Owen's Birth Story

*A few things first - i actually wrote this post a looong time ago. However, putting pictures in on our Mac is giving me troubles so I basically didn't want to deal with it which is why this is several weeks late. Also, this post is long and detailed. Don't say I didn't warn you.

So he wouldn't be member of this family if he simply decided one day that it was time to enter the world and all went smoothly. Nope, leave it to us to spend 27 hours in the hospital before we welcomed owen!

Monday, May 9

This was day 3 of my "no baby maternity leave" and I felt tired. Not just "I don't feel like doing anything tired" but rather I don't have the energy to pick myself up off the couch tired". I didn't think anything of it other than I was about 10 months pregnant and carrying around just a liiiiiiitle extra weight. I also during the day starting have addition thin discharge (sorry if this is TMI) but again I didn't think much of it because that is normal this late in pregnancy. I did manage to make a to-do list for the week which included multiple errands, a hair appt., a grooming appt. for Tucker among other things. Denial about having a baby much?

Tuesday May 10

At about 2 and 4 am I woke up feel wet (again, sorry if this is TMI). Not enough that our sheets were wet so I woke Brett and asked him what he thought. Well, in the middle of the night you can all imagine that his response was "Go back to bed and we'll see how you feel in the morning." So I did.

Brett woke up about 6:30 and got in the shower. He was to be in court at 9. I got up shortly after and let Tucker outside. I walked back downstairs to get Lucy out of bed and I finally had that "rush". Sort of. It still wasn't the amount that i expected so I went up and told Brett. I was supposed ot have my 39 week docr's appointment at 8:45 and part of me said just to wait and go to the appt. We decided to call though and within20 minutes the doctor called back and said that even if there was just a suspicion of my mebranes rupturing (AKA water breaking) that I needed to go to the hospital. Brett and i just smiled. As ready as we were, we were still walking around wondering what else we needed to take. I proceeded to get dressed and Brett changed from his suit to jeans. It was about this time that tucker came inside and we realized that he had rolled in something, most likely rabbit poop. So while I continued to get ready to go to go to the hposital for what could eb the birth of our first child, Brett gave the dog a bath. he then came downstairs and was looking for the different jeans he wanted, a pair more comfortable especially if he migt be wearing them for more than one day. I had done laundry the night before so they weren't totally dry. No problem, I threw them in the dryer and Brett and I stood in the kitchen drinking grape juice laughing at how we were waiting for his jeans like we had nothing else to do.

We arrived at the hospital at 8 am and were take to the triage room in labor and delivery. The first and easiest test for amniotic fluid came back negative. Of course. False alarm which is what deep down I really thought this was. So next came two more tests which were a little more invasive and hurt pretty bad. At this point while laying in the hospital bed, I had a pretty big "gush" something that felt a little more reliable and both tests cam back positive. My water had not fully broken, but the more likely case was that I had a high leak which is why I hadn't had a huge gush like I was expecting. It was about this time that I found out that my least favorite doctor was there. Great! He took a little looksy and feelsy and reported that I was in fact NOT dilated. Great again! So at around 9:30 am we were taken to our room in labor and delivery where I was told I could not eat (the last thing I had eaten was a root beer float the night before at about 7:30) and that the doctor wnated a report again at about 4 pm. Until then I was to walk around and "see what I could do on my own".

What a long day of walking circles around the nurse's station and watching the never ending marathon of Law and Order SVU. Brett and I made the most of it and the time actually wnt by pretty quickly. I did ha

ve to laugh that a few of the magazines that I had brought were Everyday with rachael ray and every single thing in the magainze looked delicious! It was during this time that my mom decided to fly here and we made arrangements to ahve her picked up at the airport by Sam and Natalaie (a huge thank you here for their awesomeness). I was also able to Skype with Ben which his friends found rather amusing.

At 4:00, I was no farther along and the contractions were still not getting stronger. The decision was made that I would get an IV at 9 pm and start pitocin at 10pm. Not really what we wanted to hear but they did say I could order dinner. I chose the blandest thing on the menu worried that if I ate too much i might be seeing it again later. The evening continued pretty much as the day had and my mom arrived arrived around 8:30. I got my IV, and we then tried to all take a nap before the pitocin started, not really knowing what would happen after that. Well it was shortly after the IV was started that "Code Red" was announced - over and over and over. Whatever it was it didn't affect us, but the constant announcement made sleeping impossible. At 10, the pitocin was started and soon after the contractions did too. This started a night like I have never had before.

Wednesday May 11

Very quickly my contractions were closer together and very painful. My mom was a savior in walking me through some breathing techniques but I eventually tried some medicine so that I could sleep. It worked for a bit but I finally gave in and got my epidural. As much as I kept thinking in the

back of my mind that I didn't want one, my labor was just lasting too long to do it without some big time help. It provided almost immediate relief. I was finally able to sleep! Until.....I don't know what time it was but two nurses rushed in and threw me into an oxygen mask because

my blood pressure was going down and it was affecting the baby's heart beat. They also rolled me on my side and propped me with a pillow which was supposed ot help. At 6:45, I woke up. The room was dark, Brett and mom were sound asleep, I was still in

oxygen and I could not move anything from my waist down. It was about this point that I started to freak out a bit simply because I felt so helpless. eventually the doctor came in and I was finally dilated to 10 cm. e however did not like how numb I was and ordered my epidural to be turned off. When I had some use of legs we would start pushing. This happened at 9:22 am. For the first few contractions, this thought entered my mind, " Really? This is it? This isn't so bad at all. The epidural is still working and all I feel is a little pressure. I can do this." Well, I never said those words out loud and pretty quickly after that I started feeling everything. Brett was a phenomenal coach and watched everything. I thought I wanted to watch and asked for the mirror to be brought over. I looked up one time and instantly said, "Take it away! Take it away! I don't wanna watch!". I do there were various points that I yelled, "get him out" and i also know that at one point I looked straight at Brett and told him this would be our only child. At 10:51 am the sweetest little boy entered the world and was placed on my chest. Brett was right there and looked at me for his name - I knew it would be Owen Anthony. It juts fit! The rest of the story is typical, the baby was checked out, we were given time to bond and the doctor and nurse took over the rest of the delivery stuff. It wasn't until after that I found out Owen was born occipital posterior - basically instead of coming out looking at the floor he cam out looking at the ceiling. 75% of first time moms end of with a c-section if the baby is in this position. I knew something was going on during delivery because the doctor had come in several times. It wasn't shortly before that we had joked with the nurse about the doctor not coming in until the last second to take all the credit. The staff however did an excellent job of not alert me to any trouble. They simply took care of what they needed to so that I could focus on my job.

While the pain is still fresh in my mind, giving birth to our son leave me speechless. I know all the cliches about motherhood and not understanding it until you experience it, but truly, to go through that experience with my husband and my mom right there was a priceless time in my life. And because of it, we have been blessed....