Mason Cole is Born!

It all started on Wednesday, June 24. I had been to the doctor on Monday and the doctor seemed to think that our little guy wouldn't be here for at least another week or two...but he was wrong! I had spent the day with my mom and Amanda and my mom had just dropped me off back at home. All of a sudden, I felt as if I was peeing my pants, but just a little. I thought, "huh, that was a little weird!" Then it happened again, and again! So I figured it may be time to give the dr. a call. I explained what was going on to the on-call doctor and she advised us to take a nice, long walk. So Mike, Brew and I set out for our walk. We made it all the way to the end of Hubbard (which one might not think as a long way, but trust me, it's a longer than you think!). About half way back home I had Mike run into Ming's Family Chinese/American Food Restaurant/Convenient store to buy me some Gatorade. While Brew and I waited outside, I all of a sudden had a gush of water flowing down my legs. Mike came back outside and I asked him if he noticed anything and as he looked down, he laughed and jokingly, as only Mike can do, said, "Nope." I had to waddle all the way back home with completely soaking wet shorts. Not exactly a very comfortable thing to do.

When we finally made it home, wet pants and all, I called the dr. again and was told to come on in to the hospital. I have heard so many stories of people getting to the hospital only to be sent home, so in the back of my mind, I really thought that we were going to have a miserable night ahead of us back here at home. Luckily, I was admitted when we arrived! I was instructed to walk around the hospital for about an hour. Mike and I headed out and created a bit of a route around the hospital. On our first spin around, we passed a couple sitting alone in a waiting area. The next time around the loop, my mom had arrived and joined us and we passed the same couple again. The final time around, my dad had arrived and all four of us passed the same couple. Every time we walked by, we added a member to the party! That last time around, nobody said anything, but we all, including the couple in the waiting area, just started cracking up. Not sure if that was a story you had to be there for, but to us, it was hilarious!

We finally made our way back into the room and I made it known to the nurse that I would be wanting an epidural as soon as I was in pain. I'm really not one for lots of pain, and if the drugs are available, I'm in! Unfortunately, I could only receive the epidural once I was 4 cm, so I had to wait. In the meantime, Mike, my mom and dad all hung out in my sub-arctic hospital room. I really had no sense of time, or temperature, but I can only imagine how miserable they all were! The only thing I could concentrate on was that I was finally in pain and my contractions seemed to be coming quicker and quicker. I had three bouts of pain meds in my iv. That took the edge off, but not for long. I still was not dilating enough. The relief finally came around 3:45 in the morning. The anesthesiologist finally made an appearance. This is the part that made me the most nervous. Everybody had told me that it wasn't that bad, but I never really believed them. But for me, getting the epidural was so not that bad! The worst part was the numbing shots beforehand! And that didn't even really hurt. I don't know what I was so worried about!

After the epidural was in, I was finally able to get some rest and slept soundly until 11 the next morning. My poor family, on the other hand, did not. They were freezing, uncomfortable and all sharing a little couch and chair. Probably not ideal, but everybody kept thinking that something would happen so nobody ever left for the night. Apparently, rest of the family had filled the tiny little waiting room. And the wait was on. Things were progressing, but really slowly!

At some point during the day, I have no idea when, I mentioned to the nurse that my arms were really heavy. I really couldn't move at all! The anesthesiologist was called back in and she started pinching my arms and chest with her fingernails, but all I could feel was her touch. I felt no pain. Then she turned to Mike and told him I must be a cheap drunk! Not nice! They turned down the epidural and I began to feel again! It was all really weird. On top of that, one leg was so numb that I couldn't feel it at all, while the other leg was just kinda really numb and tingled like when your foot falls asleep. That leg really just burned. If anybody touched it, it made me cringe. Poor Mike kept trying to rub my leg and tell me I was doing a good job only to be slapped and pushed away by me because it hurt so bad!

Finally, around 3:15 I started pushing. And I kept pushing and pushing and pushing. I asked the nurse how long it had been and apparently an hour and a half had gone by. I had no idea. I really felt as if it had been about 15-20 minutes. It was at that point I started to crave grapes. All I could think about was how when Mason was finally born, I could eat some grapes. Probably not what I should have been thinking about but I couldn't help it!

Three hours into pushing the doctor said we needed to make a decision. My hips were too small and Mason's head was too big. Pushing alone would not get him out. I could either have a c-section right then, or push once more and she would try to vacuum him out. I didn't want to have endured that last 26 hours of labor and pushing only to have a c-section so we decided to try the vacuum. The dr. would only try it once and then she would rush me into the OR for the c-section. A few moments later my room was full of doctors and nurses ready to take over. Finally it came time to push and on that first push with the vacuum, Mason made his grand entrance. I was elated, only for a second as the nurses rushed him over to the warmer and started working on him. He never let out a cry and was a little on the blue side. I had to freak out for about 5 minutes until finally we heard a little cry. At that point, I knew we were good. The entire time the nurses kept reassuring us that he was fine, but I still didn't believe it until I heard him cry.

We stayed in the hospital until Saturday, June 27 and life's been an adventure every since. Mason is a wonderful baby. We are starting to get on a bit of a schedule as he wakes up in the middle of the night like clockwork. The last few nights in a row it has been midnight, 3am, 6 am and 9 am. I can't imagine it will last but so far, nights have been good to us. In addition, we are surrounded by wonderful family that have been here helping us out, bringing us food, cleaning our house and letting us take naps. My mom has even become a personal shopper for me. When I didn't have anything to wear she hurried out and brought home bags of clothes for me to try on! It has been an amazing experience and despite the long labor, I couldn't imagine it another way!

Sorry this was so long! I promise the for coming post won't be so wordy! Keep posted for pictures and more!