Owen's Birth Story

Baby Journey -Part 14:  Owen's Birth Story

Birth Facts:  Friday, May 2nd, 2014 at 1:58 pm.  7 pounds 1 ounce and 20 inches long.

Owen’s due date was Tuesday, April 29, 2014.  I honestly was convinced we would have him early.  I heard enough people say things constantly like "you've dropped!" "I give you no more than two more weeks" and things like that starting SO early on that I really started to think we would have Owen before the end of April.  Well the joke was on me! And I will NOT fall for that one again with future kiddos. I will be mentally prepared to endure the whoooole 40 weeks.

My pregnancy app on my phone.

So we reached our due date and went three days past.  I was already 3 cm dilated and about 75% effaced according to our last weekly appointment.  We were torn about doing an elective induction and finally decided to go ahead and we scheduled it for May 2nd.  As nervous and torn as I was about that decision, I am very glad that’s what we did and feel like it worked out perfectly.  I am actually pretty confident that I started going into natural labor that morning on my own.  The night before I think I lost my mucus plug and then that Friday morning I had what I’m assuming is the “bloody show”.  I feel very strongly that my body was going into labor anyway and I think everything ended up flowing smoothly because of that amazing timing.

Cody wrote happy birthday to Owen on our fridge board before we left : )

We showed up at the hospital bright and early with our bags and got all registered and signed in.  After lots of paperwork and prep they started me on Pitocin. The contractions started slowly and felt nothing like what I expected.  They definitely hurt like I expected but somehow it was a different pain feeling than I anticipated.  And for anyone who knows me, you know I am quite the wimp and have a VERY low pain tolerance.  Had I just been at home timing contractions and waiting it out to get to the point to go to the hospital I would have gone mad.  I honestly don’t know how I would have done that.  

Fairly soon after starting the Pitocin a bunch of nurses ran into our room and said that the baby’s heartbeat drastically dropped and they start having me roll every which way and took me off the medicine.  Talk about freak you out.  I couldn't help being so scared about if our little guy was okay or not.  His heart rate stabilized and we waited a while for my OBGYN to come in to check things out.  She arrived and said his heartbeat is good now and it was just a momentary drop and scare.  She decided to start the Pitocin again but at a lower dosage.  She also discussed the heart rate dropping being a concern and for me to consider getting the epidural already so that I could be all hooked up and ready if by chance we needed to go to an emergency c-section.

Soon enough the contractions started up again and after a while my doctor came in and broke my water.  Things sped up after that (although honestly I had already progressed quite a bit. Really every time they checked my cervix had dilated quite a bit more.) The pain got worse quicker than I expected and like I already said, please remember what a wimp I am.  It got to a point where I didn't want to keep doing this much sooner than I thought.  I sort of was torn and felt bad about wanting the epidural already but went ahead and got it before things got too intense, and thankfully didn't feel too guilty about it since the doctor was encouraging it anyways as a backup.  I was terrified of the epidural (I cannot stand needles) and thankfully that went much better than I expected.  I think I gave in and got the epidural possibly before I would have even been admitted to the hospital.  (Although now thinking about it in hindsight, the contractions were pretty consistent and close together at that point… so maybe I would have been at the hospital. They were actually happening fairly often right after each other. The Pitocin possibly just progressed everything much faster, so it all moved very quickly.)

In a bit things sort of settled down and I was able to rest while on the epidural. The nurse told us it would be several hours before I progressed the rest of the way.  I remember my lower half starting to feel really odd as the epidural was kicking in.  Numb and tingly and then things started to blend and feel surreal.  I remember one side of my body/legs being way more numb that the other and they had me rolling to let gravity help - at least that's what they told me.  Cody and I both decided to try and nap for a bit to rest up.  I'm honestly not sure if I fell asleep or not or if I did how long it was for.  The next thing I knew nurses rushed into the room again. This time I couldn't move myself at all.  They did the same thing as the first time and immediately started rolling and pushing me saying that again the baby's heart rate had significantly dropped. I got extremely nervous and anxious and at that point since it happened twice I worried that we would be going for the emergency c-section. Instead once a nurse checked me out she announced that I was already at 10 and ready to push.  She sort of jokingly said that one of my nurses had gone to lunch assuming I would be a while but instead I was already at go time. (Told you I kept progressing quickly!)

Cody had been startled awake when the nurses rushed in and was at my side.  A lot of things were very different than I would have expected.  Once we were at pushing time, it still didn't all happen and go as I thought it would.  We had a push nurse come in and basically it was just us and her for the majority of the rest of labor.  I could sort of feel pressure, not pain just a weird pressure sensation, when it was time to push with each contraction.  She had Cody grab one of my legs to help push it back and I was suppose to pull up by grabbing my legs. Talk about weird.  Since I obviously couldn't feel my lower half, I had trouble knowing if I was pushing well, or at all, or what.  Eventually I got the hang of it and we pushed for 45 minutes.  My pushing seemed weird to me though in that we would do three pushes for 8 seconds each all straight in a row and then just wait for the next contraction.  It felt like an intense minute of pushing and then FOREVER before the next push. Seriously sometimes it felt awkward.  Obviously I'm exposed in the middle of labor.  This nurse is there with the job of helping me push. But it felt like such a long dragged out round of minutes in between each push with this lady just sitting there below me twiddling her thumbs and we're all three just waiting.  It seemed so odd to me.

