Logan Andrew's Birth Story

Yes, Logan is now here!! He made his arrival on September 9th as "scheduled." Here's how everything went down...

**WARNING: I try not to be graphic, but I also want you to realize that I don't water things down and this could be a little too much information for you if you aren't comfortable with that kind of stuff...**

(the following takes place on)
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9th, 2009

MIDNIGHT
John and I arrive at Norman Regional Hospital to get checked in for our induction. As we pull into the parking lot (and we got a VERY good spot), I notice another car pulling in beside us. I jokingly told John that they were probably here for induction as well. Come to find out, they were. Anyway... We get up to the desk and sign all the papers and they put us in our room (3516 - which I really think is the room we had Brayden in, but I can't be sure). I get the gown on, use the bathroom, and get all "hooked up." John and I are both already kind of tired (it IS midnight, you know), but my adrenaline is keeping me going. The nurse checks me and verifies that I am still at one centimeter and goes ahead with the Cytotec (a little pill thingy that is used to soften the cervix and get contractions going). This is a three dose thing that will be done every four hours and THEN we'll start the Pitocin. Almost immediately contractions get regular - 3 to 5 minutes apart - and I'm breathing through them conciously. It's not really HARD, but it is uncomfortable, and I'm having to remind myself to relax. The nurse keeps telling me to get some sleep, but with the monitors on my belly, I just couldn't really get in a comfortable position. Finally I turned on my iPod and for some reason, that really worked, and I went to sleep by the 2nd or 3rd song. So I slept off and on until about 6:30ish...

6:30 AM
My nurse came in to check my progress... By this time I was about 4 cm and she was going to put in another dose of Cytotec, but decided that she should call Dr. Waterman and find out if maybe we could just go ahead and start the Pitocin. She comes back in a little later to let me know that we are gonna just go with the Pitocin and checks me again... This time while she's checking, Logan kicks and my water breaks. Meanwhile, I'm still having fairly hard contractions and decide that maybe I DO want the epidural at this point. So I tell my nurse that and she calls the man with the relief. He gets to my room about 7:30ish. The actual putting IN of the epidural is NOT fun, but I survive by reminding myself that it's gonna make things a lot easier. I ask him to not make it very strong, but he says that he always starts it at a "set" level and then later, if I'm not liking it, he can up it or back it off. So I settle with that answer.

8:15ish am
Epidural is in, Pitocin is running, and I'm feeling pretty good - but the epidural has made my legs kinda more numb than I'd like (at least I'm not feeling the contractions, though). John has been up for a little bit now and is waiting for the room to clear so he can take a shower. In between people in the room, I tell him that I can feel things changing and maybe he might wanna go ahead and get in the shower. So he starts getting all his stuff together for his shower and heads in there. I call Mom and let her know that I am doing pretty well and still think it'll be around noon when Logan comes.

8:30 am
The nurse comes in to check me right after John's gotten into the shower. She informs me that "there is a little lip of cervix left... OH, wait, nope - it's gone. Time to push!" Um. Okay. So the scrambling begins right as I'm thinking - yeah, I think she's right, I can feel the pushing sensation coming on. I ask the nurse to let John know; I call Mom real quick like to say they better hit the road. As I'm on the phone with her, I get the urge to push, so I hang up quickly. I notice John's out of the shower and dressed with a kind of dazed look on his face - like "is this really happening RIGHT NOW?"

8:45 am
Dr. Waterman gets there to "catch" Logan. Seems like the room is full of people. There are two nurses at the warmer, two more for I don't know what, my nurse and Dr. Waterman. Plus John. And me, of course. My legs are still SUPER numb so they have to lift them up for me. The nurse lets me know that I'm having a contraction and I can push... I kind of had this thought of, "Well, I can't FEEL the contraction, but whatever - sure, I'll push."

8:51 am
So I give one push and Dr. Waterman says, "Well, there's the head!" Seriously??? So one more push and wham, I have a baby on my tummy. I'm shocked. Completely and totally. First, I really didn't think I'd have Logan so early in the day. Secondly, I never in my wildest thoughts would've imagined him coming out in TWO pushes (John says it's more like one and a half, really). But I come out of my little shocked world when I hear them ask John to cut the cord... I piped up and requested that I get to do it. John's done it twice and I kind of wanted to get to see what it was like. So I awkwardly cut Logan's cord and then they take him to weigh and measure him. He's 7 lbs, 13 oz, 19.5 inches long and got an 8/9 on his APGARs. He looks JUST like Tyler.

