Just 15 months ago I was writing out Matthew’s birth story,
and decided to do the same for Michael’s.
When I went into labor with Michael I quickly started remembering things
from Matthew’s birth that I had otherwise forgotten (which is probably a good
thing!). If nothing else I am writing
this for me to be able to read later and remember the details of
Michael’s birth.
At 37 weeks pregnant we unfortunately got our hopes up for
an early arrival of our little man. I
was 3cm dilated, and no one thought I would make it to my due date. Christmas came and went and I couldn’t
believe I made it to my due date of December 26th. At my 40 week doctor’s appt I was still
3cm, but again they said there was nothing left to happen except go into labor. Little did I know we would be back at the
hospital ready to have a baby later that night!
My parents were in town for Christmas week (which we hoped
would coincide with the arrival of baby Michael). The week before Shane had mentioned wanting
to see the new Hobbit movie, but he didn’t want to leave me alone for fear I
would go into labor and he would feel awful for leaving me. Since my parents were in town we convinced
him to go see the movie Thursday night, December 26th, joking the
whole time that maybe I would go into labor while he was gone; we even had a
plan that I would text him, and he would leave the movie immediately, unless of
course there was 5 minutes left and it was suspenseful (those were his words!),
then he would stay. His movie started at
7pm .
At 8:45pm I was sitting on
the couch with my mom and started having contractions. I really didn’t think anything of it at first
and blew it off, jokingly, since Shane was gone. After several contractions I started thinking
something real might actually be happening. This was all new territory for me
since my water broke on it’s own with Matthew, and we immediately went to the
hospital. I started timing the
contractions and quickly realized I was having them every 2-5 minutes regularly
and something really was happening.
I text Shane after a little while to give him a heads up, but didn’t
mean for him to leave the movie.
Unfortunately I didn’t specify that in my text and he left immediately
(which was really a good thing in the end) with 30 minutes left of his
movie. I felt bad, and started second
guessing myself. What if I wasn’t in
labor, what if they turn me away at the hospital, what if I’m just crazy? A few minutes later Shane walked in the door
and started gathering up our bags and things from my
grab-before-leaving-for-the-hospital list, which I had written him weeks prior. At this point the contractions were getting stronger
and I was a little more convinced that maybe I really was in labor and we
should go to the hospital. My parents
stayed at our house with Matthew, who had been sound asleep for several hours,
as we left for the hospital at 10pm . It was cold and snowy outside, and I remember
Shane holding my hand guiding me as I walked through the snow to get into his
truck. The ten minute drive to the
hospital was uneventful; I actually don’t remember much except bracing for a
few contractions and in my mind wanting to tell Shane to drive more smoothly. At the hospital they monitored my
contractions, and the doctor said I was 4, almost 5cm dilated. Afterward I remember the doctor on call (who
I had never met) saying, “I think we’ll keep you” and being extremely relieved.
We then moved to an actual L&D room, and started the process of
everything. They asked 5 million questions
that seemed useless, got my IV started, took blood so I could get an epidural,
it was a pretty calm process. I wasn’t
extremely excited about the nurse who I had, but in the end she was very kind,
and did her job well. I felt like she
could have hurried a little more with some of the process; she worked in slow
motion, as if I wasn’t in labor the whole time!
In between everything I was having regular contractions that were
getting really strong. All I remember
was breathing heavily (more like blowing strongly), staring at the “bath” sign
in front of me by the bathroom, and holding the handrail on the left side of my
bed to make it through the contractions.
Shane was by my side the whole time and very encouraging and
comforting. Finally around midnight I got my epidural. The anesthesiologist was very nice and
caring, and getting the epidural was such an easy process, and good experience. I quickly wasn’t feeling the contractions at
all, and felt so much better. The
downside was that this time I got very itchy from one of the drugs in the
epidural. I couldn’t ever fall asleep,
and had to force myself not to itch myself to death. Shane did fall asleep though, and I was able
to rest for a while trying to remind myself that itching was much better than
the pain I would feel from contractions.
At 2am the doctor came in to
check me again. I was (sadly) only at
6cm dilated, and so the doctor broke my water in hopes to speed things up. Shane was still asleep and I just remember
being very unhappy that he slept through that process, but I didn’t want to
yell at him to wake up while the doctor was in there. I later told him sternly, “you are not
allowed to go to sleep again”, which he didn’t take very well. 30 minutes later I could tell things were changing,
and asked the nurse to check me again. I
was at 9cm, and she said I could probably start pushing in just a little
while. Shane and I talked a little while
the nurse hurried around getting things ready.
I specifically remember her turning on the warming table/tray thing and
realizing that was for our baby, and we were really close to meeting our
son. At about 2:45am I started pushing, and everything went
smoothly. After just a few minutes the
nurse pressed my call button to call the doctor in. I specifically remember she
did this thinking - we must be really close she doesn’t even want to leave the
room! A few minutes later I threw up and felt so much better. I could
feel more to push (both good and bad!), and got really excited to meet Michael!
The doctor was in the room just a few minutes and Michael Parker was born at 3:18am on December 27th ! This time they immediately placed him
on me, and I loved seeing him take his first few breaths, kick, make funny
faces and eventually scream! Although, I remember him being purple/blue for what
seemed like an eternity before he took a few breaths. I am continually amazed at what relatively
easy birth’s I’ve been blessed with for both of our boys. We are also more thankful than ever that
Shane was able to be by my side the whole time, I won’t ever take that for
granted. Praise God for our sweet
healthy son who was 8lbs and 21in long!
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