Andrew arrived Good Friday, April 10, 2009 at 10:11 a.m. He was 8 lbs 4 oz and 22 inches long. We are so in love and enjoying every bit of him!
Just like my entire pregnancy, Andrew's delivery went very smooth and I feel so blessed. I started feeling "something" around 10:30 p.m. on Thursday night, April 9 (full moon!). We had turned in early around 9 p.m. after watching The Office and I was feeling OK. What I thought "might" be contractions began and I tried to sleep, but they seemed to not be going away. Jeff wasn't awake at this point, but I kept looking at the clock and thinking these pains were coming pretty quickly. However, I didn't think they were getting worse, so I tried to walk around some and wait it out before waking Jeff. He eventually heard me pacing around our room and asked what was wrong. Seeing that the pain might be getting worse, he said "Let's just go to the hospital." I wasn't so sure we needed to yet, but I agreed (and thankfuly I did!)
We calmly gathered our bags and prepared to leave. I just remember thinking "Is this really it?" I wasn't so sure, since I wasn't it too bad of pain, but like I said, those pains were really close together so that lit a fire under me!
By the time we reached the car, they were definitely worse and I was ready to get this labor thing started! We drove about a mile and Jeff realized he had forgot his wallet! Amazingly I stayed calm and we went back to the house quickly. Mountain Vista Medical Center is only about 15-20 minutes from our house so I was very glad for that. Jeff did turn left on red at one intersection since no one was out :-) I think he got worried that I was in pain every few minutes and he said "Whatever you do, don't push!" I assured him we weren't at that stage yet! :-)
Once we got to the hospital, I was in some more pain and had Jeff push me in the wheelchair and up to Labor & Delivery. They quickly got me in a room and even asked me if I wanted an epidural before I had a chance to ask for one. YES! They then started an IV so I could get a bag of fluids before the epidural was administered.
I was worried that I wouldn't be able to hold still long enough because I was having contractions every few minutes, but my nurse, Holly, said it would be fine and that I could do it. She was very calm and collected and I appreciated that. The doctor came in shortly after and got the epidural going quickly. I had to sit on the edge of the bed with my feet on a chair and practice holding still. I had to put my hands on my knees and try to not move. I used Jeff's hand to stablize mysef and hold very still and I squeezed him so hard that he had to sit down because he looked like he was going to pass out! It scared me how white his face turned!
The doctor said the epidural went in without a hitch and I was doing OK. I just had uncontrollablke shakes, but he said that was normal with my hormones going crazy. Ahhh ... sweet relief came fast after that.
I knew I would be numb, but I wasn't prepared for HOW numb my legs would feel. I couldn't feel ANYTHING and it was very weird. My legs felt so heavy, but I know it was better than contractions. While we waited the nurse checked me every so often and Jeff tried to sleep since it was about 3 or 4 am. I was 4 or 5 cm when we came in and then 6 and then 8 and so on...I was progressing every hour, so I was happy things were going so smoothly. We made the phone calls to friends and family and sent some texts to let everyone know we were about to have a baby!The nurse estimated would have our baby betwen 8 and 10 am, so I was getting excited and couldn't sleep even though I needed to. I was feeling some of the contractions even being so numb. The doctor said that the baby could be on some nerve making me feel the pain in my lower back and stomach on the right side. If that pain wasn't there, I would have felt absolutely nothing.
Toward the end, they told me my temp was a little high, so they actually gave me pitocin to make sure things went quickly just in case. I don't know if it did anything because, again, I couldn't feel much! Before we knew it, I was 10 cm dilated and my midwife (Lorena) arrived to say it was time to start pushing. Whoa - this was it!! Lorena and a new nurse (Raquel) were going to help me and Jeff was ready to do whatever he could. I could still not even feel pressure, so I knew it was going to be a challenge to try and push. They first started by having Jeff and I play a game of tug of war during my pushing. Basically I held one end of a sheet and he held the other and we would pull during my pushes. It worked pretty well actually, but it was pretty tiring. We then did the traditional pushing with a nurse and Jeff holding my legs. That also worked well, so we switched back and forth to help things along. Eventually Lorena could see Andrew's head! They showed me with a mirror and that was so bizarre!
We continued pushing and by holding my leg Jeff had a good view of the action :-) He did so amazingly well commenting later that everyone makes childbirth out to be this horrible scene and it wasn't that bad. He really helped me with encouraging words and breathing reminders, so I know he paid attention during that part of childbirth class. He was holding my leg and supporting my head while I pushed. He kept telling me we were almost there and Andrew was almost out and it kept me motivated. He said it so many times, but I needed to hear that it was working!
The part that Jeff didn't like was seeing the head get so close to coming out and then go back in (that's where that conehead came from!) He also thought it was odd that the head is out and then they stop to clean his mouth and nose, etc. Andrew was so close to coming out, he just couldn't understand why they couldn't hurry things along :-) At one point, they knew the next push would be getting him out so they were getting the other nurses in the room and preparing for Andrew's arrival. They actually told me to stop pushing because he was coming fast! Again, Jeff was wondering, why are we stopping!??!
And finally at 10:11 a.m. I pushed one more time and I felt Andrew's whole body come out. I somehow felt this even with the epidural (they had lowered the medicine some I think) and I was so thankful for that. They held him up and said "here's your little boy" and I was so overwhelmed I didn't realize they wanted me to take him at first! He was slimy and gross and beautiful at the same time. I could instantly tell he was a big boy and seemed LONG. I just remember touching his little butt and seeing his crying face and crying with joy. Jeff had stepped back at this point and was in awe. He grabbed our cameras and began getting pictures of Andrew and I in our first moments together. Jeff and I didn't want to cut the cord, so Lorena cut it and they took him over to the warmer and began cleaning him and suctioning his mouth and nose some more. Hearing him cry was wonderful! Jeff took some video of him as well and got some great photos. I am so glad to have them now.
Overall, Andrew's birth was picture perfect like him and now we're just taking it all in . . . more updates to come soon!
