Birth Story

Before I forget the details I wanted to document L's birth.

I was due 3/13, a Friday, which I also made my last day of work.  Obviously he didn't arrive that day or any time over the weekend.  So Monday rolls around and I'm still feeling fine.  I decided to run out to BRU and pick up some last minute items.  I was feeling a bit more crampy than usual and decided instead of going anywhere else I was going to head home and lay down.  So I'm trying to nap on the couch and I begin to doze off and get a phone call from my dad.  After the quick call I try to get back to sleep.  I'm dozing again and then get another call, this time from my mother.  So I go to sit up on the couch and feel this gush of water (it's about 5:30PM).  I was pretty sure I hadn't peed myself; I headed to the bathroom to check it out, with my mom still on the phone.  I'm in the bathroom and it's definitely my water that broke as it's still kinda coming out.  I tell my mom that I need to call my dr., I'll call her back.  I head upstairs thinking I need to make sure my bag is ready and I wanted to take a shower and freshen up.  I try to call Scott and tell him he needs to head home, luckily he's already pulled into the driveway and was talking to our neighbor.  When he gets inside I tell him my water broke and I'm going to call the dr.  At this point my cramps; well contractions were getting more intense and I was having to make continued trips to the bathroom as I was still leaking water and having some other poop issues.  Well I call my dr.'s office and wait for a call back, which was pretty quick.  Lucky for me MY dr. was on call that day.  She said I could wait it out at home (I wanted to labor at home as long as possible), but to head in by 11PM.  I let S know the plan, as I continued to need to use the bathroom.  My contractions were getting more painful, I decided we needed to head to the hospital NOW!

We arrived at the hospital around 7PM, I check-in and we're told to wait in the waiting room.  At some point along the way S called my mom as she was there shortly after we arrived.  There were probably about 3 other pregnant women in the waiting room but I seem to be the only one bent over in pain.  We didn't have to wait to long, maybe 30 min. and we were brought into the E-room.  I had to change into the ever fashionable johnny, which took forever because I was in so much pain I could barely move.  Eventually, I got changed and the nurse came to check on my progress.  I was already 7 cm dilated.  We were moved up to L&D right away.

Once in L&D I had to have an IV started to get fluids and prep for the epidural.  It took several nurses and a couple doctors to finally start a line in my hand.  My arms looked like a pin cushion, as it took them 9 stabs tries to finally get the needle in.  Once in I was prepped to get the epi.  I don't really remember this at all,  other than feeling really good afterwards.  The epi. was like heaven, I couldn't feel a thing.  I still knew the contractions were happening, but was in no pain.  I don't remember much in the next few hours, but at 11:45PM I was checked again and was 10 cm dilated, so we were ready to push.  I didn't want to start pushing, it was so close to 3/17 (St. Patrick's Day), I was thinking that's a cool b-day to have so wanted to wait.  But my dr. wanted me to push and I figured there was no way I'd give birth in the next 15 minutes.  Well, I couldn't feel my legs b/c of the epi. so the nurse and my mom were holding my legs while I pushed.  The pushing wasn't really that difficult; at each contraction I was told to give 3 hard pushes, no big deal.  

At 12:42AM (3/17) Landon was born.  7 lbs 9 oz, 19.5 in long, 8/9 APGAR score.  They put him on my chest right away, it was truly amazing.  He barely made a sound, I assumed there would be a lot of crying (that's what you see on TV), but he was pretty mellow.  About 2 hours later we eventually went to the recovery room where we stayed for 2 days before heading home to our new life together.