Our life: September 2008

A (BIG) boy!!! Evan Wayne arrived w/ a small cry at 9:35 a.m., Tuesday August 26th. Weighing 8 pounds, 1 1/2 ounces and 21 1/2 inches long. I have to say I wasn't too surprised by his size cause I sure felt every 1/2 ounce and inch of him!!!! Below is my birth story and some pics below that. Thanks for every one's prayers on our miracle. There isn't a doubt in my mind that you all had a hand in his creation!

After having on and off contractions for over two weeks, they started to intensify Monday after my appointment. Most of them I was able to "ignore", but a few I had to concentrate through. I went to bed hoping it was coming for real cause induction was scheduled for Wednesday morning. I woke up about 5 times in the night to contractions-they kept making me go pee. When I woke at 6 to a pretty tough one, I thought "here we go again w/ an hour of painful ones only for them to stop" and I told Curt I was getting so sick of this! but they did not go away and only got worse. By the time Curt got out of the shower I was being hit pretty bad w/ them about 45 seconds long and 3-4 minutes apart. BUT...crazy person I am, I sent Curt off to work not believing this was it. He left at 6:45 and I realized soon after that this was major intense contractions that were probably not going to stop. I called him home after him only being punched in about 10 minutes and told him not to get mad if it was a false alarm. But he was no dummy-he knew me better than I did. He said he cried the whole way home in excitement for his baby to come. Meanwhile I was crying in pain-lol. I called my mom and dad and sister then to give them the heads up that this was it and we would leave off soon to the hospital. Laila woke up right when he got home and we told her the baby was coming. She gave us the most excited face and hugged my belly. Curt paged the midwife and she said they'd call her when we got to the hospital. Curt was rubbing my back through contractions while trying to get the bags together. If Curt wasn't there and I had another contraction (half sprawled across the kitchen table) Laila would come and rub my back. She was super cute. About 7:45 I had a meltdown, crying about not wanting to go to the hospital and being stuck on a bed so Curt said we didn't have to go right away...which ended up being a bad idea later. At that point they were about 2 minutes apart and lasting a minute or longer it seemed. I kept saying I didn't remember them hurting so bad w/ Laila. I even told Curt not to be mad at me if I got drugs-not that he would but that was not our plan. Curt's mom came and got Laila and I realized that we waited a bit too long. The baby was coming and I was in super pain...much much more than I had w/ Laila and the contractions were pretty long. I had no break in between cause my back just continued to hurt. I was very noisy during them too. Curt joked how it sounded like pleasure moans and I said "I wish it felt like that!" I had back labor the whole time, but I could feel my stomach contractions, too, which made me keep feeling like I had a full bladder, but I could not "go". SO we headed off to the hospital about 8:15 and the car ride was pure hell. I was telling Curt to not stop and I was serious-I wanted him to go down the shoulder. I sat normal, but was very loud!Curt made a comment about how we were finally at this point of getting to hold our baby we waited so long for. I took that moment to remember each individual life we lost trying to get to this one. Part of me thanked them, for this baby would not be here and part of me still missed them terribly. We both knew why I began another meltdown. We still could not believe we were at this point of being so close to holding our little one.

