Introducing Hudson Zane Palmer and Garrett's birthday

Hudson gave us a run for our money!  Here's the story:

Hudson was born Monday May 16, 2016 around 12:30pm.  He weighed 6lbs. 15 oz, our biggest baby :) and was 19 1/2 in long.  Now, on with the story.  Denver and I went into the hospital for the induction at 8ish.  We told the nurse that I go pretty fast once the Pitocin starts.   Once all was said and done, she said that was the fastest she has seen anyone go from start to finish for an induction.  Now back to the story.  I was put on the lowest setting of Pitocin drip (I think a 4).  I progressed well.  When the contractions started to get harder, I asked for my epidural.  The anesthesiologist must have hit a blood vessel because Denver said blood squirted every where (and he had never seen that happen before in my previous births) and I ended up with a painful, huge, dark bruise that lasted weeks.

I progressed quickly, but the nurse really wanted to get a full bag of meds in me because I was positive for group B strep.  She wanted to wait 15 more minutes, but I was already a 10.  The Dr. came in and I pushed.  After 3 contractions of pushing, Hudson came out.  They rushed him away because of the meconium.  Later we found out from the pediatrician that he had to be resuscitated. He also was born with a big bruise on his forehead.   Once he was breathing and I was being stitched up (I tore), they brought him to me to nurse.

At this point, I didn't feel very good.  Normally I am excited and overjoyed that my baby was born, but I felt tired and sick.   I had a migraine.  They brought me some soup for lunch.  I ate it, hoping it would make my stomach feel better. 

About 2 hours after delivery, they moved me from the delivery room to postpartum.  During the transfer of beds, I hemorrhaged.  I lost a lot of blood.  In an instant, 4 or 5 nurses and the OB (Dr. Stevens, not my Dr. but the one on call.  She was great) were in the room, working on me.  One was kneading  my stomach, and others were doing things with my IV, etc.  Then Dr. Stevens put her arm inside to clean me out.  Denver said she was in up to her elbow.  Luckily for me, my epidural was still keeping me somewhat numb.  My head was pounding so I asked the nurse for some medicine.  About 5-10 minutes after I took the meds, I told my nurse I needed a bucket to throw up.  She brought one and then I puked in it a few times.  FUN!  It was a miserable time.  Migraine, hemorrhaging, etc. But after I threw up, I surprisingly felt much better. 

Because all the nurses and Dr. were working with me, I couldn't hold Hudson. I was keeping him skin to skin before the move, because he couldn't keep his body warm on his own.  But I couldn't do that with all the hemorrhaging and such so the nurse said, "Dad, take off your shirt, baby needs to be skin to skin with you."  Surprised, Denver did as he was told. :). 

After everything seemed to be under control, the Dr. and nurses left.  My bedding was cleaned up and they started another round of the Pitocin drip to help my uterus tighten some more. 

I was tired and drained.   An hour or two later, a nurse came in to knead my stomach to see how my uterus was doing.  I then started to hemorrhage again.  The Dr. came in quickly and after they gave me some morphine through my IV, the Dr. proceeded to clean me out again, thinking there were pieces of the placenta left in my uterus.  The epidural was completely worn off by that point and I'm sure the morphine helped, but it was not comfortable or fun at all when she inserted her arm, to her elbow, inside me to sweep my clean.  There was talk of having to do a D&C and a blood transfusion if I continued to hemorrhage.  I was cleaned up, they weighed my blood (all together I lost over 1 1/2 liters of blood) and then the parade of nurses left again.  At this point, I was weak and pale.  I was also very scared.  With tears in my eyes, I asked Denver for a priesthood blessing.  He gave me one. 

We were going to have my parents bring the kids to see the baby, but I just didn't have any energy for them to come so they all stayed home with my parents.  Denver stayed overnight.  I was sooooo glad my parents were there to help while we had the baby.  If they weren't, he couldn't have stayed overnight and I really needed him there.  Because they didn't want me to stand to use the bathroom because of the blood loss, a catheter was inserted.  That's a very uncomfortable thing.  They left it in all night.  At first my urine was red.  It was very concerning to me and my nurse.  (she was nice, a little rough around the edges, but very caring)  The Dr said it could be because of the trauma to the area.  Gratefully, by morning, my urine was looking a lot more clear and less red.  The next day went on without any thing crazy, thankfully. Just the tests on baby, pictures, visits, etc.  Denver went to work that day.  He planned to take the whole next week off after my parents left.  I had the choice to go home that day or wait for the next day.  I knew that if I waited to go home the next day, it would be later in the afternoon, after Denver got home from work and I didn't want to wait that long so I opted to go home that evening with strict orders from the Dr. to rest for 2 weeks  and not do anything so  my body could  replenish the blood that was lost.

The kids hadn't met him yet so they got a chance to meet him that evening.   He was so little!  I'm writing this post nearly 5 months later. 

Deacon and my parents were the only ones that came to the hospital to see the baby so Deacon told everyone that we bought the baby at the hospital. :)

Garrett turned 11 on May 22nd. 

trying out his rollerblades in the house.  he was falling all over the place :)

Garrett's dinner choice was homemade pizza.

We love having Hudson in our family, as hard as it was to get him out.  :)  I call him my Asian baby because he has Asian eyes (kind of).  His nickname is Huddy Buddy or in Deacon's language, "Hudda Buddy".