This is a rough draft, but I just wanted to go ahead and post it now. I will edit later :)
George Arthur Taylor, 7 lbs. 14 oz. , 19.5 inches, born 12/9/12 @4:48a.m.
George Arthur, our sixth baby, was welcomed into the world on December 9th. My last month of pregnancy was quite uncomfortable with lots of pressure, aches, and on/off contractions. I had quite a few times where I felt like "this is it!", but things would die down and I'd go to bed discouraged.
My mom flew out to be with us on December 1st, my due date and also David's birthday! I knew I'd go past my due date as always and sure enough I did again this time :)
Mom and I enjoyed a few days of hanging out, shopping and doing lots of walking. We had a nice week together, although I was discouraged that I kept getting closer and closer to 41 weeks and having to do the non-stress test which in the past I had never passed. I really didn't want to get induced or be threatened to be induced.
Sure enough my 41 week NST came on Friday December 7th, 9:30am. Fluid levels were suprisingly good, a 10. He sounded great and was moving around as well. A happy baby! The doctor that did the test was just a resident, so she had to go show the "strips" to the "real" doc before letting us go. She had me get dressed and ready to go. I was sooo relieved I had passed and George looked so good!
Just then, the resident doc came back in and said there were a few mild variable decelerations in the baby's heart rate and that they wanted to induce right then. You've got to be kidding me! I was quite upset. First she had said he looked great, then after showing the doc, she now said he was at risk and needed an induction! Crazy! I wanted to wait until Monday and if he hadn't come by then, we agreed we'd induce then. So we headed to the commissary and then home.
I was very happy with my decision to wait. I knew George was fine and he'd come on his own very soon. He just had too. He HAD too!!! Saturday morning I woke up feeling great. My aches and pains were nonexistent! I thought for sure I would never go into labor!
We started joking about taking some castor oil to help things along. I know quite a few people that have been successful with it and going into labor quickly after. I was really against it, but David was all for it! He kept trying to talk me into it. Finally I gave in and we headed to Walgreens to pick some up. We decided that we'd go out to dinner early, like 5 o'clock and then come home and take the castor oil and walk, walk, walk.
As we were getting ready to go, just after 4pm, I had a contraction. Not anything special, not anything painful, but a contraction. Then I had another contraction about 8 minutes later. Still I wasn't getting my hopes up, as this was not really uncommon. I had had many false alarms already in the previous week, although the contractions then were spaced more like 10 minutes apart. Sooo, back to the contractions....another one came on our way to dinner and we decided to start timing them just for fun.
They kept coming during dinner. David and I were having a fun time timing the contractions. He used a nice little app on my iphone to keep track :) As we waited for our food (at Bonefish Grill), we stared at each other. David just waiting to hear the words..."Here's another one!" The contractions were coming pretty regular and we started to get excited!
Dinner was yummy! We headed back home about 6pm. I was relieved that since I was having pretty decent contractions on my own, that I didn't have to take that castor oil after all!
In the car on the way home, I had a more intense contractions which really made me think this was the real deal. Once home, we bundled up and headed out to walk in the dark, cool night. We walked for about an hour and a half and kept having contractions about 6-8 minutes apart and were more intense than just the braxton hicks I had earlier in the week.
I was sooooo relieved this baby was coming! He was coming on his own and I had avoided induction! Woohoo!
We came back inside the house about 8pm and finished packing the bags and said good-bye to grandma and the kids. I was worried the baby would come fast and wanted to get closer to the hospital.
We arrived at the hospital and walked around outside for a little while before heading up to labor and delivery.
Once I decided to go on up, they checked me and I was a 6 with a bulging bag. Woohoo again! So happy I really was in active labor!
They got me to a room and I got in the bed. I then had to answer all the questions they like asking as well as get my IV set up for the antibiotics since I was group b strep +. Everything went well, contractions were steady, but not too bad.
Once they all left us alone, I walked around the room a bit, leaned on David, leaned on the bed, and breathed and relaxed through the contractions.
I was expecting things to pick up pretty soon, but it seemed like forever before he was really born. By 2:30am when she checked me again, I was an 8. I was really getting tired now and didn't think I could go much longer. My strength and energy was being drained. I tried to be patient with myself, but this was by far the longest active labor I had experienced.
The doctor came by again about an hour later and I was still an 8, she accidentally broke the bag of waters, which I was going to ask to be broken, since it seemed to be keeping the baby from being able to really put pressure on my cervix.
Contractions were now harder. I was lying in bed exhausted and second guessing this natural labor thing.
Baby's heart rate began to drop during contractions which they seemed concerned about and were really wanting him to come out soon. They put the oxygen mask on me and had me lie on my side during the contractions. He still had trouble. I was worried. I couldn't tell if everything was fine or not. They didn't really say much, but every time I had a contraction, the alarm went off.
By about 4:30 I could feel hime start to come down. It was unbelievably painful. I started to feel out of control. I was so worried he was going to get stuck or something was going to go wrong and they were going to have to c-section me. The alarms kept going off. It was stressing me out! I was gripping the handrails and felt as if I were going to die of pain and exhaustion. I needed to calm down my breathing, but it was hard!!! This was the end, he was going to be here soon! They lifted my legs and had me hold one and bear down and push with all my might. It was soooo very hard and intense. My hands were tingling, my breathing was so hard. My nice nurse helped coach me through my breathing, which helped a lot and kept me focused.
After just a couple pushes, he was out and it was all over. The pain was gone and now I was just trying to catch my breath and realize what I had just done! They suctioned him and quickly put him up on my chest. I was still trying to calm myself down after that very hard labor. I just held him, but could barely look at him I was so tired right then.
David got me more water. Once I finally caught my breath, I loved on him cuddled him. I just stared at him and how beautiful and wrinkly and fresh from God he was. Amazing. Simply amazing. Babies are a miracle. A perfect little spirit child fresh from our Heavenly Father. I love those first few minutes of a newborn's life where they are all squished up looking, fresh from the womb look. It goes away all too quickly and I like to take it all in before his little squishy face changes.
He seemed quite blonde compared to our other kids. His hair was light and beautiful. His face was perfect, his head was nice and round. I couldn't stop staring! He was here! I did it! What a relief to be done and to now be holding my sweet baby boy in my arms.
