Denver's Birthday!

A little before 10 last night, I started having cramps. I've been having them in the evenings for a couple of weeks now but last night they were much stronger than they ever have been. I wasn't feeling too great so I got Coco & we decided to go to bed early. We got in bed, turned the tv on and tried to relax but I hurt pretty badly so that was hard to do. I texted D & told him how bad I hurt & then told him I was going to get up and walk around some and see if changing positions would help them any. No such luck. They were really strong and every so often I'd have a really sharp one. I was getting concerned that they might be contractions so I called the after hours number for my Dr and had him paged. I spoke to him about midnight and he told me that it sounded like I was in labor and that when they were closer to 5-7 minutes apart, I needed to head to the hospital. So, I called D so he could come home from work and I called my mom so she could come over and we called D's parents so they could start heading this way (they are 4 hours away) & then I started getting ready! Of course, my first objective was to make sure there was nothing in the washer or dryer & make sure all the dishes were clean and put up (priorities, huh). Then, I got my stuff together to get in the shower, dried & straightened my hair & put some make-up on. We pulled out of the driveway at 2:30am and arrived at the hospital at 3:30am. Because it's just our luck - we pulled up to the wing of the hospital where labor & delivery is located and went to walk in and realized we could only enter through emergency that early. So we had to get back in the car and drive around to emergency. We got taken up to labor & delivery and signed in and then were taken to an observation room about 4am.


Shortly thereafter, they gave me a hospital gown and hooked me up to a blood pressure monitor and a fetal heartbeat monitor and checked my dilation (I was at a 3). Denver's heartbeat was great but my blood pressure was really high. They re-checked my blood pressure a couple of times and then a different nurse came and got me to take me to a labor and delivery room. She said that they were planning to admit me because my blood pressure was so high. Like 175/89 kind of high. That nurse turned out to be awful and in trying to get my IV started, blew a vein in each of my arms and one in my hand.


My left arm.


My right arm. Needless to say, I wasn't very pleased and yes - they hurt as bad as they look and this is before they got really bad. Then, she went to check dilation and was so rough & uncaring that I wound up screaming & crying. It was awful. She kept saying over and over again that I wasn't in labor and that I was only having Braxton Hicks contractions and the only reason I was being admitted was my blood pressure. We were about to ask for a different nurse when they announced that it was shift change and she was leaving. Then, because God knew I needed her - I got the most amazing nurse EVER! She came in and gave me staydol (sp) for pain until I could have an epidural (when I was at a 4) and then the anesthesiologist came in and I had the epidural which was absolutely fantastic at first when everything is dead but since it's just a slow drip, I wasn't as impressed as I thought I'd be. I'll be honest - I was opting for not feeling anything! They explained why they need you to feel something (so you can push) but I still wasn't a fan. Anyhow, I tried to rest but the blood pressure cuff that went off every 15 minutes was rather annoying and prohibited any rest. The nurse had me lay on one side for awhile and then switch to my other side for awhile. She said that surprisingly enough, that helps baby get into position. It took from about 8 am until about lunch to go from about a 4 to a 6. Shortly after lunchtime, I jumped from a 6 to an 8 in about 20 minutes. I was feeling a good bit of pain and not just pressure so they upped the dosage on the epidural some. It took another 15 minutes or so and I jumped up to a 9 1/2 by about 1pm.


This is at 9 1/2, and getting anxious (and emotional) about pushing. We started pushing at 1:20 and pushed until about 1:40 when the nurse told me we were going to rest for awhile and let him drop a little farther. We started pushing again at 2pm until I got Denver's head a couple inches out and then had me stop pushing (which is pretty much the hardest thing in the world to do at that point) while I stretched out some and we waited for the Dr. Sometime during all of this I asked if the nurse could "catch him" so I could just push him out but they assured me she could not. The Dr got there and I resumed pushing and at 3:26pm baby Denver was born! They immediately took him over to the warmer to dry him off and clean him up. He wasn't crying at all which freaked his mommy out but they got him to make some noise and that made me feel better. He never cried though. He had his eyes wide open and was very alert. His daddy stood right beside the warmer watching in amazement at this special little person. They wrapped him up and let D hold him. D took him to the other side of the room where my mom and both of his parents were (they were able to stay for the whole labor and delivery) so they could see him. The Dr delivered the placenta and then stitched me up (I only needed 2 or 3 stitches) and then D was able to bring Denver over to me so I could see my sweet baby boy and nurse for the first time (he was a natural).


Mommy & Denver They took Denver to the nursery and while everyone loaded everything up to take to our postpartum room, the nurses came back in to get me all cleaned up & headed to my new room. They had me order dinner while they finished up with Denver so that I could take some pain medicine. Shortly thereafter, they brought Denver back to us and there was a lot of snuggling, kissing, passing of baby, etc. He was so sweet he slept through all of it (he had a long day).


This is Denver at about 6 hours old.


After nursing. Isn't that the cutest little face? They came back and took him to the nursery at about 11pm so mommy and daddy could get some rest. At that time, D and I had been up for about 40 hours - we needed some rest. But of course, because that's how things go - I couldn't sleep. I was able to doze for about an hour or so and they brought Denver to nurse at about 1am. I finally fell back asleep and they brought him back at 3am and then D and I stayed up to snuggle him and spend some time together before visitors started coming. More pictures to come soon!