A Baby Story

So here's the birth story. If you find this to be over sharing, please feel free to skip this post :) Otherwise, let's begin!

Tuesday morning we woke up just before 5am to call the hospital to see when we should check-in. They told us they were ready for us so we quickly got dressed and ran out the door. We got to the hospital and they immediately took us to our birthing room. I stripped down and put on my gown. I was so nervous and excited and anxious that I forgot TWICE that the blinds were wide open and Travis had to rush me back into the bathroom to finish changing. (Sorry Lubbockites who were innocent victims to my madness!) Then a nurse came in to give me my IV. This is where the drama begins. For those of you who don't know me very well, I am what some would call a fainter. I get woozy at the sight of blood, I almost pass out every time I have blood drawn, I hate shots, and my biggest fear about the entire labor process was getting the IV. I know- ridiculous but it's true! So anyway the nurse reassured me everything would be okay and decided to try for a vein in my left wrist. Well she missed the vein and couldn't find another so she had to go to my other wrist. Before she could stick me again, I threw up. All I could think was, "Great. I've already thrown up and we haven't started yet! How am I going to make it through labor??!"

Well the good news is that really was the worst part for me. I know it sounds crazy but I'm telling you- that IV was horrible. So I got the IV around 6-6:30am and they immediately started me on pitocin. When they checked my cervix, I knew immediately that I would need an epidural sooner than later. Wesley had been so low and posterior for at least the last 6 weeks that every time they went to check my cervix, they had to pull it forward. Horrible pain- that's the only way to describe it. The nurse requested my epidural and I was first on the waiting list. My anesthesiologist was working on a c-section with my doctor. Great news- I was told both of them would be held up for at least another 1.5hours. (sarcasm for those of you who didn't find that obvious) I kinda started to panic but I thought "Oh no big deal. I can't really feel the contractions anyway."

It turns out I didn't need to wait that long. My doctor slipped in before the scheduled c-section and broke my water. She didn't want to keep me waiting :) They expected the anesthesiologist to take at least another hour and a half because they still had the c-section to do so they gave me some medicine to take the edge off of the pain. Turns out the medicine made me a little loopy and wayyyyy tired! Then I think it was about 30 minutes later the anesthesiologist came in (I can't remember why he was able to come so soon...I'm blaming the drugs for my lack of memory) and it was perfect timing. As soon as they broke my water, I immediately felt the contractions coming on strong AND they upped my dose of pitocin at the same time. So when that epidural came I was so happy. I didn't even think about the needle going into my spine. I just knew sweet relief would be coming.

...And sweet it was. I literally spent the next couple of hours falling in and out of blissful sleep and counting to 4 as I breathed through the pressure of the contractions. Why 4? I have no clue. I'm blaming the loopy medicine again. There really is no logic as to why I counted to 4, I just did and it worked! I was pain free and only worried about not pushing too soon. Finally, I told Travis that I thought the pressure might be constant and not stopping so he went to ask my nurse. (She had told me that constant pressure with no relief would be a big sign that I was ready to push.) She rushed in to check me. I was fully dilated and effaced and they called for my doctor.

After 30 minutes of pushing and 6 hours of labor, our sweet Wesley was here! I cried through the last 5 pushes and then was a bit overwhelmed with love and joy as I watched Travis fall in love with him :) It's truly amazing how strong and instinctive our love and attachment to him came. I am so glad that our moms were there with us and I'm also so grateful to my wonderful sister-in-law, Susan, for taking amazing pictures of the big day. (Side note: There are NO pictures of me actually giving birth, thank goodness!) You can see the pictures on Facebook.