Austin's birth story

It's been awhile since my last post- sorry! This mommy-thing is serious business! I'm finally rested (somewhat!) and can now sit down and post lots of pics and videos- something I've been meaning to do for days.

And there's really not a better place to start but the beginning!

I went to the doctor on Monday and she told me I was still 1.5 cm dilated and that my cervix had softened. I had not had any contractions, so figured I really may go another week. She ended up doing a membrane scrape and said if I was ready, this would put me into labor within 24 hours. Tuesday came and went, so it looked as though that procedure really didn't do anything for me.

Wednesday was a normal day then Ryan came home from work and I felt completely "normal" whatever that is toward the last days of pregnancy, because miserable is the new normal! Ryan went to bed about 10pm and I continued to stay up. I hopped in bed about 1:30am and around 2-ish I felt or heard a "pop" and felt a little bit of water on my leg. I had always thought that when my water broke it would be a lot of fluid, at one moment, so I didn't think much of it and went and sat on the toilet. When I was still "peeing" over a minute later, I realized that my water had broke. I still had not even had a contraction, so I called the doctor to see if we should come into the hospital or wait for contractions. She told me to head on into the hospital, so that's when I woke Ryan. He looked like a deer in headlights when I woke him and asked if I was kidding! This was completely unexpected! We figured that I would labor at home for a couple of hours, counting/timing contractions and then head to the hospital when the contractions were 3-5 minutes apart- not just up and leave! Good thing Ryan wasn't at work in LA when this happened, that may have posed a problem.

As we were driving to the hospital, I felt my first contraction. I had about 3 contractions on the car ride to the hospital and when we arrived, the nursing staff got a kick out of my homemade towel diaper I had made myself. On our car ride over there, we called my parents so that my mom could try to get the first flight out of Denver. We decided to let Ryan's parents sleep for a few more hours since it was going to be a long day.

They set us up in a room and we waited for a couple of hours before realizing that my contractions were inconsistent and not progressing as quickly as they would have liked, so they started me on Petocin. Ryan went home to let the dogs out and grab a couple of items we forgot and by the time he came back I was in active labor. He literally came back to a completely different woman! From there, things really started to progress quickly, before we knew it, I was at 4 cm and wanted the epidural. I've heard about how unpleasant the epidural is in the past and, really, I didn't think it was bad at all or maybe I didn't even care at that point. Regardless, the epidural is a must and I don't know why a woman would go through labor without one. I certainly wasn't going to be a martyr!

My mom was able to get on the first flight out and made it to the hospital at 10:30am, shortly after I had the epidural and Ryan's parents were there about the same time. The rest of the labor really progressed quickly, before we knew it I was 10 cm and ready to push!

The nurse told me that women typically push for about 1-2 hours with their first baby. I ended up being in the last stage of labor for 4 hours (3 hours of pushing, 1 hour break). It was hard. The hardest thing I've ever done! I had had inconsistent blood pressure throughout the entire deliver, sometimes very high so they continued to monitor that but a couple of minutes before I delivered him, my temperature spiked to over 102. I didn't notice this, but the nurse took my temp, saw what it was and showed the doctor. Apparently they both looked pretty concerned, which my mom, Shelly and Ryan all noticed. Ryan asked them what that meant and they didn't say anything. I delivered him just a couple of minutes later at 4:21pm- he was a BIG boy!!! 8lbs 15oz! (and check out Uncle Peter's pool guesses- We cannot believe how close he is on EVERYTHING!)

The nurses took him away to check his vitals and it seemed as though they were over there for a long time. Finally, they told me that he wasn't breathing well on his own and turning pale/blue when they didn't have the oxygen on him, he also came out with the temperature that I had spiked. They needed to take him up to the nursery for observation and if things didn't improve they would need to take him to the NICU. I freaked. Honestly, it was the worst moment of my life. They placed him in my arms for only about 30 seconds before they took him away. I told Ryan to go with him just in case things got worse. Ryan came down about 15 minutes later and said he was completely fine- as soon as they had taken him up to the nursery he started to do better. They still wanted to observe him for some time, but just that he was better was such a HUGE relief.

After the initial excitement/scare, I still had to undergo a few tests (apparently some of my blood had gotten in the nurses eye, so standard hospital protocol said I had to have a HIV and Hepatitis test- this took awhile), then it was shift change for the nurses and this took awhile- it was over 3 hours until I was able to see Austin again- This killed me! All I wanted to do was be with my baby, but again, I was also so, so happy that he was okay.

Our stay at Hoag Hopsital was great- the nurses were amazing and we are so grateful to them and Dr. Strachan for our baby Austin!!!

Here is the view from labor and delivery room (a beautiful, sunny day!)

Me, pre-epidural (Ryan said I was a champ)

Me, post-epidural

Happy to see my mom!

Baby Austin- 8lbs 15 oz! That's one BIG BOY!

I still can't look at these photos without choking up. These are not happy tears, I'm terrified. It's right before they took him up to the nursery, so it's the only photos of of me holding him right after he was born

Our first family picture!

Nana holding Austin for the first time

Gammie and Popi holding Austin for the first time:

Proud uncle Charlie

Austin loves his Auntie Erin

And his Gaby! (that's great Aunt Boo!)

The Lilavois' were there to greet Austin- Maddie has a friend!

Proud Grandmothers (and my emotional support during delivery!)

Proud Daddy

I love this pic of Charlie and Erin- Austin says, "come on guys- give me a cousin!"

And that's Austin's birth story! Thank you to everyone who visited the hospital, sent emails, flowers, text messages, etc- they mean so much! I apologize for not returning all messages but will get around to it ASAP!