September 3rd, 2018 -
Being that I sleep like a rock every night, I had no idea that Allison had been up with labor pains since 4:00 a.m. when I myself woke at 6:00 a.m.. She kindly told me that today would probably be the day when our third child would be joining the world, and I kindly jumped out of bed and started pacing. Allison tried to calm me down, contractions were not that close and we didn't need to rush. But after trying to lay back down and rest, I knew after about two minutes I would not be able to relax.
I hopped in the shower, got myself ready, woke up the kids, gave them a bath, and corralled the family to the car. "Grammy Pamy" kindly offered to watch the munchkins while we went to the hospital, so we called her and dropped them off with her and Great G-ma Barb. I drove rather quickly to the hospital and we got checked in.
...only 3 cm.
We had a pow-wow with Honey (the world's most amazing midwife), and agreed to break Allison's water to get the ball rolling. We were already about a week late, and knew we would be coming in soon anyway. Allison asked me to "get the things" from the car, which consisted of the largest duffel bag known to man and the camera. Once we "nested" in the room we were ready to rock.
It didn't take long and Allison's contractions started picking up...it was actually not too long at all. Maybe not long enough? The nurse was stopping in periodically to check, and Allison was turning into the grumpy bear I have seen only a few times before. I recommended that she check how Allison was progressing.
...10 cm! "What!? I did it!?" questioned Allison.
Honey was called into the room quickly and did another check...just kidding...5 cm....
Grumpy bear was not amused. This did, however, give us the opportunity to move into the massive tub to try one of Allison's goals; to try a water birth without any drugs. At this point she has not even had an ibuprofen. We managed to get her into the tub, and spent some time breathing through the contractions in the tub. They offered her some nitrous-oxide, or laughing gas, to distract her from the pain. We tried that out a little bit, but it wasn't having any effect.
After about 15 minutes in the tub Allison was having a hard time controlling her breathing, mostly because of the hot bath. She started to get very light headed. We decided to pull her out of the tub when she slunk down in the water up to her chin and I had to grab her and pull her up. She has no recollection of this at all.
We somehow managed to get her out of the tub and back onto the delivery bed (picture mud wrestling on sharp tile steps with a woman giving birth). They check her again....7 cm. But, Allison wanted to push. Honey didn't want to argue with Allison's body, and said "we'll make you a ten."
Four pushes, head out. Two more pushes, see pictures below...
Minutes after birth! Cute little dude, eh?
8 lbs, 5 oz. 21 inches long.
and a full head of hair. - First bath -
Our new family of 5
Going home
Those eyes!
Blessed to have another healthy addition to the family, Owen Bear Nelson.
