Thank the lord! He has arrived!

Wish I had a dramatic birth story to share...really I don't :) My mom came to town last week, and I was beginning to get more anxious that Hayden was surpassing his due dates one by one. It really bothered me that mom may have came to town, and then left without meeting our boy. It made the time go faster with her here though so I relaxed a little bit and quit thinking about the fact that I was still pregnant. Sunday I noticed the baby wasn't moving as much, but I just reminded myself that as they get closer they move less and less because it's getting a little cramped in there. I figured I would feel him squirming around his typical 9 pm time when I'm laying in bed and he gets to going. By 8 we were in bed. I laid there just waiting for him to move. No movement. 9 and 10 o'clock went by....no movement. I started to get concerned so hubby and I made a trip to the hospital. They monitored me for a few hours. His heart rate was all over the place the first hour, to the point that they were talking about keeping me. Since my doctor was not on call, and neither was the other doctor in the practice, the doctor that was watching over their patients that evening decided he wanted to take a more conservative approach, so they monitored me another hour until baby chilled out and behaved a little better. They sent me home with a kick count sheet, asked me to do kick counts every other hour, and call my doctor's office in the morning. I called first thing Monday morning, and without question my doctor had me scheduled for an induction on Tuesday morning at 730 AM. I wasn't sure how I felt about being induced. I preferred to let it happen on it's own, but because of all the things that had been happening with my body I was ready to just get the show on the road. Monday I spent the day with my mom. We went and got our hands and feet done. Took Evyn to the dentist. Got all the last minute little things I needed to take care of done. We made a nice dinner Monday night and we all went to bed early. I took a Tylenol PM so I would fall asleep without a doubt. I knew I would be excited, and when I asked my doctor about it, he said rather than giving me something like Ambien again, he would rather I try the Tylenol. Worked like a charm. I slept throughout the night besides my occassional potty break. I woke up at 5AM on Tuesday morning, showered, shaved, put some makeup on, ate a banana chocolate chip muffin from Trader Joe's (one of my faves) and posted some last minute messages for friends on Facebook. By 7 Adam and I were headed out the door to the hospital. Adam picked up some breakfast on the way, and when we arrived and checked in I almost forgot what we were here to do... it was feeling more like we were checking into a hotel for a mini vacation rather than to have a baby because of the relaxed pace of things, and the planned feeling. I put my gown on, they got all my paperwork done, started my IV's, and my nurse checked me and got the pitocin dripping. FINALLY we were off to the races. A slow race, might I add. The contractions started but I wasn't really having a hard time with them. I wasn't having to breathe through them at all, and besides just feeling alot of pressure in my butt and back I was really having a pretty easy time with it all. This was from about 8AM to 1200. At 1230 my nurse informed me that she was going to go ahead and break my water at 130 when anaesthesia would be available soon after to give me an epidural. She said she felt like we would be moving pretty quickly after that. Good thing because it was Orange Bowl day and hubby was getting anxious that we were going to be delivering a baby during kick off if we didn't get this show on the road. My mom was taking care of getting the big kids to and from school, so she was hoping baby would get here before she had to go get them. I think she was afraid she was going to miss it. She hasn't missed a birth yet, so I think this was a big deal for her.
At 130 my water was broke and I was contracting like mad. So much for no pain...almost immediately it was like burning, stabbing pain. This was so different from the labor I experienced with both my daughter and my oldest son. With them I would describe the feeling more as intense urgency...this definitely was not the feeling with Hayden. Nope. This was pain. I was asking for the epidural almost immediately. At 2 the anaesthesiologist made his way to my room, and the epidural was intact and working by 230. I almost was expecting to have instant pain relief, but I could still feel my angry full bladder, which seemed to be the problem child of the entire labor ( this was the burning stabbing feeling I was experiencing during contractions) Hayden was turned the wrong way, so I was laboring from my back. Most women complain about severe back pain with back labor...this didn't seem to bother me. I could feel the pressure in my back and in my butt, but the pain was in my bladder. It felt like the worse bladder spasms I had ever had. This doesn't surprise me since I had been having alot of bladder issues...but dang...who complains of bladder pain during labor? Only me. My nurse promised after the catheter was in place I wouldn' feel this any longer. I could only hope she was right. But as she described the pain I was feeling with each contraction started to fade out slowly and get shorter. Once I couldn't feel the contractions as pain any longer she placed the catheter and the burning stabbing pain went away. Whew! That was rough, and I'm glad it's over. She was placing bets to some of the other nurses that had come down to set up for baby and for my delivery that I was complete. She mentioned I was contracting like mad after she broke my water and would be really surprised if I wasn't ready to push. She didn't even really have to check me, she just kind of looked, and said "yup, complete....you ready to have this baby?" O yeah. That's what I'm here for, right?? I've never had an epidural before. With the other two I had nubain, which worked wonderfully for me. I enjoyed the pain free delivery of the epidural, but I have to say pushing on an epidural is an odd experience. My contractions were slowing down as well, so that was prolonging things, and without the urge to push I felt slightly handicapped. Like an awkward 15 year old feels when he's trying to figure out kissing for the first time. I knew what to do, it just felt weird. My oxygen was depleted throughout the process though...apparently I was so focused on trying to get Hayden here that I forgot that I needed to breathe, so they threw an oxygen mask on me...this made things even more awkward. Hayden started to decel as he was crowning as well, which created another area of concern, and I knew I had limited time to get him here at that point because I DID. NOT. want a c-section. So I pushed harder. Awkwardly. But harder. Adam kept asking "are we out of the woods yet on having a c-section?" My doctor basically gave him the answer that until he's out, we're not out of the woods. So my husband stood there helplessly waiting with the rest of us for another contraction...which I couldn't really feel. I had my doctor on one end, a nurse holding one leg, a med student holding the other (my doc is the chief ob-gyn at the hospital I delivered at, so I've had med students in all my appts)another nurse holding the fetal monitor on my lower crabdominal area (crotch/abdomin), and yet another nurse standing there with a bottle of Johnson's baby shampoo "more shampoo?" When did they start using Johnson's baby shampoo as delivery lube? Seriously. My husband was cracking jokes at my head...trying to deal with all the "movement" going on down there. He knew it was a good possibility I would shit myself, but I don't think he was really prepared for it. So he was providing comic relief for the staff that day at my expense. I think they were more entertained by the both of us going back and forth at one another. He would make fun of me, then I would remind him that he's no bouquet of roses, and he had nothing to blame it on...at least I was pushing the contents of my entire abdominal cavity out in an attempt to birth his baby. Wait for contraction. Push. More joking while waiting for contraction. Push. Feel like passing out from lack of air. Repeat process. By 3:04 Hayden was here. It really did move pretty quickly. Once my water was broke and they got the epidural in, it was like warp speed ahead. I can't complain. I have a healthy beautiful baby boy! Thank you lord! We worked so hard for this lil' guy, and to get him here safely and soundly...and now that he's finally here I feel like all my prayers have been answered. He's beautiful! January 5, 2010 7 lbs. 11oz. 20 1/2 inches long.