Labor and delivery

Here is the story of how Owen came into the world. It was a surreal experience that I wouldn't trade for anything.

Thursday May 13th had been a pretty long day for me, I had spent the morning at the insurance agent trying to find out how to get a new windshield on our car and get all of Chases photography equipment insured before we had the baby and took some of it to the hospital.

After that at 4:20pm Chase and I had gone to the doctor for my weekly check up, he said I was dilated to a 2+ and 80% effaced. All was good and he sent us on our way. He also told us that he had already delivered 9 babies in the last 20 hours, the most he had ever done in that short amount of time in his career. We get home and I get comfy on the couch, set the TV for a few shows I like to watch on Thursdays. Chase takes his photo for the day, sits down to edit it and never gets to finish.

At about 7:30pm he was sitting down to edit, I felt something was wrong so I got up to go to the bathroom and my water broke. I told Chase I had a problem, and he just thought I had peed my pants. There was no way I had just peed my pants. I went into panic mode and the tears started to flow. I wasn't ready for this, but like it or not the baby was coming. We didn't even have our bag packed (which come to find out you don't really need anything, the hospital has it all). Chase was going to do that after he was done editing. I hurried and got on some dry clothes, and Chase got his camera bag packed. Chase and my dad gave me a blessing, and we were off to the hospital.

We arrived about 8:00pm and were immediately put in a labor room. (Man those rooms are nice!) Our nurse Jackie got me comfortable, and then did a test to make sure that it was actually my water that had broken and not me peeing my pants. She came back a few minutes later and asked if we wanted the good news or the bad. Chase asked what the bad news was and her reply was "well you aren't going home", we were actually pretty happy about that. We never did get the good news. She started an iv on my left hand to get me hydrated, but the iv kept bugging me, and my whole hand felt like it was burning. I tried to stick it out and eventually had to have our second nurse Kim move the iv to my right arm. Jackie also got me on the monitors to check my contractions, or lack thereof, and also the babies heart rate. Everything looked good.

They let me go about an hour without having very many contractions, and none of them I could feel, so about 9:00 pm they decided to start me on Pitocin to get labor going. I was doing well breathing through the contractions and holding Chases hand, until they upped the dose of Pitocin, and the contractions were getting very uncomfortable and I was miserable. During this time our nurse Kim had to change my iv to my right hand. I'm sure it was fun for her to try and do it while I was having contractions, crying and in lots of pain. She did a great job though and all the pain and burning in my left hand was finally gone.

At midnight due to all the pain I was in, I was finally ready for my epidural. The anesthesiologist came in and introduced himself, had me sign the consent saying he could treat me. Then got to work. Have you ever tried to curl your back like an angry cat when you are in so much pain and have a basketball strapped to your tummy. Yeah me either, but I was able to do it. He got the epidural in with what I though were no issues, and then said "oh we have to do it over, because I hit a blood vessel". So I had to arch away again and he finally got the second one in. The relief was instant. I believe I told him he was a god, and the best thing ever. Even when he came back a few minutes later I gave him 2 thumbs up.

The next four hours are a blur to me, mostly because Chase and I both slept through them, there was a time that I woke up, and was feeling a bit of pain, but was able to push a little button and give myself more epidural medicine.

At 4 am our new nurse Marnae came in and changed the monitors to one on the babies head and one somewhere down there to measure the contractions. Things were going well. Too bad she didn't tell us that I was ready to have the baby then. She left again and we slept again for the next hour.

5am and Marnae is back, she has me do one practice push and then stops dead in her tracks and tells me that I have to stop. Baby was ready to come. But Dr. Froerer had asked when I was admitted that if I was still pregnant at 5am if they would call and wake him up and he would come deliver me, even though he wasn't supposed to be in the office till 7:00 am that morning. He wanted to deliver the baby because he was the one that knew of all the complications I had had. I think waiting for the doctor to get there were the longest 20 minutes of my life. Marnae told me I couldn't laugh, cough, push or anything that would cause the baby to come before the doctor got there. I tried to just relax, I could feel the pressure of the baby wanting to come, and I felt like I was holding him in.

