The Sweetest Things...: Harper's Birth Story

38 weeks 4 days pregnant

on our way to the hospital

Saturday March 2^nd, we decided to head out for a family walk. I was 38 weeks and 4 days pregnant…we walked to Panera and ate dinner, let the boys play outside for a bit, and decided to walk home. On the way home I started having some contractions so once we got home I started timing them to see if they were consistent. They were about four minutes apart for about an hour after getting back so I called my Mom to see what she thought we should do. I was already 3 cm dilated the Wednesday before so we thought it’d be best to go into the hospital just in case. My contractions weren’t anything crazy but my doctor had said to go in if I started contracting cause if my water were to break at home I may not make it to the hospital in time. My brother and his sweet girlfriend Ashley came over and picked up the boys so they could stay the night at my parents house. We went straight to the hospital, arriving at about 8:30 or 9 pm. They put me on the monitor (I was contracting every 4 min), checked me (I was dilated to 4 or 5), and the nurse said “You’ll be staying with us tonight! I still have to call your doctor, but I’m pretty sure we won’t be sending you home.” We were so excited to be meeting our baby girl! The nurse sent us to walk the halls for an hour and said our room would be ready and waiting when we got back.

Walking the halls in labor!

After an hour of walking my contractions starting to pick up, we came back to our room and my nurse said “I have some bad news…your doctor insists that you were already 4-5 cm in the office on Wednesday according to his memory and he wants to send you home if I check you and haven’t made any changes.” I was so angry…my doctor has been anything but great this time around and this was just the icing on the cake. She checked me and I was still 4-5….I told her I wouldn’t be comfortable leaving since I dilated to 7 with Carter and felt nothing. I told her if my water broke I wouldn’t have time to get back….she understood, sent me out to walk for another 30 minutes, and said she would call my doctor while I was gone. Thirty minutes later we got back and she said “Ok, you’re staying! Let’s get things going here…” I was so relieved!! I’m pretty sure she talked some sense into my doctor and I am so grateful that she did!

In labor, hanging out, and super excited to meet our baby!

My contractions stayed at 2-4 minutes apart for the night, I was able to get into the labor tub which was amazing, drink a few large cups of a yummy juice cocktail my nurse made for me since I was starving, and watch some HGTV (a luxury when you don’t have cable at home). My contractions ended up slowing way down, almost stopping completely, at about 4 or 5 in the morning. My nurse checked me and said I was about 7 cm…..exactly what happened in my labor with Carter. I told her all that needed to happen would be for them to break my water and it would go really fast. I didn’t take any pain meds at this point because honestly it hadn’t been bad at all and I was totally able to keep it under control during contractions. My doctor didn’t even come into the hospital until 8:45 am because I was his only patient laboring (thanks doctor!) so once he got there he checked me, said I was 6 cm dilated, and decided that if I didn’t have the baby in a few hours I would be going in for a c-section. I was so blindsided by what he said! I started crying and explaining that once he broke my water she’d be here really soon because this is what happened last time….he then decides that “she’s going to be a big baby! Probably 8 pounds…” My reaction was “What the what?!?! Just last week she was “a small baby” and we even had another ultrasound scheduled to measure her growth. He broke my water and left saying he was going to draw up the paperwork for a c-section and that he’d be back in a few hours. My nurse Jordis was the most amazing nurse I have ever had!! She told him not to say the word “c-section” in my room again and stated that we were far from even thinking of going in that direction. She totally stood up for me and gave me an encouraging pep talk once he left. I seriously love her! Her and I both decided that I wouldn’t get an epidural or anything for pain until I started making progress “just in case”, we didn’t want to risk stalling labor anymore than what it already was since he was bent on taking me in for surgery. As soon as he left my contractions kicked in and started to get more intense…..by 9 am I asked her to check me and I was still a 6…I told her to go ahead and call anesthesia because it was starting to get intense and I knew it’d be awhile to get everything set up and kicked in. She called right away, I had her check me again at 9:10 and I was 7-8 cm and right after that I just naturally started pushing. I panicked and told her what was going on she said “Ok I can’t tell you to push because there’s not doctor here, but I’m right here and I say do what your body needs to do!” They grabbed an on call doctor out of the hallway because at that point her head was well on it’s way out, he only had time to throw a gown on and ended up delivery her with bare hands cause there was no stopping her! It was the craziest most intense seven minutes of my life! I literally thought I was dying and it felt like it’d never end. It took seven minutes to dilate from 7 to delivering her completely. At some point someone had called my doctor to get him to come back in for delivery, he arrived after she was born and said he had just gotten home for breakfast when he got the call and acted like I inconvenienced him when things progressed quickly. He said he thought for sure it’d be at least a few more hours before I had her……I tried to tell him! Needless to say, the Lord was in complete control of everything and it doesn’t matter what the stupid doctor says He kept us safe and healthy! I’m so glad things went quickly and a c-section wasn’t necessary! We delivered in the brand new hospital and had the most amazing staff ever (minus my doctor!)…..the on call doctor that actually delivered Harper was so sweet and calm and I felt completely confident in him caring for us, he was so great! As soon as she was out he said “Whitney, look! You have a beautiful baby!” and I was totally relieved and overflowing with joy and love!

Harper just minutes old!

Daddy fell deep in love!

Things got intense so fast, I felt bad for Kaleb who felt totally helpless and even admitted that he shed a few tears in those few intense minutes because it was so crazy and he didn’t know what to do…he even said he felt like laughing at one point ha! That made me laugh…it was seriously so intense and so crazy I can’t even put it into words but it was also amazing and so surreal. We are so in love with this baby girl it’s ridiculous! God is so good to have blessed us with three healthy babies!! We are so grateful!