Sam's birth story:
I finally have time and energy (sort of) to sit down and tell Sam's story. It's hard to believe it's only been a week since he was born! Let's rewind to last Thursday...
I had an appointment with my OB doctor that afternoon and she had told me the previous week that if I hadn't had the baby yet, she'd be "a little more invasive" during her internal exam. (ie, she'd strip my membranes) During her exam, she decided not to do that, saying that things were progressing "beautifully" and if she interfered my water would probably break right there in the office. She said she thought the best thing to do was to wait--that she imagined she'd see me in the hospital Friday or Saturday. This time, she was right!
Thursday night, we had our first Care Group (our churches small groups) which Pete is co-leading. We had assumed that we wouldn't be there, but alas, no baby, so we went. Throughout the study, which our friend Eric was leading, I had some stronger contractions, but they were pretty spread out. Once we were back home, they continued to be pretty strong--the take your breath away kind--but they weren't more than 15 minutes apart. At this point, Pete felt pretty certain that we were going to be meeting little Sam in the immediate future, but I was still not convinced--he'd fooled me a time or two already.
At 2:30am, I woke up with a seriously strong contraction. As I lay in bed, praying and breathing through it, I knew this was the real thing. I waited and watched the clock for the next hour. The contractions were 8-9 minutes apart. I woke Pete and told him that it wasn't going to be long. They continued like that for another hour and then they got a bit closer, approx. 7 minutes apart. At 5am I woke Pete and told him that if he wanted to get a quick shower, now was the time. Otherwise, we needed to start getting Jon up and load the few remaining things into the car. He called his parents, and went to shower. (which he did in record time!) I called my mom in between contractions and told her Pete would call once we had dropped Jon off at our friends' house and were headed to the hospital.
Poor Jon was so confused. Pete got him dressed and loaded him in the car and he kept saying, "too dark...so so dark." I tried to mask any pain or discomfort I was feeling, so that he wouldn't be scared or worried. We dropped him off at our friends' house around 5:45am and headed to the hospital.
By the time we were actually in the triage room and I was putting on the lovely hospital gown, it was 6:30am. My contractions were now less than five minutes apart. The nurse examined me and said I was at 6 centimeters and this was the real thing, she would call my doc and they were moving me into a labor and delivery room. By the time my doctor arrived, not long after that, I was already at 8-9 centimeters. She asked me if I wanted her to break my water--with Jon she had to break my water, but we waited at least two hours thinking they'd break on their own and then finally she broke it. At this point, my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and I very enthusiastically told her to go right ahead. This moved me pretty quickly into transition and I was ready to push in minutes. The doctor had stepped out and they ran to get her. Once she came in and gave me the go ahead to push not-so-little Sam was with us in about 15 minutes. It was so much faster than last time. Unfortunately, since I only deliver future football players, I did need 18 stitches. (four more than last time)
Honestly, it didn't hurt any more than it had with Jon. In fact, just knowing better what was going to happen and having it happen quicker made the whole thing a lot easier. Also, Pete is such an awesome coach. He talked me through each contraction and gently rubbed my shoulders reminding me to relax. The nurses said they'd like to hire him to come coach other women because he was so good. He told them he was a one woman coach. :) I'm glad I'm that woman!
Back to the main attraction, Samuel Joseph. When they laid him on my chest, we all saw that there was a knot in his umbilical cord--a fairly tight one at that. They had, of course, been monitoring his heart beat until the very end when I was pushing, so we have to assume that the knot had been loose inside and was tightened during the actual delivery. My doctor, a wonderful Christian woman, said right away, "this is one blessed baby!" In spite of his knot, he got a 9 on his APGAR test and has been healthy as can be. (except a little jaundis) He weighed in at 10 pounds and 5 ounces and was 21 inches long. (although at the doctor's office on Monday he was already 22 1/2...someone was off somewhere!)
A couple of cool things...
1. Friday is Pete's long day at work (he works from 8am until 8pm...which usually turns into 9pm) and I had been kind of nervous about him being gone all day. And on top of that, my two friends that live fairly close to me were both going to be out of town on Friday. So, Thursday night I had prayed that if I was going to have Sam in the next 24 hours, could it either be before Pete left for work or after he got home...God is so sweet to me...
2. Our friends that watched Jon for us were going to be at our church all day on Friday. They were more than glad to have him with them, but they were going to be leaving their house by 7am. They were going to be getting up at 5:45am, we dropped Jon off at 5:45 am.
3. My mom's surgeon had told her that she could lift around 10 pounds...we aren't going to tell him about the extra five ounces!
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