My due date with Boston was April 29th, 2007. I watched that due date come and go.
Here are pictures of my big ol' belly on his due date. (Which, I didn't get any stretch marks until my last week of pregnancy!)
I wasn't showing any signs of going into labor on my own. On Sunday, at family dinner, which was my due date, my sis-in-law said that there is still a chance he can be born this day. I didn't agree, and followed up with "well, he is gonna be a mama's boy, so he is going to be born on my birthday."
I went to the doctor the following Tuesday, for my last appointment this pregnancy. It happened to be May 1st, mine and Ian's wedding anniversary. The doctor checked me, but still now sign of going into labor on my own. He tried to do a sweep, which a little warning would have been nice, because I was about to kick my doctor in the face because he hurt me so bad! Still no progression. We scheduled my induction date for Sunday, May 6th, and that was when I was planning on having my baby.
Wednesday May 2nd, things went as planned. Ian went to work. I cleaned up the house. We had dinner. Watched TV. You know, our typical day. It was about 10:30 at night when I first started showing signs of labor. I remember, because Jay Leno had just come on. Ian was tired and headed off to bed, I didn't tell him what was going on with me. I was kinda excited about it all, so stupid me decided to stay up all night and time my contractions. They started out very subtle, not a lot of pain, just consistent and time able.
Here I am, first time mom, timing my contractions during the wee hours of the morning. I was afraid that if I went to bed, they would've stopped. (Now that I have been through that process, next time I am just going to bed!) By two in the morning my contractions started to get more painful. I continued timing them, and they were about 5-6 minutes apart at this point. I woke Ian up around 3:00 to let him know what was going on. I told him we didn't need to go to the hospital quite yet, but that we would be having a baby today (May 3rd at this point). He being the smart one, decided to get in the shower. Me being the excited first time mom, decided NOT to take a shower. (Yeah, after going through this process, next time a shower is a necessity before heading to the hospital. You'll see why when I post some pictures in a bit!) After Ian showered, he did the dishes too. Just killing time at home. By this point, my contractions were quite painful, and very difficult to breath through. We decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood, to help the process. It was about 4 in the morning. Very difficult to walk. I only made it four houses, before turning around.
We decided to head to the hospital, and got there just before 5. The nurse checked me. I was only dilated to a 1! I had been laboring for over 6 hours and only a 1! Now, because of my bed rest earlier on in this pregnancy, Ian and I didn't get a chance to take birthing classes, so I had no idea how to deal with the pain during contractions. I was a little loud in my moaning, and because of this got yelled at by one of the nurses! Guess she was ready to go home. She asked if we had taken any birthing classes, we said no and explained why. So she showed Ian how to help relieve the pain during a contraction, by pressing down on my knees during them. I was grateful for this advice, but she didn't have to be so rude about it! They monitored me for an hour, but no progression, so they had to send me home. What!?! I am in absolute pain. My contractions are so strong that they are registering off of the monitor. They are consistent and close together, but hospital policy says if no progress in an hour they have to send me home! They called my doctor, and he said for me to go and walk the track for a couple of hours, and come back around 9:00 am.
So we left the hospital around 6 in the morning. Because we are crazy, we decided to have Ian go into work. He had a few things that he needed to finish up since he was going to be off for the next couple of days. I called my mom to tell her we were having a baby today. I asked her to shower and meet me at the bike shop. She can be my walking partner while Ian worked. I walked laps around the shop until my mom got there, and then her and I walked laps outside around the shop. Walking when in full on labor is not very fun. I couldn't walk when my contractions hit, and remember they were very painful. I was stopping every couple of minutes, propping up against a tree or wall or my mom until the contraction passed, only to walk a few more feet and do it all over again!
Here I am resting at the bike shop. Not very happy about the labor process. It's because of photos like these, that a shower is a must before heading to the hospital next time! Thanks to a mom who likes to take pictures, I have some not so pretty shots of myself! I only lasted until about 8:00 and then I said lets go back to the hospital. They checked me again. I think I had progressed to about a 3. They called my doctor again, and fortunately for me he said they could keep me. YAY! I was for sure having a baby, and on my birthday no less! :)
My doctor couldn't come in until 10:30 to break my water, so I had to suffer through a few more contractions. Thanks to our mean nurse earlier, Ian was able to help me through those!
