Guy's Story

Well, Scott and I are home from the hospital so I thought I would share some more details about Guy's birth.  First, the stats:

Name:  Guy Phillip

Born:  December 26, 2008 at 10:29 pm

Weight:  8 pounds 4 ounces

Length:  18.5 inches

The Details:

I had my first contractions on Friday morning (December 26) around 10 am.  They were very irregular and not very intense, so we just continued on with our day's activities.  My parents were in town for Christmas so we had breakfast and lunch together.  I also took a trip to Target with my mom to get some last-minute Christmas gifts.  I was still able to walk and talk through contractions so I assumed we had lots of time.  My sister and her family came over for dinner that night.

After dinner that night Scott and I took a couple of walks around the block to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather.  My contractions were still irregular and spaced around 8-15 minutes apart, so again we assumed that we had a lot of time.  At around 8:00 pm Scott called my doctor and the on-call doctor advised us to go to the hospital.  Scott put Lincoln to bed and we headed to the hospital around 9:00 - still assuming we'd be in for a long night at the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital at 9:30.  I had a few intense contractions on the walk from the emergency room (after hours) entrance to the birthing center, and I took a brief pit-stop at the bathroom on the way.  When we arrived at the birthing unit we discovered that the doctor we talked to had not informed the hospital that we were on our way, but luckily my doctor was already there with another patient.

We arrived at the room a little after 10 pm.  The nurse hooked me up to the fetal monitor and said that she would remove the monitors after 20 minutes so I could walk around.  I was measuring around 6 centimeters.  Since we were planning an unmedicated birth she brought a birthing ball and went to have my doctor sign the papers authorizing that I would not receive an IV.  I then proceeded to have the most intense contraction I have ever experienced (very unpleasant - I do not recommend it!) and felt the urge to push! 

Scott rushed out to find a nurse, and when she came in she confirmed that the baby was about to arrive.  She told me not to push - which was pretty much impossible, and Scott had to help by opening the packet of "delivery" instruments as she found the doctor and some other nurses.  They didn't have time to set up the bed for delivery - as my doctor sat down I had two big pushes and Guy was born!  It was all very intense and definitely not the delivery I expected - we weren't even checked into the hospital until Guy was over four hours old - but I got to spend the night with my baby instead of in labor.

The family's all at home now, and we're all having fun getting to know each other.  The next post will have more photos!