Friday morning I woke up around 5:15 am to a pretty strong contraction and decided to start timing them. They were coming consistently every 7-8 minutes for nearly 3 hours, so even though they weren't strong yet (I was still walking around the house and talking to Byron), I decided to call my OB just to see what he had to say. He told me to come on in and they'd check me out, so after dropping Caleb off with his Granddad, we headed over to Miami Valley Hospital South. We were checked into triage where they monitored my contractions and checked so see how dilated I was (4 cm. Only a 1 cm increase from Wednesday's appointment) then sent me out walking. I walked the grounds for about an hour before going back and they said I had dilated to a 5, so even though my contractions had slowed down and spread out, they checked me into a room around 11. At lunch time the OB came in and broke my water and the rest of the day was spent trying to get labor going.
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| Miami Valley South The hospital David was born in <3 |
Byron and I walked the halls of the maternity ward a million times, and I spent about 3-4 hours laboring in a tub they had set up in my room. Since it was a portable tub, the water labor wasn't all at once, the water would cool off so they'd have me get out and would use a bucket to take some of it out and put new, warmer water in, during which I would walk or use the birthing ball. At 7 pm there was a shift change and our new nurse was the same one who delivered Caleb! It was weird to see her, since she had been a New Beginnings nurse, but it was nice to have a familiar face. By 9 pm my contractions finally started coming consistently again, and were getting stronger, but they were about 10 minutes apart, so I laid down to try and get some rest. I woke up with each contraction and my hero of a labor coach, the incredible man I married, would come and talk me through each one, rubbing my back and making sure I had enough water.
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| The birthing tub I got to use this time. They only have 1 room with a permanent labor tub, that was in use before we got there and everyone else gets these... |
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| My Wonderful Labor Coach <3 |
By 11:45 pm I was ready to curl up in a ball and lay in the fetal position for the rest of my life. The A/C had stopped running sometime that afternoon, and that evening the heater kicked in (hospital wide malfunction), so the room was extremely hot, and the sinus infection/cold I had been battling all week gave me a headache the likes of which I hadn't experienced since I discovered I had seasonal allergies nearly 7 years ago, so I thought I was going to splinter into a million pieces. I talked to Byron about it and after making sure he was okay with it too, I called for my nurse and asked for information on epidurals.
Apparently the hospital was really busy. All 5 labor rooms were full, plus both of the "swing rooms" (postpartum rooms that could be used for labor and delivery), so they were at full capacity for only the second time since 2011 when they finished building the maternity wing here, so after waiting about 15-20 minutes, the anesthesiologist came instead and answered all of my questions. I was nervous, I did not want anything to go wrong, and I was feeling incredibly selfish, but Byron was wonderfully supportive and when I asked if she was good at what she did, she sounded extremely confident in her abilities so I decided to trust her. Within 30 minutes I had been put on an IV, had my cervix checked (I had only dilated to a 6 since noon) and they were getting the epidural set up. I had a contraction that lasted just about the entire time the anesthesiologist was trying to get everything done, so I was a little less than co-operative, but everyone was so patient with me and I was grateful to be in such capable hands.
Once the epidural kicked in, Byron was too wired to sleep since I had encouraged him to sleep whenever I was in the tub and had been dozing between my contractions for the past 3 hours, so he helped the nurses tear down the birthing tub while I slept. The nurse had said she would be back at 3 (2 hours later) to check my dilation but that if I felt any pressure, to call her and she would check sooner. By 1:30 am I called her into the room. She checked and I was complete! I had finally made some serious progress and this baby was coming!!!
Dr. Horlacher was on call for both hospitals however and had to drive from the campus in Dayton to deliver the baby, so instead of getting to have him, I had to wait....20 minutes...It may have been some of the longest 20 minutes of my life. I didn't understand why she didn't just bring in the doctor that was on call for the whole hospital, I was ready for it to be over, but I waited, I breathed through each contraction and held the baby in just like she told me to...never again...hahaha. They had me all set up by the time he got to the hospital, so he walked in the room and got ready to catch. Byron was way braver than I think I would have been and stood by my side, holding my hand, smiling at me, and talking to me, and even telling me what was going on a couple of times while I pushed. It felt like it was taking forever, but at 2:08 am, they laid my sweet little David on my chest and I was elated. He was the epitome of perfection with his dark curly hair (a brunette version of Caleb's baby hair that is more of a strawberry blonde now that he's all dry and clean), chubby cheeks, and long little fingers and toes. He weighed 8 lbs 15 oz and was 21 1/2 inches long. Thank goodness he came 11 days early.
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| A happy Daddy! |
I was ready to call everyone and their brother to tell them our exciting news, but decided to act like a civilized human being and wait for a reasonable hour (I had decided 5 am was late enough to call my parents...Obviously I'm a little crazy) before trying to contact anyone.
His breathing was a little hindered with a bunch of mucous in his airways, so they took him off of me to clean out his throat and nose, but handed him right back and I loved having his warm little body on mine. He wasn't a happy camper until he was able to eat, but he was so soft and warm, I couldn't help but marvel at the little miracle he was and thank everyone who came into the room that had helped or told me how beautiful he was.
By 4 am they were ready to take me to my postpartum room. Byron gathered together all of our things, they swaddled little David, and pushed me down the hall. They have a cute little lobby area with tiny little lights all over the ceiling that twinkle and play a lullaby when you push a button on the wall, and they let me push it as we walked by to let everyone within earshot know a baby had been born. It sounds kind of sappy, I know, but I just loved the ambiance of it with the lights all around us dimmed and the beautiful music playing for my tiny bundle of joy.
Once they got us in our room Byron set up his bed and passed out while I listened to our new nurse go through a book of informational papers and pamphlets that I could have cared less about. I was so tired. She finally got done just around 5 and I decided I was too tired to call anyone and fell asleep. I was up by 6 though and excitedly texted my Mommy to tell her our good news (I was still nervous about waking people up on a Saturday morning). She brought the whole family in (and a box of Dunkin Donuts, since she loves to spoil me) about 2.5 hours later and I was so excited to see them all and show Caleb his new baby brother.
We got some pictures taken, everyone got to hold him at least once, and they left much too soon, but I knew I needed rest and spent the rest of the morning snoozing and feeding David until my grandparents showed up around lunch time. They brought me some beautiful orchids and held their little great grand baby for a while before leaving us to sleep again. I was so grateful to see them though and feel the love they had for our precious little David.
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| My boys <3 |
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| Grandad with Grandson #2 |
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| Granny Love!!! |
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| My beautiful little family |
So far he's been a really good sleeper while here. He loves being swaddled (the complete opposite of Caleb who just wanted to sprawl out all over you), and is a great little eater. I can't help but thank Heavenly Father for the incredible blessing our little David is, and wonder what kind of miracles shall be wrought through this perfect little angel child of mine.
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| 12 hours old, some of the swelling is starting to go down. :) |
Here's a link to the song I got the blog title from.
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