Birth Story

After our appointment on Wednesday (with MFM) Gordon and I were feeling pretty discouraged about the growth restriction.  We hated to think he was in there not growing and possibly not getting the nutrition he needed.  I still hoped we could make it to 34 weeks.....William (and my body) had other plans. 
The night before (Tuesday), I insisted we do some rearranging of the TVs in our house.  We ended up putting another TV in the living room entertainment center (it wasn't being used for much other than storage for the cable and DVD).  Gordon hooked everything up so he can play XBOX and we can watch Netflix on this TV.  So, back to Wednesday night.....Gordon played a couple of games on the XBOX while I did my 32 week blog update.  We headed to bed at 11:00.  At 1:00 am Thursday morning I woke up to use the restroom and knew something wasn't quite right.  I laid back down trying to decide if I should call the doctor then or in the morning.  I didn't have to make a decision because 30 minutes later I felt a "pop".  My water had broken!  I woke Gordon up and started giving some instructions.  He got dressed and fixed his bed head up a little while I called the doctor and threw a couple more things in my hospital bag.  We were out the door and on the road by 2:00.  My contractions started coming regularly as soon as my water broke.  I tried to time them on the drive to the hospital but they were so close together I figured he'd be coming out SOON. 
We arrived to the hospital and were taken to an observation room on the 11th floor at 2:20.  By 2:40 I was all hooked up to the monitors and 4 cm dilated.  The nurse asked me some questions about my birth plan and pain management.  My response: I want an epidural and to get him out safely!  By this point I was pretty uncomfortable and really hot.  At 3:15 I was moved to delivery room 901.  I remember telling the nurse the hallway felt so good.  It was nice and cold (Gordon says he was freezing everywhere he went that day.  Not me!).  My nurse, Chiquita, asked a few more silly questions like if I smoked and how much alcohol I drank during pregnancy and then started an IV and fluids.  I only had 2-3 minutes between each contraction so I was getting pretty tired and felt nauseous and still SO hot.  Luckily, I got my epidural at 4:30!!!  Woo Hoo!  Things were much better after that.  Gordon says I was like a new women when he got back to the room.  The anesthesiologist did an excellent job.  I couldn't feel anything and was still able to move my legs a little.  At this point they started talking about trying to keep me pregnant for another week.  Yeah right!  I knew that wasn't going to happen but was willing to do what they told me to.  My nurse gave me a steroid shot to help develop the babies lungs and then the resident checked me again at 5:15 and found that I was 10 cm dilated.  The NICU team was called since I was obviously having baby boy soon.  A neonatologist, Dr. Fernandez, came by and spoke to Gordon and me about what we could expect once William arrived.  I had a hard time focusing during this conversation since my entire body was shaking.  Poor Gordon kept asking if I needed a blanket and the nurse kept telling him no that I was just in labor and ready to start pushing.  Dr. Zepeda arrived at 6:00 and that's when the pushing started.   William James arrived at 6:21.  Daddy went with him to NICU and sent updates and pictures to me regularly.  My epidural was removed at 7:00, I ate a little breakfast at 8:30, and was moved to postpartum room 1213 at 9:30.
I still can't believe everything happened so fast.  I loved being pregnant with him and will always cherish those eight months I had with him inside of me.  We now have a beautiful baby that we love more than I could have ever imagined.  God is GOOD!  I am so blessed to have such an amazing husband and loving family and friends.  The road ahead may be hard but we wouldn't have it any other way.  We are blessed!

Hello World!

In NICU on CPAP