Our Little Guy's Arrival

I so much appreciate Andy taking a few minutes Saturday to give everyone the big news and synopsis of the events, but now that we're home and settled, I thought I'd give my account of the big day :)

We left for the hospital around 5:30. Here are a few pictures we took that morning as we headed out. (I guess we can always tell Joshua that he was born on a snowy March morning and was out in 70 degree weather by the middle of his first week.) I had been up part of the night having more contractions...which I felt was a good sign considering what our plans were. We stopped at Starbucks on the way so Andy could get some coffee...and me my last morning decaf for a while. (I think we made the drive thru girl's day when we told her we were headed to the hospital to have our baby :) When we got to the hospital and were hooked up to the monitors, I was having mild contractions about 3 minutes apart. Again, these proved to be false since the Pitocin sort of changed the rhythm and actually got things progressing, but we did impress the nurse with our start :).

Mom arrived around 7:00 and was able to stay with us for several hours as we got off to an easy start. She was also able to usher in different family members as they arrived through the morning. First, Andy's parents, then my cousin Rachel, my dad, my cousin Nathan and finally my brother Chris was the last accepted guest.

As Andy said, we started the Pitocin about 7:30. I kept trying to talk them into upping the dose more quickly, but the rules said they could only up the dose so much each half hour, and they had to start at a very low level. By about noon, we were only about 3 cm and now 90% effaced, so it certainly seemed slow, though the intensity was picking up at this point.

Around 12:30, I took the nurse's suggestion (and the suggestion of a few friends who had really enjoyed it) to take a dose of Stadol. We started with just 1 mg, since I told the nurse that I'm usually pretty easily affected by medicines. Boy was I glad I did not opt for the larger dose. The next couple of hours were no fun at all. Not only did UK lose to LSU, but the medicine made me very sick and did not really do much for the now more intense contractions. We think it was a combination of the medicine and going into more active labor, but I was very nauseous, very confused and not able to emotionally handle the contractions the same way. Huge thanks to my wonderful husband for going through all of this with me!

Once the Stadol wore off (and we were thanking the Lord by this point!), I got the epidural around 3:00. (While I don't personally recommend the Stadol, I do highly recommend the epidural :). I then slept for over two hours. While I was still a little out of it, but Andy was able to go get some dinner while Mom came in and stayed with me. At some point...and I don't really remember this part...they put me on some oxygen since the baby's heart rate had started to drop a little bit with the contractions instead of increase. The oxygen also made me feel better, though Andy found my new voice a bit humorous. Most importantly, the baby's heart rate improved some.

As Andy said, at around 5:30 or 6:00, we were still only a "good 5 cm" dilated and began to feel like it would be a long night. My dad, brother and a few other family members headed to Pieratt's to pick out appliances for Chris's new place and then on to Columbia's for dinner. But the trip was cut a bit short.

At 7:30, Dr. Cunningham arrived. She again looked at the baby's heart rate, which had started to drop again. Though I wasn't completely up on the details, Andy said she began to talk about possibly doing a C-section if the heart rate didn't improve, since we seemed to have a long way to go. But, when she checked our progress around 7:45, she had good news. We were a full 10 cm and ready to push. Andy went out to tell the family the news, and Dad took their name off the waiting list at the restaurant and raced back...as only Tom Creech would...to make sure they didn't miss the big event.

After only about 35 minutes of pushing, we had our little guy at 8:23. I will have to say that the pushing was my favorite part of the day, not only because we got to meet him but because after 13 hours of just sitting and taking Pitocin, I was actually able to do something to help the process. And with that wonderful epidural, I couldn't feel a thing.

Andy said once Joshua arrived, he couldn't decide who to go to, Joshua or me. I was certainly doing fine as the doctor finished up, and I think he was able to see several interesting things as they examined Joshua for the first time. But with the "baby room" being a part of the labor/delivery. After about 30 minutes Andy headed out to the waiting room to tell everyone the good news...and after months of waiting to find out, his name. After a few more minutes, Andy went back out to tell the new grandparents that they could come meet Joshua Andrew. By that time, we were packing up to head to the Mother-Baby room, and all four of them were a big help in getting all our stuff moved.

They wheeled us out into the hallway and on to our room, and the rest of the family was able to see him. We finally got settled in with all guests taken care of and all medical checks done around midnight.