a labor of love - henry davis

I fell asleep on October 9th at 1am, woke up at 2:56am, 3:42am and then finally at 4:45am I got out of bed.  I took a shower, did my hair, my make-up, got dressed and ate breakfast.  DJ woke up shortly after me and loaded up the car with the hospital bag.  It was very silent in our house.  I think we were both extremely nervous.  I had no idea what to expect at the hospital and a million questions ran through my mind as I got ready that day.

We got to the hospital just before 7am and I walked waddled down the long hall to the elevators.  We got to the third floor, labor and delivery, called the nurses station, "Um hi, I'm here to be induced."  The double doors swung open and we headed to the desk, where we were greeted by our nurse, Iman, and she led us to room 331.

 Iman was AWESOME!  She made both of us laugh and melt some nerves away.  Her best friend was working also and came in to help her.  She put in my I.V. and blew up one of my veins but whatever.  They told me that there was another woman that came in at the same time as me and was also being induced.  She was also dilated to 3cm.  Did I ever tell you that I was competitive?  It was on.  I was so going to have my baby before her.  Ha!

 Nurse Iman, hooked me up to two monitors on my belly.  One was monitoring Hank's heartbeat (don't ask my how many times that thing slipped off and I freaked out).  The other monitor was monitoring contractions.  Iman asked me if I could feel the contractions I was having (before being on pitocin).  I couldn't.  She then introduced me to the smiley/frowney faces on the wall that indicated how much pain you are in.  I was at a smiley 1.  After about an hour I was all hooked up and they started the pitocin.  DJ and I watched the news and then Live with Kelly and Michael.  A few interns and residents came in and out.  They did an ultrasound to check to make sure that Hank was still head down and facing the back.  The intern gave the thumbs up to say everything was all good.  At about noon the resident came in to break my water and nurse Iman came in to tell me that the other woman and I were still neck and neck.  We were both having our water broken artificially and we had both progressed to about 4cm. (darn)  Having your water broken is a bizarre feeling and I just felt like a leaky mess from that moment on.  Nurse Iman told me that my contractions would likely be getting stronger now.  I told her I was still at a smiley 3 on the pain scale so I was still feeling good.  DJ and I had brought our DVD player and started watching our Friends box set.  I chose to watch the episodes when Rachel was pregnant.  It just seemed fitting.

About an hour and a half later I was curled over the side of my bed in a frowney face 10 on the pain scale with only about 20 seconds of relief between contractions.  I was shaking and dry heaving while gripping the rail on the bed with the strongest of death grips.  DJ kept asking me if I was OK and I had so little time to recover between contractions it took about four contractions before I finally cried out that I NEEDED the epidural.  Nurse Iman, came right in and called down for the anesthesiologist, who came pretty quickly.  It took everything in me to sit still and breathe through my contractions as the doctor gave me the epidural.  When the doctor finished I felt instant relief on my left side, but I could still feel the full strength of the contractions on my right side.  Both nurse Iman and the anesthesiology nurse told me to try laying on my right side for a while to give the medicine a chance to start working.  Within the hour I thought it was some dirty trick someone was playing on me.  Yes, you can have an epidural Laura, but it's only going to work on one side, muahahaha.  I told nurse Iman and she gave me the saddest puppy dog look, knowing that they were going to have to take the current epidural out and put a new one in.  Ugh.  This time a new doctor came in and first tried moving it over and giving me another dose.  This successfully made my left leg a dead leg.  D-E-A-D.  However no relief whatsoever came to the right side.  The epidural indeed had to be removed and this new doctor started over.  Despite it taking two tries once that sucker was in correctly I felt amazing.  I was so relaxed.  I even took a little nap.  DJ and I watched Friends all afternoon.  Finally around 6pm when nurse Iman was getting ready to leave I asked if she would check me to see how far dilated I was.  She did and guess what...10cm!!!  Baby Hank was ready!  My doctor came in for his shift at 6:30pm so since I was still feeling quite comfortable and not too much pressure they recommended I "labor down" and allow my body to do some of the work for me.  Nurse Iman said that I didn't have to worry because I would know when it was time.  She assured me that the epidural would not take away the enormous amount of pressure I would feel.  At that point I really had no idea what kind of pressure I was about to feel.

