The Story of Your Birth...

Thursday, August 7th started off just like any other day – I woke up, went to work and arrived home around 5:30pm. I put dinner in the oven and did some house work while waiting for your daddy to get home. Our plan for the night was to finish your room (hang a shelf and some pictures) and finishing up some thank you cards we needed to get out. Once your daddy arrived home, we sat on the couch to relax for a minute while waiting for the oven timer to go off. When it did, I got up to take the casserole out but instead headed straight to the bathroom. What just happened? Did my water just break? I came out of the bathroom and your dad asked if my water broke. My response was no, my bladder’s just leaking. While walking upstairs to change, I felt more fluid leaking and decided that we should probably call the doctor. After speaking to the doctor we were told to head to the hospital. While I sat in the bathroom freaking out, your dad stayed calm. He loaded up the car and went next door to ask the neighbors to watch over Griswald (who just had surgery) and Winston while went to the hospital. He asked if I wanted to eat dinner before heading out because that was the one thing I told him I would want to do but with all the excitement and the emotions I told him all I wanted to do was go the hospital and he needed to hurry up!

Once we arrived at the hospital, we were taken up the maternity floor and about 20 minutes later we were admitted into the hospital. My bladder was not leaking – my water had broken!! It was official; you were one your way!! Once we were in our room, the nurse hooked me up to two monitors; one to monitor your heart rate and one to monitor my contractions. She told me that I would have to get up and walk around after we woke you up, this would help the labor progress. She made me eat ice chips and a popsicle but you still wouldn’t wake up. Then while checking to see how much I progressed she noticed that you may have had a bowel movement because of this they had to monitor your heat rate by putting a monitor on your head. This was probably the scariest moment for me. The nurse assured me that you were fine and I tried not to think about all the things I had read about this. A few hours after we were admitted Grandma and Grandpa Laurent arrived and Grandpa Adams and Great-Grandma Adams arrive about an hour after that.

Your daddy was so great during the entire process. He was encouraging me, breathing with me and rubbing my back. However, once the contractions got stronger I told him to just sit in the chair and do nothing. He wasn’t allowed to talk to me, touch me or breathe with me during contractions. I told him to just sit and watch the Browns game (with no sound). Once I was dilated to 5cm, the nurse asked if I would like to have the epidural. I couldn’t believe that were giving it to me so soon. I thought I was supposed to be in horrible pain before receiving it. This was nothing - Not to say that I wasn’t in pain, I just expected the pain to be worse that what it was. After a long night of doing nothing and waiting for your arrive the nurse came in around 5am and said it was time to start pushing! I was so excited but so nervous. The nurse called the doctor….and called the doctor…and called the doctor. Finally at 6:50am I had your dad go tell the nurse that I couldn’t wait any longer…I had to start pushing. Finally, she said okay and the doctor was on her way. The pushing wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated. Your dad and Grandma Laurent helped me through this process. At one point I actually hit your dad because a contraction was coming on and he wasn’t there to hold my leg. I yelled and told him he needed to pay attention. He was so sweet about it. Looking back it’s kind of funny. The last 20 minutes of pushing was the worst part. I was tired and hot and just ready for you to come out. After about 14 hours of labor which included an hour and a half of pushing you finally decided it was time! You were born at 8:14am on 08/08/08. You weighed in at 9pds 6oz and you were 21in long and you were absolutely perfect! As soon as you were born they put you on my stomach and I watched your daddy cut the umbilical cord. I’m looking at your sleeping in your swing right now and I still can’t believe you’re here and you’re ours. I love you so much!