About 3 miles from the hospital I felt the baby move and literally bear down. I told Curt "it is coming and we waited too long". We got off the freeway and were half a mile from the hospital and I paged my midwife again cause I knew this baby was coming fast. She said she was on her way. I knew if I waited for them to call her once I got there she would not be there in time. We pulled into the hospital about 8:30. I got out of the car and could not walk-the pressure was extremely painful. Curt offered to carry me as he had a bag, video camera and pillow in his arms. Had I not known him carrying me would cause more pain, I would have tried it just to get a laugh. I walked slowly in, holding my crotch most of the steps and stopping every so often to deal w/ contractions. Of course we got lost trying to find labor and delivery dealing w/ contractions less than a minute apart. Curt went off to find someone and after two male doctors walked right past me, mid-moans and rocking against the wall, a lady doc helped us. She walked us right up to the L&D floor and right in. A resident doc was on the phone w/ my My midwife as I walked in and asked if I was Lisa Brown. I got ushered right into the registration room, signed one paper and was then sent off to the delivery room. I did not even have to go into triage thankfully. I made it into the bed about 8:45. My midwife had told them I did not need an IV so that was nice to not have to deal w/ that. I layed on my side and informed the nurse that this was our last baby and I was not doing this again. I kept saying this hurts and I can't do it. Someone came in and was asking my history and the number of pregnancies which almost sent me on another meltdown, but the contractions kept me focused on other thoughts. An U/S confirmed baby was head down, but still "up there". I was not wanting to hear that. I was checked and was told I was a 5 or 6. Major bummer since I was hoping I'd be at least a 7, especially after waiting so long to head off to the hospital. I told the resident doctor that and she said that I maybe could be at a 7 since I was "stretchy" after checking further. I am not sure if she just said that or not. This is where my major doubt started. I knew it could be a while before I could push and I was in major pain. I told Curt I could not do this. The pain was much higher than Laila's. I think I had such doubt partly because of this, but also because I had such great support that it made me a little weaker than w/ Laila. I didn't have to fight through the docs and nurses doubts this time. My midwife arrived about 9:00. It was so calming. Everyone in the room was calm and I could hear my midwife asking if she had time to change and then joking about how she did until my water broke. I was told my water was bulging so we knew it would be soon. At 9:10 it broke and I told them and they said to push through it so I did. I was still at a 7 and I told my midwife that I could not do this. She had me go on all fours facing the back of the bed to try and get the baby to move down. She was right there with me, hands on my very sweaty back and telling me how to breath and to rest my forehead in her hand. I could not believe the support they were giving me. She got cold cloths for my back and was just so calming to me. Curt just kept rubbing my hair and my back. The midwife showed him how to put pressure on my back cause at that point I could not stand the rubbing any more. I was definitely demanding of what I wanted and how, but I wasn't sure what would work. AT one point I told him to stop rubbing me, so he did and then I yelled for him to not stop. I also told him to rub my hair, but not to touch my forehead. It hurt so bad every time the baby moved down and I was a mess. It was then they said to try pushing. I went on my back and my MW had me move sides a little w/ each push to maneuver the baby down. I pushed a few times and they got a mirror for me to watch. The midwife showed me where the head was. At that point the mirror was not helpful cause I so wanted to see the head half out!! But it was nice cause we were able to see the progress with every push. I had my fingers entangled around the neck of Curt's shirt and he asked if I wanted his hand, but I just couldn't move. My midwife sat back and everything was so tranquil and calm-as much as it could be. I kept asking how much longer and saying I couldn't do it. Curt kept telling me it was soon, but I wanted to yell at him to stop cause I didn't trust him. I wanted my MW to tell me when! I was told it was up to me to push past the burning. I so didn't want that part in my hands, but I had no choice-lol. I kept saying "Debra, I can't do this, how much longer" She said she thought about a few more pushes to bring the head down. It took about 10 or so pushes to get the head to crown and at that point I said "Fffffffffffffffffffffffffff" and the MW and nurse laughed and said "yep-this is the right time for the F-word". But I didn't let it out so kudos to me-lol. I pushed about 3-4 more times and the head came out and what a relief I just layed there and stared at it in awe. The MW never once pulled on the head or really even touched me. I must have sat there for a while cause they asked then if I wanted to push the rest of the baby out and I said "If I have to" and they all laughed.

A few more pushes and out his shoulders came and he was on my chest. I immediately held his head and wrapped my fingers around his fingers. I cried so hard tears of joy while Curt was crying and saying "we finally have a baby, we made it". The bliss was indescribable. I could not believe we had this moment. We worked so hard and had so many heartaches to get to this point and all those emotions hit us at once. I was in Heaven. He gave a stuttering cry, until both Curt and I began talking to him and he just stared. He was so precious. He never left my chest for about 45 minutes straight, except for brief seconds when Curt lifted him up to hold him and have "his turn". I did not even notice them doing the APGAR tests on him while he was on me, but they did (9 for both tests). The MW waited for the cord to stop pulsating and Curt got to cut it. We breastfed 10 minutes after birth. Then I pushed out the placenta. Soon after that someone mentioned if he was a boy and the midwife looked and he was. I already knew he was-there was no mistaking his face was that of a handsome boy. They then asked if they could rent Curt out! He was beyond awesome in his support-you can see in the pics how his face resembles mine as if he was right there w/ the no pain no gain feeling I felt. The nurse commented on how I had a "patience" for pain. I looked at her like she was crazy! I ended up w/ a second degree tear, but I knew my midwife was trying to avoid anything. So she gave me a local and began stitching me. OUCH!! Some of the parts were not numbed so I had to endure about 2-3 stitches med-free. So not fun. At least I had my baby for some distraction. Then we realized I had some "skid marks" as the MW called them, where the skin at the top stretched too far and it had very small "tears" that burned pretty bad. It was then that they weighed and measured him so the pain and tearing all made sense! About an hour after birth I was up and Curt helped me in the shower and recovery was pretty well. It was then that they had me sign the anesthesia papers-lol. Curt then went to announce the new arrival. I guess he told Laila to tell everyone that she had a baby brother. Laila was brought in first with Curt and she immediately scrambled fast to get her present out for the baby. She was in love instantly doting over him and trying to cover him w/ a blanket. When I asked if she wanted to kiss him though, she said "no, he's dirty". I'm not sure what she saw. Then she asked me if that was the baby out of my belly and I said yes and she asked if he "hopped out of there?". ;-) Curt then went and got everyone else and by about 12 we were settled into the regular room. The delivery nursed thanked me for "letting" her be a part of the birth. She said it was one of the best births she'd had in a long time.

We came home the next day and things have been great. He's very easy going. Laila is doing awesome and wants every one that comes over to hold the baby. Curt has been beyond SUPER. I have fallen madly in love w/ him all over again. He has been on top of things like there is no tomorrow and been so helpful I can't even do hardly anything for myself. He's truly amazing.