The Delivery

I am feeling better today so I thought I would share the wonderful story of how Parker came into the world. We had an appointment to be induced on Monday, November 10th. They said that they would call us at 5:30 am and let us know if we could come right in or if they were too busy and we would need to wait a few hours. Having never felt a contraction, I was pretty excited that I might not have to. So we went to bed Sunday night excited to get a good nights rest before going to the hospital in the morning. Of course at 12:30am, despite all of our plans, I started having contractions. They are not very fun! By a little after 2am they were getting really close so Dan gave me a blessing and we were off to the hospital. By the time we got checked in and hooked up to the monitors I wasn't really progressing much. Normally they would have sent me home, but since I was scheduled to come back for an induction they let us stay. The greatest benefit to that was the pain medication! Around 6:30am I still wasn't progressing much so they started the patocin (drugs to induce labor). I also got an epidural. The epidural was great except for the fact that it didn't work very well on my right side. They fixed it eventually and all was well or so we thought. By 1:00pm or so I was finally completely dilated. Our nurse called the doctor and he said it was ok to start pushing and he would come in to check me soon. Yeah the fun part! (Just kidding!) We pushed for a little bit and then the doctor came to make sure everything was looking well. The baby's head was not in the best position so he put his hand in there and turned him around. That was much worse than pushing! Long story short, around 4pm the baby was still not moving down far enough and I was tired! The baby's head was turned and he would not come down. The only options were to keep trying, but the odds were not in our favor or to have a c-section. We opted for the c-section. The next thing I know I am being prepped for major surgery! I got a stronger dose of the epidural which made me shake really bad, I was exhausted, I was thirsty and I hadn't eaten since dinner the night before. Needless to say I was ready for this to be over! C-sections are pretty quick. I could feel them pulling and pushing, but never any pain. The next thing I know little Parker is screaming. It felt good to finally hear him. Lucky Dan got to run off with the baby while I got stitched up. He was 8 pounds 1 ounce and 20.5 inches long. Dan said that according to the nurse he has a pretty big head for a baby. I don't think he was coming any other way! While Dan enjoyed being with Parker as he was examined and bathed I was cleaned and stiched up. Finally around 7pm Dan brought in Parker for a happy and tired reunion!