birth story!

We are finally home and so much has happened and changed it is unreal!! There is so much I want to tell everyone, but I guess I will start at the beginning with Reid's birth story. It was the craziest and most intense thing I have ever done in my entire life! Here is what happened. . .

On Tuesday Mark and I went in to the doctor's office for just our regular weekly visit. We were in there and found out my blood pressure was slightly elevated. As a precaution the doctor sent me across the street to the hospital for monitoring. It came down because I was resting on the bed so they sent me home, but told me to call the doc the next day to go in and have it checked again. We go home, sleep, and then are back in the doctor's office that afternoon to recheck the BP. They check me on Wednesday and see that it is still high and so he tells me he is going to induce on Thursday October 7! Wow! However he cannot really feel my cervix so we are told to go into the hospital that night to get citotec, a pill that softens it andmakes it dilate. We go home, get everything situated around the house, go back into town, eat and picky up last minute items from and by 8:30 we are at the hospital.

We went in and I got admitted, got my IV, which they had to stick me 3 times to do,and then they checked me. Here is what I think happened. I think I sat up in the bed right before the nurse checked me and had a contraction (I had been having braxton hicks off and on) and dilated a little. Then when the nurse checked me it made me dilate to a two because I ended up bleeding quite a bit.. Because I was dilated all the sudden they decided not to do the citotec and gave me ambien to help me sleep and we called it a night at 11. At 2:50 I woke up to my water breaking and that is where all the fun begins. My water broke and almost immediately real contractions started! It was strange because the pain wasn't what I thought it was going to be (like sharp, excruciating pain) it was a pain that came in waves, getting more intense and then slacking off. As soon as my water broke I asked for the epidural, and my advice for any new moms is to ask for it ASAP!!!! Like as soon as they will let you ask, ask, because it takes a while to get it and to get the fluids in you that you have to have before they can give it. The nurse had to ask the doctor if I could have it (why I have no idea) and that took 45 mins. This is where it gets a little fuzzy for me, I remember things happening in spurts but it is all jumbled. I sat up to get the epidural but was in pain and having contractions, so I threw up some. The nurses were great and it didn't phase them a bit, but I knew it was all happening a little faster than they thought because the nurse I had said "it's ok, people usually do this during transition! So I got the epi and then laid back down for them to check me, and they figured out I was at a 10!! Yeah I know talk about quick! They also had to put a monitor on the baby's head and put some saline (fluid) back inside me. Of course all this is hurting because the epi hadn't had time to take affect. I think under normal circumstances they would have waited until the epidural was working, but they realized how fast it was going. I get the epi and all that done and then have the feeling like i need to go to the bathroom. That really was the urge to push . They laid me back down and I began pushing. Pushing wasn't difficult because I could feel where to push. It is crazy that you body knows just what to do. I was scared and freaking out, telling Mark we had to wait until the epidural had taken affect, but this was unrealistic since Reid was coming and coming NOW! So they gave me nubane, and that relaxed me inbetween contractions. Getting the head out was the hardest and took the longest. The epidural really should have taken affect at some point during the whole process, but it never did, so I don't believe it was put in right. The only thing that ever got numb was my right thigh!! Once the head was out things got somewhat easier, and once the shoulders were out he just came right on out with the next push. I cannot begin to tell you the RELIEF that came with that, nor the crazy feeling of your stomach going from hard to not hard! That was the weirdest and the best! They showed him to me and then took him to be worked on while they sewed me up. It took about another 30 minutes before I actually got to see him and hold him, but it was great to finally get to look him in the eyes, even if I was still a little loopy. He weighed 7 pounds 13 ounces and was 21 and 1/4 inches long, and was ssssooo beautiful!

We had tons of visitors that first day. It was so much fun to have other people see him and fawn over him the way we were, we were so in love!!!! We enjoyed our stay at the hospital too! We were there an extra day because I tested positive for strep, which helped tremendously in the whole recovery process. The nurses were great, teaching me how to feed and swaddle him.

The coolest thing to watch was Mark become a daddy, and let me just tell you, he has become the best daddy a kid could ask for. He would barely let me do anything at the hospital! He is the best diaper changer and swaddler right now! He loves loves loves this little boy! He has taken such good care of me, I couldn't ask for a better husband! I know this is probably more than you ever wanted to know, but it is what all happened to me.