For anyone who is interested, this is the story of my son's birth.
Will was due on Sept. 1, 1997. On Sept. 2, 1997 he did not seem interested in making an appearance. So I went and walked a mile, hoping that would speed things up. Low and behold, at 4:30am Sept. 3, 1997 I awoke with labor pains. So I got up and started pacing the road in front of my house. Soon gave up because it was dark and it gave me the creeps. :) So Steve and I sat up playing pinball on the Nintendo until the doctors office opened.
I called and was told not to come to the hospital until the contractions were 2 to 3 minutes apart or I could not talk through them. I was anxious and nervous so I repacked my bags two or three times and took a shower to kill time. I didn't want to go to the hospital with hairy legs!
So finally at noon I showed up at the hospital with irregular contractions coming every two and a half to four minutes.
But when I got there I was only dilated to 2cm. I was so afraid they were going to send me home! I couldn't stand being there another minute! I felt like at least if I was at the hospital then he would really get here soon. The waiting at home was driving me crazy. So they admitted me and I called my sister, who was to be in the birthing room with me and Steve. She arrived and Steve left. He was going to Wal Mart, which made me mad. But having my sister there, was very reassuring.
Julie and I walked the halls to help speed things along. In about 20 mins. I was dilated to 4cm. They propped me in bed and put a monitor on me. Finally Steve showed back up. In actuality it seemed like forever but was only about a half hour. He had gone to Halmark to buy me a present and Will a birhtday card and present. To this day I get misty thinking about how sweet he was to think of that.
Hours go by and the contractions get worse. Steve meanwhile is taking his cue from Julie, coaching me to breathe through the contractions, I keep saying "I am breathing!" in between the breaths I am holding.
Steve is so great through the entire thing. He stands beside the bed the whole time, even though it has been hours and he is tired. He keeps saying "I love you,honey."
The doctor is supposed to come at 5:30pm but doesn't show up untill 7:00pm. Finally he gets there and gives me my epidural. RELIEF! It hurt to get it put in, but within thirty seconds I felt little pain. I finally have a chance to catch my breath and relax a bit, meanwhile ignoring that I can't really feel my legs.
They have by this time inserted an internal monitor. The epidural slows my labor, and they start a pitocin drip to help things along. Within about an hour I have dilated from about 5cm to 10cm. FINALLY! Now comes the hard part. Pushing. I push for an hour and a half. The doctor is joking with me the whole time. I have a mirror and can see the top of Will's head. It's covered with hair. I am not scared at this point. We keep going and the nurses are cheering me on as much as Steve and Julie. One of the delivery murses happens to be one of Steve's exgirlfriends. Which in retrospect is very funny to me. The only time I get scared is when it's time for the episisotomy. I DID NOT want him to cut me. It freaked me out. But they distracted me and it didn't hurt. A few more pushes and there he is. He's got ahold of the monitor wire, and the first thing he does upon hitting the air is pee everywhere. The doc puts him on my stomach and says "You take this, it's slimy."
He is gorgeous and staring me right in the face. Steve cuts the cord. We are all in tears. They take him and clean him up and then bring him back for a feeding. I cannot take my eyes off him. He is 8lbs 15oz and 21 inches long. He has a head full of hair and blue blue eyes. He is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I stay up all night holding him. Except for when I ate and took a shower he was in my arms. Steve crashed. We'd been up for 19 hours. But I couldn't bear to miss a moment with my sweet son.
That's basically it. Now he's two years old and the cutest little monster you ever saw! |
