Oh son, your birth was quite the experience. You would have
thought that with you being the 5th child I would have had the whole
birth thing figured out but you wanted to make your appearance a little
differently. The week before your due date I made an appointment with the Dr.
to come in the Wednesday after you were due. I assured them that I wouldn’t be
in as I’d never had a kid arrive late. Then when I was in the office that
Wednesday and made an appointment for the following Monday I again assured them
that I wouldn’t be in. Then that following Friday I had 9 hours of contractions
that just decided to stop. By the time I walked in the office on Monday,
February 25th, I was very frustrated and just a bit cranky. They did
a non-stress test and of course you decided to sleep. I finally moved in the
chair and drank enough so that my bladder was invading your space and you began
your assault on my innards.
Dr. Owen
told me that she doesn’t let people go past 41 weeks so we arranged a time for
induction at 4pm the next day. My labors tend to be long involved processes
anyway so I really wanted to avoid Pitocin. We talked, I cried, and then we
left with her telling me to go get you to come out. So, that’s just what I did.
I came home and walked two miles. I’m sure anyone peeking in my windows would
have wondered why this giantly huge pregnant woman was “Walking Away the Pounds”
with a DVD. Daddy had to go to his trustee meeting and I put your brother and
sisters to bed and decided to get out the breast pump to start contractions….and
it did. By the time Dad got home I was contracting fairly regularly. Dad had
influenza and he decided to go to bed. I tried to but the contractions didn’t
let me sleep. Unfortunately, they didn’t let Daddy sleep much either. At about
2 am I decided that we should go to the hospital. I called Dr. Owen because I
sure was in a fair amount of pain but I was afraid contractions would stop
again. I have a history of on and off contractions. Dr. Owen told me to come in
and they would at least start my antibiotic that I needed before I could
deliver.
We arrived
at the emergency room at 2:30am on Tuesday, February 26th, and I
scared the registration woman half to death. She was sure that with this being
my 5th child you would just fall out. When I stood up to have a
contraction she told me to sit back down because “the baby wouldn’t come out if
I was sitting.” I assured her that my children have never just fallen out! I
should be so lucky.
We got to room 182 in the birthing unit and the fun began.
It took nearly 3 hours for them to get me hooked up to the monitors, get my IV
in, and get all their questions answered. As I write this I still have bruises
from the new nurses trying to get my IV in. You would have been proud of me
though, I didn’t yell at anyone, although more than once I was tempted to tell
your Dad to get over to my bed and do it himself. It probably would have been
much quicker. Anyway, 3 hours in bed did exactly what I feared it would do and
slowed my contractions way down. I went from contracting every 2-5 minutes to
contracting every 6-10 minutes. At this point the resident checked me and I was
4-5cm dilated. Not too bad a start. I sat on the birthing ball for a while and
then rested some in bed as I was very tired from being up all night. At 7 one
of my favorite OB nurses named Ann came in and told me that they wanted me to
rest because they thought that they were going to have to try cervidil and
still do the induction at 4. At that point I sort of freaked out. Here I was
thinking that I’d been up laboring all night and then I was going to have to do
it all again the next night. Thankfully, Ann talked me down and then got me
some breakfast because I was starving. Dad and I alternated between walking the
halls and resting until about 3pm when a resident came in and checked me again.
At that point I was 6 and I told them to break my water. Shortly after they did
Jane came in. As soon as they broke my water I told them I wanted the squat bar
and the squat stool. Things really took off from there. As soon as my water was
broken the contractions went to 2 minutes apart. At some point I asked for
Nubain and that made me happy…well, happier. By this time your dad knows how to
help me manage my contractions and we worked as a team. Jane also helped and
they asked me questions while I was contracting to keep my mind off of how bad
it hurt. At one point they asked me where I wanted to go on vacation. I told
them I wanted to go on a cruise. Dad asked if I would go on a cruise to Alaska
with him and I told him yes. Jane then asked what I would pack. I remember
responding that I was going to pack a shotgun and have someone shoot me. I
think that was probably at the worst part of the contraction. Finally, I knew
you were close to arriving. I got out of bed and stood at the squat bar and
remember thinking that this wasn’t going to stop until you were out and I just
started pushing. I pushed squatting until you crowned and then they let me
climb into bed and push on my hands and knees. It wasn’t long and you were out.
You had been posterior for several weeks and you never did flip around, you came
out posterior. I figure this means you’re going to be ornery…time will tell.
You have a giant barrel chest that was bigger than your head and very broad shoulders
and yes, I felt them come out.
I was so
excited to see you. At some point I turned around and they put you on my chest.
You were my perfect sweet boy and you were here! I was so excited. You were
born at 6:45pm on Tuesday, February 26th and you weighed 8lbs 10oz
and were 20inches long! Wowza!
We brought
you home the next day and your sisters and brother all ended up with influenza
but you thankfully came through it all ok. When I took you to the Dr. at one
week old you were 9lbs and 11oz. You will be two weeks old tomorrow and you are
such a big boy. I love you lots and am so glad you joined our family.