My doctor came in at 6:30pm right when he arrived at the hospital and I was so happy to see him.  He said that he would come back in an hour or so to give me time to "labor down".  DJ and I called family and friends to let them know that it would be soon.  By the time we finished making calls it was about 7pm and I looked at DJ and said, "I have to push."  He gave me a look that indicated he did not believe me and said, "Laura, the doctor said he would be back in an hour."  I told him there was no way I was going to last that long and that I NEEDED to push right then.  I called the nurses station and told them I needed to push.  The doctor and a new nurse (Pam) came in (Pam had red hair so I knew I would like her).  They immediately set everything up and Pam started giving DJ and I instructions.  DJ needed to hold my leg and count down from 10 each time I pushed.  I needed to hold the back of my legs, take a deep breath and push for a count of ten, three times for every contraction.  I started pushing at 7:09pm.  I got through the first contraction and the second.  I was dry heaving again and started to cry that I couldn't do it.  DJ gave me the biggest kiss and told me I was doing so good and to keep going.  Nurse Pam put cold wash cloths on my chest and head and before I knew it I made it through the third contraction.  Nurse Pam asked if I wanted to feel his head.  His head?  He was already crowning??  I was so happy!  I felt the next contraction coming on and I took the deepest breath possible.  I pushed for the first count of ten and that's when my doctor started instructing me to breath, push, breath, push...At 7:21pm Henry Davis was officially born.  Daddy DJ cut the umbilical cord and they placed Henry on my chest.  He was making the sweetest newborn cry.  I could not believe this precious little boy was mine.  He was here and I loved him so.

umbilical cord cutting / the best doctor ever

Nurse Pam!!

oh that poor little cone headed babe

I love this picture.  I don't even care that I have a double chin.

heaven

proud daddy

Hank came face up, posterior position.  According to the doctor and everything I have read this is not common and typically makes it much harder to deliver without assistance or a c-section.  The doctor and nurse Pam both joked that the next time I give birth I better get to the hospital quick because if it only took me twelve minutes to deliver Hank in that position that my next baby would likely come very quickly.  The other part of this story is that although DJ was sure he wouldn't want to see anything, he watched the whole thing. (Just like everyone said he would)  He was so glad he did too.  He tells everyone how at first he could see the head and it was so small (cone head, remember) and he was so worried something was wrong with Hank.  Then when he could see the rest of his head he was expecting to see the back of his head because they had told us he was in the correct position earlier that day, so he was so confused and thought it looked so wrinkly.  The next thing he saw was Hank open his eyes and mouth at once and DJ says it was like he morphed into a baby right in front of his eyes.  He was seeing his son be born and it was amazing.

October 9th has been the most influential day of my life.  Both of the greatest life changing moments for me have happened on this day.

Oh and if you were wondering I totally beat that other lady in labor. ;)

henry's birth day eve

October 8th, was a Monday and I was scheduled to go see my doctor for my 40 week appointment.  An appointment I was sure I would never see.  I had just seen my doctor four days earlier and I was not happy to be heading to another appointment.  I wanted to be heading to the hospital in labor.  I had spent those four days between appointments emotionally and physically drained.  I cried to DJ on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  Sunday I gave him a break and called my mom to cry.  Between a broken rib and an extra 30lbs on my tiny 5'2'' frame, saying I was uncomfortable is an understatement.  I walked in to the office and the nurse said, "You poor thing, we were sure you would have gone into labor over the weekend." 

I had arrived at the doctors office in my pajamas, no make up and my hair was still in a damp curly bun from my shower the night before.  My doctor came in and said that he had expected to see me over the weekend.  I told him that I honestly had to.  I then asked him if he could possibly try to strip my membranes again.  He had already done this twice, but he said he would try again.  He said I had dilated to 3cm (I had already been fully effaced for a week) and that he stripped my membranes but that the baby was not descending due to the fact that my pelvic bones were still very close together.  He then explained that one of two things would happen.  One, my son would be extremely cone-headed after he made his way out the birth canal.  Or two, I would be physically unable to push him out and I would likely need a c-section.  He wanted to induce me the following day so that if in-fact I needed a c-section he would be able to perform it for me.  I felt a lot of emotions that moment.  I knew I was going to finally meet my son the next day and that was the best news I could have heard, however I may have to have a c-section which scared me.  This was the one road I didn't want to go down.  It's not like I was thrilled to be induced and put on pitocin, (I had heard horror stories about the contractions that it produces) but I really didn't want to be cut open.  I was scheduled to be induced the following morning at 7am.  I called DJ first and told him what was going to happen, then I called my mom and texted my best friend.  They both asked me what I was going to do on my last day as a childless woman.   

