Exactly two weeks ago we were driving to the hospital to have our little baby boy. That drive felt oddly like any other drive together. We had to keep reminding ourselves that we were driving to the hospital to have a BABY! That's one of the nice things about being induced- you have an actual date and set time to go in. Anyone who knows me will know how much I like schedules and plans. ;)
I was 39 weeks pregnant to the day and needed to be induced because I was still on my blood thinners from my blood clot back at 32 weeks. We were admitted to the hospital, settled into our room and started the first dose of Cytotec all before 7pm. Taylor chose our last meal, which of course was Outback Steakhouse. That's my boy! I wan't opposed to a little salmon. My second dose of Cytotec was started at 10 and by 10:30 I was having more intense contractions. Not crazy painful, but enough to be pretty uncomfortable. The nurse said if I wanted to get any shut eye I should get the epidural that night. So at 11 the anesthesiologist came in to give me my epidural. He told Taylor to go around to the other side of the bed and hold my hand. While he prepared everything I looked up at Taylor's face for comfort, but his face only left me with more worry! ha. His eyes were huge as he looked at what the anesthesiologist was about to do. At that point, I just had to close my eyes and hold on to Taylor's hand as hard as I could. It wasn't has painful as I thought it would be.
After we were all hooked up on the epidural we tried to get some shut eye but in a hospital that's kind of hard to do. I couldn't stop thinking about what our little boy was going to be like. At 1 am the nurse gave me my last dose of Cytotec. I was still only dilated to a 1.5 at this point so we still had a little ways to go. At 5:30 the nurses started me on Pitocin. Within just 30 minutes of having the Pitocin in me, my contractions began to be a lot stronger. So they scaled down the dosage of Pitocin.
With my epidural I was still able to move around pretty well and feel my legs. Of course, it took the edge off. Taylor tickled my toes at one point and jokingly said, "Can you feel that?" ha... yes sweetheart I can! So he kept coming over and pushing my epidural button for me. ha (shhhhh that's not allowed). At 7 am I felt an oddly weird feeling... my legs were wet all of the sudden. I called the nurse in and sure enough my water had broken! One step closer! I also was a 2 at this point. Both our mom's were there by 8 o' clock. We were so happy to have them there to be a part of this special experience!
Within 3 1/2 hours I went from a 2 to a 10. At that point I could definitely feel the pressure of the contractions. Everett's head hadn't dropped yet so the nurses said that we might need to wait an hour to let him drop into place. But by the time the doctor came in to check where we were at, he said that we could start pushing. We both looked at each other in shock. We are already to the pushing part?!
The nurses showed us how to do the pushing. In the very beginning I kept forgetting what to do. I would take my deep breath in and then just take a deep breath out. I needed to hold that breath in and push. ha. We finally got the breathing and the pushing down. At 11:24 am we saw our little babies head for the first time. At that point a huge wave of emotion hit. We were going to be parents and that was our little boy! Up till that moment it hadn't quite felt real, like we were actually having a baby. But here he was and he was coming! As we began getting closer and closer even Taylor and the two mom's began taking deep breaths with me. They were the best cheerleaders as I pushed.
The doctor finally came in and with only a few more pushes babies head came right out and his body quickly followed. It seemed like the doctor almost had to catch him. The time was 11:49 am. Our eyes welled with tears as we looked at our little baby boy for the first time. 7 pounds 2 ounces and 20 inches of pure perfection. I watched Taylor's first dad moment as he went to cut the umbilical cord. Then it was my first mommy moment as they set our baby on my chest. His little whimpering cries were the cutest thing I had ever heard. His little fingers were flipping us off. ha... I know it was probably a pretty traumatic experience what he has just gone through, so we let that one fly.
Skin to skin time I think was our absolute favorite. Just holding this new infant in our arms and knowing that Heavenly Father trusts us to be his parents was the most amazing feeling in the world. In that moment nothing else mattered.
This is happiness. This is what life is all about.
Welcome into the world our precious little Everett Jay DeHart.
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