Hello Cruel World!

I often wonder if that is what babies think as they are born. Seriously. Especially if the birth is somewhat traumatic...although, quite honestly, I think every birth is pretty traumatic...I'm feeling traumatized...But I won't go there right now.

So, if you couldn't already guess, we have a new little friend added to our family! His name is Peter William Hendriksen. He was born on Friday, January 9th, at 6:25pm. Anyone want to hear a birth story? Well, if you do, read on. If not, you can look at the pictures.

So, it all began last Monday. I went in for my doctor's appointment. And, as I expected, no change. No dilating...no contractions...no end in sight. So, they had down that my due date was the 10th. Well, I said it would probably all end in an induction anyway, so when could we set that up? They don't do inductions on the weekends, so they said I could set it up for Friday morning. I could go into the office on Thursday afternoon, have a Foley put in (if you REALLY want to know what that is, go google it or something) to see if that would help me dilate overnight, send me home, and then if I haven't gone into labor overnight, I would just jump over to the hospital in the morning and start whatever I was going to do! I agreed to that plan, but quite honestly figured they'd find some reason to change their minds and make me wait a few more days...

Well, I went in on Thursday, still no change at all whatsoever, so in went my friend the Foley. I went home, and hoped and hoped that I'd go into labor...no such luck. Friday morning, in we went to the hospital. We got all settled, and I got my other friend: the IV with pitocin. Oh well. C'est la vie pour moi.

Anyway, with the pit, I started having little contractions. Nothing scary. Nothing noteworthy. Devin and I just sat and watched movies and chatted. By 1pm, they started really 'up-ing' the pit, and I was at a 3. Blah. Not fun. About 3 more hours went by, with the pit going up and up and up, the contractions getting worse and worse and worse, and by 4pm I was a 5. Ok. That was enough for me. I gave in and got my very best friend: The Epidural. Ah, bliss. That nice warm tingly feeling and a smile on my face...and, boy, am I glad I chose that route!!

So, I happily laid back. Devin and I finished our movie. By about 6pm, it seemed that things were still going pretty slowly. Devin hadn't eaten for a long time, so I told him he should run down to my parent's house (it's about 1 1/2 blocks from the hospital) and grab some food and maybe some more games to play. The thought ran through my mind that if I send him, something will happen while he's gone, but I felt bad that he really hadn't eaten all day, so he ran off.

About 2 minutes later, my CNM came in to check me. To my surprise, I was a 9...the only thing was, she thought she felt the baby's nose. Hmmm... So, she wanted to call in the doctor to make a quick check with the ultrasound and see if we could get the head down instead of face first. I thought to myself, I should call Devin. But, then, I figured he wasn't even back to my parent's house yet, so I decided to wait until the doctor came and see what was up--give Dev some more time to eat before I made the call.

Well, in came the doc. The ultrasound machine was out. They looked, and lo and behold, it was not the nose...it was the foot. The baby was breech!! And I was a 9!! Ok...so the next 5 minutes or so had the doctor pushing as hard as he could trying to turn the baby around the right way. I can't even describe my feelings here. Number one, I am SOOOOOO grateful I had had an epidural, because if I would have been able to feel all of that, it would have been beyond excruciating for me. Number two, I can't believe that my water hadn't broken by then, or didn't break during the process. God loves me. Seriously. If my water would have broken, there would have been NO WAY they could have even tried to turn the baby around! They finally managed to turn him around...miraculously! I was pretty amazed at that. Then, the doc went to break my water. As he did, he went to check me, and said, and I quote: "Shoot". I don't like hearing doctors say that. But, at least this is Idaho, and he's a high councilman with my dad, so he doesn't swear. :)

Apparently, as he checked to make sure it was the top of the head, he felt instead, the cord. Not being a doctor or having experienced anything quite like this before, I didn't know it was bad. "So what? I'll just push and he'll be out!" I guess it was a big deal. Because all of a sudden in rushed about 30 people...lab techs, surgery people, NICU people, more nurses...etc., etc., etc. And here's the funny thing: Through this whole thing, I STILL haven't called Devin (I'm sorry! I honestly was NOT thinking very straight!!) I suppose I just thought, "Well, they'll turn the baby around and then I'll have a good half hour or so left to give him a call." So, not only have I not called him this whole time, BUT when he left, he gave me the cell phone, so I actually had the silly thing IN MY HAND through it all! HA!! So at this point everyone said to me, CALL THE DAD!! Oh yah... So, I shakily dialed the number (only shaky because I still had no idea what was going on...) and my mom answered and I said, "You'd better send Devin NOW!!" and I hung up in time to have someone slap an oxygen mask on me. I hate those things. I can't breathe with them on!!! Oh well. At least I didn't feel anything from the waist down!! :) Yea!!! At that point (and I truly did not realize this until today...) they were prepping me for a c-section. I'm SO glad that I didn't know that that was what they were doing, because I think I may have started to hyperventilate! (That's probably why they threw that oxygen mask over my head!) So, I guess I was this close // to having a c-section.

So, here I am, happily enjoying my epidural, and watching a whole lot of very frantic people running around the room. It was pretty surreal! Then, all of a sudden, the doctor says to me, "Ok, start pushing!" What?!? Well, ok. So, we get to start on that process... After about 2 pushes, the doctor asks me if I had a history of long pushing times. Nope. Usually 3-4. Well, that held true for this one, too. Thank goodness! I think if I would have gone longer than the 5 minutes it took to have Peter, they would have brought out a knife, and I would have passed out. As it was, they used a vacuum thing on Peter's head, so he had this really cool round bruise on his poor little head. Welcome to life, kiddo!

So, they got Peter out. And they were rushing him over to the little crib-y thing firefighter style (passing from one person to the next as fast as possible) when in walks Devin! "Hi Dev! There's our son!" I'm somewhat glad he missed all the excitement...I think he would have been going crazy just sitting there and watching all of that go on. So, I suppose I saved him from being traumatized! :)

I have to admit, that after all that was over and they were cleaning up the baby and doing a few stitches...I think I was in shock. I felt really strange. Talk about an out of body experience... But I am so grateful that it turned out the way it did. All those different factors that made it possible to avoid a c-section; a healthy little baby boy; capable doctors, nurses and midwives who were able to react at a moment's notice; the medical knowledge and capabilities that made it a safe environment--just think if I had tried to have this little guy in Africa!!! NO WAY!! They say every baby birth is a miracle. Yes. Miracles happen every day. And I'm grateful for all the miracles that helped to bring little Peter to our family.

Little Peter:




He looks like he's smiling! :)


Dad and all the kids admiring the new little baby:


All the kiddies!


Mom looking on...



Mmmmm...Cranberry Juice...My FAVORITE drink to have in the hospital!


Before Church the kids came to visit, so we took a nice picture of them in their nice church clothes:


Getting dressed... Isn't he adorable??


All ready to head 'home':



Ok, so I LOATHE putting up pictures with myself in them...especially ones like this...BUT it is the 'welcome home' picture, so it had to go in. And besides, maybe it will motivate me a little bit. :/ The first thing Josh says to me when I got home: "Mom! I think you have another baby in your tummy!" yah. thanks.
The kids all made a 'Welcome Home Mommy and Baby Peter' sign and held it up in the window when we drove up in the drive way! It was so cute, and apparently it was all Josh's idea! :) So cute! :)


Welcome Home, Baby! We are happy to have you a part of our family! :)