Saturday, October 4, 2008

Introducing ....




Devon Joseph Smith
Born September 30th
7:33 am
7 lbs 2.4 oz
20 inches long


He has arrived! He was 2 weeks early, but we were ready for him. I was in labor nearly 12 hours making for a very long night. My water broke while I was asleep (Monday) so when I got up I wasn't sure what had happened. I went about my day cleaning, getting a massage, and going to the grocery store to get food for dinner. I called my doctor around 3:00 because there was a lot of "fluid" and she suggested I got to the hospital just to be safe. I thought, "Yeah right. There is no way I was going to go into labor today. I still have 2 weeks." So I grabbed my hospital bag (just in case) and went to the emergency room. The nurse checked me out and sure enough .... my water broke. I said to her, "You've GOT to be kidding?!?!" I even asked her if I could go home and come back when I was feeling contractions and she didn't even answer me she just laughed.


I was admitted and called Joe. Having to tell your husband that you are going into labor and he needs to get to the hospital because we are going to have a baby soon is one of many surreal experiences. He arrived and the "hurry up and wait" game began.


Even though my water broke early in the morning, by 8:00 pm I still wasn't having strong contractions so they put me on Pitocin. My contractions went from painless and somewhat sporadic to immediately painful and 4 minutes apart. I dilated from 1 to 9 cm about 4 hours. There wasn't a gradual buildup of pain it just hurt .... a lot. I wasn't sure that I wanted an epidural so I had them give me some morphine. All that did was make the room spin. I went into the birth experience ambivalent about an epidural ..... if I wanted one I would get it and if I didn't I would skip it. At 9:30 pm they told me to expect to be in labor until noon the following day. I got the epidural ;)


A few hours later my nurse noticed that the baby's heart rate was irregular. I had to turn from one side to the other to try and figure out what was causing it to be irregular and to figure out a way to normalize it. I started with one nurse in the room to suddenly a mix of 5 doctors and nurses with anxious looks on their faces. If the the heart rate did not rebound within an hour I would have to have a C-section. Long story short his heart rate normalized, everything was OK as far as they could tell, and it was time to push!



I literally pushed for 2 contractions and he came out! The umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck explaining the heart rate problems earlier. I didn't see his face right away, but I did see his tiny little hands with all his tiny little fingers up in the air. They cleaned him off and handed him to Joe who, though eager to help, has very little experience with babies. Holding the baby out in front on him like a football he said, "What do I do with it?" He sat and held him while the doctor finished up with me. Again, another surreal experience ..... watching my husband, my high school sweetheart, my best friend hold our baby for the first time.


I stayed at the hospital for 2 says following the delivery. By the last day I was more than ready to leave. Joe even mentioned that he wanted us to come home so we could start our lives as a family. We've been home a few days now and it has been great. Not without its problems, but a very sweet experience. Believe it or not the little man slept for 3-4 hours at a time through the night so I only had to get up 3 times. I almost wanted him to cry so I could go in and hold him. He is just the sweetest baby I have ever seen.


He is a dream come true.


4 comments:

Kate said...

YAY!!! I'm so happy for you and your new little baby. I see it happening to you and think the time will never happen for me. It seems so far away. Can't wait to see him...oh and I guess you too.

Kim said...

First...congratulations! That is so exciting and what a sweet little guy you have there. I'm glad things went well and you still look fab after giving birth. Second...you've already blogged about him and you just got home. You are amazing. Enjoy this time w/little Devon. Congrats to Joe too!

Johnson-n-Johnson said...

Annie,

Wow! What a beautiful blessing. How are you feeling? Congratulations. (And, welcome to the blog world.)

Brew Crew said...

Hi Annie,

I am so happy for you. Congratulations. And the car freshner costume...LOVE IT!!!!