This my first time to really stray away from navy life or OCS survival, but mommy life matters tend to consume my days. I have to admit birth stories are somewhat like crack to me when reading other blogs. When I was pregnant with both my boys I would fight insomnia with reading any birth stories I could find and get so pumped(or terrified) about this miracle that was about to come my way!
This whole party started Monday July 21st, the day before D day, when Will and I decided we would make a date night out of a late doctors appointment. My mom offered to take little Will so we could go to dinner and a movie after yet another trip to the OB and on the way out the door I even shouted at her "Ill be sure to call if we end up at the hospital!" just to get her a little bundled! haha We were both so excited to get one more date night in knowing that Baby Fitts should be coming any time at this point.
We arrived at the doctor's office and started off with the usual listening to the heart beat which never gets old. While we heard it loud and clear, it definitely sounded like it changed after a few second. It went from a pretty fast little drum to a much slower beat, and the look on my doctors face confirmed that our little friend was not cooperating like she had liked. So after checking me and announcing that I was 3cm dilated, she sent us off to the hospital for a NST(non stress test) and ultrasound! I wasn't full on panicking at this point because while she didn't like the way his heart rate dipped and wanted to get it checked out, she seemed pretty sure that it was just nothing and would rather just play it safe.
Once we got to the hospital and heard all of the new baby cries around me, I got that giddy feeling and was even more ready to have this baby. At that point I decided I would really like to go into labor at that moment and just stay and meet my new little man! When I said that jokingly to the nurse she chuckled and said " You know that is probably not going to happen right?" as she was hooking me up to the heart rate and contraction monitor. So there we sat, just hanging out watching baby's heart rate do exactly what it was supposed to do. What a relief! Then all of a sudden that all familiar, not so comfortable belly tightening started coming on. Of course, I ignored it and knew they must have just been braxton hicks that would go away any minute, but don't you know they kept coming and continued to get stronger. There was no way this was happening. I was not buying it and didn't even bother telling Will until he asked why I was taking so long to answer his questions. I was still waiting for them to fade away when the on-call doctor came in to discharge me, she asked how I was feeling with a funny look on her face….she had been watching my pretty solid conractions on the monitor from the nurses station. She told me I could stay and see what happened or leave and come back if they didn't go away but advised not to go home being that we lived 40 minutes from the hospital. At this point we had skipped dinner and all I could think about was getting something to eat and going home to get all of my things together. We opted to go salvage our date night and get dinner nearby and see how I felt after that. Just as I suspected, by the time we finished dinner the contractions completely stopped and we headed back home.
We had planned on the contractions starting that night again and going back to the hospital the next day, once I got my bags and camera ready I was all set to meet this little guy! Don't you know I woke up on the 22nd to not a single contraction! Did he not get the memo that I was READY?? Plus, it was D Day! I decided that I was going to make this happen, so I drug my little sister out of bed and we proceeded to walk the entire boardwalk up and back( 4 miles). This may not have been one of my wisest choices at 40 weeks pregnant but I was determined to kick up those contractions again. We finally made it back after twelve breaks to sit on the bench and thirty six "are you okay"s from Anna with not a single contraction. Major fail. After spending some time sulking that we were not on our way the to hospital, my sweet mother gave me a swift "get over yourself" speech and kicked Will and I out of the house to go have a toddler-less beach day. Just as I had agreed and was throwing my bathing suit on, the contractions started back up but this time they came back with a vengeance to the point that they stopped me several times on our walk down to the beach. I assume any smart woman would turn around and decide not to make the half mile walk down probably the widest beach in the country but no, I was about to enjoy this glorious day gosh darn it! Not even 10 minutes after parking it in my beach chair and gulping down a bottle of water to see if the contractions would calm down I realized that they were getting stronger with each one. I knew this was it and was panicked knowing that I had to waddle back home and drive 40 minutes before even getting to the hospital. This next part is what I would life to call "Firedrill"
The look on my face was enough to scare my sister into flagging down one of the lifeguard trucks to give me a ride up to the street off the beach(Im not joking when I say our beaches are freakishly wide). My sister then gets the brilliant idea to offer me her bike to get me home quicker and I stupidly take her up on her offer. My poor mother then is greeted by her blimp of a daughter huffing and puffing through contractions while rolling up the street, this was a site for sore eyes! Once, home we run around like crazy packing bags and throwing things in the car as quickly as we could, and at this point the contractions were every two minutes and strong enough that I couldn't talk through them any more. We successfully got on the road where I was able to cool off in the air, drink some water and try to collect myself.
