Haylee's Birth Story

On Monday June 2, 2014; I woke up at about 1:30 in the morning. This wasn't anything unusual for me since I had grown quite uncomfortable recently. I came out to the living room and tried to watch some TV in hopes of drifting back to sleep. By about 2:30, I noticed I was having some contractions so I decided to time them. They stayed about 5-6 minutes apart for roughly 2 hours. I then went to sit in a bath to see if it would slow them down. Within another hour, I realized they were still going so I told Jaime that he probably needed to call into work and take me to ETMC to get them checked. After calling my mom and asking her to come over, we left and showed up at the hospital at about 6. They got me set up in a room and watched me. I was only 36 weeks and 6 days, technically still preterm, so they advised me that my doctor wouldn't induce me at this point. I would need to labor all on my own. I crossed my fingers and prayed that would be the case, because I really didn't want to go home with how I was feeling. Each time the nurse checked me, I would have made enough progress that they didn't feel comfortable sending me home just yet. So we continued to wait. At times, my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and I was really having to breathe through them. Then I would have one that was 6 minutes apart.I was really starting to hurt and my nurse (Vicki, whom we love and have had with two of our other babies) asked Dr Harris if I could have some IV pain meds while we waited. She agreed and the stadol helped take the edge off for about 15 minutes until Dr Harris arrived to check me again. I was at a 5 and at that point, it was clear I was in official labor. So she broke my water and ordered my epidural. At first, I thought my epidural was going to work and I was so grateful. But as time went on, it became very clear that it was doing nothing for me and I was in tremendous pain. I continued to slowly labor (which is unheard of for me) and at one point, my contractions spread out a lot. They decided to start me on pitocin which caused excruciating pain because my epidural was not working. I was literally screaming and crying and am pretty sure I scared the other women on the floor. It was awful!!!! Finally, the anesthesiologist told me that all he could do was pull it out and try to replace it with another one in a different location. And, he couldn't guarantee it would work. I begged him to at least try and we quickly replaced it while I hollered through contractions. Shortly thereafter, I felt my legs and body start to numb. FINALLY, I had relief and in 30 minutes I dilated from a 6-10 and was ready to push. Dr. Harris stayed after work to deliver just for me. I adore her and am so glad she delivered each one of my babies. I had two contractions, and Haylee Grace Crouse was born! Jaime was by my side and my mom was in the room with me this time. We got some sweet skin-to-skin time and practiced nursing a little before the rest of the family came in to meet our beautiful baby girl. Yes, it was the most excruciating pain I've ever felt in my life. But, I'd do it all again to have this little one in our family. Praising God for the gift of our 4th born!