.  My philosophy was if I can sleep through them, they probably aren't really that bad.  By the time Brian got home from work, they were a little stronger but again nothing that I was going to die over.  We went to dinner at Zipps and at that time I began timing them.  They were about 7-8 minutes apart.  After dinner we came home, put Stella to bed and watched a little Dexter.  When it was time to go to bed, I just couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep, but again I wasn't going to die.  I went from the bed, to the chair, back to the bed.  Around midnight, I decided that maybe we should go to the hospital... So I took a shower, picked up the house (no one wants to come home to a messy house), packed Stella's bag, repacked mine and had Brian DROP me off at the hospital.  Yes, I wasn't sure if they were going to admit me or send me back home and I didn't want to bother the Bollards in the middle of the night just to be sent home.  Again, the contractions were uncomfortable but I have been in far worse pain :-)

By 1 am, I was admitted to the triage unit of the maternity ward and was hooked up to the monitors.   They watched my contractions for the next hour and at 2 am decided to admit me because the baby's heart rate was dropping each time I had a contraction.  The plan was to start an epidural and then break my water, hopefully speeding up the labor process.  I called Brian to have him meet me at the hospital.  Paul came and picked up Stella.  Before Brian even arrived the epidural was already in place.  Brian arrived right before the doctor and I mentioned to him that it felt like I had "a lot of stuff going on down there."  And sure enough when the doctor arrived to break my water, we realized that it had already broke on its own.

For the next few hours, my each time I had a contraction the baby's heart rate would drop but the contractions really never got closer together.  They decided to start me on pitocin to speed the process along so we could get him out before he became really distressed.  They started me on pitocin and within a few minutes his heart rate dropped again and didn't go back up.  They immediately took me back off the pitocin and began having the C-section conversation with me.  We played this for a few more hours and at 10am they came in.  At this point my contractions were no closer together and I had not dilated beyond a 5 (I was a 4 were I arrived at the hospital).  The doctor told me that they would give me 2 hours to fully dilate and if I didn't they were going to take me in for a C-section.

At 11:00 they came in to check me because they had lost my contractions off the monitor.  She said that they were going to take me in for the C-section but somehow I was fully dilated.  Within 24 minutes Hayden Briggs Campbell was born.  For the most part it was a very easy delivery, except once his head came out his shoulders became stuck on my pelvic bone.  The room went from having four of us, Brian, the nurse, doctor and myself to having 4 additional nurses in 15 seconds.  It was crazy, but in the end everyone was okay.

Hayden Briggs Campbell was born at 11:24am.  We weighed 8lbs 10oz and was 21 inches long.

Why is it that I always end up on oxygen?

Momma and Baby Briggs

Stella and Briggs

Daddy, Stella and Briggs

First "Family of Four" Picture