Owens Crazy Birth Story

This story begins the morning of Monday the 15. Owen is officially 2 days late at this point and I have a Doctors appointment at 9:30. I get up and get ready before I even get Mae up so then I can just focus on her. She of course picks Monday morning to have meltdowns all over the place. So fun. It is the biggest fight to just get her into the car. I eventually won that battle and hopped in the car to get going, and what do you know the car wont start and my appointment is in 10 minutes. AAARRRRGGGG! Luckily I knew that Mari also had an appointment at 10:30, I quickly called her to see if I changed my appointment time would she be able to pick Mae and I up and take us? She could. I then called Misty to see if I couldn't change my time if she could come right away and get me. She was also on board. Next call was to the Doctors to see if I could move my time later. At first they were not so happy with me (I don't blame them I work on appointments so I get it when people are trying to move stuff around). Then I told them that I was 2 days late and my car wont start, but my friend has an appointment at 10:30 and she can bring me if there was anyway that my appointment could be close to hers. Because I was already late I think they felt really bad for me and got me in at 10:15. Mari saved the day! My appointment was same as always no changes, lets schedule an induction for Friday the 19th. I was discouraged and though ok whatever at least I know he will be here by the weekend. Mari also had an induction date scheduled for the next week. We were both pretty bumbed out but happy our pregnancies were almost over.

When we got back to the house Mari and I tried jumping the car and nothing happened. She offered to have Jason come over and look at it. I told her it was no big deal and at least Seans car was working so If I went into labor before the Passat got fixed we could still make it to the Hospital. She headed off to Wal-mart in hopes her water would break walking around, they told her at the Doctors that it had been happening to lots of women that week so she was going to try. I headed into the house ready to hunker down and get stuff done since I couldn't go anywhere. After lunch and a nap I convinced Mae to get into the jogging stroller and go on a walk to Huckleberry's with me, I just needed to move I was starting to go stir crazy. We set off and had a great time, when ended up at the park at the end of the walk and Mae got to run some energy out. These nice days have been such a blessing. When Mae and I got home we made a yummy Spaghetti Sauce, and had a great dinner while waiting for Sean to get home. I think I should point out that I was in a very snachy mood all Monday and I feel really bad for all those who had to deal with me. I even had Misty call my mom and fill her in on my appointment because I didn't want to talk to anyone. I needed to point that out because when Sean got home he had to deal with all my frustrations of the day, poor guy. I did not get any better as the night went on, in fact I only got worse. I put it all off on that fact the the day was just not a great day and my hormones were once again making me crazy. In fact I started getting more and more restless as the night went on. I got Mae to bed, Sean went to sleep and I thought to myself if I got to bed I might pull my own hair out from going crazy just laying there making myself sleep. So then I texted my source of information Misty, she calmed me down a little bit and told me to take a bath to relax myself and that if I was going to go into labor being stressed was the worst thing. So I finished packing my bags (I needed something to do while I was pacing), and got in that bath at 11 at night. Read a few magazines, shaved my legs, drank some tea, and really relaxed for the first time all day. It was GLORIOUS!

Finally I was ready for bed, I crawled in at 12:15 shut my eyes and was out. Then what do you know I get a text from Mari, it pretty much said "my water broke........I win...Sorry" I was very kind and supportive when I texted her back and just told her congrats and to relax, and that she was going to do great. While the whole time I was SO jealous and had to calm myself down once again, even though I was so excited for my friend. I told her to keep me posted and got back to sleep. Only to be woken up again at 3 with contractions they were pretty steady at 5 minutes apart and I thought something was going on for sure. But thanks to April and Mari with all their false labor I was trying to ignore them and go back to sleep. Well sleep never happened I kept having to pee it was so annoying. Sean woke up one of the times I got up because our bathroom fan is broken and very loud. When I crawled back into bed he asked if I kept going to the bathroom. I very calmly said "yeah I think I'm in labor" it took him a minute for that to sink in. Then he said "so whats the game plan, what did the doc say to do?" I answered with "um go to the hospital and have a baby." I still needed to confirm with someone else that I could really be in labor. Once again I contacted Misty and she stayed on the phone with me through a few contractions and timed them for me (I did not know that you time from the start to the start). They were all about 4-5 minutes apart. We decided it was the real thing. Then it was go time, Sean called his parents, and I called mom and told her to start driving. While waiting for Leslee to get here we finished getting everything together and I picked up the house a little bit more between contractions (I needed something to do). I sent Mari a text at about 5 telling her that we would see her at the hospital. She sent one back saying "are you kidding me?" (we have had parallel pregnancy's, we even found out we were pregnant the same day).

We got to the Hospital around 6, parked right next to Mari and Jason and headed to Labor and Delivery. They knew who we were when we got to the desk, Mari had told them to be expecting us. We ended up only being two rooms down from Mari, and in the same room we delivered Mae in. Misty had arrived while I was getting checked in, it was so nice having her there she has a very calming presence (good when in labor btw). I was having back labor again so I had one person rubbing my lower back and another rubbing my shoulders to keep my mind off the pain. I don't remember all the little details of this part, but I remember it was so nice to actually have a break between contractions (not being on pit was great). I remember when mom showed up, I know Sean and Misty were excited to have a 3 back rubber. I remember telling mom not to talk sometimes, and telling her that she was massaging to hard. I remember getting reports on Mari and that we were progressing at pretty much the same rate. I remember that I was willing my body to not go to fast until I had my second round of antibiotics (I was positive for that group B strep thing) so we wouldn't have to stay in the hospital for 48 hours. But let me tell you as soon as that second round went through I was willing my body to go and go fast. It also helped that Barrong was going to break my water after that second round went through. I start to remember more details again at this point. He broke my water just after 11:30 and my contractions got harder and the urge to push happened very soon after. I know that the Doctor kept going back and forth between my room and Maris at this point and I knew that she was also so close. I also know that Owen had the umbilical cord around his neck and with every contraction his heart rate would go way down I could hear it on the monitor and I knew I had to get him out. I was only dilated to an 8 at this point, but when I was contracting the Doc thought I was getting to a 10 and then closing back up a little bit. It was go time though because of the cord. I remember pushing as hard and fast as I could so that Owen could get out and get away from the umbilical cord. But he wouldn't budge, until......... Barrong said on the next push he was going to use the vacuum to get him out because he needed out now. That was all I needed to hear and then on the next push Barrong was getting the vacuum up in there when I got Owens head to move on out!! Barrong got the cord away from his neck and they whisked him over to the table to get him to breathe. Sean said he was really blue and not very responsive for a little bit, but he didn't take very long to come around thank goodness. In my competitive nature I had Misty send Mari a text that said "I win" (only because she told me that only a few hours before). Barrong was still in the room when I said that, then he rushed over to get Grant out of Mari. It wasn't long before he was back in my room to check on things. I remember thinking that was fast but still had no concept of time. But when he came back in the room he said that he decided it was a tie since he made Mari wait for me (sorry Mari). I was for sure ok with a tie and I definitely don't want a tie breaker.

Finally I got to hold Owen and my first thought was wow Sean and I have kids that look alike, he has Maes nose. He was so perfect and even with being really blue his color was great and he was very alert. He latched on for a few minutes which I was really excited about since Mae had such a hard time. I just loved holding him and having him out in the world and ok. I am so excited to have a little boy and get to know his personality, so far he has been pretty mellow and only cries when hungry. Pretty much when he is not sleeping he is eating.

I love that Mari and I shared this crazy experience together and that our boys will grow up friends. I'm so proud of both of us we are awesome!