A Baby Story

So, since it's been almost 6 weeks, I figured I would post the birth story of our boy! I was totally overdue (well, 5 days) and was freaking out, because my Dr. set up an induction for Sunday, May 3rd. You see, in my eyes this was not a good thing...we had been planning an all natural, un-medicated birth. We had taken classes for the past 3 months (yes, 3 MONTHS) on how to achieve this goal and they give you medicine when getting induced and force you into labor creating more pain, etc. Anyway, I tried to remain calm and began doing everything "they" say to try to coax the baby out. I even gagged down this disgusting raspberry leaf tea....ugh! NEVER AGAIN!

Saturday, May 2nd rolls around and I'm getting ready for the day. I was meeting my friend Carli, who was in town, for lunch.

• 10:30am - I get my first HARD contraction and I had to stop straightening my hair during it. I knew this was "it". We packed up the car with all of our stuff for the hospital because where we were meeting for lunch was closer to the hospital than our house was.
• The HARD contractions continue but are not super regular or anything yet. I meet up with Carli and Costa Vida warning her that I was in labor...I think she was a little shocked that I would still want to have lunch. I had some pretty painful ones and couldn't talk to her much! Sorry Car!
• Lunch is over (I ate too much) and we get to my parents house so Mike and my dad could give me a blessing. While we are there, the contractions become regular. At around 2pm we go in their basement and they kept on coming! We're just doing our thing and I am just breathing deep to get through the contractions. I find my labor BFF - the Exercise Ball - and just stay leaning over it during contractions. It's not so bad at this point, but they keep coming quicker and quicker. I think my mom was getting worried because she would come down every once and a while and say, "Don't wait too long....hee hee", in a worried tone!
• When the contractions were 3.5 minutes apart, we decide to go to the hospital. The car ride was....well....interesting! I remember yelling at Mike when we first took off, "DON'T drive crazy!" I could just picture him using this as an excuse to peel out and break all traffic laws. He did run a little red light.....shhh, don't tell. We got there at 4:15pm. Walking to the front door of the hospital was interesting. I had to stop, kneel in the parking lot and lean on my ball during the contractions a few times. I don't know what people must have been thinking.
• Mike gets me all checked in (annoying) while I'm having contractions in the lobby of Gateway Hospital. Yes, I got some funny looks! I was down to business. I changed into the gown and barfed up my yummy Costa Vida! I did feel better after that. They "checked" me and I was a 6...YAY!! I was happy in my own, "I'm in labor, ouch, sort of way." I had to get the antibiotics for Group B Strep ASAP, so they hooked up the IV.

• We get to our room at 5:30pm and they check me again...still a 6. We plopped the huge ball up on the foot of the bed and I leaned on it some more. I did NOT want to move anywhere! They checked me again at 7pm and I was a 7. This is when things started getting SUPER painful! My water broke at this time also. The next hour and a half was so crazy! The contractions were coming SO fast and were so painful that there was only time to spoon me a few ice chips and another one came. I was having trouble controlling my breathing during the first 20-30 seconds of the contraction. Good thing our good friend, Emily C. was there to smash my face into the ball and yell at me to relax....really, thanks pal!! :) It was what I needed!
• They checked me at 8pm and I was a 9. At 8:30 I was a 10 and ready to push. Can I just say....HALLELUJAH!!!!! I knew it was smooth sailing from here! I had been wanting to push for a while now. I couldn't feel the pain of the contractions in my stomach anymore and pushing really wasn't that painful at all.
• I pushed for about an hour and he was born at 9:36pm. He was 8 lbs 10 oz and was 21.5 inches long. My awesome Dr., Dr. Lepetich, let Mike call out if it was a boy or girl and let me pull the baby out! You heard me....I pulled him the rest of the way out and brought him on my chest. Oh, it was instant love and I just started goin nuts screaming, "I'm SO happy" about a zillion times. Truly, I was shrieking and was just so happy/relieved/full of adrenaline for half an hour at least! I could care less what they did to me at that point. Max was so alert that whole night as all the grandparents came to see him.

I cannot tell you how happy I was!

He loved getting his hair washed

Dr. Lepetich

Smoothie Time!

Going Home!

Things I don't want to forget:

1. Popping 2 IV's out...and Mike finally saying, "Do you guys have any duct tape?" (The nurses would only put a little piece of tape over it! Duh, I was sweating just a touch, I'M IN LABOR PEOPLE!)
2. The nurses thinking that my heart rate was the baby's while I was pushing and freaking out! There was like 4 of them that came in and said I need to start breathing deep...what do they think I've been doing this whole time! Thank you Emily, once again, for actually feeling my wrist and figuring out my pulse was just fine.
3. When my water broke, Mike ran out to get a nurse and said, "Something happened!", not knowing what did happen. She came in and said, "Something happened?" I said, "Oh, my water broke." Kinda funny, guess you had to be there.
4. As the head was coming out, the Dr. saying, "Wow, that's a lot of hair...you could braid that."
5. My knees being bruised and red for a few days after from kneeling on the bed for so long.
6. Feeling like I had been hit by a truck the next day...I didn't realize my body would be so sore, duh!
7. Me saying, after he was born, "Oh! He has hair....I love hair!" I'm telling you, I just kept screaming random things out!
8. Having that smoothie from Jack In The Box that Mike's parents brought me right after he was born...it was THE most wonderful tasting thing!!!
9. Our wonderful night nurse going down to the cafe at 2 in the morning and getting me a huge feast of chicken strips, seasoned fries, and a fruit plate!
10. Hardly seeing the nurses at all while I was in labor...they were just letting us do our thing.

So now we've had him for 6 weeks and it feels like 6 years! He's the best baby and the cutest little guy!! We really do just stare at him and for weeks after he was born, I'd just cry when I looked at him because I couldn't believe he was mine!!! We love our Max Norman Ashby!!!