Barrett's birthday finally arrived! Our little son made his appearance on Oct. 4th at 8:40pm. I had been having contractions for about 2 weeks prior. By 1:20am early Thursday morning I had a feeling that it was getting close. We started to time the contractions and they were about 1-2 minutes apart. I tried relaxing, breathing, and moving around until they were very, very strong. We called labor and delivery and they said to head to the hospital. We checked in to triage and I was only 2cm dilated. They waited an hour to see if I would progress, otherwise they would send me back home. I really had to breath through each contraction and was miserable. I didn't want to go home and have to come back. We walked around the hospital trying to get the baby to move down- it was frustrating and every minute I was bent over in wrenching back pains. The pain of a contraction is very much like sharp, stabbing, squeezing pain in the low back and low abdomen area. It was much, much more intense than I expected.
After an hour of walking around, they checked me and I was 3cm- enough of a change for them to admit me. And that meant I could get my epidural soon! There had been a time when I thought I wanted to experience the natural process with no drugs to relate to women of the Bible. By that time (4cm dilated) I felt I had a good enough idea and was perfectly fine with leaving it at that. =) So... the epidural came to be my best friend! It made the experience so wonderful because I was able to see visitors, take naps, laugh, and enjoy the moments. A few hours later I was 9cm and they decided to break my water. Unfortunately, there was meconium (the baby's first poopoo which is suppose to happen after they come out) in the water. This meant they had to have a special infant team there when he was delivered.
By about 7pm I was ready to start pushing. There is a lot of pressure to push- kind of like a bowel movement feeling. Scotty was the best coach ever! He counted each one of my pushes and encouraged me to do what I needed to. The personal trainer in him totally came out and even the nurses and doctor were impressed with how well he handled the situation. After about an hour and 45 minutes Barrett began to crown and man did that burn! He was delivered with no problems but he was completely lifeless and not breathing. He was purple and blue and covered with the nasty meconium fluid. The special team quickly started to work on him. It was the longest few minutes of our lives! We were so scared! They had to get him to breath on his own and it took some work but finally he let out a little cry. They got him stabilized and then brought him over to us for our long awaited meeting! We finally met our little son and he was just perfect!
We feel so blessed and overwhelmed with love. Having our friends and family there with us was so special. It was such a wonderful day we will never forget!