I got my epidural shortly after my water was broken, so from there it was just a waiting game. Keep in mind, my body still had to do EVERYTHING to get Boston here. I had to completely thin my cervix as well as dilate, so it was a long, laborious process!
We had a lot of family trickle in and out. Everyone was excited for Boston Boy to arrive, but it took forever. Some stuck around through the whole process, others had their own families and lives to attend to, so we would notify them when Boston arrived. Little did we know it was going to take FOREVER!
Around 5 or 6, the nurse checked me and said I was a 9+. We were excited, but she said my cervix had an "anterior lip" so she wanted to wait and see if it would completely thin on its own. I had no idea what this meant, so we waited. And waited. And waited some more! The nurse would check me every so often and turn me, but nothing seemed to help. The anterior lip was still there! By this time I was exhausted. Remember I never went to bed the night before, and couldn't rest in the hospital. How can you when you have nurses checking you constantly and family trickling in and out of your delivery room. I was grateful to have everyone around, but it was a little hard to nap. Plus this was my first baby, I wanted to experience ALL of it.
Well my body wasn't very happy. It started to give up on me. And I was okay to let it. I just wanted to go to sleep. I started to fever, I am thinking because of all of the stress on my body and the exhaustion. So I had to where a cool towel on my head. My doctor finally came in around 10:30 pm. He checked on me throughout the day, but he came in to finally get Boston out! I still had my anterior lip, so I asked him if I needed to have a c-section, which at this point I was hoping for because I didn't have any energy. He said no, that I was going to try and push through it. I didn't think I could do it, so I asked him how long he was going to make me push before he called for a c-section. He said he'd only make me push for an hour at most.
So I mustered up all the strength I could to get Boston born before midnight. Remember he was suppose to come on my birthday! :)
There's not a lot of hope in those eyes. All I could think of was "can I do this?" Well I did it! About minutes later Boston was born at 11:17 pm. Just in the nick of time! However, there were a few concerns. First of all, the cord was wrapped around his neck several times, and he came out looking a deep purple. Ian actually had to cut the cord before he was fully delivered, because the doctor couldn't deliver him all of the way. When I looked down to take a peak, the first thought that came to my mind was "that's not my baby, he's black!" because his hair was wet and curly and he was so dark. Yeah that's what I thought as he was still being delivered! I was a little delirious. Those pictures are a little graphic, so I will save your eyes from those.
They used the term "floppy" to describe Boston. He was very limp after birth, so they rushed him to his bed and started cleaning him up. It took him a couple minutes to cry, but I was finally relieved when I got to hear that sound! They got him somewhat cleaned up, so we could finally hold him.
Daddy got to hold him first!
Then Ian handed him off to me. This was the only skin-to-skin we could do, because he was already all bundled up.
Then the Grandma's got a turn!
Because of my fever, they were concerned about an infection for Boston. So they kept him for observation and pumped him full of antibiotics. They mentioned that he may need to go to the NICU if there were signs of an infection. I tried nursing him for a minute, but I had no idea what I was doing. I finally got to my post-delivery room around 1:30 am. Ian and I were exhausted, so we fell asleep quickly. The nurse brought Boston to me around 3:00 in the morning. She woke me up and asked if I wanted him. I was so tired, so there was a debate going on in my head. It went like this..."I really want to be a good mom, and have my baby with me. But I am so very tired that I need to get some sleep. Am I a bad mom if I say no?" After a couple of minutes of me debating in my head, and the nurse standing at the door wait for her answer, I asked her if she could just take him back to the nursery so I could get some sleep. Yep, I'm the bad mom, but I so desperately needed that little bit of sleep! I woke up around 6 or 6:30, and immediately asked that Boston be brought to me, and by my side he stayed for the next two days while I was in the hospital, except for when he was in visitors arms. And we had a lot of those! We were surrounded/supported by so many wonderful family and friends!
Boston entered this world weighing 7 lbs. 14 oz. He measured 21 and 1/2 inches long, with big hands and big feet. He was a strong-willed baby and knew what he wanted, and he still carries that trait today!
