I woke up suddenly around 12:30-1:00 AM Monday morning to my water breaking. My doctor told/warned me that I would definitely know if my water broke since I had a high amount of fluid, and she wasn't kidding.. There was a ton of fluid so I knew for sure that I didn't just pee my pants. (Sorry for TMI but come on, this is a birth story. Labor and delivery are full of icky stuff.) 

When we arrived at the hospital we had to go in through the emergency room since it was late. The ER was empty except for a security guard sitting by the entrance. He asked what we needed help with, and I swear his eyes almost popped out of his head when we said we needed L&D. He pointed us in the direction we needed to go and gave me a wheelchair. As Jeremy wheeled me down the long hall to the elevator we laughed at how it didn't seem real yet because at that point I didn't feel like I was in labor. I was feeling a little crampy but it wasn't too painful. 

Headed to L&D.. but first.. let's take a selfie!

I was taken straight to triage so the nurses could make sure my water did actually break. I was 2 cm when they checked me. I started to get more uncomfortable while we waited for the nurses to get in touch with the on-call doctor to let him know I was a primary c-section. I was nervous about having a c-section but on the other hand I was thankful I wouldn't have to deal with painful contractions for who knows how many hours.

Around 3 AM we were moved to a room. The contractions were very uncomfortable at this point and I felt nauseous and shaky. The doctor arrived a 6 AM and I was brought back to the OR. When I was moved to the OR table I started to cry. I felt overwhelmed with different emotions; I was scared and anxious but excited to finally meet our second little boy. All the nurses were sweet and kept talking to me the entire time to help with my anxiety. Once I was numb I started to have a full on panic attack though. The feeling of wanting/needing to move my feet but not being able to totally freaked me out. A nurse tried to help me relax by making me close my eyes and imagine being on a beach.. but.. yeah.. that didn't help. All I could do was cry and beg them to let Jeremy in. They usually don't let husbands in until a certain point but they let Jeremy in early to help me relax. Jer came in and held my hand while I kept telling him "I'm so scared." He stayed calm (as usual) and kept telling me everything was going to be ok. I think I almost broke his hand because I was squeezing it so hard. 

Before we knew it the doctor was holding our new, 10 lbs .4 oz, precious baby boy up over the curtain so we could see him! Everyone in the OR was surprised by how big he was. They kept saying he looked like a one month old! Ha!

proud daddy holding Aiden for the first time

Seeing Aiden helped me relax for a while. Unfortunately the panic set in again while the doctor was closing everything up. I was given a medicine to help me relax (they couldn't give me anything until baby was born because they didn't want the meds to affect him) and it made me fall asleep for a few mins. Soon after I woke up we were taken back to my room to recover. 

My mother-in-law brought Joel to see us and meet Aiden a few hours later. Joel was excited but he didn't want to get too close or hold baby brother.. We expected that so we didn't push it. He slowly started to warm up to him though and would sit next to us while we held Aiden. He would throw in a random "aww, so sweet" or "I love him" when he would look at Aiden. It melted my heart!

 

Birth Story

On Wednesday, February 2nd I went in for my weekly appointment. I was hoping to find out if we had made any progress but I wasn't expecting much. Unfortunately the only thing that had progressed was preeclampsia and super high blood pressure. My doctor didn't want to risk letting any of it get it worse so she said I needed to be induced that day. I was SO nervous as we left the doctor's office that I was shaking! I couldn't believe we were about to head to the hospital to finally meet our baby boy!

{the view from our hospital room}

We arrived at the hospital after 1 PM. I didn't pay attention to the time after we arrived but I think they started me on Pitocin around 3 or 4 PM. I was already having small contractions when we first arrived at the hospital but oh man it didn't take long for the contractions to get stronger after I was given the Pitocin! Even though I was having contractions I wasn't dilated enough to get an epidural so I was given Stadol to "take the edge off" (as the nurse said). The Stadol instantly gave relief but also made me feel loopy. I couldn't open my eyes without feeling like the whole room was spinning. I didn't like it but it took some of the pain away and helped me get some rest in between contractions. (Jer said I would pass out in between the contractions to the point where I was snoring and then wake up instantly when the contractions would come. I honestly don't remember much of it.. Everything became a blur after I was given the Stadol.) Once the Stadol started to wear off I was given morphine. It didn't help at all though.

Thankfully around midnight my OB came in and broke my water and not long after I was finally able to get the epidural. I was terrified of getting the epidural but honestly I think getting the IV in my arm hurt worse than the epi. Then again.. I was pretty doped up already!

After I got the epidural I was finally able to sleep longer than 2 minutes. It was great! But around 2 or 3 AM I woke up because the baby's heart rate monitor was going nuts. Jeremy was asleep and none of the nurses were coming in so I figured maybe it was nothing.. until I looked at the monitor and realized his heart rate was almost to 180! I freaked! Of course I couldn't wake Jer up so I paged the nurse. The nurse checked my temp and said I had a fever over 100 so they immediately started me on antibiotics. I was given three different antibiotics.. one was a pill, two were given through my IV. Joel's heart rate stayed high for a few hours which was extremely scary for us!

When it came time to start pushing my epidural began to wear off. It was the most painful thing I've ever felt!! &It happened twice! It was horrible!!

I pushed for three hours but I had no clue of that until afterwards. Once my OB finally showed up she discovered that Joel was turned the wrong way--he was facing up and it was causing him to be stuck in the birth canal. She turned him around but he was still stuck so she said we had two options: either use the vacuum or a c-section. I honestly don't even remember making the decision to go ahead with the vacuum, but I did. I just wanted him out. Might I mention that my epidural had completely wore off once again at that point? Yeah.. So his head was stuck and I felt every bit of it. There was a lot of yelling involved at that point. It hurt, and I didn't care how loud I was being or who could hear me. (Can you blame me??)

At 12 PM our beautiful, 8lbs 2oz and 21.5 inches long, baby boy finally entered the world! While he was being cleaned up I was still in tons of pain and losing a lot of blood. I felt so bad for Jer.. I could tell he felt torn on whether he should stay by me and make sure I was ok or if he should have been next to his baby. He stayed by my side though, and every once in a while would turn around to make sure Joel was doing alright. Joel wasn't crying much which really freaked me out. I was terrified he was hurt from the vacuum. He was healthy and perfect though, praise God!

Seeing Jeremy hold Joel for the first time is a moment I will never forget. Jer was teary-eyed and couldn't stop smiling. It was priceless!

When I was finally able to hold him all I could do was stare at him and thank God. I couldn't believe the miracle that we had hoped, prayed, and waited for was finally there in my arms!