Duncan's Birth Story!

I am so pleased to announce that our newest addition made his arrival a week ago! I've been meaning to write down the story, but this week has flown by!
I had been feeling a lot of pain for awhile, especially when walking. The baby was hanging out way low in my pelvis and it was causing major sharp pains up my tummy. The baby had also slowed down his movements considerably so at my last prenatal appointment I told my doctor that and so we did a non-stress test and then decided that baby was better out than in. He was also measuring over 8 pounds and so we decided to induce. My appointment was on the Monday and my induction was scheduled for the Thursday.
That week flew by it seemed! Then it was Thursday, we woke up and spent the day together before heading to the hospital. Jon and I decided that we would deliver at Davis this time around because of our horrible experience at McKay Dee. I was feeling really antsy and nervous and scared. I was terrified that we were going to have a similar experience as McKay Dee. I didn't know what it was like to have a normal delivery, because with Liam, I missed out on all of the normal firsts that women get to experience: the first cry, holding them for the first time, feeding them, getting to snuggle with them whenever I wanted. I also had lost so much blood that I was so exhausted and just completely drained of everything. To say that I was nervous would be an understatement.
We arrived at the hospital and they placed Cervadil to start contractions and to "ripen" the cervix. I had until midnight until I wasn't allowed to eat anything and so Jon ran to the store so that I could have apples and carmel and carrots- don't ask, I was still pregnant at that point. Jon got back to the hospital at about 11:30 pm, it was like the most romantic "Cinderella" story ever, and I was able to have my last pregnancy craving!
Jon pulled out the daddy couch/bed and we turned out the lights. At about two in the morning is when I noticed the contractions growing in intensity. They weren't very close together, but when they hit it was uncomfortable. I was starting to groan when they would hit, and Jon in the middle of his sleep shushed me once. I was taken aback and asked him what he just said to me, but he didn't answer because he was asleep. I finally managed to get a couple hours sleep even though I was not feeling too great, I kept thinking to myself- "why am I doing this again?". The next morning the nurse came in and took out my Cervadil and ran a bath so that I could soak for a bit before they would start the Pitocin. I was then started on my Pitocin and that's when the real waiting game began. My doctor came over to visit, and was going to break my water, but decided against it at that time because he wanted me to dilate a bit more than what I was at.
Because the contractions were growing in intensity and getting closer together, Jon started rubbing my feet. These contractions were starting to be quite painful, and I was trying really hard to breathe through them and to relax as much as I could. I was not sure if I was going to get the epidural at this point in time or not, so I was trying to not focus on them at all. I would squeeze the bed rail and close my eyes and breathe really hard and focus on Jon rubbing my feet. In the middle of one of these contractions Jon oh so lovingly and sarcastically said, "you are so beautiful in this moment". I promptly told him to shut up. Then later, I felt the beginning of the contraction and it subsided for just a moment before another one started, Jon looked at the contraction monitor and decided that that was the perfect time to give me a play by play of what I was feeling and said, "you just had two contractions on top of each other!" as I was still trying to recover from the two on top of each other I thanked him for letting me know what I was feeling. This was also the moment that I decided that I was going to get an epidural. We let the nurse know that I wanted my epidural then, and Jon being the mathematician that he is, started using all of these math terms saying that he could predict when the next contraction was going to happen, the strength of it, and all of these other things about it. At the time all I could think was, "I can tell you when the next one is going to come. I don't need math for that."
The nurse and the anesthesiologist came in and gave me my epidural, and then all of a sudden all of the annoying comments Jon had been making were hilarious to me! I was feeling super after getting my epidural! The doctor eventually came back to the hospital and broke my water, and then he decided that he was going to wait at the hospital because he was so sure that I would deliver within the next couple of hours. Ha! My body likes to have long labors-the joke was on him. He went home and then I continued to contract. Quite happily and without pain. Later in the night my parents came up to the hospital and Jon and dad were analyzing my contractions monitor. My mother was really funny and said that it seemed like I was cheating somehow in the whole child birth thing. It gave us a good laugh.

I had to get oxygen because the baby's heartrate kept dropping. I really look much worse than I actually was.

My epidural started wearing off just a little bit, and I was able to feel some discomfort in my lower abdomen, but I was also starting to feel the pressure to push so I didn't want to push my button to get more epidural juice so that I would be able to feel when I needed to push. I told Jon that he needed to go tell the nurse that I was feeling like I needed to push, so he went and told her and she came in to check my dilation progression. I was at a 10 and it was almost time, so she went to call my doctor. He came up to the hospital and they had everything ready for me to push! Which was different than McKay Dee, because even though I had been in labor for 38 hours there and it was no surprise that I was having a baby, they didn't seem prepared at all for me to push.
Dr. Johnson got up to the hospital and started getting dressed to deliver our baby! They put my legs in the stirrups and the nurse started coaching me on how to push. Dr. Johnson said that because there had been some meconium in the water when he broke it earlier he was going to tell me to stop pushing once the head was out so that he could clear the airways before I delivered the rest of his body. They waited for the next contraction and told me to push, so I pushed and I delivered the head, the nurse promptly raised her eyebrows and said, "well, you know how to push!" Dr. Johnson cleared the baby's airway and my baby let out the most beautiful sound that a mother can hear! He gave a good hearty cry, and after not having that moment with Liam it was such an amazing experience! This baby was born after 26 hours of labor and two pushes, it was so fast that the woman who was supposed to write down time of birth actually missed the birth; he was 8lbs 9oz and 21 inches long. Dr. Johnson looked up at Jon and asked him if he wanted to cut the cord to which Jon said no, the doctor seemed a little taken aback that Jon had refused, so he offered me the scissors to which I promptly said no, and so he turned to my mother- who also said no. So Dr. Johnson went back to Jon and so Jon did his fatherly duty and he cut the cord, which was also a first that he didn't have the chance to do with Liam. He handed the baby over to the nurses who started cleaning him up and measuring him and weighing him and doing all the tests they do when baby's are first born. The nurses told Jon to go over to where they were so that he could take pictures of what was going on. So he went over to get pictures taken of our new baby boy!

My cute newborn, who also looks a little like Rocky Balboa after a fight...

After the excitement had ended, they handed me my baby and let us be for about an hour, just us, as a family.

My first picture with our baby!

Jon and I with our to be named Duncan

Jon, looking incredibly attractive, with our sweet wee Duncan

It was a wonderful experience. One that I will never forget! I was able to breastfeed him for the first time and he latched on wonderfully and was a very vigorous eater. The nurses eventually came back in and took our baby so that he could be bathed for the first time. Jon went with them as I was moved onto a gurney to be taken to my recovery room.
A nurse eventually came in to help me to the bathroom, and then she told me that I had to go to the bathroom twice before they could take out my IV so that they could monitor my bleeding because of my hemorrhaging during Liam's delivery. If I started to hemorrhage they would need to administer medicine to stop the bleeding. The IV was starting to hurt and itch my hand and so I wanted it out! I drank so much water within that next hour so that I could get the nurse in to help me to the bathroom and I could get my IV taken out. It was quite an experience.
Jon and I had been thinking about several names but when he was born and I looked at him NONE of them fit! We were looking at so many names and he didn't look like any of the names that we had looked at; until Jon said the name Duncan. I looked at our son and it clicked!
He is such a good little baby, and I am so grateful for the wonderful experience we had at Davis. There were a lot of firsts that I didn't get to have at McKay Dee, but I am so happy that we had such a good time this time around.

It's been a week and I am still so in love with the newest member of our family! Liam has reacted pretty well to having a new little guy around. He reacts to change well. We are a happy family and I am so pleased to have my boys around!