Let me back up, the entire pregnancy I had it in my head that I really wanted to try to labor naturally with no epidural or pain meds. The keyword there was TRY. I wasn't set on it and signed all the consent forms just in case. Well, it was a good thing that I did, because after my water was broken things really kicked into high gear.I had been having decent contractions ever since the drip and monitor were hooked up, but they didn't really phase me. My sister in law had just gotten to the hospital, and she, Stephen, and I were still just talking and carrying on. When my water broke it was like 0-60. My contractions had been registering around the 50 mark, they instantly started registering up to 85-90 and were coming much more frequently. I could barely breathe. Luckily they were only lasting about 30 seconds to a minute each but those were the longest minutes of my life! I asked the nurse if I could go ahead and get the epidural then and she gladly obliged. The wait for the anesthesiologist was torture! Stephen was a big help during all of this, but I still could not have handled that for hours. Finally, she came in to start my epidural and I will openly admit it was not as scary or painful as I had expected it to be. I was so glad to get that going! About 15 minutes after she got it put in and going, it took full effect and I felt MUCH better. I was back to being able to just relax and hang out and wait. I literally felt nothing! I could watch my contractions on the monitor but I didn't even know I was having them, it was amazing. If/when we have another baby I will be taking the epidural as soon as possible. More power to all you ladies who did it naturally, I'm in awe because I could not have done the whole process without the epidural, 45 minutes of those contractions were enough for me!
At this point it was shift change and Lauren left us with Janet. She was just as amazing and both of these ladies made our experience so much better. She came in and checked me and I was already dilated almost 6cm and just about fully effaced. That was a lot of progress in just an hour since he had broken my water. I felt so good just waiting that people took turns coming in and out to visit. My Mom and Dad came in, my in-laws came in, my cousin Mandy and her baby Carmen came to visit. It really helped to pass the time for Stephen and I. An hour later around 9, Janet came to check my dilation again and I was already up to 9 cm! She had a meeting to go to and came back around 10:30 and I was fully dilated already. It was game time! Janet went to call my doctor and get everything ready for delivery. Everyone wished us luck, but vacated my room pretty quickly. Stephen got the room organized and readied himself.
Janet came back and got me hooked up and situated and explained the most effective way to push. She was a lifesaver! About 11:30 I started to push. Dr. Lile came in about 11:45 and took over. This was nothing like the movies or anything we had expected. It was so calm and relaxed. I couldn't have asked for a better delivery experience. My epidural was amazing, I felt nothing. There was no one in the room but Dr. Lile, Janet, and Stephen. Every few minutes when I had a contraction I would push through it, but in the down time in between we just chatted about football, dogs, baby names. It was amazing. After an hour of that the baby nurse was called in, and at 12:31p.m. Nolan Evan was born. I cried as they handed him to me and Stephen cut the cord. (He teared up too, but didn't actually cry.) I got to hold him for a while because they're big on the skin to skin thing right now.
Eventually they took him to be cleaned up and checked out. He weighed in at 7lbs 11oz which shocked us because we just knew he was going to be huge! The nurses thought they heard some fluid in his lungs so they were in a hurry to get him to the nursery. Luckily, we were able to get them to let Stephen hold him first since he hadn't even gotten to touch him yet! I cried again when he was holding him. I couldn't explain how blessed I felt at that moment.
After a few minutes the nurse took him off to the nursery and Stephen went to let our families know they could see him through the window. Once everything was cleaned up, our families came back to see us and wait for the baby to come back. Unfortunately, it was a while. They called our room to tell us they thought they had heard a heart murmur during his exam so he was waiting for an ekg. Talk about nervous parents!
After nearly 4 hours we were moved to a regular room. On the way Janet took us by the nursery where the nurse called out to us and let us know that the cardiologist had checked him out and he was perfectly fine. She said he had just had a bath so she was going to make sure he could hold his body temperature and she would be bringing him to us in about 30 minutes. My epidural had worn off so I could move around at this point and we got to our room and got everything situated while we waited for Nolan.
Finally after about 5 hours they brought us our little prince and we could introduce him to the family. Stephen and I held him for a minute then began the passing around. My mom, his mom, Lindsay, Brittany, my Dad, his Dad. He made his rounds. Lisa and Patrick came later and so did Aunt Michelle with Mandy, Trae and Carmen. He was so sweet and just slept through all the passing around and loving on he had. We were exhausted from the lack of sleep the night before and the big day so our room cleared out about 8 and we settled in to get some rest and enjoy our sweet boy.
