Isaac's Grand Entry

Well, just for fun and for keeps I thought I would post my birth story. Some details will be left out, because I had by far, my most embarrassing moment and I will spare you the agony! :)

Before my 37 week check up, I had started not feeling well at all. When I went in to my O.B., she dismissed it and encouraged me to take this nasal spray and take it easy. Well, I tried to take it easy but I was dead set on trying to get this labor process on the road with my vigorous walking, nightly red raspberry tea, and a little somethin' else- you know what I mean :) Rather than labor, I would feel bad for a few days and then feel better for a couple. This went on for three weeks. My O.B. is really big into "kick count." She gave me a chart at 30 something weeks that would have me record how long it took for the the little man to kick 10 times. Thursday, Feb. 28th I had been out running around that day and when I got home I felt like I was hit with 100 pound of bricks. All of the sudden, I felt so sick that I couldn’t get out of bed. I stayed there until Joe got home from work and he made me some dinner. No movement from the mister. Then an hour went by and nothing. Then two. Then we are concerned. I ate a cookie and caffeine to see if that would get him moving and nothing. So we called my O.B. and she told us to go into the hospital. After four hours of being there, they tell us that I have Influenza B (which is the good kind- if there is one) and thankfully I have an appt with my O.B. the next day. No one checked my cervix at the hospital. Then at my O.B. she tells me some instructions, including “we’re not having this baby this weekend, I will see you back Monday when you are feeling better.” She didn’t check my cervix either.

Then, the next morning I got up for my usual 4 a.m. pee break and there was some fluid leaking out. I thought, "Surely, that's my mucus plug" (even though I had lost it a week before that). I went back to lay down but liquid kept leaking out and I just thought, "this is some extra discharge." MAJOR DENIAL. Then I started timing my contractions. I call my mom at 7 a.m. and she tells me that my water has probably broken and I need to call the doctor. Well, I didn't want to call the doctor right away because even if I was in labor I figured I would have a ways and so I'd rather labor at home for awhile. Finally, at 8 a.m. I wake Joe up to tell him and he turns on super dad mode. He was plotting my contractions on a graph (Mr. Business) and getting everything ready to go. He's so funny. I was still trying to keep my expectations low because I kept thinking there's no way I can have a baby because yesterday I felt so bad. Not to mention I have the flu and I couldn’t figure how I would have a baby, nurse and that sweet thing not catch the flu. From the moment I woke up with fluid leaking, I felt 100 times better though. It was seriously a miracle.

Around noon Joe called the doctor and she says, "Sounds like we're having a baby today." Wow, I was in shock. We drove to the hospital and once we got there they did this swab thing that tells you if its really amniotic fluid. Sure enough, that was my water that broke. Then, the nurse came in and checked my cervix and when she told me I was a 5, I started crying (out of relief and disbelief that I was that far along). Then, they hooked me up to the monitors and I had to stay in bed because they wanted to check me out. So, for the next two hours that's where I stayed. Also, since I had the flu they thought it would be best to give me an I.V. just to make sure I stayed hydrated. I was not excited about being hooked up to that thing, because I’m convinced that is a conspiracy to make you look as fat and bloated as possible.

Then, it was 4 p.m. and the doctor came in to check me. When she did she said she thought that the nurse was "generous" and that I was only a 4 and that I hadn't 'progressed" since I got to the hospital. Then she goes on to explain that once your water breaks the clock is ticking. It is the law that 18 hours after your water breaks they have to give you antibiotics because it can be dangerous for the baby being in limbo that long. She wanted to put an internal monitor to evaluate my contractions and see whether they were strong enough to cause me to progress. If they weren't she wanted to give me petocin to increase my contractions. OH NO, this is not what I wanted at all. I have heard what petocin does to you and I think it would be VERY difficult to not have an epidural once you are administered petocin since the contractions are so strong. So I ask the doctor if I could please be unhooked and have an hour to walk around, do the birth ball and some other things to see if I progress on my own. She said, okay I'll give you an hour and a half and then we'll see. So I walked all around the hospital with my wonderful coach, Joe, the Durhams, Graves, and Terrys who got a kick out of our little parade. Having different people there helped to keep my mind off of everything. We also prayed a lot because I really did not want petocin at all. So at 5:30 she comes in and says that I am 5.5 (so I'm progressing!) I was really thinking I was further along than that. Nicole and I called her "stingy fingers." She WAS....that little stinker.

Anyways, at 6 p.m. my mom gets there. She was so helpful. I could not have done it without her and my sweet husband. Around 6 p.m., is when my contractions started to get really intense. She came to check me at around 7:30 and i was a 7 1/2. Then, from 9-10 p.m. I had one long contraction, they never ceased. I was so weak and didn’t know how much longer I could go. Well, at 9:30 I felt like I had to #2 so bad that I sat on the toilet for 30 minutes having contractions. I felt that if I got up off the toilet that I was going to go everywhere. I know everyone was freaked out that I was going to have the baby in the toilet. The doctor was supposed to come in at 10 but was with a patient so she didn't come in until 10:30 and that's when they started the antibiotic in my drip. When she checked me then she said, "Oh wow, you're at a 10. Its time to push." I started crying then too, because I couldn’t believe it was here! I was just so thankful that I was at a 10, and from there, I pushed about 12 times (25 minutes) and he came out. I was so thankful and so happy to see his sweet little face. He was born at 10:48 p.m. and was 7 lb. 1 oz. From there, I didn't even really feel the placenta coming out. She said that I had a second degree tear but I didn't really feel that either (at the time). The whole thing seemed like a dream, I wouldn't have changed anything and I thank God that we took the Bradley classes. They really helped tremendously with the whole process. The pictures below are thanks to Nicole Graves. I don't know who in the world could've high jacked my pictures off my computer, but I can't find them anywhere.

Here is me having way too much fun with the labor process. Trust me, it got ugly later :)


Here's my wonderful birth coach and I having way too much fun together and he is cheering me on!
Here is Isaac's 'chocolate grandma' (as I call her, because she hasn't decided on her grandma name)

Here is me and "JJ" (that's her grandma name)
The glowing parents!
Here is Lauren and Laura torturing my child :)

Here are the MEN! (My dad is holding Isaac and Joe's dad is on the right)

Nicole Rae Bobbadee (do you think Isaac can say that? Me neither. So lets encourage her to come up with her own little name too) P.S. Lets give Nicole some props for updating her blog- you should check it out! Wahoo, she's back!
The young lovebirds wishing they could have another- hehe!
Then my father-in-love prayed over Isaac, it was one of my favorite parts!


That was so much fun, I'm ready to do it again! Oops, did I say that out loud?