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Friday, November 9, 2012

Owen's Birth

I am finally getting around to posting about this sweet little boy of ours that has been in our family almost 4 weeks!! I can hardly believe it. We are so in love with this little man and a lot of the past 4 weeks have been spent snuggling, loving and showing this little man off.

However, I feel like I should back track and at least post about how he came into this world. Here is my disclaimer, although this is written in my journal I am putting this on here and will not blame you if you don't want to read further...also this is about birth which deals with things you may not to read about :)
I had an appointment on Friday October, 12 and at that point I was only dilated to a 2 and hadn't made much progress although I was having some contractions throughout every day. The other thing that was noted at my appointment was that my blood pressure was up from my normal (which most doctors declare as very low) so high for me is still in the normal range. My doctor wasn't too concerned but he thought that I should check in at Urgent Care on Sunday just to keep an eye on things. So I was told to go home, rest and walk when I felt like it. Kevin and I made Saturday a nice relaxing day of college football and spending time with the knowledge it was probably the last weekend of just the two of us.

On Sunday I went in to Urgent Care and again my blood pressure was a little elevated but since I was pass my original due date (which was the 13th) my doctor decided to send me into the hospital to induce me. Now granted I wanted to meet Owen so badly but with Mia when I was induced the pitocin made me very sick to my stomach and that was worse than the contractions! Yes I am a wimp when it comes to throwing up. Labor and delivery was busy until 12 so I was instructed to grab a nice breakfast, relax and head up to the hospital around 12. So we started making all of the calls, my mom made arrangements to head down from Laramie and we waited. By 12 we headed over and learned my mom had beat us to the parking lot by five minutes (to say she was excited to meet her 1st grandson was an understatement). We were checked in and the wait began. To my relief my amazing and attentive doctor was waiting for us and decided that he would give me a medicine to ripen my cervix and we could wait for pitocin and see what happened. The doctor and the nurses were amazing and very helpful in understanding that I wanted as little intervention as possible (as long as Owen and I were doing good), it's so nice when you feel as if they are listening to you. As we waited my friends from college (who were down for homecoming and wanting to see a certain little boy who had yet to come) came and visited us which was thoroughly entertaining to see their kiddos play with the labor balls, my mom and they helped distract me from knowing that the contractions weren't that regular and that I couldn't walk around since my pressure was so high. After the ladies left mom, Kevin and I played Uno while I bounced on the ball. Around 3 the nurse came in because I my blood pressure reading was pretty high so I was told I needed to lay in bed and on my left side which put a little crink in our card playing but not in visitors. We saw Kristi and Kevin's parents and brother which was great and kept me entertained.
At 6 they finally came in to see if I progressed any but since I wasn't really having regular contractions I figured it was time to bring on the pitocin which I was dreading. When Dr. K came in he said I was a 4 which was a nice surprise and he said he could break my water and we could wait and see what that does. After that our nurses changed (which we were so blessed by AMAZING nurses) and our new nurse suggested relaxing and listening to the cd's we brought. We relaxed and watched contractions and rested. Around 8:45 I told my mom that I was feeling more pressure and she decided that maybe she should get the nurse and have her check me before I got up to use the restroom again.
When the nurse checked me she and I were both surprised that I was a 9 1/2. She said that they were contacting Dr. K and that there was going to be a lot of activity. I think at this point I was more amused than anything (when there wasn't a contraction because when there was I was having to really focus on my music) because everyone was looking shocked at how fast I was going because most everyone (Dr. K included) said that it was going to be a late late night. By 9 and they had a lot of things set up I was really feeling like pushing but the doc wasn't there so they were having me breathe through the hardest part of the contractions. Then the charge nurse came in and said that he called and was stuck waiting for a train (which in Ft. Collins there is one right before you get to the hospital on the north side of town) and that they had called a resident and I could push if I wanted to. I will admit that pushing while waiting for my doctor who I trust and wanted there my whole heart wasn't in it but as soon as he came through the door I put a lot more effort into it. I pushed until 10 and then they said they could see O's head. I was tired and ready to meet him, but I also knew the pressure I felt would get better when his head was out and that was extra motivation. So after two more pushes I thought his head wasn't  out but all of a sudden Dr. K asked the nurses to push the bed back and push on my stomach. Later when talking to Kev and my mom they both said watching the doc pull pretty hard on O's shoulders to get them out. Then I heard him say well you have a linebacker here. I will say that it is too my doctor's credit that my delivery was amazing and I feel that my recovery has been so much faster because of not tearing and having to deal with recovering from more medicine than I needed (which is to say everyone has their own pain tolerance and I think its a personal choice).
When they finally put O up on my chest I was instantly in love with him and so amazed with this little one that was partly Kev and partly me. After that we were given bonding time and then moved to a room where we stayed until we were discharged.
I am so grateful and blessed by the experience we had and the wonderful friends and family members who made it all so exciting. The most wonderful part is the sweet little boy who joined our family and walked straight into our hearts. God is so good and children help remind us of that each day!
No enough babbling and on to pictures!