So. I am going to summarize this because I know not everyone is interested in the gritty details of childbirth :)
Sunday, May 10.
8am--wake up with contractions, but not too bad yet so we go ahead and head to IHOP for Mother's Day breakfast. At breakfast they are getting more painful, Skip wants to leave but I want my pancakes. By the time we get home, we start timing them as they are getting more painful and closer together.
10am--Skip's mom comes and picks up Reese "just in case". Skip and I go outside and walk and they get really close together, about 2 minutes apart, and painful enough that I have to stop walking when I have one.
11am--Skip wants to go to the hospital but I want to hold off as long as possible. The contractions are very painful at this point and so I get in the tub for a while. They keep coming and so Skip starts getting everything ready and loaded in the car. By the time he is helping me out of the tub, it is hard to even get my clothes on.
12noon--Most fun car ride ever :) Took about 20 minutes to get to Baylor.
1pm--get upstairs, checked in a room, IV started, all that stuff. I was dilated to a 5 when we got there. For the next few hours we labor. We had the best, most supportive nurse ever, a major answer to prayer! Skip was amazing too. He stayed totally calm and very encouraging. I thought I would get in the shower at the hospital or walk around or something, but it was just so intense so quick that I just sat up in the bed, leaned on Skip, sat in the rocker...They checked me several times and things were moving along.
5pm--start feeling like I have to push. Can't yet though because I'm not totally dilated. That was not a fun hour. That was when I wanted to give up.
6pm--Ready to go and start really pushing. The nursery people come in the room, the doctor is here. The pushing contractions were the strongest feeling I have ever felt in my life for sure.
618pm--Beau is born! I was sitting up and pushing so I saw him right after he came out and got to hold him right away and everything. It was an unbelievable feeling! I honestly couldn't believe I did it. I thought I would be the "grit my teeth and bear it" type...but turns out I was a screamer. For whatever reason that just helped me get through the contractions. At one point during pushing, my nurse told me she could tell he was almost out because I was screaming "primal jungle screams" :) That got a laugh from everyone...So she basically called me Xena: Warrior Princess. Oh well, so much for the silent suffering :)
So the experience was amazing and very much worth it for us. But of course the most important thing is our precious baby boy and that he was healthy! God is so good and we are incredibly thankful for and amazed by our little miracle.
Happy birthing to all of you that are pregnant!
