Surprise! It’s a boy! And he’s one already!?! It’s been awhile! I’d like to officially introduce our Mr. Garrett Owen to the blog and tell you the story of how he joined our family.
Saturday, May 30th 2020, was a normal day at home (not many other options those days as everything was still closed due to the pandemic). I sat outside in a chair, while Evelyn played with chalk in the driveway. Remember how hard it was to find chalk because everyone everywhere was using it to color rainbows and positive messages to the world? She always wanted me to get down on the ground and play chalk but that big belly was always in the way. I tried though and we made a chalk obstacle course. I sat down every chance I could and she pulled up a chair next to mine. The wind was blowing the helicopter seeds from the trees nearby. We talked about the seeds, tried to catch them and E saved some to plant because she always saves stuff like that.
I hadn’t been feeling the greatest during my pregnancy. I’d been having A LOT of pressure for the last few weeks and at this point I had been dilated to 3cm for more than 2 weeks. I was having a lot of problems with “indigestion” which turned out to be a gallbladder infection that wasn’t identified even after a trip to the emergency room in April. (That saga ended with emergency surgery and a liver infection 2 weeks postpartum. Oy.) So to say the least, I was ready for this baby to get here!
That night I tried to go to bed but was just so uncomfortable I ended up getting up and sitting in the chair in the living room. I was having some pain and went to stand up and thought “uh did I just pee a little?” which was not uncommon at this point. Haha! I went to the bathroom and as I was coming out, Stan was in the hallway and it happened again, the pee thing. And then it dawned on me that maybe my water had broken! And those slight pains were small contractions. It was midnight at this point and I ended up calling my mom because she was going to have to drive to our house before we left for the hospital and she lives an hour and a half away.
After I called, I did some dishes, switched the laundry, cleaned up the house a bit – it didn’t feel like we were in any kind of hurry. I wasn’t really having contractions anymore so we just waited for my mom. We got E up out of bed so I could sit with my first baby for a little bit one last time before I had to share my lap – we gave her a special bunny and read an “I’m a Big Sister!” book. My mom got there, we took a last belly photo, said goodbye to them and headed to the hospital around 2:45am.
I was still feeling pretty good at this point. I tried to get Stan to stop for breakfast because I knew it was going to be awhile before I got to eat (not that anything was open – pandemic remember haha). But he insisted that we just get to the hospital, a very good decision in retrospect! It was a 40 minute drive and I only had a couple very small contractions all the way there. Our trip to the hospital emergency room just a month before for my “indigestion” was much much more dramatic and painful than this ride. We masked up, got our temps checked, checked-in, got lost in the hospital on our way up to the mother/baby floor, and finally made it up there and to a triage room around 4:30am.
We waited awhile, it was a very busy night to have a baby apparently. We sat in triage for a bit, the contractions started to get a little bit stronger. We joked about the “TOCO” spikes on the screen that measure the pressure during contractions. We remembered from Evelyn how big they got and Stan would comment on how big that TOCO was – I had only wished he could actually feel it!!
Down the hall, we could hear a women who was actively having her baby. She was screaming so wildly that it was actually quite terrifying. Thank God, it was my second or I might have freaked out a little bit. I asked Stan if I sounded like that the first time and he said no. Although, with E, I was too tired during labor to scream. It sure made me more anxious about what was to come though.
A doctor came in to check how dilated I was and I was still only 3cm. Someone came to get all my info and said we would be moving to a room soon. I had to go to the bathroom SO badly but it was very busy in triage so I figured I would just wait until I could go in the comfort of our own room since we were moving there shortly. The nurse asked if I wanted a wheelchair or if I wanted to walk to the room. I told her after this next contraction I could just walk, it still wasn’t that bad. We headed to our room around 6am.
