A Birth Story

It's hard to believe Owen is 6 weeks old today. Where has the time gone? I thought I would share the story of his arrival.

With no signs of him making an appearance on his due date, I decided to hit the gym for a light workout in hopes of moving things along. I guess it worked because early the next morning I woke up to light cramping. By about 6am, full on contractions had started. Things seemed to be moving along rather quickly. Reese was in daycare that day so Scott got her ready and left to drop her off. By the time he was home, I was in quite a bit of pain, having contractions every 6 or 7 minutes. We called the hospital and they said to try and wait until they were 3 or 4 minutes apart. By 10am, they were almost unbearable and I decided it was time to go. I was having intense contractions every couple minutes on the half hour drive to the hospital.

Once we arrived, Scott was asking me where to park and I think my response was something like, '...just stop the car and let me out anywhere'. I was not in a good place by then! We got in and found out I was dilated to a 6 or 7. I told the midwife I really wanted an epidural and at first she questioned me saying I was already so close. I was not messing around though and said I definitely wanted the epidural. In order to have one, I had to be moved upstairs, out of the midwife unit. At that point, I didn't care where I would be, just wanted the meds! The midwife took about 20 minutes to get my paperwork sorted and call upstairs to advise I would be coming up. When she came in to get me in a wheelchair to head upstairs, I was having the urge to push so she checked me again. In 20 minutes I had gone from 6 or 7cm dilated to fully dilated and ready to push. He was on his way, ready or not. I pushed for around 40 minutes and was holding my sweet baby boy.

One minor hiccup in the delivery process was his cord was loosely wrapped around his neck. The midwife lifted it up and around his neck and it snapped, spraying both midwives and the room with blood! It honestly looked like a crime scene in there. Both midwives said they had never seen anything like it before. No cord cutting for Daddy.

No time for any pain management was not in my birth plan. At all. I was fully intending on having an epidural, gas and air, whatever would help me get through labor and delivery. I never thought I wouldn't even have the option. Even though it wasn't part of the plan, it is amazing to think what your body can endure. Of course, there were times I was begging for something and honestly didn't think I could do it. But in the end, I did, proving myself wrong and reminding me what we're capable of if we really dig deep.

Owen was 8lbs. 5oz. and 20in. long. He looks a lot like his big sis did when she was born. He was due for a check-up at 6 hours of life and if all was well, we were planning on heading home. Unfortunately, the midwife detected a heart murmur when she was checking him over so we had to stay the night for further observation. They explained that it was fairly common for a valve in newborns hearts to close up on its on within the first 24-48 hours of life if it hadn't before birth. We were hoping that was the case with Owen. At his 24 hour check up, the murmur was still there so he needed further testing. The tests all checked out okay and they would listen for the murmur again at 48 hours of life. Luckily, at 48 hours, the murmur could no longer be detected. It was a stressful couple of days, but we're so thankful all was well in the end and have a beautiful and healthy baby boy.

We are busy trying to adjust to life with two kids. Not as easy as it sounds but we're learning as we go!