Aiden's Birth Story

I know this is a couple weeks coming, but I've finally had a break in all the visits from family and friends, not to mention my sheer exhaustion, to finally get the story down of how Aiden finally arrived in this world!

As many of you know, I spent the prior 1-1/2 weeks before Aiden was born regularly contracting (5-10 minutes). They grew in intensity over time. Tuesday night before Aiden was born, I spent the whole night up contracting and I seriously thought we were going to the hospital! I spent the night sitting on the couch because laying down was WAY too uncomfortable during my contractions. Nate was sweet and fell asleep on the other couch as I literally sat and rocked back and forth during my contractions. I just happened to have an appointment with my OB Wednesday morning, for which I was grateful for! I went in for my appointment and talked to Dr. Pead about how I was up all night with intense contractions. He checked me and said I was at a solid 3, to which I then groaned. All night contracting and I was only at a 3?!?! ACK! As we continued to talk, he asked if I would be willing to go into the hospital that day to be induced. He wanted to induce me the week before, but I wheeled and dealed with the doc to give me a week to try and get Aiden out on my own haha. I have a chronic kidney condition, so he was really wanting me to be induced ASAP. After the night I had just had, I had NO problems being sent over to the hospital! The doc scheduled me to show up right around lunchtime, so I then went home to start rearing up the troops!

I walked in the door, and Katelyn and Nate were still lounging around. I had a little smirk on my face and said "Time to start packing things up, we're going to the hospital!" Nate kind of chuckled and started getting real excited about things finally getting going. I think he spent more time on the phone telling people that we were headed to the hospital than getting things ready to go haha ;). Before we left the house, I sat down with Katelyn and talked to her about how we were going to the hospital, so Aiden could finally come out and meet everyone. She squealed with excitement, which absolutely cracked me up! We got all our stuff and Katelyn put into the car, and then dropped Katelyn off at my dad's house. Nate and I then went and grabbed a bite to eat, because I knew once I walked into the hospital they wouldn't let me have anything!

We then got to the hospital a little after noon and got checked in without much of a hitch. Much didn't happen the first couple of hours we were at the hospital because my doc wanted me to get my first dose of penicillin before they started cranking up the Pitocin. The nurse gradually titrated it up and after a while my contractions were getting quite intense. My nurse kept chuckling everytime she came into check on me and bump up the Pit because I was just chilling in bed reading or playing on my laptop. Once my contractions did start to get intense, I was walking around my room because I still couldn't stand to be in bed with how intense the contractions were getting. Right at 6 p.m. my nurse came in and I told her I was finally ready for my epidural. The anesthesiologist was in my room within almost seconds, YEA! As he's prepping me, he asks me what my pain rating is during my contractions. Just knowing they were getting pretty crazy painful, but not sure exactly what to rate them, I said "Uhhhh, a 6 maybe?" About 30 seconds later, I had a contraction that I started groaning during, just to get through it! The anesthesiologist said "That sure doesn't SOUND like a 6! You're supposed to call me BEFORE you get to this point! Quit trying to be so tough!" By that time, the contraction had ended, so I was able to actually laugh at what he said instead of bitch slapping him! A few minutes later I had my epidural in and I was glad to have it done. I love having epidurals, but the process has made me nervous both times. I wasn't so nervous this time because it wasn't 3 a.m. and my anesthesiologist hadn't just woken from a deep sleep like with Katelyn ;). I hadn't had my epidural for more than 2 minutes when the nurse told me that Dr. Pead would be in shortly to break my water. No sooner had she said this, I was just barely beginning to feel the tingling in my legs (not even numb yet, just tingly) when I felt a big POP. My initial thought was that Aiden and just head-butted my cervix, but then I realized that my water had just broken. Because the nurse hadn't even left the room yet from my epidural being done, I looked at her and said "Um, I think my water just broke!" I wasn't entirely sure because the doctor had to break my water with Katelyn. So, the nurse checked me and said "Yep, you sure did! That's amnoitic fluid!" I was really happy that my water had broken on it's own this time! I was so dissapointed that I had to be induced, that I was glad that something had occurred on it's own! Not to mention, it's a heck of a lot less painful for it to happen on it's own!!! Literally 60 seconds after my water broke, Dr. Pead walked in to break my water, just to find out it already had, to which I exclaimed to everyone "Yea! No giant crochet hook!" Those of you who have had your water artificially broken know EXACTLY what I'm talking about! Thirty minutes after getting my epidural, I was still feeling my legs pretty good. I could have walked with my legs if I wanted to. Not to mention, I could still feel my contractions with pretty good intensity and I had a lot of pelvic pressure. I had the anesthesiologist come back in and up the dose on my epidural. I was borderline C-section dose! I couldn't figure out why I was having such problems! Fortunately, upping the dose helped with that, which made me feel much better because all I could think was "If I went through all that trouble to get an epidural, it sure as HELL better WORK!!!" After about an hour, I finally felt comfortable! Woo hoo!

Nate and I spent the next 1-1/2 hours hanging out and chatting. Close to 8:30 p.m., I began to feel some pressure, similar to the pressure I was feeling before my epidural fully kicked in. At first I thought maybe it was beginning to wear off and then I thought that Aiden might finally be ready to come out. I wasn't entirely sure because when I was checked about an hour prior, I was at a 6+. My nurse was only a couple minutes out from checking on me, so I waited for her to come in. I told her I was feeling pressure and she checked me. Not only was I fully dilated, but Aiden's head was most definitely there! The nurse quickly got Dr. Pead and got everything else ready for Aiden to be pushed out. Once Dr. Pead was in there, I started pushing. It only took one contraction to get her out (I know, don't shoot me!). I pushed 4 times during the contraction, I barely had a second to catch my breath in between pushes, but that's all it took for sweet Aiden to come into this world!

Here she is moments after being born!


Aiden Nicole Soules was born June 17, 2009, at 8:50 p.m. She was 7 lb. 10 oz. and 18.5 inches long.




Only a few minutes after Aiden was born, our families were already en route to the hospital to come and see her. Nate's parents had to fly out early Thursday morning for the Tab Choir tour, so it was a good thing Aiden was born early enough in the night so they could see her before they left for 2 weeks. My dad and Melissa also came up with Katelyn, so she could meet her new baby sister!

Here's the proud big sister!


I'm so glad that she is finally here and a part of our family!