The Story of Austin

For memory's sake, here's how it all went down...

Last Wednesday, April 8th, I had a routine Dr. appointment at 39 weeks. I saw a different doctor because mine was on vacation for Spring Break. What timing. I had the option to be examined or not and I chose not to be. My thought was I didn't want anything to be bothered. I was hoping the baby would hold out a little longer. There's probably nothing to my theory, but at about the same point in my pregnancy with Andrew (2 days earlier) I was examined and then went into labor that night. I decided to just leave things alone. The rest of my day was completely normal. I took Andrew on my normal long walk in the afternoon and let him play at the park for awhile. I was moving a little slower, but otherwise I was feeling fine. Late that night I was vedging on the couch. I watched American Idol and then the first episode of the Real World/Road Rules challenge. I started having painless contractions at the top of my uterus and assumed they were Braxton Hick's contractions. No big deal. I just layed there and enjoyed actually being able to feel them. I didn't remember feeling any with Andrew and hadn't felt too many this time around either, but I had felt enough of them so that what I was feeling didn't alarm me. Eventually, there began to be a little bit of pain associated with these contractions that moved lower in my abdomen. Hmmm...well, I had read that that wasn't uncommon and it could be false labor. I went on watching my show. They seemed to be coming pretty often, so at about 10:15 I casually began glancing at the clock and realized they were coming about every 5 minutes. Huh...that's weird. I was in such denial. I really thought they would be more painful than what they were for as close together as they were. I continued watching my show, but then realized I probably wouldn't be able to sleep when I went to bed and since it was so late, I thought I should have a plan. I called Loren and told him that I thought something might be happening, but it also might be nothing, and asked him to come stay at the house just in case. I told him not to hurry. By the time he got to the house, the pain had increased, but was still tolerable. Still in denial. After thinking and looking up some information and pacing, I decided to call the doctor's office to get the on-call doctor. My doctor had instructed me to call when the contractions were 5 minutes apart, but because the pain wasn't very bad I waited. By the time I did call they were probably 2 minutes apart. The on-call doctor, Dr. White, even hesitated to have me come in right away. Eventually, she told me just to come in and see what was going on. At about 11:45 (I think) we gathered our things, Loren got Andrew out of bed, and we all 3 went to the hospital, not sure of what to expect. It seemed to take forever for the nurse to ask me a bunch of questions, etc. I still didn't know for sure if I was even going to be staying at the hospital or if I would be sent home or what. I was eventually examined and was 5 centimeters. I was given several pretty bracelets, one of which said Heather Garrison, 30 years old. It was my birthday. So much for allowing myself to live in denial. My age was stamped right on my wrist! Shortly after that I was moved to the labor/delivery room. Right before they started moving me a nurse asked if I wanted an epidural and I said, "No, not yet." As soon as they started wheeling my bed into the hallway, I changed my mind. I think it was well after 2:00 by then. I have no idea about the exact times, but I was examined a second time...my water broke and I was 7 centimeters. The nurse told me that since this was my 2nd child, he could be here pretty quickly. I was just hanging out enjoying my epidural, the nurse situated me so I was laying on my side. It wasn't too much longer when I called the nurse in because I was feeling "weird things". She examined me and I was fully dilated and what I was feeling was pressure from the baby greatly disguised by the epidural. I requested for the epidural to be decreased because I didn't like the feeling. I wanted to know what was going on. The anesthesiologist did cut it back a little and I had a better sense of when to push, but I wasn't supposed to push because we were waiting on the on-call doctor to get there. When she arrived I did one series of 3 "practice pushes," as they called it, and to their surprise I brought Austin down pretty far. They started rushing around getting everything ready for him to be delivered. I did one more series of 3 pushes and ta-da! Austin arrived in no time at all, at 4:07 am. It was so fast.

During this time Loren and Andrew were in the delivery room. Andrew was an absolute trooper, especially since it was in the middle of the night. He spent a decent amount of time in the stroller, entertaining the nurses in the lobby, playing with some wooden puzzles, attempting to sleep in the reclined position of the stroller until we thought it best for him to try and sleep on the pull-out couch...which he actually did!

Andrew, before Austin was born...3:32 am Andrew

Andrew after Austin was born...5:08 am.

Andrew was so oblivious. When he woke up we told him that he was a big brother and pointed to Austin who was being cleaned up by the nurses. All he said was, "Go to Mommy's car?" In other words, he wanted to go home. I'm amazed at how well Andrew handled it all.

I have to say, having experienced two labors in two different ways I can't say which one was better. I had an epidural with both. With Andrew, I was in labor much longer and I was completely pain medicine free when it came time to push. Austin was painless and fast. I'm very glad I had both experiences.