I called my husband to come meet me at triage after our NST showed Harry’s heart rate decelerating. My OB said it was best to get induced rather than waiting for any sort of emergency knowing Harry’s heart condition. If you missed part one of my birth story you can read that here. I was 38+6 weeks and had been having contractions on and off for several days to a week. This pregnancy was so much different in many ways from the other kids, one of the things being the contractions. With the other two, my contractions never really stopped. I was confident he would come on his own but my birth plan didn’t happen. There’s something magical about letting your body do what God intended. I wish I had asked more questions because really induction took days anyway, so it didn’t seem like such an emergency. Also, the entire second half of my pregnancy the doctors kept asking me if I wanted to schedule an induction, as if that was just more convenient. Motherhood is far from convenient but all I could do was trust my doctors. You’d think you’ve learned everything by the third baby, but that was far from the truth.

After I checked into triage, they got me all set up on IVs, going over all the details and getting me to a room. This was my first induction and I had no clue how slow this process would be. Now that we are about 3 months postpartum writing this, these details may be a little fuzzy.

Pitocin is what they used to induce me after placing a tiny pill in my cervix. That alone took 4-8 hours to work. Labor was happening slowly and when they tried to increase the amount of pitocin, Harry’s heart rate was decelerating so they had to slow it down.

During labor I used the medicine ball which was great for pain management and eventually the peanut ball. I decided to go ahead and get an epidural as the pain was increasing and this process was so slow. I rolled my hips on the medicine ball most of the first night. Labor was still going so slow, I hadn’t dilated much more. The sun was starting to rise as we approached the next morning.

The nurse assured us that induction can be slow. But there was still enough going on in the room. At one point during the next day, the room was filled with doctors and nurses and so much beeping and panic after his heart rate dipped too low. They gave me a shot of adrenaline to get his heart rate up, but that made my heart race and I was so nauseous. The room was spinning and I was so grateful for my husband’s support at that point. This was day two of labor and I was ready to meet my sweet baby boy.

I had a new nurse and she had decided to increase the pitocin. Harry seemed to be tolerating it well at that point. I went from 4cm dilated around late afternoon to 10cm fast and ready to push. I could feel the contractions through the epidural, which was so much different from my other two natural births. I told Dan something was different and to call the nurse for help.

They gathered the NICU cardiology team and the doctor. Within a few minutes I was pushing. This is the crazy part, I only pushed 3 minutes and sweet baby Harry was born at 10:30 pm, November 10th, two hours shy of my husband’s birthday and also my moms! They placed him on my chest but then quickly had to take him away for monitoring. He looked like baby Savannah! I noticed something going on with the skin on his head, but I was shaking so bad and full of emotions that I didn’t quite know what was wrong.

After the NICU team checked Harry out in the adjoining room, one of the nurses came in and told us he has some lesions on his head which we would find out to be aplasia cutis, which is a rare congenital defect characterized by an absence of skin. So in addition to his heart defect that we learned about during pregnancy, we now were told he had an additional thing wrong. It didn’t even matter; he was perfect in our eyes and we were already so in love. We were yet to learn the extra care this would all take.

My husband went down to the PCICU with Harry while I still was in recovery. I ordered the biggest cheeseburger and after it came I regretted that! I could only stomach several bites. I was still shaking for several hours as the medicine and hormones ran through me.

I finally got to go down to the PCICU and see Harry. His little face just melted my heart and all the wires and cords hooked to him at the same time broke my heart. Even though you know it’s in his best interest, it was just such a different experience than we could imagine. Thankfully after his echo and some tests we were told he wouldn’t need surgery right away. They were paying attention to a specific duct that closes after birth. This would determine when his surgery would be. That’s also what is just a God thing. He could live and thrive while in my belly because I was able to share my blood flow with him. I often wondered how babies survive through pregnancy with heart defects. The body is such an amazing thing! But now that we’re almost at the 4 month mark, his open-heart surgery isn’t that far away. He has already shown us how strong he is when he went through one surgery in December to increase his oxygen levels. He was turning purple when he would have intense crying and they would have done his open-heart surgery then if not for the increased risk of infection with the lesions on his head. So this allows him more time to grow bigger in preparation for the surgery. At this point, the only thing we can do is trust in God and his doctors.

We stayed in the hospital for several more days before going home and I can’t even write about that. The amount of pricks and pokes to Harry I really had a hard time with, especially not getting any sleep. I think I cried as much as him. At one point he was so tired that he wasn’t nursing and his sugar levels got really low. There were just too many scary moments. Honestly, it’s a blur and I don’t want to revisit that! When the big kids got to meet him, that was the highlight of our stay. It was love at first sight!

Our sweet Harry is here and thriving right now! His birth story will be one for the books! He’s our brave, strong little guy surrounded by so much love. He has already surpassed our expectations!

Let me know in the comments if you have a heart baby. We need our community of not only mamas, but also heart warrior mamas! This is such a common disease (1 in 100) without a lot of awareness. Our village means the world!