I went straight to the bathroom when I got to the room. And by the time I sat down on the toilet the contractions were SO bad and very close together. I couldn’t even get it together long enough to stand up and get the lovely mesh undies back up. I willed myself up and was bent over the dirty laundry hamper in the bathroom trying to get it together to walk out of the bathroom. But the contractions just wouldn’t stop. Stan came in asking if I was ok, still with the mesh undies around my ankles. Birth is so glamorous, eh? Haha!
Somehow I made it to the bed. The contractions went from zero to 100 in just the 2 minute walk down the hallway. I had a natural birth with no medications when I had E and I planned to do the same this time (epidurals terrify me almost more than labor pains). But I was so scared that this was just the beginning and the fact I thought I was only dilated to 3cm, meant I had a long road ahead. I looked at Stan and told him I couldn’t do it again and I needed the epidural NOW. Funny how quickly those plans can get thrown right out the window!
The nurses were running around like crazy trying to get the room ready, my info hadn’t even been updated in the system yet from triage, and it was pure chaos in the room. Someone came in to check me again and I remember her saying, “I know we just checked, but you seem to be in a lot of pain very quickly, we just need to make sure before we order an epidural.” And before she said anything to me, I heard her say to the nurse, the baby’s coming. And if it seemed like chaos before, instantly there were tons of people in the room, and things got very frantic. My body started to push without me even trying and they tried to get the baby heart rate monitor on. Stan said he could tell something was wrong because during every contraction the baby’s heart rate dropped a lot (I didn’t know this at the time). And then all of a sudden my Dr. appeared and the first thing I asked her was, “Is something wrong?” She told me no, that they were just trying to hurry to get everything ready but that this baby needs to come out NOW.
She told me on the next contraction I had to push. As I was pushing a nurse was putting the IV in my arm. I couldn’t even tell you how many people were in the room. I found a little spot on the ceiling and locked in because the pain was unreal. It hurt with Evelyn, but this was so different and it had happened so fast! I was having a hard time pushing because of the pain and after that the first contraction the doctor looked at me and said your baby needs to come out now. And some sort of mama bear instinct came over me and I knew I had to get this baby out. It turned out the cord was wrapped around the baby’s neck. And 2 pushes later he was here! HE! We didn’t even know the gender before he was born and everything happened so quickly that no one in the room even knew that we didn’t know! I felt like I knew he was a boy all along, so that when I actually found out I had forgotten that we actually didn’t know!
At 6:44am I held a piece of my heart in my hands and I was so relieved to have that little baby on my chest. He was perfect. 7lbs 2 oz. Daddy cut the cord that caused all the excitement, I asked to see the placenta, the Dr. told me I could take it home, but I politely declined after giving the organ I made from scratch a good examination. Haha! Having a baby is fascinating. It’s amazing what your body can do.
Everyone cleared out pretty quick and as soon as they all left one of the first things I said was, “I am never doing that again!” I was so glad it was over as fast as it started and I had my sweet baby boy. Stan quickly reminded me of that woman we’d heard screaming earlier and let me know I gave her a run for her money. Thanks, Stan.
We spent some glorious time together, Stan was so great through it all. I got up and around pretty quick after, and we moved to the recovery room. It was a quiet day, no visitors or anything because of covid, and G just slept. I didn’t even know babies did that because E never slept like that. I tried to nurse him on and off all day but he was just so tired. He finally had a first good feed around 11pm that night and then enjoyed his first bath.
I was anxious to get home. We told everyone that the baby was here and healthy, but didn’t tell anyone if it was a boy or girl. We wanted E to know first. I was so sad she couldn’t come to the hospital. It still makes me sad. But thankfully we didn’t have to stay long – we left around noon the next day.
E was in the driveway when we pulled in and she was so excited to meet her baby! And we were all excited to be home together as a family of four! And FINALLY tell everyone we had a BOY!
It’s been an interesting year to have a baby, during the pandemic and all. And he was definitely our bright spot during a tough year! We all love our little man so much and can hardly remember life before our party of four!