By the time we got to the hospital at 4:30 I would have been very happy with and anesthesiologist meeting me at the door with an epidural; these contractions were really kicking at this point. We got checked in and were informed that my OB wasn't on call but they would tell the on call doctor what was going on and get the ball rolling to see what was going on with this baby. We did a lot of waiting after that, apparently July 22nd was a really popular day to have a baby and the Labor and Delivery ward was packed. In the midst of all this waiting, the contractions just continued to get more intense.
Finally the doctor came in and checked me at 5:00 and apparently I was still only 3cm and he wasn't convinced I was in labor….WHAT?? Luckily my nurse had been hanging out with me the first hour of us being there and saw how much pain I was in, so my girl Sheila vouched for me as much as she could. Unfortunately, the doctor was not going to give me an epidural until I had made progress and got the results back from my blood work to tell them that I was healthy enough to have one. This was the worst news ever, I knew there were no drugs coming my way for a while and I didn't know the first thing about pain management for natural childbirth!
For the next 4 hours it was just Will and I, and while I would have given anything to get out of that experience at the time it all seems very sweet looking back on it. When little Will was born, I got an epidural almost right away and neither of us knew what we were doing so Will took a step back and was just a bystander for the most part. It was nice to have him so involved this time, he was such a trooper letting me squeeze his hand, praying with me and just kept telling me I was doing great. The pain was insane and I wish that I would have been allowed to stand up and change positions to get more comfortable but I was too afraid to move. At this point the conratctions were every minute and one would just linger into the next one. I knew I had to be progressing. Finally at 7:00 after my blood work came back all good, the doctor returned to check me and low and behold I was 6cm! I remember shouting "Thank you, Jesus!!". Now all that was left was to wait for the anesthesiologist, but that too would take another hour and a half…
My mom and youngest sister had made their way over to the hospital just as I had become that loud girl in labor. Apparently when my mom texted Will to see what room we were in he responded " Just find the room that sounds like it has a ghost in it". At this point making noise was the only thing I knew to do to get through what felt like non stop contractions. Will said that I kept asking the nurse to please go find the anesthesiologist. What felt like years later a little Asian man with a white coat walked in our room and I knew it was my guy! At this point I would have taken that needle in my eyeball! In a matter of twenty minutes the ghost noises stop and was finally relieved of some of the pain. I thought this would probably slow down labor a little and we would get to hang out for a few hour just enjoying life pain-free for a little bit. Before the anesthesiologist left the OB came back to check me (it was 8:30 at this point) and I swore I heard him say 10cm and 100% effaced but I knew that couldn't be right. He then turned and asked "Are you ready to have a baby?" Oh my, this was really happening! I was relieved to know that I wasnt in all that pain for nothing but I thought I at least had some time to grab my bags and touch up my makeup!
It was go time! Before my right side had completely numbed up, they had me doing practice pushes. Luckily my sister ran down to the car to grab the camera just in time. I wanted to wait until the epidural kicked in a little more before I really started pushing but the baby's heart rate started to dip again and the doctor seemed like he wanted him out pronto! He thought that his heart rate might be dipping because the cord was wrapped around his neck. After 20 minutes of pushing I felt like we were getting no where, I didn't have that crazy pressure down low and urge to push like I did with Will so I really thought this was going to take hours. However, just as I finally got that "gotta push now" feeling the doctor said stop pushing and just make short small grunts. Grunts?? This was SO hard! All I wanted to do was push like crazy to get this kid out! At this point I finally experienced that notorious "ring of fire". I now understand why they don't call it "ring of roses" or "ring of bliss", because boy that part was something special! After some begging and getting the go ahead to keep pushing, a set of yells and squeals let out in the room as every one(expect me) saw that cute little face emerge. The doctor quickly unwrapped the cord from his neck and told me to give it one more big push. In an instant I was face to face with this squishy, dark haired boy laying on my chest; I was in love!! The room seemed to keep moving around us but for those few seconds this precious babe and I just soaked each other up. In the midst of the craziness, the nurse turned and asked what his name was, and without a shadow of a doubt said "Crawford". They then wisked him away to clean him up and make sure he was breathing well.
After he was crying nice and loud, everyone started throwing out their guesses as to how much he weighed. Even after holding him I still guessed 7.5 lbs and both the doctor and nurses burst out laughing at me. I didn't quite get why until they put him on the scale and my mom shouted "oh my word, he's huge!" I guess I just don't know a 10 pounder when Im holding one!
