The Arrival of Owen...

Here is the story of how Owen arrived....

On Tuesday, October 5th, my water broke at exactly 6 AM. I can't remember if I was awake yet, or if that's what woke me up, but I pretty much thought I peed the bed. I woke up Jer and said 'I gushed or I think I peed myself.' I went to the bathroom and peed and when I stood up, I felt another gush, so I knew for sure that my water had broken. Jer called the doctor while I took a quick shower. The DR said to head on up to the hospital! We called our family (all of our siblings live out-of-town) and told them Owen was on his way!

We took about 30 minutes to get ready and headed off to the hospital. I was admitted and in a gown at about 7 AM. The nurse checked me and said I was definitely in labor! Jer and I were very calm at this point, but very excited.

My nurse checked me about every 2 hours and I was progressing at about 1 CM every time I was checked. At 10 AM, my DR said I could get an epidural and I was all for it! Right before I got the epidural, my contractions were starting to get pretty intense. The epidural was not as bad as I thought it was going to be, it was definitely painful and a weird pain, but it wasn't anything unbearable.

The rest of the day is kind of a blur, I slowly progressed and I think around 1 AM on Wednesday, I was finally 10 CM! His head wasn't very low, I think he was at a -2 if I remember correctly. I was on my third nurse by now and she couldn't tell whether he was facing up or down. I started to push at about 2 AM and the 'nice' nurse told me I would be pushing for a good 2 hours. Yeah. She was quite the optimist. I would rather have been lied to at this point and not told I would have to push for 2 hours, but she wasn't the nicest of nurses. ;)

Anyways, I pushed for about 30 minutes and made no progress. So, we chilled for about an hour and then tried to push again. My DR came in at this point and said that his head was not going to fit through my pelvis and his head was in an awkward position, so the best thing would be to have a c-section. For the last couple of hours of labor I also had a fever, so it was best to get him out sooner than later. For some reason, I knew I was going to have a c-section all along. I wasn't surprised, just disappointed that I had labored for almost 24 hours only to have a c-section!

Owen was born at a WHOPPING 9 lbs 11 oz at 5:08 AM. He was 22 inches long. I vaguely remember (I was pretty drugged at this point) someone saying 'he's a kindergartner' when they pulled him out! We had no idea he was going to be this big and no idea where it came from.

Jer and I heard his first cries when he was first born and both burst into tears when we heard it. We were both surprised when he was immediately carried out of the room after he was born and both got worried. Everyone assured us that everything was fine and he was brought back to us to meet.

Unfortunately, due to my fever (which was caused by an infection due to me being in labor and without amniotic fluid for so long) we both had to be given antibiotics and he had to spend the first 2 days of life in the NICU. This was upsetting, but I'm very thankful that he wasn't in there for more serious reasons.

Here are some pictures!

Jer and I feel so blessed to finally have Owen here with us. He is such a joy and the love of our lives! We are both so obsessed with him and 'fight' over who gets to hold him! More pictures to come, hopefully I can get better with blogging!

XOXO Haley