Friday, January 13, 2012

The Evan Story


Evan Michael Crocker was born on Friday, December 30, 2011 at 4:18 am.  He weighed 6 pounds, 15 ounces, and was 18-3/4 inches long.
Joshua was born when I was 36 weeks, 3 days pregnant, and while I know that every pregnancy is different, by the time I hit 38 weeks with this baby, I was feeling rather anxious.  I think part of my anxiety was knowing that it WOULD be different.  With Joshua, I didn't have to time contractions and there was no question as to when I would have to go to the hospital since my water broke, I wasn't in labor, and was scheduled to go in at a particular time.  I think the question of when to go to the hospital caused a bit of extra anxiety due to the fact that my sister, who lives a 6 hour drive away, was going to drop everything to get to the hospital for this baby's birth.  I didn't want to call her and have to tell her to turn around if it was false labor, and I didn't want to wait to call and have her miss it!

(If you'd like to read Joshua's birth story, go here: http://www.babyboycrocker.blogspot.com/2008/08/joshua-story.html)

So, when the baby didn't come before Christmas, I just decided to take it easy and get through the holiday without the baby.  I had the time off work and Joshua was home during his school's winter break closure.

Mid-morning of the 29th I lost my mucus plug.  Now, according to everything you read, labor could start soon or it could be another 2 weeks.  I let my sister know and she went out and rented a car so that she would be ready.  In retrospect, I should have just told her to come then since apparently, for me, losing my mucus plug means my water will break within the next 24 hours. That night, I went to bed as usual.

I woke up around 1am on the 30th with some discomfort but not enough to get me out of bed. Then at approximately 1:40, Joshua called from down the hall.  I got up to tuck him in and that's when I knew my water had broken. I got Joshua situated and woke Brian to tell him that this was happening tonight.  At this point, I was having some contractions, but still wasn't sure about what to do.  I texted and then called my sister who jumped in her car despite it being 2 in the morning.  Brian called the doctor's office.  By the time the on-call doctor called us back (about 10 minutes later), my contractions had become painful and were right on top of each other; I even had to pause in my conversation with the doctor in order to get through a contraction.

The doctor said that since the contractions sounded intense and because my labor with Joshua had been pretty quick, that we should "mosey" down to the hospital. Brian called Anina to come over and I called my mom to let her know we were heading to the hospital. Anina arrived at our house around 2:45 and we headed out the door, pausing multiple times for contractions. 

When we got to the hospital a few minutes after 3am, I had a contraction in the lobby area, had a contraction in the elevator on the way to the second floor, and had a contraction in the waiting area of the maternity center. It was crazy! I was assigned a nurse who was told that she'd better come sooner than later as my contractions were right on top of each other. 

We got into our room and the monitors went onto my belly. The nurse began filling in the admittance information with Brian having to answer the questions because I was contracting the whole time. I was checked and found to be at 4cm dilated.  We knew the baby's head was already really low from having been checked a couple weeks before.  The nurse, Jodee, said that I'd probably go pretty fast since the baby's head was pressing on my cervix.  And believe me, I felt that head and all the pressure that came with it with every contraction.

I had tested negative for group B strep, but I opted to have an IV lock put in just in case I decided I wanted some pain killers.  The nurse who took my blood and put in the IV did a great job considering the contractions were only a few seconds apart and I had a hard time being still through them.

The nurses wanted a good few minutes of monitoring the baby before they'd remove the monitors, but with every contraction I'd move in such a way that they'd lose the baby and had to find him again.

At around 3:45am, I started saying that I couldn't do it anymore. Brian asked me if I wanted fentanyl (the narcotic pain killer).  My first response was, "I don't know" but when he asked me again right around 4am, I said, "sure, I'll take the fentanyl."  I had really wanted to not take any pain killers, but with all the pressure and with the contractions being within seconds of each other, I thought anything to help me get through it would be a good thing.  So, Brian told the nurse, who had me get on the bed and when she checked me, found that I was complete at 10cm. There was no time for any pain killers - this baby was ready to be born!

At that point, someone must have gone to call the doctor. The nurses were all hurrying around getting things prepped for the birth.  No one had thought that I'd go from 4 to 10 in less than an hour! Brian was telling me not to push, nurses were telling me to blow the candle, so I blew and I tried not to push.  Jodee was sitting on the bed and I felt the head and there was nothing I could do to stop it from coming out.  And then I was told, "his head is out and you need to push."  I told them that I couldn't push right then.  I think that was because, 1: I was so tired, 2: I wasn't feeling a contraction, and 3: the doctor wasn't there yet. And then I had a nurse at my side lifting my head and chest and telling me that I had to push and that, yes, I could do it. So I gave a push and out slid the rest of the baby.  And a couple minutes later, in walked the doctor.

After the most intense 2 and a half hours, my precious baby boy was placed on my belly and we shared skin to skin time with him nursing for quite some time.  Eventually, Brian cut the cord and the nurse removed him from me to get him cleaned up.

While he was getting cleaned up, Brian and I got our wrist bands and were finally able to sign all the admittance paperwork.

We were finally left alone to rest and a short while later I heard the pitter patter of 3 year old feet coming down the hallway of my room.  There was Joshua, in his jammies and winter jacket, to see me and to meet the baby.  A little while after that both my mom and sister showed up. (Sorry, Tor, that it all went so quickly.  I really did want for you to be there.)

Though I felt ready to leave right away, they wouldn't let me :) so I had to stay. We finally decided on Evan as the first name that afternoon but he still had no middle name.  That evening, Brian picked up pizza and a cake and we had a birthday party for Evan.  I stayed the night at the hospital and Brian went home with Joshua.  The next day we discussed middle names via text message. It wasn't until I HAD to fill out the birth certificate in order for them to let me leave on the 31st that I finally conceded to the middle name.  (I love it now that it's his name, but I was a hard sell on Michael.  I think that was because I wanted something a little more unique, especially since Joshua has such an awesome middle name - Pierce.)  I checked out in the afternoon of the 31st and we spent New Year's Eve at home.

I'm gonna try to get some photos uploaded to this post later today. Or maybe tomorrow.  Check back for them.

1 comment:

  1. I'm really sad I wasn't able to be there, but I'm glad for you it was so quick. Better an intense couple hours than a long, protracted day of pain! :P Plus, you got to do it your way! ...Mostly.

    Thanks for letting us celebrate with you! I can't wait to see Evan again!

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