Finally we reached the end when everything really felt completely surreal and intense.  The nurse started saying that she could see the head and I think that's when they called for my doctor to come in.  Even once we were at that final point it took longer than I thought it would.  With every round of pushes there at the end I thought surely that would make huge progress, surely we were almost done.  Nope.  It kept being more and more than I expected. Turns out babies don't just "pop" out, you really have to p-u-s-h them out!

At that point everything completely seemed surreal like I was in some sort of slight haze.  There were several points where in the middle of it all I just had thoughts like "I'm actually having a baby" "I can't believe this is what having a baby is like". During this final part Cody was watching it all happen and when they started to comment on seeing the baby's head both Cody and the doctor made comments like how amazing it was and the doctor asked if I'd want a mirror to look. My initial thoughts were "Um... no!" but after seeing Cody seeming so enthralled watching our son be born I thought I should look. About two seconds after they set up the mirror I quickly realized I did NOT want to see that after all and asked them to take it away. I can use my imagination, or better yet, not even try to imagine what it all looked like.

Cody has said that when he first saw the head start to crown he thought we were having such a teeny tiny baby.  Then as the baby kept coming out the head just got bigger and what Cody saw at first (thinking it was most of the head) turned out to be just barely the top and it actually seemed huge as Owen just kept coming out. (Yeah, I didn't need a mirror to know that myself! The fact that an epidural was needed and that it took so many rounds of pushes to make progress filled me on that fact.)

Finally we did make real progress and his head was out and then we pushed for the shoulders and eventually we were at a point where the doctor kept saying just one more good one! Apparently I was about worn out because it took a lot of "last good ones" to finally have Owen be all the way out and born.  Our Owen arrived at 1:58 pm on Friday, May 2nd.  I remember feeling that last push and the doctor saying he was here and seeing nurses instantly move him over to check him out and clean him up a bit, and I remember not hearing any noise from him.  It immediately freaked me out as I thought it was normal to hear the baby cry right away.  It took a few minutes and they were trying to get him to cry and finally thankfully he did. He was fine and beautiful (a beautiful little gross mess of a newly born baby). He weighted 7 pounds 1 ounce and was 20 inches long.  Perfect.  

New proud daddy!

Welcome to the world, Owen : )

They briefly did what they needed to with Owen and then handed him to his proud daddy. Cody had the biggest smile when holding Owen for the first time. I love a picture we have of Cody holding him with Owen's face all scrunched, skin looking pruney, and eyes covered in that medicine gunk. And I vividly remember when they put Owen on my chest right after he was born.  I remember instantly being filled with crazy strong emotions. On my chest Owen was lifting his head and rooting around. He was so tiny on me. Cody and I had an hour with Owen doing skin-to-skin with me before they took him to the nursery for the rest of his stuff and to be really cleaned up and all that.  

Cody went with him and was with him in the nursery.  I realized later that I never at all went to the nursery.  I only saw Owen in there from pictures.  While Owen was in the nursery I rested a bit and ordered some food. Then my mom came in to visit and hang out with me while Cody was with Owen. Once they brought Owen back we had all four grandparents in the room and a friend from our small group at church. That was sort of a funny scene as Cody describes it. So the nurse is bringing Owen back to us and starts telling us all sorts of directions and things we need to do/watch for, stuff that sounded like important information (and remember as brand spanking new parents we were clueless and really wanted to listen to what she was telling us). Surrounding us are the four grandparents with both grandmas taking pictures with the flash on like crazy. They were like paparazzi. It was extremely overwhelming and difficult to concentrate on what she was telling us. And also in hindsight I feel like it was another special moment but instead of being able to enjoy them bringing Owen back to us, we were surrounded and overwhelmed. Oh well.

First family picture!

A bit after that a nurse came in to check on me and while she did that everyone went out into the hallway for a minute. Cody took Owen out with him and that's when they did the first round of passing Owen through all the grandparents. They all love and adore him SO much! I can only imagine how overjoyed each of them were when it was their turn to hold him that first time.

We were in the hospital about two and a half days. Obviously we were there all day Friday when we had him, then we were there overnight Saturday as well, and trying to leave took allll day on Sunday since we had to wait for a doctor to come in to discharge Owen. Each night we were there we started with Owen in the room with us and in the early morning hours decided to send him to the nursery for a bit so we could get a little sleep. He was with us most of each night and a nurse would bring Owen back when he needed to eat again. I have blurred exhausted memories of trying to, sometimes semi-successfully and sometimes not at all, nurse Owen while laying in the hospital bed. I also remember seeing Owen so itty-bitty laying in the plastic hospital bassinet thing on wheels. I felt like I had trouble laying him down in there gently enough. And I can still remember the nervous feeling I had when it was time to finally leave and we strapped him into the car seat for the first time. Cody and I sort of looked at each other and were like, "Is that it? Is he good in there?"

So tiny in that car seat! I rode in the back with him on our way home.

Then after all that we took Owen home for the first time and started adjusting to the new normalcy of lives as parents. I can already honestly say it truly is difficult to remember what life was like before we had Owen. It's amazing how instantly he has become such an overwhelming part of our lives and how much new joy and love we have already experienced because of him. Part of my prayer for Owen every night is that he knows how much Cody and I love him and how much joy he brings to us, but more importantly that he comes to know how much God loves him and for him to know and love Christ.

Obviously I could just keep rambling about Owen and our new lives with him all day! I'll stop here for now and leave this post as the title states to focus on his birth.

Welcome to the world Owen! We love you more than you can imagine!