The Birth Story...

Okay, so if anyone wants the story of the birth, here goes.

Saturday, November 27th, Bear left for work around 2pm. I stayed home, cleaning and straightening, and just outright "nesting". I had been having contractions for a few days, but they were never regular or progressive. They would last about an hour, and then go away. Saturday evening, around 8pm, I started having stronger contractions. They weren't close enough together for me to be worried, so I kept on with the things I was doing. When Bear got home from work around midnight, he took me in search of a particular chapstick. (Turns out you can only buy it at 7-Eleven, and none of the ones around us carry it.) We went to two different 7-Elevens and a 24-hour CVS before giving up. I was getting uncomfortable, and I just wanted to go home.

It was about 2am when we got home and got settled. (Yes, we're night-owls, this is a usual time of the day for us) Bear turned on the Twilight Zone, and I went to go lay down, hoping to relieve some of the tension in my back. I started timing the contractions with my cell phone, and realized they were 2-3 minutes apart! I waited about 20 minutes, just to make sure, before going out to tell Bear. When I told him it was time to go to the hospital, he sighed. We have had some false alarms at the hospital already, and he was exhausted. Every time we went to the hospital before, we got home just in time for him to sleep about 2 hours and go back to work. Needless to say, he was not real thrilled about another hospital adventure. I was still almost 2 weeks before my due date!

Getting dressed again, we got out of the house and headed for the hospital. We got there and got checked in to OB triage by about 3am. And then comes the wait. They hooked me up to the fetal monitor, and the contraction monitor, and then we just sat there. At about 4:30am, a nurse came in and did an exam. She looked up at us and smiled, and told us we wouldn't be going home. She said, "I still have to confirm with the doctor, but you're having a baby today!". I was 4 cm dialated with my contractions every 2 minutes. The nurse left to go confirm with the on-call doctor, just about the time panic set in for Bear.

Up until that moment, Bear was convinced that we were just going to waste 6-8 hours of our lives in the hospital, only to get sent home. When the nurse told us that wasn't the case, he went into shock. His eyes got wide like saucers, and he started pacing. I called my parents to tell them, and he sent out a text to his family and his work, letting everyone know. Then he just sat there, muttering "We're having a baby..." over and over again. The nurses were giving him a hard time about breathing deeply and not passing out. :)

The nurse came back and started to get me prepped for surgery. They did an ultrasound again, just to make sure Tyler was still in the breech position. If he had moved into the right position, they would have let me attempt a vaginal delivery. But, he was still breech. They started asking me all the admitting questions, and getting me set up in the computer, around 5am. The nurse said that the doctor was on her way, and surgery was scheduled for 5:30. Bear said "PM, right?" and the nurse laughed. She said "No, AM, as in, a half hour from now."

Once they finished getting me ready, they gave us a minute so Bear could give me a blessing. How grateful I am for him, and the Priesthood he holds. The blessing he gave me gave us both the comfort we needed to face the unknown.

Then the nurses wheeled me up to OR pre-op. They hooked me up with an IV, gave me a few different medications to help out with surgery, and we waited. They kept pushing the c-section time back. First it was going to be 6am, then 6:30am, then 7am. The OR wasn't ready, and then once they had that cleaned and ready, the doctor had gotten held up. We met the doctor who was on call and the anethesiologist who would be there as well. Bear got changed into scrubs, and that was about the time he started to calm down and wrap his mind around what was happening.

That was also about the time that MY panic set in. Up until that point, I had taken everything in stride, but all of a sudden, I wasn't so sure. I started getting lightheaded, just thinking about having a baby in just a few minutes. Bear held my hand and spoke softly to me, trying to calm me down. He even gave me a foot massage so I would relax. After about 45 minutes, I started to relax again.

Shift change came, so all of the nurses who were getting me prepped for surgery changed, and I got a new set of nurses. I also met a new doctor and anesthesiologist who would be doing the surgery. Now, the first doctor we met was one we had already seen before about 2 years ago, but the anesthesiologist was a new face, and he didn't really make me feel at ease. The second doctor we met, who actually did the surgery, was someone I've never met before, but she seemed very nice. And the anesthesiologist she brought with her was a whole lot more reassuring for me.

I walked into the OR at 7:54am. They did my spinal block, which only took a minute, before I was laid down on the table and getting prepped for surgery. I was numb in about 3 minutes, and all the doctors and nurses started getting me ready. Bear came in a few minutes later to sit by me, and they started surgery.

Tyler was born at 8:17am. Bear was so excited to watch and see what was happening. He stood up, watching and taking pictures as they pulled Tyler out. Bear wasn't able to cut the cord, but he was able to trim it once Tyler was in the incubator. When Tyler was born, he wasn't crying immediately. They turned him over, so he was face up, and he let out a wail. Both Bear and I burst into tears, hearing him cry for the first time. They wiped his face and then showed him to me before they took him to the other side of the room to clean and weigh. Then they wrapped him up and brought him to Bear to hold. The nurse took a few pictures of us before both Bear and Tyler were taken to the nursery for the newborn tests.

My surgery went for about another 15 minutes. I had kind of a bad reaction to the spinal block about 5 minutes after Bear left, but the anesthesiologist gave me something to counter it, and helped me get through the weird headache I had gotten. They took me to recovery and helped me get cleaned up and ready to go up to my room.

On the way up to my room, they took me by the nursery to pick up Tyler. My parents were there, waiting to see me before they left. They had already gotten to see Tyler. They brought Tyler out to me, all swaddled up in hospital blankets. I got to hold him in my arms, just taking him in, as they wheeled me to my room. The entire way, he just stared at me. He never took his eyes off me, and I couldn't stop looking at him.

When we got up to my room, they helped me get settled in bed before helping me try to feed Tyler. And from then on out, he was ours. He stayed in our room with us, and we got to bond together as a family. Both Bear and I were exhausted, but over the next few days, we got a little bit of sleep, and a lot of family time.