Labor and Delivery!

Tomorrow, Austin will be one week old already!  Wow, time sure does fly.

Labor was long and painful. We got to the hospital around 9 a.m. and were checked into Labor and Delivery Room 1!  I was nervous and excited at the same time.  I was very hopeful to have Austin on the 14th!  I had to be checked out and did not receive oxytocin until around noon.  This is when light contractions happened.  I mean very light!  I could not move around very easily as I was attached to the oxytocin and the hydration stuff.  Both my parents and Scott's parents were there waiting patiently for Austin's arrival.  At 6 p.m.  Dr. Fleming decided to break my water and that is when things got started.  I was still at 3 cm dilated. Austin was at -1 station.  The contractions came in waves... painful waves.  Scott was very helpful with the "he-he-hoos" (I soon got very tired of this!).  He kept me in rhythm and held my hand with every contraction.  I also had back labor! Austin was faced the wrong direction!) My mom was also a big help rubbing my back and holding my hand.  She was a great big help in the delivery room.  I don't think Scott and I could have done it without her there.  Scott's mom was there too.  She was a great cheerleader and held my hand a few times too.  I finally got to move out of the bed and we tried the rocking chair method with Scott rubbing my feet to try and subdue some of the pain.  These contractions continued until about midnight when Dr. Fleming came in to check my progress.  I was at a 8-9!  We knew then that it was going to be a long night ahead of us!  He suggested that I get an epidural to help me relax and that would get me to a 10.  He thought that I could start pushing soon.  I was definitely feeling the urge to push!  At around 2 ish in the morning, Dr. Fleming said that I was at a 10, but I could not start pushing because Austin wasn't low enough!  So my nurse Dana, (our favorite nurse during the entire labor!) had me do all of these different positions called the Trudy method to get Austin to move down.  We were using gravity to our advantage!  This took awhile to do, but it worked!  At 3:45 a.m.  I was told that I could push!  We were so close to holding Austin in our hands!  Pushing was hard.  We all got a workout too.  Scott was supporting my feet and my back.  My mom was counting for me.  The doctor said I wasn't pushing hard enough... yeah right!  He did say that if I didn't push harder we might have to do a C-section!  So he told me to get angry and to give me even more motivation, he told me that once he gets his green outfit on, the baby was close to coming!  At around 7:30 a.m. I was told to take a 15 minute break with no pushing.  This is hard to do especially when your body is telling you to push!  It worked! We came back from the break and tried a new way to push.  It is called the towel pull.  This way I could concentrate on using my arms and abs and not my legs.  Dr. Fleming put on his green outfit and then he lay a baby blanket on my tummy.  He said, "There is a baby coming now!"  I was so excited.  :)  At 7:57 a.m.  little Austin Scott was born and laid on my tummy.  Love at first sight!  Then he was taken to the warmer and I had to finish the labor.  I was bleeding quite heavily I guess, Scott was concerned and worried.  I had passed three huge clots which was a concern to Dr. Fleming.  He had to have the nurses give me a shot to stop the heavy bleeding.  Finally, Austin came back to his mama!  He was healthy and perfect.  He had the biggest eyes and was very alert looking around everywhere!  At around 11 ish, we were taken to our Mother Baby room.  They played Brahms' lullaby as we were rolled to the room.  I teared up as I looked down at Austin.  Becoming a mother is beyond words. It is so surreal that Austin is made from a part of me and a part of Scott.  Amazing how God works!  We are blessed.