HARRISON ALEXANDER | A BIRTH STORY

These past few days have been so full of joy! The kind of joy that is both exhausting and lifegiving, and you want to bask in over and over. We welcomed our sweet boy Harrison Alexander Gonzalez on 10/21/18 at 12:47 am in the most unexpected way and today I’m sharing his birth story (see below).

If you’re not into birth stories, scroll down for a few of my favorite pictures from when our babies met for the first time.

Harrison Alexander | a birth story 

Last week, I shared on my Instagram account that I was ready to meet this little guy and a few of you suggested I try castor oil. Since my mom was arriving on Saturday (our safety net) and our induction wasn’t scheduled until Wednesday, I thought I’d chug that oil once she landed to give the natural approach an honest try. We picked mom up from the airport at 1:30 pm and at 2:30 pm I chugged (more like gaged my way through swallowing) the castor oil.

I was a bit groggy all afternoon, but I figured I was just overly exhausted due to the pregnancy and proceeded with our night as usual.  Alex and I watched a Netflix show and we called it early.  It was 9:30 pm and I started to feel a little cramping.  From what I heard and read, castor oil is supposed to “clean you out,” so I was expecting a few bathroom trips that night.

The cramping got progressively worse but I didn’t want to be one of those women who showed up to the hospital, only to be told she’s just having serious bowel issues and was sent back home. So, I waited thinking it would all fizzle out.

Alex drifted off to sleep and I managed through the cramping for the next few hours. I was sure that this was all due to the castor oil, but the shivering and hunching over convinced me to wake Alex.

Around 11:30 pm I whispered “honey, this is probably a false alarm, but maybe we should head to the hospital just in case.”  He flung out of bed and asked me if I was timing my contractions.  I told him they were just too close together and I stopped timing things around 10:45 pm.  Then it came.  The contraction that he says proved to him that I was the most “hard-headed” person he’d ever known.

We passed by my mom’s bedroom and I informed her that we were headed to the hospital but that we’d probably be right back in about an hour or so. The game plan was for her to care for three older kiddos.

The hospital is only 12 minutes away from our home but our car ride consisted of 4 contractions and me telling Alex to pull over because I was about to chuck it all over our Honda. He did, and I did.

I must have looked like a college girl who had too much to drink that night, puking my brains out on the side of the road as cars slowly passed us by, but we pressed on.

We arrived at the hospital at 12:05 am and they called a labor and delivery nurse down to get us. By the look of her smirk and slow pace, I was sure she too thought it was a false alarm and I had just incurred a very expensive emergency room bill for a bad case of the runs.

Her demeanor changed when we got in the elevator and my contractions (and Alex’s face) proved to her that it was a little more serious than we all thought.  She wheeled me into a room and asked me to change into a gown while our labor nurse set up her computer and asked if she could check to see if I was dilating.

A few other nurses walked into the room with smiles on their faces as I contracted my way through a vaginal check from the pits.  All of our eyes were glued to the nurse’s face waiting for some sort of reaction/cue to what the heck was going on.

She said something to the group of nurses and their sweet smiles turned into panic as they paged our doctors and maneuvered around the room setting up the baby warmer and delivery equipment. I didn’t hear what the labor nurse said, so I turned to Alex and asked: “what was that?”  Poor guy…. he looked at me and with a stern voice said “nine. she said nine!”

NINE!!! I was certainly not ready for nine!

This whole time I was just hoping for at most a four.  I figured that way I wouldn’t have to go through the embarrassment of being sent back home, but definitely not a nine.  I was not ready for a nine!

At 12:20 am They hooked me up to an IV and started my fluids in preparation for the epidural that I requested.  One-quarter of the way through the fluids and two contractions later, my doctor showed up ready to check me.  She did and said we were ready to have the baby.

I quickly asked for an update on the epidural and shut my legs praying for the anesthesiologist to show up ready to stick my back and work his magic.  That didn’t happen and the bag of fluids was only 1/2 way through.

Without any sugarcoating, my doctor looked at me and said “you have two options.  You either wait 20 minutes for the rest of the fluids to go through and then we start prepping for the epidural, or we have this baby now.”

It took some sweet talking from Alex and a few “you can do this” from my nurses to convince me that having this baby unmedicated was the best option for all of us.

“Ok let’s do it!”

And off we went….

My doctor broke my water and instructed me to “bear down” with my next contraction.  At that point, I was begging to be sent back home but we were way passed that…

The second contraction came and I am pretty sure I saw a flashing light shining down from heaven calling me home.  I pushed and everyone cheered me on as if I was nearing the end of a marathon and was army crawling to the finish line after my legs had given out.  I may or may not have yelled at the top of my lungs “I CAN’T DO THIS” and “OH GOD HELP ME!” and then after one more push, Harrison shot out like a cannon from the opening scene of Pirates of the Caribbean.

It took another five minutes and a shot of pain meds for me to come back from what I had just endured, but he was here, and he was healthy.

Our sweet boy was born at 12:47 am (only 40 minutes after we arrived at the ER) weighing 7.9lbs and measuring 21 inches.  He was born perfect, with a head full of hair, and his dad’s nose.

We spent the next hour in sitting in shock at what had just occurred.  I apologized to the nurses for my shouting and thanked my doctor for bringing our boy into this world.

Crazy fact:  after he was born, our doctor found a knot on his umbilical cord.  It was a tight knot that could have affected his health and possibly led to his death.  She looked at us and said, “someone was watching after him.”  Alex and I looked at each other and knew that God’s hand was all over this kid’s life.  From our unexpected pregnancy to this moment.  God was completely in control.

I love this picture so much. This little outfit was Haddon’s and it fit Harrison so perfectly. It was such a sweet reminder of how fast time flies and how precious this moment is.

Oh, Gracie! She has not been able to peel herself from her brother’s side.  She is head over heels and laughs at his every expression and his funny noise.

Haddon is so happy there’s another boy in the family.  He promised to teach him to ride a bike and play with his lightning McQueen toys, which is basically their first spit-handshake pact.

My bookends. 

Emory grew up before my eyes this week.  She’s always been so tiny, but now she’s the biggest little girl and has already claimed Harrison as her roommate. 

My mama flew up just in time to be our pillar of support and make all my favorite meals.

Thank you guys for all of the kind words and love that you’ve sent our way!