Monday, June 6th I had my last regularly scheduled OB appointment. Everything felt fine so I was super surprised when my blood pressure was elevated again. After Dr. Lawhon saw my numbers (140/90ish), he asked me how I felt about being induced a day early. Honestly, I wasn't thrilled by this. There was still lots to do around the house with last minute stuff, and I was really looking forward to our last family of three outing to the Montgomery Biscuits game scheduled for that night. We had been given tickets to one of the suites at the stadium, so I knew that we would be able to enjoy the game in the comfort of air conditioning, and I also was really looking forward to spending some more time with Jackson. The new plan was for me to check into the hospital around 9 or 10 that night, start the pitocin at 2:00 in the morning and to have Dr. Lawhon break my water at 5:00 in the morning.
After we left the appt we started making phone calls to let our families know the change of plans. It was then that I decided to go ahead and plan on going to the baseball game since we would already be that much closer to the hospital from the stadium. We rushed home, finished packing, Jeremy did some yard work, got cleaned up and we headed to the game. We had such a good time at the game, and it was so nice getting to spend time with Jackson before everything changed. We met so many people at the game that were amazed that we were leaving the game to go to the hospital.
We ended up leaving the game around 8:30 that night and headed to the hospital. One of Jeremy's coworkers has a wife that is a nurse at the hospital and she reserved the biggest birthing suite for us. We got right into our room and made ourselves comfortable. The room was huge! Because things weren't going to be started until after midnight I had a few hours to kill. Jackson loved checking the room out, and around 9:00 my parents came up to the hospital to pick Jackson up. It was at that point that Jackson lost it. He started crying and that got me all choked up. It was so hard saying goodbye to him because he was so upset. Of course by the time they got to the car he was fine.
After they left I played on the computer for awhile and read a magazine until 11:00 when I got up to go take a shower and fix my hair. I was settled back into the bed at midnight and was given a dose of a mild sedative to help me rest. At 2:00 on the dot the nurse hooked the pitocin up and checked me. I was still 4 cm. I fell back asleep and woke up at 3:30 in the morning to go potty. It was at that time that I learned from Jeremy that my pitocin had been cranked up twice while I was sleeping. The nurse told Jeremy that I would know when it was time to get my epidural. Well, by the time that I got back to the bed after pottying I was feeling some pretty strong contractions. I guess me moving around had gotten the medicine moving, and I went from feeling nothing to being in a great deal of pain. About 15 minutes after my potty break I told Jeremy that it was time to let the nurse know that I was ready for an epidural. By the time Jeremy made it from my hospital bed to the door I felt my water breaking. I said to Jeremy, "My water just broke!" He said, "Are you sure?" I laughed and said, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure!" I had 5 strong gushes of water and the nurse confirmed that my water had broken. She checked me again around 4:00 and I was at 5 cm, and she told me that I had sprung a leak, but that my water hadn't broken completely.
We started making phone calls to our families to let them know that things were moving pretty quickly. The nurse wasn't sure if I would make it to 5:00 for the doctor to finish breaking my water. The anesthesiologist arrived and got my epidural started. It wasn't fun having it put in because I was having some pretty strong contractions by that time. The epidural was amazing! Dr. Lawhon described it as, "the perfect epidural" because I had complete control of my legs, without feeling any pain. I was able to push up and move around the entire time, which was really nice. After I got the epidural I was able to relax without feeling any pain, and everything stayed pretty calm for awhile. Our families got to the hospital around 5:00, and at 5:30 Dr. Lawhon arrived and checked me. I was at 9 cm. He broke my water and decided to hang out since it wouldn't be long. He stayed in the room chatting with our families which we thought was really cool. He's an amazing guy, and it was such a normal thing to have him chatting with us while we waited. The plan was for our families to stay in the room with us as we delivered, but behind the curtain, away from the action.
A few minutes before 6:00 Dr. Lawhon cleared the room out to check me again. I was 10 cm and ready to go. My sister Kellyn was standing outside the door and she heard Dr. Lawhon saying, "Push!" They all snuck back into the room behind the curtain and waited for Anderson to make his appearance. At 6:01 am on June 7, 2011, after only 4 hours and 5 easy pushes, Anderson Moore Wade was born sunny side up and screaming loudly! He weighed 8lbs 2oz, and was 20 inches long, coming in just shy of Jackson's birth measurements of 8lbs 4 oz and 20 1/2 inches long. They placed him on my chest and I got to meet my new little boy. It was such an amazing moment, and from the moment I laid eyes on him it was love at first sight. He is the spitting image of Jackson, and he has been such an easy going and laid back baby. Jeremy and I have been truly blessed with two amazing little boys, and I can't wait to see how God is going to use them!
2 random thoughts:
Your birth story is amazing! I don't know of any other person who has gone to a ballgame right before a planned birth! What a way to transition from a fam of 3 to 4! :) So envious of your 'easy' (easy-ER than mine!) birth! : )
My Dad has taken to calling Anderson, "Biscuit" since that is the team name of the baseball game we went to!
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