The Birth Story

So many of you have been asking for Hudson's birth story, so here it is!

At 38 weeks I went to the Doctor for my weekly check up and was so glad to have my favorite Doctor see me. Many of the Doctors at the practice weren't exactly warm and fuzzy in personality which made it difficult to really feel like I was establishing much of a relationship with any of them...but my Doctor who I had been seeing for pre-pregnancy visits and who performed my surgery back in 2006 is and has been wonderful. Anyway, when she checked how things were going it looked as though everything still looked very favorable and like the baby could and should come any day. Once again, I was told that I probably wouldn't make it to the 17th. She suggested "stripping my membranes" at our next visit to get things started. She felt that after doing that I would be back that night ready to have the baby and since she would be on call she would be the one to deliver us. Being as uncomfortable as I was and wanting so badly for her to be the one to deliver the baby this option sounded very tempting. But after taking the weekend to pray about it, Carson and I decided that we really didn't want to do anything unnatural that would provoke things to happen before they were supposed to. When I went back for the next week's appointment, I told the doctor that we elected to wait. Well,
 Hudson apparently liked the idea of coming early as well...and decided that he would come anyway!

At 3:30am the next morning, my water broke while I was sleeping. I jumped out of bed and was pretty sure that's what it was, but had second thoughts and definitely didn't want to wake Carson and call the Dr. because of a false alarm (I had a huge fear of going to the hospital only to be sent back home). I spent the next hour online googling "How do I know if my water has broken"...as I was becoming more convinced by what I was reading, I also began to feel pretty sick - much like bad period cramps. They became progressively worse and so after pacing around the house and attempting to fold laundry (yes, I was nesting even as I was in labor!), I woke Carson up at 5am. We managed to take showers, Carson and Lilly had breakfast and we made it out the door at about 5:45. I could tell things were progressing fast and it was all I could do to get to the hospital. My mood became increasingly serious and angry - I was so angry! Poor Carson, I was angry at him, angry at the lady at the front desk, angry at the delivery nurse who kept asking me questions during contractions...it's amazing, you seriously do go into another level of conciousness when you're in labor. I was just so mad and focused! It probably had something to do with the fact that I was at 6cm upon arriving at the hospital and after having to finish a bag of IV fluid and waiting for the Anesthesiologist to come with the epidural for an hour and a half, I was at 9cm. I was really afraid it would be too late for the epidural and I definitely did not sign up for a natural birth. The lady in the room across the hall from us did and she sounded like an angry cat for hours!

After the epidural, all was right in the world again and I was able to come out of my angry state to actually say more then two words to Carson and to the Delivery Nurse (who was absolutely amazing by the way). Our families were able to come in and visit for awhile and then the Nurse suggested we have some quiet time laboring down before it was time to push. Laboring down is when you let your body continue to have contractions to push the baby further and further down into your pelvis.Once you begin to feel a lot of pressure, you know that it's time to push. We did this for a couple of hours and then with each contraction I began to feel a ton of pressure...so it was time to start the next phase of labor.

Since the baby was low to begin with and everything else progressed relatively fast, the Nurse and Doctor (my favorite Doctor by the way. Remember she was on call so she ended up being the one to be with us afterall!) didn't think it'd take much pushing...well, that was not the case. Hudson did not want  to come out. His cord was wrapped around his body making it difficult for him to exit. After 2 hours, he finally decided to make his appearance and what an amazing moment that was! Carson was AMAZING throughout the entire labor and delivery. He was by my side the entire time, giving encouragement and reminders to take deep breaths. I honestly don't think I would have been able to do it without him right there with me.

Hudson was a trooper through the whole ordeal as well. His heart rate never faltered. He received two nines on his APGAR and aside from having a mishapen head and smooshed nose from the trauma of the birth, he was cool as a cucumber and seemed so glad to be a part of the world and after 9 long months of daydreaming about and praying for our little man, we were finally able to meet him and we are totally in love!!