He was born January 20th, 2014 at 8:06 p.m. weighing 9 pounds 4 ounces and 21 inches long!
My labor was neither fun or pretty.
They decided to induce me the night of the 19th, so I ended up getting my first round of drugs about 9 p.m. I'd been 2 centimeters dilated for the last few weeks so I guess you could say I had a little bit of a head start. My doctor thought it was a good idea to sleep while waiting for the medicine to work it's way through my body. Levi and I had a hard time sleeping but we managed to get a few hours of rest.
Nothing changed during the night; I slept til about 5. When the nurse came in to check on me, I believe, I was about 4 centimeters dilated. That's the time the contractions really started kicking in and I couldn't help but feel every ounce of pain they were giving me. I made sure to tell everyone that I only wanted an epidural once I got to a pain level of 7. I wanted to be able to understand what labor felt like and I wanted to be strong for Jamie. Motherhood isn't easy and giving birth is the first obstacle.
Around 9 a.m. I was having an extremely hard time pushing away the pain. I didn't know what to do anymore. My body was exhausted already and I was on oxygen. I was only 5 or 6 centimeters. Barely any progress had been made.
That's when the decision was made to get the epidural. Nurses had to draw more blood to make sure my body would be able to take the drug correctly and that it wouldn't harm the baby.
Hours passed. Tears shed. Screams heard. Nails tore skin.
The anesthesiologist finally came toting the giant needle necessary to put me out of misery. It was 1 p.m. IT then took another half hour for him to find the right place along my spine. In the process, our favorite nurse literally had to hold my entire body up due to my lack of energy. I couldn't stop crying to calm my breathing or hold back the pain of 10 second apart contractions.
Once the pain killers kicked in, my head and body were on cloud nine. I basically slept the rest of the day. I hadn't been able to lay on my back without being in immense amounts of pain for months and was able to do so without batting an eye. Everything was perfect.
My doctor came in to check on our progress at 6 p.m. then gave it the good to go so we began our journey of grunts and pushing.
Levi and I never imagined the process to be so relaxed. All the lights were off, except for one small lamp in the corner of the room. There were four people in the room; Cawley (my doctor), a nurse, Levi and myself. Cawley wanted me pushing so much every so often but I was doing my own thing. I wanted this baby out now; I was determined. When the time came to see his hair, I didn't want to see anything but I guess he had a ton of hair! He stayed in that position for, what seemed like, forever. Poor baby couldn't get his shoulders through.
When it came time for him to come out, I felt it happening and I never stopped pushing. Jamie came out so fast Cawley didn't have the time to turn around and put gloves on. I guess it was kind of a big deal but I was in such a daze all I cared about was seeing my little baby that I'd been bonding with for the last nine months. I was carrying a toddler the whole time and I tried to tell everyone! My doctor was stunned!
Jamie was absolutely perfect. He never cried once. Levi and I got to hold him immediately, the nurses respected our privacy and didn't come in to test him for an hour. Everything was surreal.
Honestly, everything felt like a dream to me. Our baby boy was finally here, Levi and I were instantly in love with his sweet innocence.
In order to leave the Birthing Center of the hospital, urinating is a requirement. That requires standing and walking. I'd just been paralyzed from the waist down for hours on end. I couldn't even move my legs over the edge of the bed so I'm not exactly sure how the young woman taking care of me expected me to reach the bathroom. When I tried standing, nausea was inevitable and unavoidable. So peeing was definitely not in my near future.
Thankfully, we were allowed to leave the Birthing Center to go to the Women's Care Unit for the remainder of our stay.
The lovely night nurses focused solely on the fact that I had to pee and I had to do it relatively soon. They gave me cotton balls soaked in peppermint, drank cup after cup of water, sat on the toilet for what felt like forever, eventually my body did it on it's own. THANK GOD.
The whole thing was a giant adventure that won't happen again for, at least, another five years. I'm so glad Jamie is here now and it's all over. The pain was worth it for my perfect baby.
