Fast forward to the morning time- I wake up and leave my car (which is conveniently parked in the birthing center's parking lot), and go in to see how things are going. We were waiting for the nurse to come in, so I showed them the photos I had done of your mama two days before on their iPad!
Contractions are very easy to deal with at this point, and they go ahead and give your mom some cervidil. We knew it would take a couple hours to get things moving at least, and that particular nurse thought it would be practical if mama laid down while it took.
Since it was all pretty mellow for a bit, we thought maybe a bit of good food and coffee was a good idea. By that I mean not hospital food (they tried to give mama some rubbery eggs, but she didn't seem that into it!) I made a little run down to the old Bagelry in downtown Bellingham. I ran into your grandma on the way back in who had just been visiting mom. Dad and I both had everything bagels, dad with salmon bits (they had a special word for it, but I can't recall what it was. Whatever it was it was expensive!) Mama had a cinnamon raisin bagel with butter. Dad and I had coffees (and we were quite impressed with the quality! I'm a bit of a coffee snob myself and didn't have high hopes to be honest...)
So back to the hospital where mama's allowed to get up and do a bit of moving around! She sits on the birth ball and eats her bagel.
We did a bit of walking the hall- it wasn't a very large space so we started wearing a track through the middle I think. I believe it was during this walk that your mom and dad told me the first of a series of romantic stories of their life together. I try to keep my moms talking while we walk to distract, and it so turned out that your mom has a bit of knowledge in regards to stones and whatnot. I asked her what her favorite stone was, and this is how the story began. Your dad who wanted to propose to your mom and knew she wasn't a giant fan of diamonds, decided that he wanted to get her a special token for her, and chose a beautiful sapphire set in a gold necklace (man I hope I'm not butchering this!) After he had purchased it, it had occurred to him to ask her what her favorite stone is- to which she replied "Sapphire". Ahhhh :)
So then it's back to the room where we think maybe there ought to be more resting since things weren't too intense yet and we'd all been up awhile. If my memory is with me, the doc wanted to give your mama pitocin to kick things into gear around 2pm or so, and I imagine at this point it was about noon. I go back to the car, and we all rest a bit more.
I set my alarm for 2pm, and come two o clock I wander back on in to the room. Mom and dad are watching "Dollhouse" on the iPad, so I sit and finish up the episode with them.
They still haven't come to administer pitocin yet, so we start another round of walking about the hall.
They are ready for us to go on in and hook mama up to the pitocin- this is really going to get things started! They start it on two and go up two I believe every hour or half hour? I think we made it up to 12 or so before they stopped upping it. You can see in the pictures below mama is set up with two little dial guys on her pole thing (don't you love the technical verbiage?) One for the pit, the other for fluids to make sure that she doesn't get dehydrated- very important!
There was much more walking involved after this point. It doesn't take long before things start to get serious. I can tell that mom is doing a great job progressing.
The doctor thinks it might be a good idea to do a pressure catheter to see how strong moms contractions are. This mean that she would be stuck in bed laboring (not very comfortable at all). We discussed it together and decided that maybe it wasn't an amazing idea unless absolutely necessary. You'd be so proud of daddy, he told the nurse he thought that tying his wife to the bed while she's laboring seemed like a very mean thing to do! I agreed, but was so impressed with your dads love for your mom, and to stand up for her in a hospital setting- this is something that a lot of people have a hard time doing! We ended up not needing it after all, as it wasn't completely necessary. I assured mom that I was confident that she had progressed (she had been at one cm all day, and I just knew from the way she was laboring that that wasn't the case any longer. The nurses didn't seem convinced). Well sure enough, they checked mom again and she was a four and easily stretched to a five!!!! Well now we're cooking with gas!
I forget the exact time at this point, but it seems like it was probably 9:45 pm or so when mom and dad thought maybe we ought to try and rest again (I think we all assumed at this point that it was going to be morning time before you were gonna make your appearance!) The general rule of thumb for laboring (which seems silly since everyone labors differently, as your mom will prove shortly), is that you dilate around 1cm per hour. We had 5 more cm's to go, plus pushing. A first time mom will push 1 to 3 hours generally- so we really had about 8 hours to go or so going with the old rule of thumb. So you're not going to be born on the 28th- a nice round number as your dad pointed out- breaks down into fours, feels solid. Mom liked the 29th since it was a prime number- she's going to win this one, but just barely.
Dad and I take turns resting and holding moms hand. She laid in bed and little did we know, she was resting through her transition like a champ! She would moan a bit with the contractions, but did absolutely amazing. While dad is resting and I'm holding moms hand, it suddenly becomes very obvious to me that things have sped up much faster than anyone expected. I can hear your mom doing some light grunting at the end of contractions- this is the universal sign that a woman is completely dilated and about ready to push. It has been maybe an hour at this point since we've laid down. I go tell our lovely nurse that I'm pretty sure you're completely dilated. She's a little leery- and who wouldn't be?! Mama went from a 5 to a 10 in about 2 hours, maybe a bit less! She checks your moms cervix for a LONGGGGGG time because she is not convinced that there's no cervix left! It seems there's just the tiniest lip on the front of the cervix, so I suggest mama gets on her hands and knees which puts your head against that bit and melts it away. She flips back over and the nurse calls the doctor with the good news!
The doc shows up and we start really getting serious about pushing! Your little heart rate seemed to drop a lot lower than we like to see during the pushing, so mama got some oxygen (she didn't seem to mind the mask at all- some people hate that thing!)
Mom pushed for maybe an hour, which is fantastic for a first time mama! You start to crown and we get ready! The respiratory staff is in the room to make sure there's no issues with the meconium that was released earlier. Here you come!
You're a boy!!!!!!! Jasper Love! The name no one was allowed to know until you made your appearance! Dad is so stoked, I think I'd go so far to say he was giddy. The first Love child (tee hee) for this generation- after about a million girls in the family!
There had to be a couple precautions taken to make sure you were breathing well, so you were taken right over to the warmer, suctioned out and given some oxygen to make sure you didn't get any of the sticky stuff in your lungs.
They take you over to weigh you, 7lbs and half an ounce! You look so full and plump and healthy!
Back over to the warmer to keep a close eye on those heart tones and to make extra sure your lungs are doing well. Mom is delivering the placenta and getting a couple stitches. I take photos of you and bring them over to her so she can see them.
For a second there they thought they might have to monitor you in the nursery and that mama couldn't see you for a bit longer- I didn't want to bum anyone out so I kept on smilin', but my heart definitely sank for a second there. They finally decide you're ok and that mama can have you! Finally, it felt like forever!
The grandmas have been infinitely patient today, so I go out to the waiting room and bring them back to meet you!! Mama breast feeds and you latch on like a champ! First time's a charm I guess, I was very impressed!
Well it has been a lonnnnng couple o days, amazing, miraculous, and beautiful! I feel very blessed to be a part of your entrance into this world and know that your life with your loving and amazing mama and daddy is going to be full of love and adventure! Welcome to the world Jasper!
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