As you may have heard, Team Pagan is now three strong! It's hard to believe it's been almost a month since our little one made his way into the world, and you better believe that I'm wracked with a certain amount of mommy guilt for not posting about his birth sooner. But our time has been well spent. We've been enjoying the company of family, gazing adoringly at our new little boy and taking millions of photos of him. So I don't feel quite so bad.
Ok, enough stalling, here's the re-cap of David's birth:
On Saturday (Oct. 23rd), Dave and Debbie flew into Little Rock, expecting to have a few days to hang out before the baby was born.
On Sunday I had noticed some fairly consistent contractions, about 5 minutes apart, which quickened to about 3-4 minutes apart after we got to church. So Jon and I stepped out and called the doctor's exchange to get their opinion. They suggested that we go to the hospital, so we packed up excitedly and made our way to labor and delivery. After being hooked up and monitored for a while, the nurses informed us that our doctor suggested that we go home and avoid spicy and greasy foods--consistent contractions, but not intense enough.
False alarm (kind of), so we did what any reasonable people would do and we had Mexican for lunch, then pizza for dinner with some friends that came over to the house to celebrate Jon's birthday.
Around 2:00am, I was having contractions that had awakened me from sleep, so I got up and timed them in the living room for the next hour or so. They continued getting more intense regardless of my position, sitting, standing, lying down, so I woke Jon up to inform him that we may be having another false alarm, but that it could be "go time."
So I was up.
The baby was definitely up.
Jon was up, then we got Dave and Debbie up and left for the hospital.
Again.
We arrived around 4am.
This time, we were better prepared with iPad, laptop (for the long wait expected with a first delivery), etc.
After getting checked into the hospital for a second time and making yet another call to our doctor (now 5:15am), the nurse said that she would like us to walk the halls for an hour with the hope of progressing things.
So Jon and I walked from about 5:45-6:45. And we walked and walked and stopped and breathed and walked and stopped and breathed. And we accepted knowing smiles from kind women and older couples and hospital staff. And I wished I had worn better shoes than the devil ballet flats I was in. And Jon was a champ--always encouraging and patient.
After an hour of waddling we discovered that I had made a centemeter's progress, so our awesome nurse Christa started my IV and informed us that we would not be leaving the hospital without a baby!
Reality time.
Our doctor had surgeries all that morning, but he stopped in before 7am to check in on us and broke my water to further speed the process along.
Next: epidural. God-send.
We waited for the next couple of hours. During our wait, Jon decided to run to the business office and grab a few things from the car since we knew we would be staying at the hospital and that I likely wouldn't have to think about pushing for several more hours. About a half an hour after he left, I began to feel uncomfortable and asked that the nurse check to make sure that everything was ok.
Change in plans--9+ centimeters... I won't repeat exactly what I said to Debbie at that point, but I asked that she call Jon and tell him to get back to our room immediately.
By 10:30am Jon and Christa and I started the pushing process--yes, all three of us were involved. Jon and Christa were phenomenal coaches. The doctor on call was paged a little later and by 11:27am, our David was born! 8 lbs, 6 oz, 22 in. I have no words for the emotions I felt when they handed him to me (which was almost immediately) and I saw and held him for the first time. It was like an out-of-body experience. I didn't just cry, I wept. And I remember feeling incredibly relieved that our baby was healthy, that the pushing was over, and thanking God for such an incredible gift.
That last hour was very intimate--just Jon, the nurse, the doctor and myself, Jon and I were so thankful. It was so incredible to watch our son come into the world in such calm surroundings (with the exception of my breathing and a few primal screams toward the end there...). Unlike our trooper sister-in-law and her miracle birth story, our experience at the hospital was very routine and we were thankful that we didn't experience any complications.
So now, everyone is home and we are blissing out with this kiddo. We may never get anything done ever again.
