The Story of Helo's Birth

       Since my husband and I struggled for over 3 year with infertility before Helo was born, I feel as though the telling of how Helo came into this world, is worth telling.  I will start with his birth, as this is his blog.

       On Tuesday July 26th at 6:30 in the evening, I was admitted to Wright-Patterson AFB hospital to have labor induced at 39 weeks into my pregnancy.  I chose to be induced because of a few conditions that I have, including a blood clotting factor.  It was deemed "safer" because they had time to prepare for us, and have all the necessary things on hand, "just in case".  I was warned of the higher risk of needing a C-section.  I was ok with it.  After being admitted, and having an IV started, (which scared me more than labor), a foli-bulb was inserted into my cervix to hopefully increase dilation and induce labor into starting.  It took all night and part of the next day for the bulb to fall out naturally.  That night was the most uncomfortable night EVER.  There was an external heart monitor for the baby, and he kept moving around, so the alarm kept going off.  Did I mention that I had to hear 2 other laboring mothers alarms going off in my room as well? Yeah....that is the way the system was set up. No sooner would I get comfy and in a position I could stay in, when someone else's alarm would go off. OH WELL.... We waiting about 6 hours for dilation to increase, which it didn't, so a pitocin drip was started.  It was started slowly and steadily increase over the following 6 hours. At about 6 o'clock the next evening, the OB came in, and decided to break my water.  That went pretty smoothly.  Next came the decision to place a heart rate monitor on Helo's head inside the womb.  He moved so much, that it was hard to find him externally.  That was ok, if you don't mind having someones entire fist on one hand and a few finger of the other, stuck inside your body.  Restart the waiting game.

        After the third increase of pitocin, I decided it was time to get pain medication.  I was initially going to simply start with regular pain meds, like percocet.  A fantastic nurse suggested to me that I get my epidural right away, due to the fact that when starting the epi-line, you need to sit totally still.  If contractions got bad, it would be impossible to do!  I am SOOO glad that she told me and that I took her advice.  The anesthesiologist came in to do my epidural, and at first, I kinda thought she was rude because she was asking me all kids of questions I REALLY did not feel like answering. (Call me crazy but contractions don't make me want to go through my medical history orally).  Only later, would I appreciate how great she really was.  Well, after practically breaking my husbands fingers holding on to him to hold still, the line was placed.  After the fact, the anticipation was far worse than the reality of how it felt to get one!  I was successfully dosed with medication and my lower body went numb in a warm fuzzy glow.  I felt SOOO much better.

       I got settled in, to hopefully get some sleep for this evening.  It was about 2 in the morning, and I was running on about 4 hours of sleep in the last 36 hours.  I had just dozed off, when alarms started going off like crazy in my room, and the lights were flipped on.  The room was flooded with nurses, and I was totally confused as to why.  I was told that Helo's heart rate had dropped to a very dangerous level, and that they needed to get it back up right away.  They had me flip on my side, and helped me hold up one of my legs in a permanent leg lift.  I was still pretty groggy, and sort of scared by now, but still relatively calm.  Then I was flipped over and told to sit doggy style (hard to do when you can't feel most of your lower body), a waver was read to me, which I had to approve orally, all the while I hear nurses and doctors being rushed in and called from other areas of the hospital.  I heard that the O.R. was prepped and ready.  I was being rushed in for emergency surgery to deliver my son, who was in respiratory and cardiac distress.

       I was quickly dressed in a cap and gown, and flooded with oxygen, and rushed butt-up and naked into the operating room.  Let me tell you, delivering a child removes all vestiges of modesty.  I was flipped over, stripped almost naked and strapped to a table.  Then guess what? The little booger decided that say "kidding everyone, I am going to breathe normally now".  I lay on the table for 20 minutes, with the surgeon monitoring everything, trying to calm me down.  Then he told me that if at  all possible, they wanted Helo to be delivered naturally.  Since his vitals went back to normal and stayed there for 20 minutes, the doctors all decided that they would take me back to my room and see if I would go into natural labor and deliver vaginally.

       I was wheeled back to my room and transferred back to my bed. It took about 10 minutes, and I was just comfortable when all the alarms went off again!  This time I knew what to expect. Everyone was in the room again, but it went a little smoother this time.  However this also meant I had enough time to panic a little and the guilt started in. I suddenly felt like I had done a disservice to my little one.  I know that delivering vaginally is just better for the overall health and initial development of babies. Then I started to get scared of the pain.  The surgery wasn't planned so I asked if they could just knock me out entirely.  The lovely anesthesiologist told me that they did not want to do that unless it was ABSOLUTELY necessary because if I went out, so did the baby and that was not good.  She then told me not to worry, she would make sure that I was good and numb! lol  I was taken back to the O.R. where the surgeon told me that they were going to take him. The team did not know what was causing his distress, and since it had happened before, they did not want to take any chances.

       I  had not had much fluids, so I was placed on a second I.V. in my other hand.  There was a nurse there just squeezing fluids through the I.V.s.  The anesthesiologist started to give me more medicine, I am really not sure what, but it worked. I could not feel anything from my chest down.  That is when I started to go into distress as well. My heart rate was dropping and not coming back up, so they had to give me, I believe epinephrine. I still kept passing out, but my heart rate came up. Every time I started to pass out,  Joe had the job of keeping me awake, which was difficult. He kept having to smack my face, and bend my hand, which hurt enough to keep me awake for a short time. All the while, the nurses were asking me questions, to try and keep my attention as well.  I think it was a combo of the drugs, and being DEAD tired.  I was so tired, I did not even get to enjoy seeing me son after he was delivered.  I remember glancing at him, and looking over after they surrounded him on the little cart.  I was worried about him, but you could not have kept me awake if you had nailed my eyelids open. I cried the whole time.  Helo Alexander Huff was born 3:57 a.m. on July 28th, 2011.

        Once they surgeon had me opened up, it was discovered that Helo had his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck a couple of times and also around his torso. My little man was strangling himself.  If I had tried to deliver vaginally, it could have been VERY bad for us.  I would have probably ended up in surgery anyway.  That allowed me to feel a bit less guilty about being induced. All in all the delivery took about 20 minutes and then they had to sew me up which took another 15 or so.  I was then taken to our post-delivery room.  I woke up on the way there long enough to ask if Helo was o.k. and then I passed out!

       I had an excellent delivery team.  They were efficient, fast, and on the ball.  If I had less care, I could have lost my son. I will be forever grateful to God and to them for keeping me and my son safe and bringing him into this world.
 
       Things happened so quickly, I did not get to have any photos of Helo right after he was born, so here are some in our room.

Helo and Daddy

      

      

Helo and I after his delivery.

Helo and Grandma Waltho