Birth story...

I've been wanting to post this for a while, before I forget, but just haven't had the chance. With visitors every day but one since he was born and TWO boys to take care of I've barely had a chance to eat and sleep, let alone blog. I hope you enjoyed the pictures in the meantime...





As I had mentioned several times we had an appointment on Sunday at 9:15 to start an induction. I was really hoping to avoid it but had resigned myself to the fact that it was probably going to happen. Anyway Bob and I got up Sunday morning and as I had been doing for the past couple weeks we went for a walk. I decided that we would do 3 laps instead of 2 just in case it'd get something started. We got home and did a few things around the house to get ready for visitors (Nanny and Pappy were coming to watch Oliver when we went to the hospital). I put Oliver down for his nap at about 1 and then I went to lay down too. I had the first contraction at 1:08 - I remember because I was about to fall asleep. The next one came shortly thereafter but I thought it was no big deal. This had been happening on and off for days and it never amounted to anything. Actually all the other times were in the middle of the night, but whatever. So I had two contractions before I fell asleep, thinking that if this was it then I'd need the rest and if it wasn't then I'd wake up with no contractions and go ahead with the scheduled induction. When I woke up about an hour later I was still having contractions. Not strong ones, but strong enough to let me know something was going on. An hour and a half later they were a bit stronger so I started timing them. I got a notebook and wrote down the time, the length and the amount of time between. From the time I started this they were all less than 10 minutes apart. The doctors all said not to call until they were a steady 5 minutes apart so I sat on my birthing ball and tried to rest and relax as much as possible. At this point it still wasn't very painful, just enough to make me stop what I was doing for the 30-45 seconds each one lasted. Bob and Dolly showed up around 8 or so and we hung out for a while. Bob put Oliver to bed and then it was almost time for my appointment at the hospital. We got the bag and headed out...



We got to the hospital and told them I had an appointment for induction but that I probably wouldn't need it because I was already in labor. She said to have a seat, there were two people before me. Nice!! We sat down to wait. They finished with the first person but then had to wait for a translator to come for the second person (not sure why she couldn't have just checked me in while she was waiting). The translator came and they finally finished with the other woman. Then the receptionist decided that chatting with the translator (yes CHATTING - we could hear pieces of their conversation) was more important than helping the poor woman who was, by this point, quite uncomfortable. Anyway, she finally called us over and had a bunch of papers for us to sign - one set of which was in Spanish. Before she could explain what the papers were or what anything was something started printing on her printer. She left us there (with full knowledge that I was in labor) to call every extension in the hospital to find out WHO printed to her printer because she can't do her work if they are printing to her printer! I read the paperwork as best I could and signed and initialed where I thought I needed to. She finally came back and looked over the paperwork. She started entering everything into the computer and then she noticed that I had initialed that I didn't want to be in the directory. Apparently this means that you don't want anyone to know you are there and if someone calls for you they have to say you aren't there. I had already initialed it and at that point I didn't care I just wanted to get into a private room so I could get this show on the road. We told her go ahead with it - which took another 10 minutes of paperwork and the giving of a "code name". Then she noticed I didn't sign the other papers (the Spanish ones) and asked me why. Probably because I DON'T UNDERSTAND SPANISH!! We got that straight, finished up the paperwork and she said to have a seat someone would be down to get us in about 10 minutes. "Dr. Dillard is the doctor on call tonight so she'll be attending to you" she said.(remember that, it's important!!) We waited 15 minutes in the waiting room before Bob got fed up and asked her to call again. About 10 minutes later they came to get us and took us to our room.



Once we were in the room a very chipper nurse came in and hooked up the IV and all the monitors. She asked me a million questions (between contractions, which were a steady 5 or less minutes apart and lasting between 45 seconds and a minute) and then she said it was time for her to get off duty. Nice! Another nurse came in, Katie, and said she'd be taking care of me for the rest of the night. She seemed very young! Anyway, she asked if there was anything she could do to make me more comfortable and I asked for a birthing ball and to not be offered any medication. She checked my dilation and said it was at 3. She was totally cool! I labored in the bed for a while but it was very uncomfortable to lay down when I was having a contraction. At some point my mom and sister came in (they came from Asheville) and hung around for a while and we chatted a bit. When things really got going they went to the waiting room and I got on the ball. Oh!!! What a better way to labor!! The bed was miserable and the ball made it seem less painful. I just rocked through the contractions, Bob supporting me from behind. What a great help Bob was, throughout the whole thing. He would hold my hand through each contraction and it was such a comfort. After a while I started feeling the urge to push a little bit. I told Katie and she had me get back on the bed to check the dilation. She said I was at 7. (an hour before she had checked and I was at 5). She said things were progressing pretty well and that she'd go ahead and call the doctor in so she could break the water and get things moving along a bit faster. I was totally ok with this. She came back and said she wasn't able to get ahold of the dr but that she'd keep trying. She left again and came back a bit later to let me know that the doctor the receptionist had said was on call was not the right one! The one on call was, of course, the only doctor in the practice that I hadn't met. Katie said she'd be there in 15 minutes and she'd break my water then. She left again, not sure why at that point, and a few minutes later (2 contractions) my water broke on it's own. Bob called the nurse and she got Katie to come back in and get the table with all the instruments on it ready. At this point I was really feeling like pushing and was starting to feel the burning sensation that comes when the baby moves way down and is READY to come out. The doctor showed up a few minutes later and checked me out - said that I was moving along nicely and to go ahead and push when I felt like it. 13 minutes after the doctor got there Wyatt was born. The last part Bob kept telling me to look at him but I couldn't. I don't know why but I was focusing on the whiteboard with the "how much pain are you in" faces on it. Once he was born they suctioned his nose and stuff and plopped him right on my tummy. Bob said I was trying to grab him but I don't remember that. I do remember looking down and seeing his head before he was all the way out. I rubbed him with the towels they wrapped him in to help get some of the goo off and told him how wonderful and beautiful and perfect he was. I think Bob was laughing at me! Anyway, after a few minutes they took him away to weigh him and do the Apgar thing and all that. The doctor repaired my tear - just a small one, smaller than the episiotomy I got last time. I told Bob to go hang with Wyatt so he wouldn't think we'd just dumped him into the cold cruel world so he went over and gave me the play by play of his check. I got very very cold! After she stitched me up the doctor got some heated blankets and covered me up then they brought Wyatt over so I could try to feed him. He did so well latching on! They let me feed him for about 15 minutes or so then they took him to the nursery to get him cleaned up the rest of the way and dressed. Bob went to the nursery with him so Katie packed up all my stuff and helped me get to our room. Katie was a super wonderful nurse!!! She told me there's no way she was ever doing that without any meds, but that I did a super job. hehehe, thanks!

When we got to the new room Mom and Rachael came back in for a few minutes to get the details then they went back to the hotel. Bob came back after a while and we got a little sleep before they brought Wyatt back in. The nurses did come in a few times in between to check my temp and blood pressure and all that. Needless to say we didn't get much sleep that night! Anyway, that's the story of Wyatt!