A Baby Story

Wow.

As we walked out of the hospital Friday afternoon I remember thinking, "I'm so glad that I never have to do that again!!!"

So when I posted from the hospital we were hoping that our third son would be a good listener and not start burrowing his way out until after Lost. Well, he's needs his first time out. Right about 9:30 *out of no where* I start contracting every 2 minutes. Where was the 10 minutes apart, 8 minutes apart, 5 minutes apart countdown? Nope. Not this time. Every 2 minutes right from the start.

My doctor called to check on my progress around 11:00 pm ~ my nurse came in to check me ~ still not dilated, but my cervix was softening. Yipee.

Laying in that bed proved to be torturous ~ I could handle the pain so much better on the ball or standing up. So Colby & I played some card games on the edge of the bed for awhile while I bounced away on the big exercise ball. He was doing his best to try to take my mind off things.

Then at 1:00 am I got my first shot of Nubane. It took just enough of the edge off of the contractions so that I could sleep for a couple hours. It was wonderful while it lasted. Side note... I would always recommend getting this as a shot instead of through your IV. It lasted so much longer this way!

At 3:00 am exactly I woke up. The Nubane was gone. The contractions are back. Colby was still sleeping in a chair beside me so I decide to see how long I can stay quiet and let him get some rest. There was this huge clock on the wall with big red numbers. 3:02, 3:04, 3:06, 3:08... I'd open my eyes and check that stupid clock with each contraction. I knew that my nurse would be coming back in at 4:00 to give me more antibiotics so that was my goal - make it until 4:00.

By the time the nurse came back in I was ready for another shot of the good stuff. However she told me I'd have to wait until 4:20. 20 more minutes, I can do that.

4:20 am - second shot of Nubane. I waited & waited & waited. Yep, nothing. Great. So at this point Colby starts asking when I can get the epidural. We then learn that they think these contractions might not be real labor... just the Cervadil doing its thing. WHAT? The nurse said they would be taking the Cervadil out at 5:00 am and my doctor would be in around 7:00 am to start Pitocin. They expected the contractions to stop once the Cervadil was removed and I'd have a couple hours to rest.

So we make it until 5:00 am. The Cervadil was removed and I was a whopping 2 cm dilated! I was in obvious pain so my nurse suggested I labor in the shower for awhile and then when I got back in the bed she would start the IV that's necessary before you can get your epidural. Think of the smallest shower you've ever seen. That's what was in my labor and delivery room. Seriously. And it was grossly old. They had put a stool in there covered with a towel. So I'm hunched over contraction after contraction trying to reach down and lean on this stool so that I don't have to touch the nasty walls of the shower. I remember yelling at Colby at this point to get out of the bathroom. Then as soon as he left I was yelling at him to come back. Poor guy.

Around 5:30 I decide that that's all I can take of the shower. I was feeling kind of weird... like I really needed to get out of there. So I head back to the bed to get all strapped back up to the monitors. From there on out things get kind of blurry.

I was moved around into various positions because the baby's heartrate kept decelerating. At one point Colby said it went down into the 40's. And I kept asking for an epidural - please!! But then I felt like I needed to push so they checked me again - the next thing I heard was "she's complete with a bulging bag of water ~ call the doctor!"

The only position that the baby seemed to tolerate was on my hands and knees so that's where I stayed until my doctor made it to the hospital. I remember the nurses telling me she was on her way but not to worry because they could deliver the baby if they needed to. They also said that they were calling a team from the NICU to be in the room when I delivered which really freaked me out.

Finally my doctor arrived. She flipped me over on my back and then we heard the loudest explosion ever. I thought my child had shot out across the room... but it was just my water breaking. It was the coolest thing ever - it sprayed the entire room. It was all over my doctor's face and she was kind enough to tell us not to worry, because it was sterile. That's just nasty.

From there I pushed 4 times and Parker Dean Atkins entered our world at 6:56 am. They layed him on my chest and he was just incredibly perfect. All 8lbs 3oz and 21 inches of him. And all my pain was gone. The NICU team checked him out - his 1 minute Apgar was 7 and 5 minute was 9 - and then they left the room.

It took awhile for what had just happened to sink in. I had just delivered my baby. With no epidural. Again. With just 4 pushes. And he was gorgeous.

And I love him. And my wonderful husband for once again holding my hand.

God is so good.