11/9/2013 was a scary, intense and exciting day for us. It was the day that our baby boy, Harrison Reed Miller was brought into this world. This is his story.
When I first became pregnant with Harrison I had a feeling. It was such a strong feeling that it stuck with me throughout the whole pregnancy. I felt that the baby I was carrying inside of me was special. I didn't know why this baby was special, but I strongly felt that it was a special spirit. That thought was always in the back of my mind.
On November 6th, I started noticing some cramping and bleeding. I didn't think much of it since I knew this was fairly common in some pregnancies. Over the next few days it started getting worse. Finally on November 8th it was bad enough that I called the doctors office to see what I should do. They told me to take it easy that day and not pick up anything too heavy. So, of course, I "took it easy". I went to a relief society activity all morning long and then went out with the family for date night all night long, all the while having cramps that started turning into contractions. Nice job taking it easy, right? When we got home and finally got Sophie to sleep, I decided to take a bath and go to bed (about 10PM). After 4 hours of trying to sleep and noticing more bleeding, Logan and I decided something was wrong. We called the doctor on call and she said "Well, try and get some sleep and if the contractions wake you up then you should come in." After notifying her that I had been trying to sleep for 4 hours she told me that I better go to the hospital. Even after talking to the doctor Logan and I still weren't sure we should go in to the hospital. After bouncing the idea back and forth for a while we finally just packed everything up (including a sleepy Sophie) and got into the car. The contractions had been about 3 minutes apart for a few hours and we were extremely nervous/confused about what was going on. I forgot to mention I was only 33 weeks pregnant so we were hoping our baby wasn't coming that night.
After being admitted to the hospital, the nurses tried to stop labor. They said I was about 5 cm dilated and started poking and prodding at me, trying anything they could to stop the labor. All the while, Logan and Sophie sat and watched me while I got shots, ultrasounds, IV's, you name it. And the most amazing thing was that Sophie was an angel the entire time! She always amazes me, that child.
After about 1 1/2 hours, I heard the words I was praying not to hear. "Okay, it looks like you're going to have this baby today." My response was something like this, "What?! No! Wait, can I have an epidural?!" To my dismay they told me that since I was already at an 8, we wouldn't have time. They immediately started wheeling me down the hall. I was laying there in shock and Logan was carrying Sophie while on his phone trying to get someone to come get her while I had my baby. The nurses and I finally got to the room and right then my water broke. I swear, I had a river of water in there! Logan ran into the room and told me that Sophie was coloring with a nurse at the nurses station right outside. Thankfully, that was a little bit of a relief. But right away I had more stress. One of the nurses was telling me I had to wait for the doctor before I started pushing. My thoughts? "Seriously!!? I CAN'T!" Lucky for me, she was such an amazing nurse and was able to get me to focus and hold on for just a bit longer, but not much. After realizing I wasn't going to last that long she asked me to just try and wait for the NICU to get there. My response again? "NO! HE'S COMING NOW!" And just like that, he was out. No pushing needed. Our little Harrison was born.
I was so happy to hear crying right away. They cleaned him up and showed him to me for just a few seconds. I looked at him and was taken back by how tiny he was. He looked like he was in distress. His little chest was working so hard to breathe and his face looked so worried, but he was the most amazing thing I had ever seen in this world. About as fast as he was born, they swooped him away and off to the NICU to help him with his breathing.
Poor, tired Logan came up to me after saying goodbye to our baby boy and asked me what I wanted to name him. I knew he was Harrison. Our baby Harrison Reed Miller was born at 4:56 AM. He weighed 3 lbs 13 oz and was 17.5 inches long. And whether or not we wanted him to be here, he was here. For some reason, he needed to come 7 weeks early. That stinker. :)
