Arden's Birth Story (Part 1 of 2)

January 17, 2015

Sweet Baby Arden,

As I type this, you’re sitting next to me in a little bassinet, staring off into the distance with those beautiful bluish-gray eyes of yours. I can’t help but tear up with so much thankfulness and gratefulness that you are a gift that the Lord chose to give us. I will never, ever take that for granted. 

You arrived at 7:17 am on Monday, January 12 at United Regional L&D room 4412. Let me tell you your story. 

You’re the third born child of the Ben Hoover family. Your brother Grant is 4 and your sister Blair is 2. I remember growing up, wondering if I would ever be able to have my own biological children. I’ve had type 1 diabetes since I was 8 years old and way back then, diabetics could have babies, but often there were birth defects, complications, stillbirths, anything terrible you could possibly imagine, associated with diabetic pregnancies. I remember reading through a pamphlet I found in a doctor’s office when I was 13 or 14 about how it was almost impossible to have a healthy baby as a diabetic. I remember grieving thinking I wouldn’t get to carry a child. Thank you, Jesus…look at us now. You are healthy and precious and beautiful and I absolutely believe that you are a miracle.

This pregnancy was a little rougher than the rest. I actually felt better physically because I worked out doing intense exercising called CrossFit until I was about 34.5 weeks pregnant. Despite the working out, my blood sugars were a lot harder to control this time. Partly due to running around after your siblings, partly from working nights, partly from a third pregnancy taking a toll on my body. I took anti-nausea medicine from 6 weeks to 22 weeks pregnant. I never took any medicine with your siblings. You just wanted to make your presence known. 

On Christmas morning, I was almost 35 weeks pregnant with you. I had told your Dad that I was getting so tired…that I was nearing the end of my rope in exhaustion after your Uncle John’s wedding, being sick with a sinus infection for almost a month, waking up 2-5 times a night with blood sugar and sensor readings, insomnia, your big brother and sister “sharing a room” that caused them to not go to bed until 10p every night, and working quite a few nights in L&D. Well, it was the truth because as I was loading the car with Christmas presents to leave for FW, I got really lightheaded and dizzy. I stopped, felt my pulse race, and realized my heart had gone into SVT. My pulse was about 250 beats per minute. I yelled for your Dad, who was out in the backyard hanging a zipline (pulling the cable tighter with his truck) in true Hoover fashion. He yelled at me back, telling me to chill out because he thought I was getting annoyed that he was so sidetracked with a project when we were supposed to be leaving. (Any other day I would have been.) “No,” I yelled, “I need you now!” I tried bearing down, blowing through a straw, every nurse trick I knew to bring down a heart rate but nothing worked. I started feeling faint so I said we need to go to the ER. Your dad drove like a maniac and I remember telling him that he was going to kill us all long before we ever got to the hospital. Thankfully, we survived and pulled into the ER parking lot. I didn’t want to go in…because who really wants to go to the ER on Christmas morning?! My anxiety started creeping in, and I started becoming short of breath, imagining what the fetal monitor would show, imagining that I could meet you via emergency c-section in the next 15 minutes, and I got out of the car and went in. I was quickly triage and taken to a room in the ER. (They don’t like seeing pregnancy women with cardiac issues in the ER.) I called L&D to tell them I was going to the ER, called Dr. Lamar on his cell phone and gave him a heads-up. (It’s nice to know your healthcare providers so well.) Long story made slightly shorter, I had an IV started and the doctor had just ordered adenosine (an IV med that basically stops and restarts your heart) to fix my rhythm. I told them they couldn’t give me the medication before I was on a fetal monitor. Sherry, one of my favorite nurses from L&D, was on her way to monitor me, and all of the sudden, after about an hour in SVT, my chest tightened up, I felt like I couldn’t breathe for a second, and my heart converted on its own. My pulse had dropped from about 235 to 103. Weird, weird feeling. Sherry got there with the monitor, your heart rate looked FABULOUS, they monitored me for another hour or so, then discharged me home to follow-up with a cardiologist. What a crazy little experience that was. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to phase you one bit though. And it bought me a two to three day break from dishes and picking up the house.

At my next appointment, Dr. Lamar and I agreed that the time to have a baby was sooner rather than later. Our original plan had been to be induced at 38 weeks. Both Grant and Blair broke their clavicle at delivery because my pelvis is oddly shaped (apparently) and not necessarily because they were big (8lb1oz and 8lb3oz), which can be a complication from uncontrolled blood sugars. So we thought an earlier delivery would help offset your size. Let’s just bump up that induction date to 37 weeks…

Thus, enter a psychotic nesting stage. Truthfully, I had done VERY LITTLE to prep for your arrival. Not because we didn’t love you, but because it’s kind of hard prepping for #3, whom you don’t know the sex of. Sarah Schneider did…but we didn’t. She made your name sign and ordered matching sibling shirts in advance, but that’s about all we had ready for you. (And tons of diapers. We did had diapers at least.) We had to finish moving Blair and Grant into the same room, and also felt this crazy need to paint our bedroom and bedroom ceiling. (Your parents are a little nuts sometimes. I’m sure you’ll figure this out one day.)

But Jesus helped me prepare for you on a lot of different levels. The week before your arrival, we had a sweet lady come clean the house on Wednesday, January 7, I worked my last night until your arrival on Thursday, January 8, I met with Sherril on Friday, January 9, and we talked about looking for Jesus in the room during your labor and delivery and thanking Him for what a unbelievable gift He was giving us. On Saturday, January 10, Sarah had bought and scheduled a prenatal massage. And then an unexpected twist…we actually put an offer in on a house that day…but that’s a whole different story. I was about as ready as I was going to be for your arrival.

So, on Sunday, January 11, we got up like normal, went to church with Grant and Blair, and were loved on and prayed for by “our people” here in Wichita Falls. Your Mimi came into town that afternoon because she was going to spend the night on Sunday and take Grant and Blair to school Monday morning while we were at the hospital. 

I ALMOST finished packing my bag and Dad BASICALLY finished painting the ceiling in our bedroom before we left for the hospital at 6:30p. We weren’t last minute at all…

We arrived at triage at about 6:45p for a foley bulb placement. I went to room 4414 where there were custom pads and panties decorated by my co-workers in celebration of  your arrival. “Push it, push it real good…Ring of Fire…Third Time’s a Charm…Don’t Break my tailbone…”were written all over them. Best nurses and friends in the world.

Dr. Lamar arrived about 7:10p to put in the foley bulb. The plan was to place it, tape it to my leg so it would mechanically dilate my cervix from 1.5cm to about 4 cm overnight, I’d be sent home, and then come back at 4:30a to start pitocin. Welp, it didn’t work like that.