The Birth

So as I was saying, baby came fast! The drive to the hospital was intense! I was having severe contractions every minute! Travis, TC and I got to the hospital and started walking towards the elevators. I started having another crazy contraction. A lady at the reception desk quickly came over and offered me a wheelchair. She knew Travis from work. She said, "Dr. Charles, your wife looks like she could use it." At first he resisted, but then I had a contraction and was in so much pain, the lady insisted! 

We got up to the OB floor and they were waiting for us. The good thing about having a doctor husband is that you get VIP treatment. They had everything set up and ready. I also knew the nurse anesthetist (AKA the lady with the epidural), I texted her on my way over and told her to be ready! I had to go change in my gown, and that was crazy, because I just kept getting contractions. I was trying so hard to not be a wuss, but mama, I was in so much pain! I sat on the bed, and then they decided that we needed to change rooms, so I waddled to the other room. I'm so glad that my sister  was there, because during this time, I had no clue where your Travis went. He sort of disappeared! He claimed he was "getting things ready." 

Pretty soon, doctor Bryan was in the room with his blue eyes and smile. His upbeat personality made me forget about the pain for about 5 seconds! He checked me, and told me to guess how far along I was dilated. I guessed 6, and he said I was right. Then he told me to just have the baby naturally, without an epidural. I considered it for about 3 seconds until I was hunched over in the fetal position going through another crazy contraction. They were honestly coming fast! He left, and my best friend in the whole world, Shay, came. OK, she is not really my best friend, I just said that, because she was actually the lady with the drugs. She came to give me an epidural. These things are the best. They stop all the pain! In my mind, I was thinking that I would get the epidural and then I would enjoy the painless evening playing card games with Dad and TC until the nurses came in and told me I was at a 10. Yeah, that would have been nice! Getting an epidural is the tricky part. You have to be totally still in a hunched over position while being injected with a huge needle in your spine while experiencing the most intense contractions, but remember, you can't move! Once that is over, it is magical. So I did that, I gathered all my strength, and got through the uncomfortable contractions/spinal penetration. 

The baby's heart rate and was dropping more than they liked, so they kept moving me around and gave me oxygen

Then Shay told me that it might take a little while to kick in, she doesn't like the instant epidurals because of the weird side effects. But at this point, I was having never ending contractions. One would start and before it ended, another one would start. I had never experienced that much pain in my entire life. I mean, this was my 4th kid and it was never this bad! Shay told me that it may not kick in fast enough because of how fast the baby was coming. NO!!! I could actually feel his head coming. They checked me again, and I was complete and ready to push. 

Finally I could feel the relief of the epidural, it was starting to work. Time to relax! Wait, but I had to push. Dr Bryan was in the room in baby catching position and all. Travis had the camera out and TC was totally comforting me. I could tell she felt really bad for me! I'm so happy she was there. So it was time to push, and push I did. Dr. Bryan is not only a great doctor, but he is our friend who we hang out with. I really didn't want to poop, because sometimes that happens when you push a baby out, so I don't think I was pushing with all my might. I think I was on my 4th round of pushing, where he yelled at me and said, "you need to push harder, don't be afraid to poop." Ha ha! I really started to push, but I do have to say, I kept it clean if you know what I mean, except that I peed all over him. As I was pushing for the very last time, the fire alarm all of a sudden came on. Everyone told me to just ignore it and to keep pushing. It was crazy! The baby's head was pretty much out, and I just had to push his body out. He told me to lean forward and pull the baby out with my hands. What? I had never done that before. It was kind of weird, but I did it, I pulled my baby out. It was so cool and bizarre and gross and beautiful also, remember that the alarms were still going off, so this moment was just exhilarating! The baby was on its tummy, head up coming towards me, , when Dr. Bryan lifted the baby up by its feet, exposing its "goods" to everyone, and everyone screamed, "It's a BOY!" This was probably the coolest moment of my life! We waited so long to find out and it was a boy! I could not believe it! We got our boy! I had to check a couple times because I didn't believe it! I was in shock. Holding him was amazing! I will never forget this experience. It is one you don't really want to relive, but you never want to forget.

This is me pulling him out (everything is blurred out, don't worry!)

This is when everyone announced his gender!

And me receiving the news

And us rechecking

And Travis rechecking

He had swallowed some meconium while in there, so was  really gagging and coughing and crying, so the nurses took him away for cleaning and testing. 

They announced that he was 6 pounds 14 ounces big and 19 inches long. Not bad for being almost 41 weeks along. Also, he was born at 4:59pm, that was only about 2 hours from when I had my breakdown at home with travis. I guess I just needed to release some anxiety. We were only in the hospital for an hour till I had him. We are so happy and excited, that was mainly the feeling in the room. He will be so loved!

P.S Travis was there, I promise. He was the one taking the pictures. He loves him so much I've never seen him so excited to have a boy. He actually had to send a picture of his manhood to his family because they didn't believe him! 

This was the best!