Well, he's finally here! It felt like I was pregnant for 3 years, but 2 weeks ago we welcomed Benjamin Alexander to our family. I really feel like our family is complete...we aren't waiting for anybody else to join us. The silliest thing I'm looking forward to is getting matching stockings with all our names on them! Can't wait!!!
Here's how it all went down....
~ We were scheduled to go in at 5am Wednesday (7/29) morning. I was supposed to call at 4am to make sure they still had room. I was up at 2 to pee and couldn't fall back asleep. It seriously felt like Christmas morning, waiting for Santa to come. They said to come in, so I woke up Dave, he called his mom to say it was a go, so she could head over to be with David.
0510 - Dave's family arrived at the house. We get to the hospital and had to wait to check in because they just had a bunch of people come into triage and weren't sure if they still had room for me.
0545 - They decided they could keep me and sent me to my L&D room. I got changed and IV started. We knew it was going to be a while before the actual induction started because I needed antibiotics first, and they wanted to get at least 2 doses in in case I went really quickly. When they checked me I was at 4 cm.
0730 - The dr came in and said she thought I was going to have the baby before noon, which was great because she had a meeting that she didn't want to go to. We laughed at her because with David, they started at 1 am and he wasn't born until 950 pm. We expected it to be a looong day.
0900 - The family arrived at the hospital to wait with us. Hannah's dad dropped her off so she could be a part of it and IL's came up with David to hang out. The dr came back and started pitocin. She also had ordered my epidural as soon as I wanted it. I wasn't feeling ANY contractions (so funny after the months of having them non-stop) and was still around 4cm.
1000 - No progress. I started feeling a few of the contractions, but nothing major. She said she would be back at 1130 to break my water.
~ I don't remember exactly when I got my epidural, but it was sometime between 10 and 11. I was feeling quite a few contractions, but not having any progress and they were about to turn my dose up quite a bit.
1130 - broke my water, still no progress so they brought out the peanut (mr. peanut shaped yoga ball) and layed me on my side with the peanut between my knees.
1130 - 115 pm - nothing exciting. My brother joined the party. We were just hanging out in the room and every 20-30 minutes the dr and nurse would come in and help me lay on my other side.
1:30pm - The dr came in to help move me to my other side and said after they moved me she was going to do an internal monitor because I still wasn't progressing but my contractions were pretty big and close on the monitor. She asked my family to just step out into the hall while they moved me. As I was flipping, I said I was finally starting to feel a little pressure, not a ton though. The dr checked me, yanked the peanut away, went to the door and told my family they had to go to the real waiting room because we were having a baby. They broke down the bed, pulled the warmer over and had to yell down the hall to get the nursery nurse to the room quickly. I had gone from about 4.5 cm to 10 REALLY QUICKLY.
1:50 pm - Dr asked if I was ready to push. It all happened so fast, Dave and I were just staring at each other trying to keep up with all the prep that was going on around us. I said I was ready and started to push...I thought I was halfway done with my first push when she said I needed to stop or he would be here in one push and that was too fast...especially if he ended up being a big boy. I took a breath, one more push and his head was out, then she told me to reach down, push again and deliver my baby. It was so damn fast, I don't think I even had time to process what was happening and he was on my chest.
~After he was delivered, the dr was delivering the placenta and as soon as it was out she said "you are officially no longer pregnant" and Dave and I both said "THANK GOD" at the exact same time.
Ben was born at 1357, weighed 8lbs 1 oz and 20.5 inches long. Our family is COMPLETE!!!
