Fourteen Days

have passed since Owen declared he was ready to join our family.

Below I share how he came to enter this world. I completely understand this is not something everyone is interested in reading & I share here to document as a piece of my life story.

I had read that only 8% of women have their water break before labor starts so when I woke up at midnight on Friday night unsure if something had happened I waited an hour & a half before I called the oncall doctor.

After she assured me that women don't typically pee on themselves for an hour & a half I woke up Mitch to say it was time to get ready to go.

We called my Mom in to stay with Garrett, packed last minute items into our bags, notified the city of a water main break (read flooded street), loaded up the Volvo to learn my headlights were out, loaded up the FJ Cruiser & finally headed to the hospital.





Do you see how high the little guy still was? Ah yes, despite my water breaking I still wasn't having regular contractions.

After a few hours of watching me not labor it was decided that I would be started on a pitocin drip. At this point I thought my hopes of laboring naturally were sunk. However, after my contractions found a regular pattern they took me off my pitocin drip & I was able to get out of bed.

Armed with my lavendar, beautiful pillow case, playlist of music I love and an amazing husband who not only counted me through every contraction but also applied counter pressure points we labored to 8cm fairly smoothly.

And then, for an hour & a half we stayed at 8cm. Owen had decided he wasn't going to drop anymore & my body didn't want to progress. Back to bed I went and the pitocin drip resumed. After another hour & a half with no progress made I told Mitch I was done.

Being the good coach he was, he asked me to hold on for 15 more minutes. Through my tears I agreed. Then, the doctor walked in ready to make her pitch. She thought it was time for an epidural. After 3 hours of no progress something needed to change.

I think she anticipated a hard sell since the nurses had been telling the anesthesiologist I was going to make it without anything. Little did she know I had come to the same conclusion myself.

It worked like a charm. Owen dropped & my body continued to progress.

Then it was time for him to enter the world. It was then we realized Owen was transverse & that was causing him to not progress despite my valiant pushing efforts. Fortunately the doctor was able to turn him without complication and he arrived.

A little after 7:29 PM they placed Owen on my chest & I held my son for the first time. In that moment my simple prayer sent when we received a positive test was answered.

It wouldn't be until the next morning that the doctor would share with me had I not had the epidural she wouldn't have been able to turn him & we would have ended up having a C section.

So, I've learned that my body simply does not labor quickly or without some sort of an adventure. Which is quite alright when the prize is a beautiful baby.

As crazy as it may sound, looking back I loved every minute of labor. There was something so magical about partnering with my spouse to actively bring our child into the world. I've never felt so connected to Mitch or grateful for his support as I did that day. In that room, I saw his love for me.

Now, with that said, I have told him that if we do this again I'm signing up for the epidural! After two attempts that ended with an epidural being the best thing for me & the baby I've learned what works for my body.

lovemon