On Tuesday, March 6th, 2012 at 10:10 a.m. our sweet baby boy entered into the world. He weighed 7 pounds 15 ounces and was 19 1/4 inches long.
The details may bore you, but I want to remember every second of this miraculous day. So this part is for me:
My alarm went off at 6:00 in the morning and I felt a slow but progressive tightening of my lower abdomen. Now, I had been praying, actually dreaming, of going into labor for weeks, so I almost thought I was dreaming again when I first felt the contraction. I snoozed my alarm, 'cause that's what I do, for 10 minutes. Each time the alarm would go off, I would feel another contraction. I woke John up and told him that I thought I was in labor and he needed to get up and get in the shower. I then called my mom and told her that I wasn't totally sure but I thought she should start getting ready too. By 6:30, I was contracting every 5-7 minutes and was sure that the day I had prayed for and dreamed about for over 2 years was finally here. Since I had not conveyed much urgency in my phone call to Mom or even to John when I told him to get into the shower, they took their time and by 6:45, I was calling Mom back to tell her to hurry up that my contractions were getting quite close. If you know my labor story with Allie, you know that when she decided it was time to come, by gosh she was coming quick. I was afraid of having a home birth with Sam! Ha! As it turned out, by the time Mom got to our house to get Allie ready and let us head to the hospital, it was 7:20-ish and we were headed right in with rush-hour traffic. John and I laughed because when we drove to the hospital with Allie, it was raining so hard that John could barely keep the car on the road and was forced to drive super slow. This time the traffic was forcing us to drive slow. With each contraction, John would ask me to rate my pain on a scale of 1-10. I think he was secretly afraid that I would deliver Sam in the car and this was his gauge to see how close I was. The problem was that he would ask me and expect a response in the middle of the contraction. I kept telling him, I can't talk during the contraction so quit asking me questions. This would continue to be a struggle the rest of the morning. I think we got to the hospital around 8:00. They got me checked in and I believe around 9:00, I was dilated to a 3 and Dr. Wiedower said that we would definitely be having Sam that day. Which was a good thing that she agreed, because I do not think it would have been pretty if they had made me leave.
I remember thinking that I was so much more aware of what was happening with Sam because with Allie, it was in the middle of the night and my contractions were so bad, that they had to give me Stadol which caused me to be out of it for days. One funny thing that happened while we were waiting to go to the OR was the Unit Manager came into our room as asked if we were expecting twins! Apparently someone had left 2 warmers outside of my room and it appeared that we were getting ready for 2 babies instead of 1. I think it took a while for both John and My blood pressures to stabilize after that!
Waiting to go to the OR
I remember them wheeling me into the OR and Dr. Wiedower coming down the hall behind me and I could hear her say "Ashley, Today is the day!" I was sooooo thankful that she was there and able to deliver Sam. She is such a wonderful physician and she was not on-call the night that Allie was born. I was a little nervous about the epidural this time because I was so out of it with Allie, I hardly remember a thing. The epidural was a breeze and the CRNA was great and talked me through the whole thing. While she was getting me prepped, I asked everyone in the room to guess what Sam would weigh. My nurse guessed 7 pounds 14 ounces. 1 ounce off....I was impressed. My pregnancy with Sam was anything but easy, and though I would expect nothing less, I puked once more for good measure while I was on the OR table. I apparently had a LOT of scar tissue so there was a whole lot of tugging and pulling that I don't remember with Allie but at 10:10 a.m. I heard the sound of my precious baby boy cry for the first time. I heard Dr. Wiedower say there was meconium in the amniotic fluid and my nurse brain went into overload. I was scared for a little bit but they assured me that he was just fine and would not be fighting the nurses the way he was if he had gotten any of the meconium. They got him cleaned up and John brought him around to me. I remember thinking that he looked nothing like what Allie did....more on that later. They got me cleaned up and transferred to my bed and one of the nurses came around and took off her mask and I realized that she was a former student of mine. I thought that was neat that I taught her how to care for babies, and then she helped care for mine. I remember being so excited to get back to my room and for Allie to see Sam. It was a moment I had dreamed of for so long!
THIS IS IT! The moment I have prayed for and dreamed of. Allie was so in love with him and my heart was absolutely overflowing!
Proud Mimi and Nana
Allie took charge, in true Allie-fashion and made sure that her baby brother was taken care of!
Most of you know of our struggle to have a second baby and the baby that we lost in November 2010. I have clung to the promises in the Bible and specifically the verse in 1Samuel 1: 27-28
" I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD.”
"Thank you most Gracious God for blessing John and I with 2 healthy children. Please guide us in our daily attempt to raise them to be warriors for you. Give us your wisdom and help us to always direct them to you"
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