I'm mostly writing this for my own recording, but let's be honest, I enjoy reading other families birth stories so I figured I would post mine.
Let's start off on Friday night. February 21 - I came home from work completely overwhelmed. I sat on the floor and cried for a good half hour. At my last doctor appointment, I was scheduled to be induced Sunday night (41 weeks, 2 days pregnant) at 7:30 pm. I did not want to be induced and since Friday marked a week after my due date I was not feeling hopeful that I would go into labor on my own.
Josh came home from work while I was having my emotional break down, and like usual he instantly made me feel better. He casually mentioned he needed to make a trip to Home Depot to pick up supplies for work so he would have everything good to go, and we could prepare to be induced Sunday night. It also happened that a few of our friends were going to dinner in Park City, so I agreed we would go to dinner and stop at Home Depot on our way home. (Side note: we went to dinner with Spencer & Devan, Case, Chez & Lexi, and of course Rykley. The night that Devan went into labor with Ryk we went to dinner at Tarahumara. Obviously we need to make this a tradition to go to dinner when we are 10 months pregnant and ready for a baby! ha ha If that is even possible!)
Dinner was great, we were in excellent company, and it was nice to take my mind off being induced.
The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful. We walked around Home Depot and there was absolutley no signs of labor.
February 22 -
That is until 2:49 am hit. I remember the exact time cause I looked at my watch that was sitting on the bathroom counter. I woke up in SO much pain. I thought I had food poisoning. All I felt like doing was throwing up. This is not what I thought labor or contractions felt like! I laid in bed for an hour with waves of nausea every 5-10 minutes. I still did not think it was labor! I casually woke Josh up and asked if he would hold me. He immediately grabbed his phone after watching me and started timing. My contractions were coming every 4 minutes, and lasting a minute. Typical "you're in labor" signs.
But, I still did not think I was in labor. Luckily Josh paid attention in our pre-natal class cause I had no idea what to do. He went and started his truck, got our hospital bag out of the nursery, and made sure everything was good to go.
I just laid in bed. And literally thought I was going to die. Contractions suck!
About 4:30 we started our way to Park City Hospital. Josh was literally driving 100 miles per hour. At the light outside of town, I made Josh pull over so I could throw up out the window. Good thing he loves me, cause labor is not glamorous in any way!
We parked in the back, and started to slowly make our way into the Emergency Room so we could get checked in to labor and delivery. I was determined to walk in to the hospital and up to labor and delivery. HA! I made it into the emergency room, and there was no way I could make it any longer.
We were checked in to L&D at 5:03 am. My nurse, Callie, checked me and I was 4 centimeters dilated. She asked if she should page the anesthesiologist to get an epidural, and I immediately said yes. About this time, I looked at Josh and told him I didn't think I could handle any more contractions. I didn't think I could handle labor. Right after I said that, Dr. Johnson walked in to start the epidural. I thought he was an angel. I told him I was so glad to see him, and he told me I was very pleasant, and that most girls in labor aren't very nice to him. While he was putting in the epidural, Josh and Callie were at my shoulders helping me breathe through the contractions. At one point I looked at Josh and he was pale as a ghost. I asked if he was okay, and he just shook his head. Callie told him if he was going to pass out she could not catch him so he better sit down! Poor guy... He said the needle was intense and that he should not have watched him put it in. Yikes!
The epidural was amazing, it started working like 10 minutes after I got it, and I was feeling back to my normal self. It was heavenly!
It was about 6:30 am at this point, after the epidural Callie stayed in the room to check me since shift change was in a half hour. She looked at me and said, "Sister, you're at like a 10. You're ready to go!" I was in shock. All I said back was, "No way! There is no way I was at a 10 already!" Callie went to call the doctor, so he could break my water. Everything was happening so fast. It was crazy!
During this time, whenever got a contraction Cade's heart rate would drop. Like crazy drop. It would be at 140 hpm then drop to like 60 hpm. I had to have oxygen and lay on my left side. Which helped. Dr. Thomas said most likely the cord was wrapped around his neck and it hopefully won't be a problem. Right after Dr. Thomas broke my water and he said to let things just progress on their own for about an hour. Since it was now shift change we said bye to Callie and thanked her.
Josh and I were lucky enough to get the best nurse, Melissa. She was amazing, and also is Josh's parents neighbor so she took extra good care of us. Melissa and Dr. Thomas finished setting up everything in my room and I did a few practice pushes with Dr. Thomas. I then did some more practice pushes with Melissa. About 8:20ish Dr. Thomas said I was ready to start really pushing. Things were about to get real!
I gave a few good pushes, and Dr. Thomas said, "there is his head, reach down and feel all of his hair!" I reached down and felt my baby's head. It was totally weird, but amazing. I gave one more push, and had his head out. The cord was wrapped around his neck, but Dr. Thomas was able to just unwrap it. He looked at Josh and said, "Come get your son, dad." I gave a few more pushes and Josh was able to catch Cade and put him on my chest. It was amazing! Such a surreal feeling to see my husband hold up our baby and put him on my chest. Josh says it was the most memorable thing he has ever done!
At 8:41 am Cade Thomas was born. He was tiny, and perfect and he looked just like Josh! (Minus the beard ha) I remember looking at Josh with tears in my eyes and saying he looked just like him! Josh cut his cord, and I just held my perfect angel baby on my chest. He was straight from heaven.
Cade weighed 6 pounds 9 ounces and was 20 inches long. He was a little shrimp for being a week and a day over his due date.
The first day of his life Cade's blood sugars were low. At one point there were so low that he was shaking and wouldn't do anything. He had to be supplemented with formula for a few feedings so that it would go up. His poor heels needed pricked for blood every two hours until he could get his numbers up. It was so sad, but luckily after about 24 hours his numbers were up and he was able to keep them stable.
Cade would not latch to feed. So Josh and I had to hand express breast milk/colostrum and feed it to him with a syringe or a spoon. It was so tiring! We had to do this every two hours, so it got pretty old quickly. We found that because Cade was tongue tied, he wouldn't latch properly. A few days after he was born (the same day he was circumcised) our pediatrician clipped his tongue. Poor baby had a rough day!
We stayed an extra day in the hospital since he wouldn't latch on to breast feed. During this time his biliruben levels were checked and they were high so he needed to be on the lights. I was so sad. I couldn't help but think it was my fault that he was going through this. Luckily Josh is an amazing husband, and an even better dad and he put me at ease with everything. Cade was going to be fine.
We left the hospital Monday morning Feb. 24. Cade still needed to be on the bili lights, but other than that he was a healthy, beautiful baby boy!