After I left the office I headed to the grocery store to grab a few things, Target and then home to give my house a once over.  It had been so clean from my incessant nesting, it didn't need much in the way of cleaning.  I wanted desperately to take a nap but I was truthfully way too ecstatic and anxious.  My nerves about what may happen were far outweighed by my excitement to no longer be pregnant and to finally see this little human that I kept so safe inside of me for 40 long weeks.  Once DJ came home for work we decided that we would take our fur babies for a nice long walk.  They were going to be slightly neglected in the attention department for a little while so we wanted to spend some quality time with them.  We walked all through downtown Plymouth and it was a gorgeous fall day.  Not only was this the night before I was going to give birth to Hank, it was also his actual due date as well as our second wedding anniversary.  We went out for an anniversary dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant and then settled in to watch a little tv. 

Then we waited until it got dark out to do one last thing.  Ever since our wedding night, my mother-in-law has always bought DJ and I lanterns for special occasions.  For birthdays and anniversaries we write wishes and hopes on the outside of the lanterns and then we walk down to the park, light them and watch them until we finally can't see them.  This particular night we wrote wishes about baby Henry.  Luckily for us, all of our
wishes came true.

my stomach was ENORMOUS

 Come back tomorrow for Henry's birth story!!

sitting, waiting, wishing...

I am not a particularly patient person.  Not at all in fact.  When I want something, I get it.  I don't wait.  Waiting for baby Hank is certainly a lesson in patience for me.  The doctor said on Monday that I had progressed.  2 centimeters dilated and 100% effaced.  I was on cloud nine after that appointment.  I was sure that our next appointment scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday would never happen.  Considering I am having absolutely no contractions as of today though, would likely indicate that I will be making that bright and early doctors appointment tomorrow.  So, we wait, walk, wait, nap, wait and wish for the sweet boy inside of me to show himself...

Patient puppies...

Hoping this is the last dinner I make before baby Hank arrives...

Cookies to help pass the time...

hanks nursery

The nursery has been finished for weeks, it's just waiting for a little man.  DJ worked so hard making it perfect.  The nursery is in the tiniest room in our house.  Not because the baby is obviously so tiny, but rather because it's the room nearest to our bedroom.  So while it's mighty small (really small) and the natural lighting is not the best in the house it's closest to mommy and daddy and that was all I really cared about.

Like I said it's small, but I really think it turned out so cute :)

weekend inventory

This weekend started the fall season.  DJ brought down our Halloween and fall decorations from the attic because he was so nervous that I was going to go into labor and then nothing would be put up.  Our house smells like a combination of pumpkin and apple pie thanks to my Febreze wall plug-ins.

these things shed sparkles like it's their job

 Saturday I took a personal day.  I told DJ I needed just one day to do nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  It's been so much stress daily just waiting for Baby Hank to arrive that I wanted more nothing, less cleaning.  It was glorious.  I swear blog about it (unless it's about going into labor) and it shall come.  I slept.  Glorious sleep that has been evading me for so long found me on Friday and Saturday night.  I swore it must be a sign that labor was imminent but clearly I was WRONG. 

Sunday, DJ had a hockey game and his team had another big win.  DJ has yet to score this season which is seriously bizarre.  I swear he's subconsciously nervous and not playing his best.  I went to see the doctor this morning and crossed my fingers that I had majorly progressed.  To my dismay I had not dilated any further.  I am 90% effaced which is something, but majorly disappointing.  Looks like I'll be pregnant forever.

weekend inventory

Hope your hump day is treating you well.  I have been a nesting fool, cleaning everything from the fridge to the light fixtures.

The weather is back in the 80s today but over the weekend I got a taste of fall and I am already missing it.  I want the cool weather back.  Never have I wanted to say goodbye to the warm summer months as much as my over heated pregnant self does lately.  Don't kick me for saying this.

We spent the fall weather Sunday in the best way ever.  AT THE CIDER MILL!  Donuts, apple cider and the adorable petting zoo.

Apparently all of the weird weather we have had has made the price of apples and cider go through the roof.  $10 for a gallon of cider?  Makes gas prices seem low, ha!  I don't care though, just like I don't care that cider makes my heartburn feel like the baby is trying to take the elevator up. 

Monday I did find out that the baby is super ready to vacate the premises.  He wants to stretch his legs so badly he actually cracked one of my ribs.  I have been complaining about my ribs hurting/burning nearly every single day and when I told the doctor on Monday how uncomfortable I've been, he confirmed that I am not just a whiner, but a soon-to-be mommy with a cracked rib.  Bummer right?  Happy hump/bump day!