Our (surprise) baby story

warning: this is a birth story...so it may be TMI for some

Thursday April 5th started out just like every other day.  I got Colby up, fed him breakfast, said goodbye to daddy as we waved to him while he was leaving to go to work, put Colby in the stroller and went for a walk.  Colby and I played until naptime.  Once he was down I went out back to get some of the never ending weeding done.  I had only been out back for 45 minutes when I decided my back had had enough.  I had gotten used to the back pain, but this time it was really getting to me, so I went inside and just laid down to relax.  Colby got up from his nap so we played some more and did whatever he wanted to do in the backyard.  By the time Andrew got home I was complaining about cramping, but thought I just had to go to the bathroom and was joking around about it.  The pain kept coming and I was trying to entertain Colby while Andrew was getting more work done in the backyard, this is when I was really just wanting Andrew to take Colby so I didn't have to hold him anymore.  Luckily it was about 8:00, so we put Colby down for the night, and I had my apple pie (since i eat junk food as soon as the monster goes to bed so i dont have to share :) ) and then i began to immediately regret the decision to eat the apple pie since i thought that made my "bathroom" problem worse.  I laid on the couch and as the cramping came I just stuck it out, secretly annoyed that this small constipation issue was causing me this pain.  Around 9:00 I decided to actually figure out when the pains were coming...they were every 5 minutes.  Around 9:45 I gave andrew a warning...just letting him know that PERHAPS they're labor pains, but I'm definitely not going to the hospital until I know because I didn't want them to send me home telling me I was just constipated (with Colby they sent me home after my water broke and told me I had just pee'd my pants) so I didn't want to go through that again.  We were just watching TV and around 11:00 the cramps were about 3 minutes apart, very consistant and lasting about a minute, but i still wasn't sure (I also hadn't experienced contractions with Colby since my water broke, I got induced, and then got the epidural shortly after).  I decided to call the hospital and let them know I was going to come in.  I still took my time though, not completely sure what was going on.  I didn't want to wake Colby up for a false alarm or make someone come over and watch him in the middle of the night for nothing.  I went into my room and started packing things up for the hospital, and then realized that I desperately needed to shave my legs (yes that actually happened).  I came out of the room from getting ready and found Andrew asleep on the couch, so I put on a movie and started watching, thinking i would give him some time to sleep.  Then i realized my cramping was less than 2 minutes apart and getting more painful where i was having to concentrate on breathing through them, so i finally had the sense to wake Andrew up and tell him we are for sure going to the hospital.  We still had more packing to do for Colby and had to get the carseat ready and all that jazz.  We finally woke Colby up and got to the hospital at 1:33.  The nurse was really nice and I was telling her I hope she wont have to send me home and coming up with small talk while she got everything ready.  She asked me what my pain level was so I told her probably a 4 and that I would like the epidural at about a 5.  She then checked to see if i was dilated and then used the worst sentence ever, "oh honey you're not getting an epidural, you're at a 9" I was in complete shock and immediately started crying (now i know to the mother that was planning on doing a natural child birth I sound like a complete baby - just keep in mind i have never had ANY intention whatsoever to do this without an epidural, I did not have time to mentally prepare myself for what was about to happen).  The nurse ran out of the room (i'm assuming to make sure the delivery room is getting prepped).  I walked on over to the delivery room where i had nurses running all around me, possibly talking to me, i'm not really sure at this point.  Andrew was holding Colby, trying to get ahold of our friends Andrew and Emily to come and get him for us, meanwhile...i'm beginning to hyperventilate, i'm more worried about why my hands are cramping up and why i'm about to pass out than the pain. I really wish I hadn't been as loud as I was for Colby's sake, but he seemed completely fine eating fruit snacks on the couch.  The nurse is breaking my water, trying to calm me down (i think).  Somewhere in this mess the doctor shows up and they want me to push.  I'm thinking "they have got to be kidding, i'm doing everything i can to get through this contraction and now you want me to push?" I'm pretty sure Parker began to come out before i really pushed much, but finally found some strength to push.  About 3 pushes later (and a crazy amount of hysteria from me) Parker Ryan came into the world at 2:12 (yes about 45 minutes after we got to the hospital).  Of course that was not the end to my happy ending.  There is still a placenta to be delivered.  Someone had told me this hurts (if i didn't remembe this small fact, i'm sure the rest of the night would have been very different).  I was tense, shaking, still trying to breathe, and bottom line, i could not get myself to relax and calm down.  They told me my water and Parkers head held open my cervix, so when they were gone, my cervix closed to 2 cm and they couldn't get my placenta out because i was so tense.  Bottom line, they took me to the operating room to perform a D&C to get the placenta out.  I got spinal anesthetic and basically relaxed enough that they didn't need to perform the surgery (thank goodness).

So after this crazy and stressful night, we welcomed our baby boy who weighed 5 lb 9 oz and was 18.5 inches long.  He's been amazing.  He sleeps so well and has the quietest cry i've ever heard (for anyone who knows colby, you know these two things are they exact opposite).  He has his days and nights confused, so he sleeps all day long and i can hardly get him to even eat, and he's awake a lot of the night, so we have some work to do, but he's so much fun to have in our home and we're blessed that he is home with us.