9:00 am
I get Logan back to nurse him. None of our family has made it to the hospital yet because everything happened so quickly. John and I actually get about an hour with Logan - just the three of us. John gets a few pictures and a little cuddle time. I'm still sitting there in shock.

10:00 am
The nursery nurses come to take Logan and give him his first bath. Neither family has arrived yet!! I'm kind of not wanting them to take him, but we have no idea how long it'll be before everyone gets here. So I turn the precious little bundle over. And wouldn't you know - everyone gets there like 10 minutes later. They all go to the nursery to watch Logan get his bath. I get reports that Logan did NOT like the bath at all.

10:45ish am
Logan comes back and the pass-around begins. Brayden is actually the first one to hold him. He is a VERY proud big brother. Tyler on the other hand is tired and is just sitting on my bed with a very worried face. I ask him what's wrong, but he doesn't answer. Finally I ask him if he's scared and he nods yes. I ask him if he's scared that he's gonna get taken away - he nods and repeats, "Taken away" in the most sad, pathetic little voice I've ever heard. So I let him crawl up beside me and I cuddle him so he doesn't feel left out. About this time, Andy & Amy show up with Paige & Abby - and a Papa John's pizza!!! They all get to see Logan and Brayden & Abby run around the room. It's a riot in there, I'll tell ya.

Noon-ish
Tyler is now sleeping on me in my bed (as is Logan). Everyone else takes off to eat some Braum's for lunch. I enjoy my Papa John's and the peace and quiet.

4 pm
The boys are getting restless and are getting in trouble more often than naught. So Greg & Rhonda start packing them up and take them home. Mom & Dad head off to walmart to get some stuff and get us some dinner.

6 pm
Mom and Dad leave and it's just John, Logan and me. We all just have a nice peaceful night of watching tv and cuddling. It's been a long day, but a very, VERY good one. I can't believe I'm the mom of THREE boys.

No Baby

So I'm resigned to the fact that I'm gonna go until Wednesday. Which is fine, I guess. I told John I just really want to have that "THIS IS IT!!!" moment when I get to tell him to grab the bags cause my water just broke or what have you. It seems like everyone on TV (like on Baby Story) and in the movies (although it can't be a more laughable farce about how most movies portray labor) gets to have that moment... I just wish I could. It's not that I don't appreciate the scheduled induction - I mean, my doctors COULD just let me go a few extra weeks trying to see "if..." Thankfully that's never been the case. But there seems to be some part of the birth excitement that I've missed out on with my last two pregnancies. And on top of all that, I'm just so darn uncomfortable and these contractions are killing me. I went for a solid TWO HOURS yesterday with contractions being 10 minutes apart. They weren't necessarily hard ones, but they weren't exactly light either. I kept thinking that sooner or later they'd pick up, get closer together, and we'd be having a baby. Which I was REALLY hoping for since we'd had such a bad night with football... I kinda thought having a baby would releive some of the pain (how's that for irony?).

But we're still here. With no Logan. But it's nice to have a peacefully quiet house that is actually CLEAN (minus the dirty dishes that really just need to be put in the dishwasher, but I have to empty the dishwasher first, and I haven't yet found the motivation to do step one of two). Not to mention the fact that there is a sense of profound enjoyment in knowing that it's going to STAY clean. But I've got my bag packed (mostly), and I would welcome a birth day at any given moment. I'm just sooooo ready to have my little baby in my arms. It's been a super long nine months. But I can now almost count down HOURS... If this labor is as quick as both Brayden & Tyler were, less than 72 hours from now, we'll be third time parents. EEEEKK!!!!!! How exciting is that?!?!?!?!?!?

The Big Fletcher Parade

Every year for Labor Day weekend the massive town of Fletcher has a fair. We also have hugely impressive parade to celebrate the occasion. Of course, we don't have our own marching band, so we "borrow" Elgin's. And until about 12 years ago, we didn't really have floats... But that's all beside the point. It's a fun chance for the entire school - K through 12 - to walk (or ride as the case may be) down Main Street. Growing up, I remember being a lightbulb, a soldier, an enticing female, and Thing (that hand from The Addam's Family). I know I was a ton of other things, but those are what I think of off the top of my head. If I had pictures here at my house, I'd share. But alas (and thank goodness), I do not. Every year our parade has a theme. Sometimes fairly vague (like "heroes") and sometimes fairly specific (like "musicals"). If there's something big going on, you can bet the fair parade will revolve around that - like the state centennial or the Olympics. The floats have gotten more and more impressive as the years have gone on... But this year they put some major restrictions on them - they had a budget and actual RULES!! Eeek. The floats turned out okay, but the parade just didn't have that fun pop it usually has. Not to mention the theme was "candy." (Huh?)

