Hoffman Happenings: Happy Birthday Parker Reed!

Today at 12:15 my baby boy will turn one. I cannot believe how quickly our first year together has flown by and all that has occurred in a year. Sometimes it feels like we just met this amazing little guy and other times it feels like he has been around forever, more often the latter.

It is really weird, but whenever it gets close to Braden's birthday and now Park's I find myself thinking about what I was doing this time a year ago or 4 years ago in Braden's case....This is the time I was checking into the hospital, this was when this happened, etc. I have already shared B's birth story and for the sake of my memory than for anyone else I am going to retell it here. Some pieces at the end are a bit foggy- thanks to the nubain, but I will try to record it as accurately as I remember it to be. Here goes....

My due date was not until the 27th of December, but I was so worried about having him on Christmas and being away from Braden that Dr. Williams allowed me to go in for an early induction. Brad and I headed to the hospital on Monday, December 21. My brother and Erica came to take care of Braden and he was thrilled! Braden and I stopped at Olive Garden for one last meal with just the two of us before we became a family of 4. We checked in at the Birth Center just before 7:00 pm. We met our nurses, I had blood taken and after three painful attempts to insert a port into my arm we were given our first dose of Cytotec. After much discussion with Dr. Williams we chose Cytotec to induce since I did not have any luck after three 12 hour rounds of Cervidel with Braden. Dr. Williams informed us that the Cytotec can be given every 4 hours instead of every 12 and that would give us flexibility with other options. When I arrived at the hospital I was already dilated to a 2 and we were hopeful that I would progress quickly since I had not with Braden.

That was not to be the case! By 8 am the next morning and 2 rounds of Cytotec, I was having contraction without any cervical change- no softening or dilation. I got up, ate breakfast, got a bath and they inserted a third round of Cytotec and started a low dose drip of pitocin. I was having painful contractions, but they were not as bad as with Braden so I decided against any pain medication and I wasn't dilated enough for an epidural. Every 2hours they continued to check me for change and the result was always the same- NO CHANGE! Around 2:00 my nurse came in- she was awesome- and informed me that there was a chance Dr. Williams might release me. WHAT?!? I came with the purpose of delivering this baby and I was not leaving without him! I had absolutely no idea that they could release someone who came in for an induction. After praying about it and lots of discussion with the nurse and Brad, I knew what we needed to do when Dr. Williams came to see me. Dr. Williams came in at 5 pm and discussed my option with me- 1.- They could break my water, but I would probably end up having a C section 2. They could release me and I could come back for another induction on my due date or 3. I could go home and come back when things started happening- I went into labor on my own. I already had my mind made up- I wanted to go home...in no way did I want to put myself at risk for a C section. The only downfall to me going home was that I was still having contractions every 2-4 minutes and they were causing me some pain. Dr. Williams informed me that my contractions could go on for days like this and may not go away at all. We checked out of the hospital just after 6 pm and we met my parents and my aunt and uncle(they had Braden) for a quick dinner at Mad Cactus . I was in a good deal of pain so my parents took Braden home with them for the night so that I could go home and rest. As soon as we got home I took a hot bath and went straight to bed. Other than my contractions, it was a wonderful sleep- no lights, no beeping monitors, no nurses coming in every hour to check on me. Then I awoke to a wet feeling. Uh-oh, did I pee my pants? Nope!

My water broke just after 5 am. Dr. Williams had given Brad his personal number and told Brad to call him right away if anything happened- given the fact that I can go from a 0-10 in 45 minutes! We got up, quickly changed clothes, called my parents and Brad's parents and headed to the hospital. Dr. Williams was waiting on us when we arrived and they checked me into triage to see if I was really in labor. While I was in triage some of my amniotic fluid was yellow colored so they were a little concerned, but it quickly changed back to clear and they attributed it to Parker may have been in a tiny bit of distress, but was fine now. They quickly got me into a room- the same room that I had left less than 12 hours earlier and went to work taking blood and attempting to insert a port again. After 3 more attempts and 2 blown veins and I mean they blew- knotted up and turned purple and blue within seconds, they finally found a vein that could support a port. They started me on a pitocin drip right away and cranked it up. By 8:30 am I was in a great deal of pain from the pitocin, but refused any pain medication because I didn't want to be loopy when Chad brought Braden to see me- I remembered how I felt when they put me on pain meds (statal) when Braden was born.

Chad and Braden arrived around 9:30 am and I got to visit with them both for a little while. My parents, Brad's parents and Chad took turns entertaining Braden for the remainder of my labor. Around 10:30 I was in so much pain- my contractions were very strong from the pitocin and were coming one after the other without any time to recover- Brad convinced me to get some pain meds since I couldn't get an epidural since I was only dilated to 3 cm. They put me on Nubain and everything after that is a bit of a blur. I remember feeling very heavy and waking up often in pain, but other than that I don't remember much until my nurse told me that I was dilated to a 9 and she wasn't sure that I was going to be able to get an epidural AGAIN because I had gone from a 3 to 9 cm in a VERY short amount of time. I remember trying to process this- telling myself that I had done it before and I could do it again- just get him out! They wanted me to wait to push until I was completely ready so that I wouldn't tire out so quickly and to save me some pain since I couldn't have the epidural. They left the pitocin drip on so my contractions were still VERY intense. It was finally go time and I pushed for just over 10 minutes, had the ULTIMATE pain again, delivered a beautiful baby boy and instantly felt amazing- like I could do it all over again!

Parker Reed Hoffman was born on December 23, 2009 at 12:15 pm and our life has been blessed with his sweet presence ever since. It was an instant love and seemed that he was always meant to be part of our family. We brought him home to spend the night on Christmas Eve and he was our special gift. It is incredible how the birth of your child can fill you with an unconditional love and desire to care for and protect this little hopeless being almost instantly. I believe that birthing my babies, though as hard and as painful as it was, is the easiest part of being a parent. After that incredible climax the journey has just begun. I can't wait to see where Parker Reed Hoffman's journey leads him and us- you know we will be tagging along for the ride!