Wednesday, August 2 we went to the doctor for our 38 week check up. After being checked, the doctor said I was completely closed and (to our relief since my year mark working with Banner wasn't until August 9) said it was very unlikely I would deliver before my due date on August 16th. However, little did we know the little stinker would be born just 2 short days later! On Thursday night we were hanging out at Randy's parents house. The guys were playing around the world ping pong, and asked if I wanted to play. I was feeling extra tired that night and declined thinking I didn't want to accidentally put myself in to labor even though it was tempting to play! So instead Randy and I watched Scarface (haha random I know, but on tv so there was a lot of bleeped out stuff). After that, against my better judgment since I was so tired, and was feeling a little achy (period cramp type stuff) we decided to go to a movie with Ashtyn and Aaron (my sister-in-law and her then boyfriend, but now husband :) ). Randy said, "It's probably the last time we'll be able to go to a movie before we have the baby!" How right he was! It was a late showing and all through the movie I started feeling contractions, but I blew it off thinking they were braxton hicks.
We got home that night at 12:30 and I went straight to bed, even though the contractions seemed persistent. At 3:30 am I woke up from the contractions which I started timing which were 5 minutes apart. After a half hour I woke up Randy and let him know I was still contracting. There was no going to sleep after that. Poor Randy was in a panic. He just didn't know what to do, so I finally called my mom at 6 am and talked to her about what labor was like. After having several contractions while on the phone with my mom and dad, she told me it sounded like real labor. I still wasn't convinced though since sometimes they were 2-3 minutes apart and then I wouldn't have one for 10 minutes. So I layed on the couch while Randy did the dishes and threw a load of whites in the laundry. Up to this point, we hadn't even packed a bag for the hospital since we didn't think we were going to deliver until closer to my due date or after. So he started throwing stuff together while I stayed on the couch. Finally at 8:15 he convinced me to get in the car and at least drive out to one of our parents houses so we could be closer to the hospital in case I was in labor. (Apparantly he didn't want to deliver a baby in the car!). So we got in the car, and he drove... to the hospital. Haha.
On the way I had another delay of 10 minutes between contractions so I told him unless I had another one in the 3 minutes left to get to the hospital we weren't going in. That would be embarrassing if it wasn't real labor! Plus I wanted to be able to eat as long as possible. Lol. But I did, so we walked in to the hospital at 8:45 and went in to triage. There they checked me and stated I was dilated to a 2. Since it wasn't very far (although much different from where I had been Wednesday at a 0) they told me to try and walk around the hospital postpartum area to see if I dilated any more. So we walked around and around til 10:30 when we saw my doctor, Dr Beck, in the halls checking up on one of his other patients. He had us go back to the triage area where he decided to check me again. When he did he said I was dilated to a 4 and that I was going to have a baby today! I instantly started crying, because first! Scary! And second! I hadn't met my year mark yet! But alas, it was time for little Brelan to come.
So they had to wait for a bed to open up so we waited in the triage area for a little while til 11:45 or so when they took us to our delivery room. I didn't want to be tied down to the bed with an epidural yet so we tried to walk some more, but the contractions were getting more and more painful. Each time I had one, my sweet hubby would press against my back to help counteract the pressure (it works great by the way! And helps a lot with the pain! ). But finally I decided I was ready to go back to our room. The nurse there started an IV and then asked if I wanted her to get the anesthesiologist. I was unsure cuz I didn't think I needed it yet, but told her to go ahead. Good thing she did! By the time he came about 45 min later I was definitely ready to get the epidural. Those things are wonderful! And not too painful. The worst part was the little numbing needle and that only lasted a second, and the scratchy scrub thing they do to keep it sterile. I told him I wanted the least amount of drugs possible, so he gave me a low dose that at the time took away all the pain of the contractions, but I could still move my legs and wiggle my feet.
So since I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, I decided to take a nap. After I had gotten the epidural I was dilated to a 5. I slept for a while then the nurse came in and started pitocin cuz my contractions had started slowing down a bit. So I slept a little longer, and then the doctor came in and checked me and said I was like a 7 and he was going to break my water. It was silly, when he broke my water, I heard an actual "pop", instant pressure, and I could start to feel the contractions again. They felt like the ones when I first went in to labor. I told the nurse this and she said that was normal. So she left and then came back like a half hour later. Since they had blown this off before, I just mentioned again to my mom and Randy that I could feel a lot of pressure again. The nurse decided to check me this time and when she did she was like "Whoa! You are fully dilated and at a +3 station. It's time to have this baby, you're hardly even going to have to push!" Then she went to call the doctor. After that a couple of other nurses came in to help, and they started having me do some pushes. I did a total of 3 contractions worth of pushes while the nurses were looking at eachother and one said "where's the doctor? He said he would be here in 7 or 8 minutes?" When Dr Beck showed up and got all gowned up, I did 3 pushes with him in one contraction and whala! Brelan Randall Foster was born at 3:38 pm weighing 71bs 1 oz and 20.5 inches long
Here's some pics of us and our cute little guy after he was born. Don't mind my nastiness. But overall my delivery was great. I would definitely recommend only getting a light epidural. Towards the end I could feel my contractions again, but didn't feel anything while I was pushing and I could continue to move my legs the entire time. I guess I must be made to have babies, cuz if as far as my delivery went, I feel like it was pretty easy. At least compared to how I thought it would be.
My mom was there with us when the baby was born, and Randy's family was waiting anxiously in the waiting room. So after he was born and I was all cleaned up, they came in to see the new little guy. From then on we had many visitors who came to see our new little guy. We feel very blessed to have him in our lives and for the many wonderful family and friends we have.Little Brelan has brought us so much joy and happiness I can hardly believe it. He was a little stinker and came before my year mark so I didn't get paid maternity leave initially, but get this. The story is better here. We decided to appeal the denial since it was so close to my year mark, and guess what? I just found out a few days ago that the approved my request and will be back paying me for my short term disability pay. :) So life is good. We are loving being parents, and it's so fun to watch him learn new things everyday. Welcome to the world Brelan Randall Foster, we love you so much! :)
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