The Whole Story

Here is the recap of the morning Luke was born. It's been tough getting on the computer lately, so it's taken longer than I'd wanted to get this posted. Be warned, it's a little long. I've mentioned before that since first starting this blog, I have found myself using it kind of like a journal. Since this is the only place I've written this story down, I got more detailed than I'd planned, therefore making it a longer entry than I'd planned. But don't worry, the details aren't too scary. Oh, and so far, our transition into a family of 4 has been good. Ella is in love with her baby brother (huge sigh of relief), but has been working Mom and Dad trying to find a few new buttons to push... more on that in posts to come - hopefully not too long from now.

So, last Tuesday night, I headed to bed about 11:30 pm. I remember before I fell asleep that I couldn't get comfortable, but that's not really something unusual for someone 38+ week pregnant. Throughout the night, I continued to be uncomfortable, but honestly did not feel like I was having contractions.... If you've been pregnant, you might remember feeling sometimes like the baby has gotten himself wedged in at a weird angle? Well, that's pretty much what I thought I was feeling, but if I rolled over I could get comfortable enough to get back to sleep. At 5 am I had had enough of the trying to get comfortable thing, and got up - at which point I told Seth that he would probably have to stay home from work in the morning so I could go to the doctor to see if something might be going on given how I'd felt during the night. Ella got up early that morning too, so I hung out with her a few minutes and then decided to jump in the shower. This is where things got very interesting.

I had what I thought were my first contractions in the shower. Looking back now I'm sure I was having them all night.... but anyway. I told Seth when I got out that I was having contractions so today might be the day. Boy was that an understatement. Within an hour Luke would be born! I started to get dressed and gave Seth the stop watch we had ready for when the time arrived so he could time the contractions. During this time, the contractions were coming stronger and faster. As I blow dried my hair (really? was that necessary?) I shouted to Seth when my contractions were beginning and ending. About 2 1/2 minutes apart. They tell you to go to the hospital when they're 5 minutes apart I'm pretty sure. Seth decided to get in the shower at that point and this is when I remember my brain shifting from feeling cool and collected to losing it. The contractions were getting really hard to deal with and I was mentally ready to be at the hospital but I wanted to make sure I had everything I needed before we left the house.... and what were we going to do with Ella? My Mom was on the way (from Endicott - a short 90 minute drive away), and we were also trying to get in touch with Zac & Kristen who live about 30 minutes away and I quickly realized I didn't have that long.

It was pretty clear in a few minutes that I needed to be at the hospital now!! I let Seth know this as he was getting out of the shower and he now had the responsibility of getting himself, Ella and my bags into the car pronto. Poor guy! The worst part of the whole situation was worrying about Ella having to witness all that was going on and hoping she wouldn't be traumatized by it. In all my visions of how this would go down, I hadn't once thought we'd have to bring her to the hospital with us. At one point I told her I'd stubbed my toe as I was dealing with a contraction... I could tell from her face she was worried about me. An awful feeling. (She asked me later at the hospital if my foot was ok. God, I love this kid!) We all made it into the car - which was a feat in itself. I'm pretty sure that Seth thought I was going to have the baby on the back steps. It was impossible for me to move when I was having a contraction and at this point I felt like I had no time between them! We did the mad dash to the hospital, kinda. Luckily we're only about 5 minutes away but MAN did it seem like longer. Thank God for the valet service at the Women's Health Bldg at Sacred Heart so we could leave the car and all head upstairs. We made it to the front desk, where they usually go over paperwork with you and get all your information and take you back to check on how far along you are in labor. Needless to say we bypassed the formalities and they got me on to a gurney and wheeled me back into a delivery room. Seth stayed with Ella while they did a quick assessment of me - I did not want her to watch what I was pretty sure was about to happen. We knew my mom and Kristen were both on their way so he'd come in with me when they arrived.

Well, things happened so fast, that Seth missed the whole thing. I still can't believe it, but at the time didn't have much control over what was happening. When the nurses got me to the delivery room I was introduced to the staff (a doctor on staff and more nurses). My OB was on the way..... My hopes were truly destoyed when I was told that it was time to have this baby - now. This meant no time for an epidural....this was not in the birth plan people! So, it was time to push this kid out. If I'd had more time to prepare myself I'd like to think I would have been a little more cool under pressure, but with the help of the amazing coaches, Luke was born! There was no time to get he and I hooked up to all the monitors, IV's, etc that we normally would have been surrounded by, so it was a nervous atmosphere with talk of the NICU, but he and I made it through the craziness just fine.

I had never planned on having a baby "naturally", but if I had to do it, this was the way - really fast!