Okay... SO... Not that I really wanted to see the grade school kids walk down the street. Or the not-so-expensive floats. I really wouldn't have gone at all. BUT... Mom and Dad were honorablly named Mr. & Mrs. Fletcher (i.e. the grand marshals of the parade). So even being only a few days from my due date, I did not want to miss the pictures. Erin & Alan kind of stink at taking pictures and documenting things. I guess I got Mom's camera-obessive gene (why did THAT have to be the one thing I got from her?? lol). I was supposed to be meeting the folks later in the day to drop off the boys anyway - they're staying in Fletcher until Logan's arrival... So I just packed up early and took off. I'm so glad I did. The boys really had a good time. I took their little lawn chairs, and they had bags to put all their candy in. Plus, we got them there early enough that they got an extra night at the fair (which, sadly, I didn't stay for so - you got it - no pictures).

I feel SOOOO blessed to have the opportunity to live close enough to "home" that my boys are getting to grow up experiencing some of life's little joys that I had my entire growing up years. It's an amazing thing to know in your head that the Fletcher Free Fair would be a big joke to anyone outside of our little town (you can ask John for his opinion), but to be committed to attending nonetheless. It's a Fletcher thing... And we take it quite seriously - so seriously that I remember writing a paper on the irony of it all during my college composition class. haha!!! So anyway... Here are some of the pictures that were captured during the big day.... Enjoy!

Triage Adventures

Yesterday was my last OB appointment until we go in for induction!! HURRAY!! It's been a fast AND slow 9 months. It's an absolute amazement to me how time can completely slow to a crawl when you are the most wanting it to speed up. This is no more true than at 1:30 in the morning when your hips hurt and you're having trouble getting back to sleep and you really just want the night to pass normally. I'm really looking forward to this hip pain being reduced soon. But anyway... Back to the appointment.... I've had protein in my urine for about 3 months now. Just traces, and it's really honestly because I drink too much pop and not enough water. My doc has scolded me about this, but has just kind of written it off as me being a bad patient. (lol) But this week I've been having low grade headaches (which could very well be sinus junk), and a touch of swelling (which is probably just the weight gain catching up with me), and then my blood pressure was just a tad elevated for my normal rates - 139/90. So all this combined, my doc decided it was better to be safe than sorry and sent me to labor & delivery for some preeclampsia bloodwork. I figured this was an in and out type thing. No way jose. Nothing in pregnancy is EVER that easy. I actually got ADMITTED for a non-stress test and the bloodwork. An hour and a half later, I find out everything is absolutely fine. My BP stayed around 118/72 during that entire time, Logan's heartrate had great rythmn, and the bloodcounts were completely within the normal range. So I was discharged.

This entire time, though.... John, my poor, wonderful husband who was just trying to be supportive and come to our last appointment, was stuck with the two wild children. This probably would've been okay if we'd had any idea how long things were gonna take, but as it were, he didn't want to go anywhere with them (besides to get lunch) because he didn't want to deal with the getting them out of the car only to put them right back in. So he spent the hour & a half in the minivan with the boys. I commend his patience and commitment to being a good daddy - both boys are still alive. haha

So all that said... We are still counting down to induction. No more dilation progress has been made, even with all the contractions (which makes me want to just scream, but whatever), so I've just resigned myself to living out the next week in a state of contentment. The boys are headed to my parents' house tomorrow... I still don't know how I'm getting them there or when. The fair parade is around 1ish I think and Mom & Dad are Mr & Mrs Fletcher this year - so they're actually IN the parade. Which of course I would LOVE to see, but I don't know if I want to handle the boys for the entire parade... add into the equation that I'd be an hour from my hospital... Hum... I just don't know if I'm gonna wait and take them later or WHAT! But no matter what happens, tomorrow night I will be child free and able to relax for a few days. There's not a WHOLE lot that still needs to be done around the house - I've been a major nester this past month - so more than likely I'm just gonna do NOTHING. Sounds absolutely GLORIOUS.

Well, anyway... we're heading to Norman to help Andy & Amy move apartments, so I need to get in the shower and get the boys dressed and ready to go.