Bringing Home Baby Part 3

  And here is our third Bringing Home Baby story....

September 28, 2011 - This was my original due date.  However, at our first ultrasound appointment they said, "Hmmm, he's measuring about 5 days further along, so we are going to move you up to the 23rd."  Little did I know, this would be the major storyline of this pregnancy!

September 23, 2011 - The new due date for Mr. Creek Allen Coleman.

A few weeks prior...I start having the usual Braxton Hicks contractions, which are totally annoying and completely pointless.  Why, oh, why must they exist?!?!  Oh, well.

August 30, 2011 - My doctor sent me for another ultrasound because he has continually measured bigger and bigger than he was "supposed" to measure.  At this point, I was 36 weeks and 4 days and he was measuring between 38 and 39 weeks!  I'd had other ultrasounds up to this point because of his size, but Dr. R wanted to them more regularly here at the end.

September 13, 2011 - He's measuring in at 8 lbs 13 oz...give or a take a pound....so anywhere from 8 - 10 lbs and I am still 10 days from my due date.  AHHH!!  She checks me, though, and I am dilated to 3. Yippee!! She thinks d day will be in the next day or two.  I obviously get excited and a little anxious.  The plan is that if I don't go into labor by Monday, the 19th, I will be induced at 4 am...yes, 4 in the AM!  We develop a plan for that night while my mother in law hops the train in Tennessee to head on down.  I spend the next 2 days stopping at every twitch and kick thinking, "Is this it? Was that a slight contraction?"  I'd been having real contractions, off and on, for about a week now but they never regulated.

By Thursday evening, I feel defeated and disappointed because I really did not want to be induced and the doctor was so sure he would have been born by now.  On Friday, I go to Hobby Lobby to walk around and get out of the house and find a few crafty projects to work on over the weekend...I am so not a crafty person, but these were simple things that I knew I could do and wanted to do (I made a canvas art piece of 3 John 4 and finally did Creek's name for his wall...easy. as. pie.)  I am continually getting more and more anxious about being induced as the weekend wears on.  I have some pretty intense contractions over the weekend, time them for a few hours, only to have them disappear into thin air.  Oh, well...maybe they were doing SOMETHING to encourage him along.

September 19, 2011 - here's the good part :)  I get up at 2:50 in the morning to shower and finish packing my bag.  I couldn't decide how "ready" to get for the day.  I didn't want to roll into the hospital with bed head, but what was the point in getting all dressed up only to get super sweaty and exhausted looking during labor.  I decided to get as ready as I could at 3 am, though, because I actually had the opportunity to get ready for my baby.  We got to the hospital and they had everything ready for me.  I took my time, praying and trying to will my body into laboring on its own or my water to break or something and giving myself as much extra time as I could.  It took me 25 minutes to get into my fancy hospital gown and I called for the nurses.  I asked them if there was any way we could just break my water and not do the pitocin (it was the pitocin I was scared of, tell you why in a minute).  They checked me and I was a 3.5, so they said that sounded like a reasonable request and called Dr. R to see what she had to say.  Dr. R said I had one hour to start contractions on my own and then we would do the absolutely lowest pitocin level we could and see if that worked.  I was okay with that.  An hour later, contractions started.  Yay!!  Thirty minutes later, contractions stopped.  Boo.  We started pitocin.  I was scared of the pitocin because I had this vision of my body being jolted into labor and I did not want to use extreme force to send me into labor.  Thankfully, it was not like that.

Contractions started back up, but they were all over the place!!  A super strong one, a small one, a medium one...5 minutes apart, 15 minutes apart, 9 minutes apart...come on!  So every 30 minutes they upped the pitocin a smidge.  At 7:30 Dr. R arrived and checked me and I was a 4...I'd gone up a half centimeter after an hour and a half on the pitocin.  She broke my water and I just knew things would really get going and they wouldn't have to up it anymore.  At 9:30, I was STILL a 4 and contractions were STILL all over the place.  They were uncomfortable, but not bad.  I went ahead and got my epidural because I thought, "Why wait?".

And then....about 11:30 I felt this twinge on my right side.  And by 12 I could feel every part of every contraction because my epidural had worn off.  I called for the nurse and she said she'd have to see how close I was to delivery before she could ask anesthesiology to redose me...not what I wanted to hear!! I was an 8 so she said she could call them.  It took him HALF AN HOUR to get up there and said he'd heard I was "uncomfortable".  Yeah, that's exactly how I'd describe it, doc. He gave me a small dose and cheerfully said, "Let's see what this does." Seemingly hours (only minutes) later, I said, "Not working!" So he gave me a little more and said that should do it and started trying to have a conversation with me to take my mind off the pain...I won't even go into how absurd that was.  In the meantime (is that one word or two...mean time/meantime?), Jacob got me a bed pan because it was all they had and I was sure I was going to vomit because of the pain.  I didn't vomit, but I was sweating bullets, so he started fanning me...with the bed pan.  Whatever works, right? Again, I scream, "PAIN!" and he gives me another small dose.  During this dose, I scream, "PAIN and PRESSURE!  I WANNA PUSH!" 

And now it gets exciting...The nurse checks me quickly, runs to the door and says, "Get Roskos, now!!"  Apparently, I was ready to deliver.  At this point, just in the nick of time, the pain subsided.  Praise you Lord, for answering prayers just in time!  Dr. R came in and we got all set up.  It was at this point that I totally surprised everyone, including myself, and I about freaked Jacob out - I wish I could've taken a picture of the look on his face!! I asked the nurse if it was too late for the mirror...I suddenly realized that this was my last time doing this and I wanted to see it.  But I won't tell you about it :) 

A few good pushes later and I was holding my son, Creek Allen Coleman.  I remember trying to think of words to describe how I felt and I couldn't come up with anything...because there is nothing to describe how amazing it is to hold your child, your baby, your amazingly undeserved gift from God for the very first time.  How humbling for God to allow me to be a mother to now my third child and for Him to trust Jacob and I with another of His beautiful creations.