The look on my face was enough to scare my sister into flagging down one of the lifeguard trucks to give me a ride up to the street off the beach(Im not joking when I say our beaches are freakishly wide). My sister then gets the brilliant idea to offer me her bike to get me home quicker and I stupidly take her up on her offer. My poor mother then is greeted by her blimp of a daughter huffing and puffing through contractions while rolling up the street, this was a site for sore eyes! Once, home we run around like crazy packing bags and throwing things in the car as quickly as we could, and at this point the contractions were every two minutes and strong enough that I couldn't talk through them any more. We successfully got on the road where I was able to cool off in the air, drink some water and try to collect myself.
Finally the doctor came in and checked me at 5:00 and apparently I was still only 3cm and he wasn't convinced I was in labor….WHAT?? Luckily my nurse had been hanging out with me the first hour of us being there and saw how much pain I was in, so my girl Sheila vouched for me as much as she could. Unfortunately, the doctor was not going to give me an epidural until I had made progress and got the results back from my blood work to tell them that I was healthy enough to have one. This was the worst news ever, I knew there were no drugs coming my way for a while and I didn't know the first thing about pain management for natural childbirth!
For the next 4 hours it was just Will and I, and while I would have given anything to get out of that experience at the time it all seems very sweet looking back on it. When little Will was born, I got an epidural almost right away and neither of us knew what we were doing so Will took a step back and was just a bystander for the most part. It was nice to have him so involved this time, he was such a trooper letting me squeeze his hand, praying with me and just kept telling me I was doing great. The pain was insane and I wish that I would have been allowed to stand up and change positions to get more comfortable but I was too afraid to move. At this point the conratctions were every minute and one would just linger into the next one. I knew I had to be progressing. Finally at 7:00 after my blood work came back all good, the doctor returned to check me and low and behold I was 6cm! I remember shouting "Thank you, Jesus!!". Now all that was left was to wait for the anesthesiologist, but that too would take another hour and a half…
My mom and youngest sister had made their way over to the hospital just as I had become that loud girl in labor. Apparently when my mom texted Will to see what room we were in he responded " Just find the room that sounds like it has a ghost in it". At this point making noise was the only thing I knew to do to get through what felt like non stop contractions. Will said that I kept asking the nurse to please go find the anesthesiologist. What felt like years later a little Asian man with a white coat walked in our room and I knew it was my guy! At this point I would have taken that needle in my eyeball! In a matter of twenty minutes the ghost noises stop and was finally relieved of some of the pain. I thought this would probably slow down labor a little and we would get to hang out for a few hour just enjoying life pain-free for a little bit. Before the anesthesiologist left the OB came back to check me (it was 8:30 at this point) and I swore I heard him say 10cm and 100% effaced but I knew that couldn't be right. He then turned and asked "Are you ready to have a baby?" Oh my, this was really happening! I was relieved to know that I wasnt in all that pain for nothing but I thought I at least had some time to grab my bags and touch up my makeup!
It was go time! Before my right side had completely numbed up, they had me doing practice pushes. Luckily my sister ran down to the car to grab the camera just in time. I wanted to wait until the epidural kicked in a little more before I really started pushing but the baby's heart rate started to dip again and the doctor seemed like he wanted him out pronto! He thought that his heart rate might be dipping because the cord was wrapped around his neck. After 20 minutes of pushing I felt like we were getting no where, I didn't have that crazy pressure down low and urge to push like I did with Will so I really thought this was going to take hours. However, just as I finally got that "gotta push now" feeling the doctor said stop pushing and just make short small grunts. Grunts?? This was SO hard! All I wanted to do was push like crazy to get this kid out! At this point I finally experienced that notorious "ring of fire". I now understand why they don't call it "ring of roses" or "ring of bliss", because boy that part was something special! After some begging and getting the go ahead to keep pushing, a set of yells and squeals let out in the room as every one(expect me) saw that cute little face emerge. The doctor quickly unwrapped the cord from his neck and told me to give it one more big push. In an instant I was face to face with this squishy, dark haired boy laying on my chest; I was in love!! The room seemed to keep moving around us but for those few seconds this precious babe and I just soaked each other up. In the midst of the craziness, the nurse turned and asked what his name was, and without a shadow of a doubt said "Crawford". They then wisked him away to clean him up and make sure he was breathing well.
The next day was so perfect and the three of us just enjoyed the quiet and stillness that we knew we wouldn't experience again anytime soon. We were, however, anticipating the arrival of big brother to meet his new best buddy and I was missing my favorite blondie something awful!
Crawford James Fitts
July 22, 2014 9:20pm
10lb 4oz 22in
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