At 5:20am Dr. Froerer came wandering in, he looked pretty tired and like he'd been woken up to come do a delivery. He was in good spirits though and happy to see me so ready to have the baby. While the doctor got himself ready, Marnae told me this joke, since it was ok to laugh now. Why did the flower not ride his bike? Because he didn't have any petals! She than said it was only funny at 5:00 am, and my reply was, "or if you are 5" Next thing I knew the doctor was ready, and on the next contraction I was pushing. I pushed a total of 12 times and through 3 contractions and our miracle baby was here, and the tears started flowing. Chase and I were in awe of what had just happened. Chase was able to cut the umbilical cord, and then baby was whisked off for his stats. Owen Kristoffer Lester was born at 5:37am on May 14, 2010. Weighing in at 5 pounds 11 ounces, and was 19 inches long. He had lots of dark brown hair and his daddy's face and nose. He was perfect in every way.

After all his stats were taken and lots of photos courtesy of daddy, Owen was brought back to me for some skin to skin time, that was the best 30 minutes of my life. A few minutes later, and a few cuddles from his daddy, Owen, Chase and I were whisked upstairs to our own private room, where we were able to bond for a few minutes as a family before they had to take Owen away for a few more checks, and a bath (which evidently Chase told them we wanted to have done in our room, so that happened a bit later.) Everything checked out great, and our lives will never be the same again. I thank my heavenly father every day for the blessing that Owen is in our lives and has been for the past 9 months. He is worth all the trouble we went through to get him here.

The name game

Thanks to everyone who participated in our little poll to choose the best name for baby. I pretty much knew what his name would be when I put the poll up, but it's always nice to know other peoples opinions. Maxabillion was a joke name that Chase always used to say he wanted to name him, because million just isn't good enough.

Wiggle belly

Owen was a pretty wiggly baby in my belly. I tried to capture a better video of this, but I think he always knew when I had the camera on

He also had one foot that was always poking out,I would tickle it and he would pull it back in, and then poke it out again. Here he is showing off his mad skills of one foot up, one foot hold the binki.

Our new addition

Owen Kristoffer decided today was the day to join our family. He was born this morning at 5:37 am, weighing 5 pounds 11 ounces, and 19 inches long. He has a ton of hair and looks almost just like his daddy. We are so in love, and can't wait for everyone to meet him.

Another update

Sorry this post is quite jumbled, It has been 2 weeks since I updated on the baby.

So since my last post about non-stress testing. We've had a bunch more appointments. Usually seeing 2 different doctors every week. It's a lot of time spent at appointments, but it's what we have to do for baby boy.

My last 2 non-stress tests have gone well. The one last week, just lasted a bit longer than we had hoped for. The nurse was kind of stupid though. I have a non-stress test scheduled for every Friday until baby is here, so as of now 5 more.

As of last Friday when we had our ultrasound baby boy is measuring about 4 pounds 4 ounces, so he's a bit on the small side, but we are ok with that. My fluid level is also up to around 18cm. The specialist that went over our ultrasound with us, seemed a bit cocky and like he knew it all. He even bet us a dollar that he was right. He seems to think that the babies kidney isn't Multicystic displastic, but non-existent, or shrunken.

I met with a pediatric urologist last week to discuss a plan for babies kidney after he is born. We are to have an ultrasound on his left kidney within his first two weeks of life. And then have what is known as a function test, and also a dye test that checks for back flow into his kidneys within the first month. Then we will meet withe the urologist again to discuss all the tests.

My regular OB is happy with my progress, and excited to still see me pregnant. We met with him yesterday and he said he'd be fine if baby came any time now, even though he'd like at least 2 more weeks. I'm dilated to a 2 and 70% effaced.

In other news I made it to 35 weeks, yahoo! Chase finally finished his associates degree, it's been a long process. His plan now is to get another associates in Visual Arts with a photography emphasis. We already have him registered for classes in the Fall and he's quite excited to start them. Since school has been out, we've had more time to go through things in the basement, and get things ready for Chase to have a studio here at home, and the baby to have a bedroom.
Somewhere in there we also celebrated my 27th birthday, we went and got pizza, and then came home so I could go back to bed.
Hopefully soon I'll feel like I have something important to write about. Hope everyone is enjoying their spring.

The next big thing

I don't know how many readers know that Chase has decided to become a professional photographer, and with that decision, we are proud to announce that his new photography website is finally up and running. It's been a long time coming. We would love for you to check it out (the link is below), and feel free to give critiques or raves. Or if you need photos taken, please don't hesitate to have Chase do them.

Chase Lester Photography