Congratulations Jen --- I was thinking about you while we were down at the World and wondering if Evan had made his appearance!
Woo-hoo! He's beautiful!
Thank you!
Well I promised a play by play of the big days events and here it goes....
I woke up at 4am and couldn't fall back asleep. I just kept thinking I wouldn't get the call to come in and by 5am I made my way downstairs to watch some TV and not bother Chris. I barely had the TV on for 5 minutes and the phone started ringing. I jumped from the couch (a feat in itself) and answered the phone. It was the charge nurse at the hospital! I said "If you are going to tell me there is a bed I'm gonna cry", she asked why and I said "I've been bumped a few times" and she said to come on in! I hung up the phone and let out a small Woo Hoo (I didn't want to wake the kids). By the time I made it back upstairs, Chris was already shaving and getting ready for his shower. I called my Mom and Dad to come and take care of the kids and started getting ready. My parents were here in about 20 minutes and after going over a few things with them we were off to the hopsital.
We arrived at the hospital around 6am and by the time my IV was hooked up and turned on it was about 6:30. Man the IV part hurts, I just hate that thing, you feel like you can't move your hand at all.
Shift change at 7am and my nurse Dana came into the room and introduced herself and gave me the rundown of the planned events of the day. She started the pitocen and it kept increasing by 3 every 30 minutes. The physicians assistant came and checked me around 8:30am and I was about 4cm dialated and she broke my water. After the initial gush, every time I shifted in the bed I felt a dribble dribble. YUCK! She also placed an internal monitor next to the baby's head to monitor the contractions better. It was nice to take the one off my belly so the only monitor left on my belly was the one tracking the heartbeat.
After my water was broken the contractions started getting intense. dribble dribble. I was able to breath through them until about 9:15 when I told the nurse they were getting intense. She asked if I was ready for my epidural and I wanted to wait until I couldn't take it anymore but when she mentioned it may take up to 30 minutes for the doctor to come place it, I was ready for her to page the doc. dribble dribble. About 20 minutes later the anesthesiologist showed up and she ran down her list of questions and I got ready.
First I swung my legs over the side of the bed, dribble dribble. Then I had to huntch my back as much as I could curling around my stomach. dribble dribble. Don't ya know as soon as she started, I got a BIG contraction and she didn't stop. dribble dribble. When she was done I had tears in my eyes from both the needle and the contraction but was happy that in about 10 minutes the contractions would be so much better and I wouldn't feel the dribble dribble anymore. With the epidural your legs feel heavy and warm, so I asked Chris to take off my socks. I knew if I kept them on they would get dirty.
I was able to rest for about an hour just watching TV and resting my eyes. After all I have been awake since 4am.
Around 11:30am I started getting "the labor shakes". Basically your body starts shaking like you have the chills. You can't stop it you just start shaking. This is a big indicator that you are getting ready to deliver. The nurse paged the doctor and he was there within 2 minutes. He introduced himself and as it turns out his sister-in-law was our former pediatrician. He was very nice and I immediately felt comfortable with him. He checked me and asked me to give one push on my next contraction. I did and was fully dialated. The big 10cm!!!! It's time to P-U-S-H!
The doctor and nurse set everything up they would need and other than the shaking I felt pretty good. Nervous, but ready!
At about 11:40 I started pushing with the contractions. Chris held one leg (the one that was more "dead") and the nurse Dana held the other. After about 6 or so contractions the head was out. Whew, that was a big head! On the next contraction we were going to have a baby! The contraction started and boy did I push... and whoosh.... out he came!
Chris cut the cord and he was free.
They placed him on my chest and I started crying. 10 fingers and 10 toes and slimey. He was crying and I was crying with him. Poor Chris was so nervous and excited he got a bit lightheaded. The nurse told him to sit down and another nurse came in and gave him some juice. He was back up in no time taking pictures.
I couldn't get over how much he looked like Emma when she was born, just with less hair. The nurse took him to the warmer to get him cleaned up and give him a good checking out. His apgar scores were 9 and 9.
After things settled down, Chris brought him over to me leaned down and kissed me and simply said with tears in his eyes, Thank You. We cried some more and thanked God for our blessings.
Life is good.
I'll be back later with the rest of the events.