Callan: Sent From Above, Part One

Sitting in a rocking chair with her 3 month old son over her shoulder, swaying him to sleep, she could not be more happy. She could feel his warm little baby breath on her neck, his chubby little baby belly rising and falling against her breast. One of his arms dangles down the side of her arm, while the other is clutching the shirt at her neck in a tiny little fist. This is what she was meant to do, to be a mom. And the fact that at this moment she was holding her own child was a miracle in itself. She and her husband took a long hard journey to get to this point, and as with every story, this one has a begining.

Hayley met Jason her Freshman year in high school in 1994. They had a class together. She was always aware of him, but never really took an interest in him until her Sophomore year. They shared mutual friends, so they were seeing each other more and more. When Hayley found out Jason was taking one of her friends to a school dance, she got mad. Surprisingly, Jason told Hayley that he would not go if she did not want him to, and that night he called her instead of going to the dance, and they talked for seven hours! And so, that was the start of Hayley & Jason. There was not one without the other.

Hayley and Jason moved in together in 1998 and in 2003 they decided they were finally ready to get married, and start their family. Jason joined the US Army so he could provide well for that future. Well, they got married, but after a year, there was still no baby.

While at a routine doctor's appointment, the doctor felt a mass in Hayley's pelvis. When telling her it was no big deal, Hayley believed it. She'd always been healthy. But when an MRI was ordered "just to check", Hayley started to worry.

The results of the MRI came by a phone call a few days later. The doctor said: "You have a large fibroid tumor in your uterus." Hayley's life came crashing in on her. She had no idea what a fibroid tumor was, but it could not be good, especially when she wanted children so baddly. Jason had been away at AIT for the Army when Hayley got the news. But Hayley's mom was there to hold her when she hung up the phone and cried.

Hayley's visit to the doctor the first time for this issue was not a comforting one. In the first place, the male doctor was uncaring and rude. When he examined her he told her that her tumor was so large it was making her uterus the size of a 16 week pregnancy, she wanted to cry. And then he told her: "I don't forsee you ever having any children."

Hayley needed surgery to remove the tumor, but Jason had finished all his training for the Army, and was being stationed at Fort Hood in Texas. So Hayley opted to leave Minnesota and postpone her surgery so she could be with her husband.

After starting from square one with the doctors in Texas, they decided to try to give Hayley medicine to try to shrink the tumor before trying to remove it in order to salvage her fertility, since she was still young, only 25. So Hayley started a round of injections that were not only extremely painful but they messed with her hormones and made her miserable to live with. But Jason was a trooper through it all.

After a year of the injections, they found out the medicine had worked! It had shrunk the tumor from the size of a grapefruit to the size of a lemon! Her doctors referred her to a fertility specialist who would be able to help Jason and Hayley more. That was the good news. The bad news was, Jason recieved orders to deploy to Iraq. He would be gone for a year. How were they supposed to start a family with him absent?

In 2006, while Jason served in Iraq, Hayley drove 200 miles roundtrip once a week to see her fertility specialist. They put her back on the injections to keep shrinking the tumor further. But bad news and bad news kept coming. The doctors discoverd Hayley had Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, and they would need to treat her for that as well. Then the dicsovery came that Hayley had not one but two tumors that would need to be removed. It just seemed like the news kept getting worse and worse, and she was all alone, with all her family back home in Minnesota, and Jason in Iraq.

Jason came home from Iraq for good, and finally in January 2007, Hayley had her surgery to remove the tumors. Her recovery process took over a month, and she was so grateful to have Jason there with her through it all. At her final post-op appointment with her fertility specialist, Jason and Hayley finally got the green light to try to concieve. But they would not be able to do it without some more help.

Hayley was put on three cycles of fertility drugs. The first two cycles failed. Hayley did not have much hope for the third one, but as they say.....Third times the charm!

On July 2nd, 2007, Hayley took a pregnancy test, fully expecting it to be negative like all the other ones. But when she saw the positive result, she had to look twice! She slumped down on to the floor and said, "Holy crap!" Then she ran to the bedroom and shook Jason awake. She dragged him into the bathroom and showed him the test. He looked with one eye open at the test, to Hayley, and then back at the test. And then they were hugging and kissing and jumping up and down! They were gonna have a baby!!!!

The pregnancy was easy for Hayley. She had very little morning sickness, and for the most part did not even feel pregnant. The contractions started at 36 weeks. Hayley had to go in twice weekly for No Stress tests. At 39 weeks Hayley went in to the hospital to be induced.

March 1st, 2008 - The hospital had Hayley come in at midnight. By the time the nurses had all the I.V.'s in and the balloon in to do the induction, it was 4:00am. Once they administerd the Pitocin into the I.V., the hard labor began, contractions every 45 seconds. Hayley could not sleep and she forgot all about the Lamaze breathing she and Jason went to class for. She wanted to hit Jason who was able to sleep and was snoring in the chair next to her bed. At 9:30am Hayley's water broke. Then she really could not handle the pain, it felt like she was being ripped open, so the nurse gave her pain meds in the I.V. and Hayley was able to sleep for about an hour. By noon, Hayley felt like her insides were literally going to fall out, so the nurse administered the catheter and the anesthesiologist came in to give her the epidural. Jason had to leave the room while they placed the epidural, and that is when Hayley got weepy. A case of "I can't do this," and the nurse had to coach her along, while they screwed up on the first epidural and had to do it again. At about 1:00pm the nurses started coming in every 15 minutes to check Mama and Baby stats. At 2:15pm, the doctor rushed in and said they needed to do an emergency c-section right away, the baby was not breathing. Everything from then on happened so fast.

Hayley was on the operating table when Jason came in. She was cold and shaking uncontrollably from the anesthesia, and fear. Jason thought she was having a seizure. Hayley remembers the nurse telling her that the baby was not breathing and since she was only dilated to 5 centimeters, they needed to get him out "right now". Two scheduled c-sections were bumped in order to get Hayley in there. They cut Hayley open and she felt a lot of tugging and pulling and just wanted to pass out. She told Jason to please not look. She did not want him to see her all cut open like that.

The doctor's finally pulled Callan out by forceps at 2:47pm. Hayley was in such a daze from all the drugs, it all seemed to happen in slow motion, but it really happened very quickly once they decided on the c-section. Hayley remembers hearing Callan's first cry and Jason whispering to her "There's our baby." She heard the doctor say the cord was around his neck, and they got him out "just in time". Hayley fell in and out of conciousness, but remembers getting to kiss Callan, and then Jason leaving with the nurse and the baby. They gave Hayley morphine, and she does not remember much after that.

When Hayley got back to her room, she did not know how long she had been gone, but Jason says it was about an hour. She does not remember calling everyone and telling them the news. She does not even remember holding Callan for the first time, just knows she did these things because of the pictures.

They stayed in the hospital for two night and then Jason and Hayley got to bring their baby boy home. Hayley remembers worrying before Callan was born "What am I gonna do? How do I take care of a baby? I don't know what I'm doing!" But it was not like that at all. Hayley was so comfortable, and it all just fell into place.