Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Nik is here!!
On 1/2/07, our son, Nik, came into the world. It came as quite a surprise since my due date was not until mid/late-January.
On 1/1/07 at about 10:00, I was getting ready to go to bed and went to the restroom. I noticed that I had a little spotting and this concerned me because that had not happened the entire pregnancy. I woke Pete up and we decided it might be best to head to the hospital. I had felt crampy all day long, but didn't think much of it. I honestly just thought my back hurt from moving Christmas decoration boxes around, but apparently it was something else. Pete went to start the car and by the time he got back in the house (approximately 30 seconds), my water had broken. We then knew it was really time to get to the hospital. We did try to pack a few necessities because we hadn't gotten around to packing a real bag yet.
We arrived at the hospital around 11:00 pm. I was immediately placed in a gown and strapped to all sorts of medical monitoring devices. They told me that I was already dilated to a 2 and 100% effaced, which surprised me because I hadn't really felt any contractions. I soon realized that the lower back pain I'd felt all day were contractions, I just didn't know it at the time. At that point in the night, I thought that labor was going to be so easy because I wasn't in any pain at all....so far!
My labor did progress pretty quickly and the contractions started getting stronger and stronger. I had gone into labor thinking I was going to do it without any drugs, but quickly realized that I might need to reconsider. As my contractions kept getting more intense, I seriously thought about having some pain medicine. I didn't want to go the epidural route yet, so they gave me a very low dose of Stadol (sp?). It did seem to help and got me through until I was dilated to a 9. It was at that point that I started to consider an epidural. The contractions just hurt really freaking bad!! I told Pete that I wanted one and he started to leave the room to get the nurse to let her know. Before he got out the door, I told him that I changed my mind and didn't want it. Then, probably when the next contraction came and went, I told him again that I wanted it. He waited in the chair just a little bit before getting up and again, before he got to the door, I told him that I had changed my mind and I could make it without one. Finally, a few minutes later, I completely caved and told him I did want it. He went outside and told the nurse. I found out later that she told him that I might have waited too long and that they may not be able to give it to me. She told him to come back and tell me that it was on its way, but he was worried! Luckily, it wasn't too late and I did get the epidural just in time. Just in time to push for THREE hours, that is!
The pushing...it was horrible. Lil Guy (what we'd been calling him since we hadn't yet decided on a name) just didn't want to seem to come out. After about an hour of pushing and me feeling like absolutely nothing was happening, the doctor decided to do an ultrasound to see if he was face up, as she was thinking he was. The ultrasound confirmed what she was thinking and we did find out that he was "sunny side up". They told me that the delivery would be extremely difficult to do with him in that position because his head would not compress to get him past the pelvic bone. So, they rolled me on my side and pushed all over my stomach trying to get him to turn over. That, unfortunately was not successful. So, we started the pushing thing again. This was frustrating to me, because I felt like I was doing all of that work for no reason. The nurses and the doctor kept assuring me that I was making progress, but I sure didn't believe them. The doctor finally decided that they needed to try something else, so they pulled out the vacuum. I'll spare you all of the delivery details, but after about another hour of pushing and suctioning Lil Guy's head, he finally arrived at 10:19 am on 1/2/07. We soon found out that he was the first baby born in Enid for the year 2007! We made the front page of the Enid News!
Since that time, our lives have been flipped upside down and completely changed, but it was all so worth it. Before we left the hospital, we decided to name him Nik. It was the first thing that came out of Pete's mouth when he held him for the first time, so I felt like that's what his name should be. We definitely struggled to come up with a name, but Nik fits him so perfectly.
I am sure I will be posting more about Nik in the coming days, but for now here is a picture of our perfect little son. I am still amazed that we created something so wonderful.
On 1/1/07 at about 10:00, I was getting ready to go to bed and went to the restroom. I noticed that I had a little spotting and this concerned me because that had not happened the entire pregnancy. I woke Pete up and we decided it might be best to head to the hospital. I had felt crampy all day long, but didn't think much of it. I honestly just thought my back hurt from moving Christmas decoration boxes around, but apparently it was something else. Pete went to start the car and by the time he got back in the house (approximately 30 seconds), my water had broken. We then knew it was really time to get to the hospital. We did try to pack a few necessities because we hadn't gotten around to packing a real bag yet.
We arrived at the hospital around 11:00 pm. I was immediately placed in a gown and strapped to all sorts of medical monitoring devices. They told me that I was already dilated to a 2 and 100% effaced, which surprised me because I hadn't really felt any contractions. I soon realized that the lower back pain I'd felt all day were contractions, I just didn't know it at the time. At that point in the night, I thought that labor was going to be so easy because I wasn't in any pain at all....so far!
My labor did progress pretty quickly and the contractions started getting stronger and stronger. I had gone into labor thinking I was going to do it without any drugs, but quickly realized that I might need to reconsider. As my contractions kept getting more intense, I seriously thought about having some pain medicine. I didn't want to go the epidural route yet, so they gave me a very low dose of Stadol (sp?). It did seem to help and got me through until I was dilated to a 9. It was at that point that I started to consider an epidural. The contractions just hurt really freaking bad!! I told Pete that I wanted one and he started to leave the room to get the nurse to let her know. Before he got out the door, I told him that I changed my mind and didn't want it. Then, probably when the next contraction came and went, I told him again that I wanted it. He waited in the chair just a little bit before getting up and again, before he got to the door, I told him that I had changed my mind and I could make it without one. Finally, a few minutes later, I completely caved and told him I did want it. He went outside and told the nurse. I found out later that she told him that I might have waited too long and that they may not be able to give it to me. She told him to come back and tell me that it was on its way, but he was worried! Luckily, it wasn't too late and I did get the epidural just in time. Just in time to push for THREE hours, that is!
The pushing...it was horrible. Lil Guy (what we'd been calling him since we hadn't yet decided on a name) just didn't want to seem to come out. After about an hour of pushing and me feeling like absolutely nothing was happening, the doctor decided to do an ultrasound to see if he was face up, as she was thinking he was. The ultrasound confirmed what she was thinking and we did find out that he was "sunny side up". They told me that the delivery would be extremely difficult to do with him in that position because his head would not compress to get him past the pelvic bone. So, they rolled me on my side and pushed all over my stomach trying to get him to turn over. That, unfortunately was not successful. So, we started the pushing thing again. This was frustrating to me, because I felt like I was doing all of that work for no reason. The nurses and the doctor kept assuring me that I was making progress, but I sure didn't believe them. The doctor finally decided that they needed to try something else, so they pulled out the vacuum. I'll spare you all of the delivery details, but after about another hour of pushing and suctioning Lil Guy's head, he finally arrived at 10:19 am on 1/2/07. We soon found out that he was the first baby born in Enid for the year 2007! We made the front page of the Enid News!
Since that time, our lives have been flipped upside down and completely changed, but it was all so worth it. Before we left the hospital, we decided to name him Nik. It was the first thing that came out of Pete's mouth when he held him for the first time, so I felt like that's what his name should be. We definitely struggled to come up with a name, but Nik fits him so perfectly.
I am sure I will be posting more about Nik in the coming days, but for now here is a picture of our perfect little son. I am still amazed that we created something so wonderful.
