How It All Went Down: Everett's Birth Story

This is long and full of lots of details for memory's sake more than anything. Definitely no obligation to read it. Although it is pretty awesome. ;)

What can I say? Labor is definitely called "labor" for a reason. The only slightly more appropriate name that I can think of would maybe be "hell". Kidding. Kind of. Now that I'm three weeks out, the memory of the pain is already somewhat fading. Somewhat. I'm sure Heavenly Father plans it that way so we won't all stop after one child. It's still fairly fresh on my brain though so I want to write it now.

I just think the whole labor process is amazing. It's something so insanely intense and horrible, but at the same time something so insanely perfect and surreal. The worst of the worst, the best of the best. This was for sure my hardest labor physically and I have an even bigger appreciation for women's bodies and what they do than ever before. Pretty much, I think women are amazing. We are.

I broke Claire's labor story down by the hour. Sadly (for me), this one has to be broken up by the day. Whether they call it "pre-labor" or "labor" it all freaking hurt and is all the same to me. So in my opinion I was in labor for 2 days. And don't think I won't remind him of this when he's giving me fits as a teenager. ;)

(some of this is a bit of a repeat, but I want it all in one place)
FRIDAY 5:30 pm: my contractions started. They were 5-7 minutes apart for about 3 hours. We called the doctor and were told to go in. In retrospect they were a medium painful at that point. We called our friend Marcy to come stay with the girls and our neighbor Danny to help give Claire a blessing before leaving. For the past couple days she had been waking up in the middle of naps and the night sobbing because she was so uncomfortable from the beginning of her chicken pox. I HATED leaving her and wanted to be the one that she woke up to in the middle of the night.

11:30 pm: We got to the hospital where they monitored my contractions and the baby. I was between a 3 and a 4 and the baby looked great. The nurse had me go walk around the hospital for an hour to see if anything would change. I didn't dilate any more, but they were increasingly painful and down to 4 minutes apart. I walked the halls for another hour. Still no change. The nurse gave us the option to stay, but I wouldn't be checked again until 7 am. It was about 3 am at that point. I cried at the thought of going home with the pain. She told us that since it was a weekend and the baby was not in distress that the on-call doctors were not likely to start me. Pain apparently didn't count as a reason. We decided to go home. The only thing I was happy about was being able to take care of Claire.

SATURDAY: From that point on my contractions never stopped. They were definitely further apart (averaging 10-15 minutes), but increasingly painful. I wanted to hold off going back in because I didn't want to have to (1) call another friend to watch the girls and (2) get there only to have to turn back around and go home again. My mom got there that night. That felt mentally better knowing that the girls were taken care of. I took half an ambien and went to bed. It was not at all restful as I continued to contract throughout the night.

SUNDAY morning: I was in a lot of pain but they were still kind of inconsistent. I vacuumed, did laundry, took a shower, and did other cleaning in between contractions trying to move things along. My accountant husband didn't think I was doing a good job timing them so he put together an excel spreadsheet. I think we missed a few (because it was annoying calling out to him repeatedly when I was in a different room), but even without those they averaged every 6 minutes. We called the doctor around noon and were told to go in again.

Sunday 1:30: Arrived at the hospital. Me with my "this sucks!" face.

2:00: The nurse checked me and I was still between a 3 and a 4! I could not believe it! All this pain and for what?! She told me to go walk...again. I cried...again. Seriously, this sucked. Tom and I walked the halls for another hour. (Those hospital halls now give me such a creepy feeling). I did some more crying and a lot of praying. My prayers at that point consisted of "if it by thy will please help me to progress".

3:15: I was checked again and still nothing! She told me to walk again. I was starting to mentally go crazy wondering if there was an end in sight. I was now contracting almost every 3 minutes and was freaking out with the thought that it was a 3 day weekend. I couldn't even call the office until Tuesday morning so it was possible that I wouldn't have been able to have been induced until Wednesday!

3:30: More walking. After another hour we were ready to go back up to the room. As I rode the elevator up I said one final prayer, but this time I was begging Heavenly Father for some relief. I couldn't keep doing this. I went back into the room and a new nurse came in. It wasn't a shift change, the other nurse (who I was just medium on) was in another room with another patient. You know how you just get certain vibes from people? Well, I immediately liked this new nurse when she walked through the door. She knew I had been contracting since Friday so without even checking me she asked, "If we could start you right now would you?" My answer, "In a heartbeat!" She went out to talk to the doctor, came back in and said it was a go. They would do everything right away....start me on pitocin, break my water, and give me my epidural! I cried again. But happy tears.

This is nurse Kim. Or as I like to call her, my angel! She was literally an answer to my prayers! I think the other nurses would have let me keep going.4:45pm: started my IV after 7 jabs with the needle. They could not find a good spot. Two nurses tried, and the anaesthesiologist even had to make 2 attempts. They kept apologizing, but I told them that I absolutely did not care. Jab away because I knew relief was on the way! Room #3--same room I delivered Claire in!
5:10 pm: Dr. Naake came in and broke my water. I was still at a 4!!
5:25 pm: The anaesthesiologist (Damon) came back to give me my epidural. Before starting he asked, "Do you have any questions about the epidural?" Me: "No. I have a statement. I love them!!!" Everybody was laughing because of how loopy I was acting. Really, the picture below is just a bad picture, but I'm including it because I think it most accurately depicts how deliriously happy I was. This baby was going to come out! The epidural was only working on one side for the first half hour, but even that took so much of the edge off that I was in a much better state of mind. Damon came back and put more of whatever in my right side and shortly after I was completely numb.

6:30 pm: angel food cake. Wait. Tom was writing these notes down. Right, Tom was eating angel food cake and I was dilated to a 7. Still not feeling a thing might I add!
7:30 pm: told the nurse I was feeling a bit of pressure. She checked me and I was at a 10. She began to prep a few things then before calling the doctor said that she wanted me to try pushing. That was quickly followed by, "Oh, um, never mind. Don't push. The baby's head is right there." She called the doctor and all the other random people that come in. I was crazy numb this time so when the doctor told me to, I did what I thought was pushing. Two "pushes" later out came the baby.

7:49 pm: Everett Thomas was here!!! That moment is the coolest!!!!

Dr. Naake

Daddy with his little BOY!

We are so glad this little guy is here and I think can safely say that all the trouble my body has gone through these past few weeks has been completely worth it. We have all fallen completely in love with him. Welcome to the world Everett!!