Owen's Arrival - A Birth Story

Since this blog is my scrapbook, you as my reader, get to follow along as I document our lives.  So here is Owen's birth story in detail.  Feel free to skip this post if you don't want all the details. (spoken to my sister, Anna! ha.)

After I mopped all our floors on my hands and knees on Thursday (June 18th, my Grandpa Bauer's 90th Birthday!) I cleaned and kept busy all day.  That was the evening Derek and I did some power walking along the river, and I was having a few contractions, but nothing regular or very painful.  I'd been having them on and off for a week or so and at my last OB appointment a week earlier, was dilated to "a good 2 to 3".  I woke up around 4:30am Friday morning (June 19th) with a contraction that really got my attention.  I was able to go back to sleep until shortly after 6am but when I stood up out of bed then... I really had a feeling this was it!  I went into 'the baby's room' and sat on the exercise ball for a while timing contractions. (The babycenter.com app has a great contraction timer!) Derek woke up shortly after to get ready for his day and found me there.  He looked at me with a funny look and I asked if he thought it was a good day to have a baby. (I already mentioned to you in a previous post that I had a whole list of reasons it was!)  He said, "Sure".  It was still really early in the process, contractions were 5-8 minutes apart and just barely starting to get uncomfortable.  Derek only works five minutes away, so he went in to his office to wrap some things up.  Between contractions, I was able to get a few things done around the house, get a shower and wrap up some loose ends at home.  I called my Mom around 8am and told her I thought I was in early labor.  She had a business trip the day before but was home, another reason this day worked so well into our schedules. :)  I also text Derek's Mom and my sisters to give them a heads up on the situation.  By the time 10:00 came, I was having contractions every 3-5 minutes and getting very uncomfortable and having back labor.  The boys were just going about their day as I was in early labor, checking on me once in a while.  Cooper was pretty excited and kept asking, "You're really in labor?"!  For his sake, I was hoping it wasn't a false alarm! ha.  

Cooper rubbed my back when I had contractions for a while.

While Miles went about normal life bringing his bug finds in to show me.

Another reason it was a 'good day to have a baby' was that G'ma Pam was already scheduled to have my boys all day.  She was picking them up around 10:30am to go see a movie then planned to keep them until after Derek and I went to Life Group that evening.  I talked to Derek around 10am and he was going to head home... I needed him at that point.  And then we were going to call the midwife on call at my OB office and see what they recommended since I'd already been dilated to a 3 and had tested positive for Group B Strep requiring me to start IV antibiotics before the baby was born.  Derek got home and got ready to make the call to the OB office when my phone rang... it was my OB office!  They were calling to see if I could come in earlier than my 4pm appointment that day due to a scheduling conflict.  So Derek was able to talk to a nurse who, given the circumstances, suggested we go ahead and go to the hospital and check things out.  Right around then, Pam showed up to get the boys... gave me a quick hug and took them off to the movie.  

They went to see "Inside Out".  It was great distraction for them.
She also had her granddaughters with her.

Derek and I headed to the hospital and in the car, contractions got down to two minutes apart, which after the fact, Derek told me worried him we weren't going to make it.  Ha.  We went in and I got wheeled up to labor and delivery... car and wheelchair rides are not comfortable while in labor.  

And I had no idea until later that Derek took pictures.  But he speaks my love language. (photos!)  

When first arriving at the hospital, they put you in a triage room for observation before admitting you.  It was a small room divided by curtains.  

Of course once they put on monitors and were observing, contractions were back to 5-8 minutes apart and when checked I was only dilated to a 4.  There was a slight concern since the baby's heart rate was dropping during contractions.  They repositioned me though and it was better.  They decided that maybe the umbilical cord was being pressed on and constricted during contractions.  So we just stayed and waited for a while, and at one point, the midwife from my office asked how far away we lived!  She could tell this didn't make me happy and said, "I'm not saying I'm sending you home."... I was starting to get a bit frustrated when they suggested I walk the halls and sit on a birthing ball and they'd check me again in a hour and see if I could be admitted.  We walked the halls, came back and I got seated on a ball and only 20 min later, (between 1 and 2pm) they came in and said they would admit me.  My Mom had booked a flight by then and was scheduled to leave Wichita around 2:30pm and be in Peoria by 6:30pm.  We headed to a delivery room and got situated, on a birthing ball again.  They finally came in and got my IV started and said I had to have it for at least 30 minutes before they could start orders for an epidural.  At that point, I was asking pretty please if I could just get an epidural!  It took about an hour (I don't actually know, I was in pain.) before we got things rolling with an anesthesiologist. 

But, I think, sometime before 3pm, I got an epidural and was feeling a lot more comfortable.

They moved me around into different positions as I labored, trying to get the baby into a better position.  He ("It" at that point, since we didn't know who was in there yet) was still looking to my side, although head down, but needed to be facing my back for things to progress better, that is also what causes back labor.  My nurse got me positioned and said I should take a nap while I could.  I dozed a little but didn't really sleep much.  The epidural wore off a little on one side while in one position, so I was able to feel contractions pretty good!  I switched positions and was soon more comfortable again.  Sometime before 6pm, my water broke and I was dilated to 8cm.  Derek's brother, Trey, went to pick my Mom up from the airport when she arrived and even though her plan was to go get Cooper & Miles from Pam's and take them home, I told her she was welcome to come up and say Hi to us first.  Pam's house is just a few minutes from the hospital anyway.  Mom made it around the time the baby's heart rate was dropping during contractions again and they hooked me up to oxygen.  We text some friends and family to pray.  It wasn't an emergency situation yet, but we didn't want it to become one!

With prayer and oxygen, things leveled out and we were able to chat a little while I progressed.

I was feeling the contractions and pressure more and more.  I actually liked the level of feeling I had, since I could tell something was happening without being in too much pain.  Since things were moving along, Mom decided to stay with us if I delivered soon.  It was nice to have her there as a support and distraction, and someone to talk with Derek.  :)  Within (maybe, time seems to escape me!) and hour of Mom being there, I was feeling a lot of low pressure and we could tell from the monitor that the contractions were coming one on top of the other without much of a break.  So we called the nurse in to check me and as soon as she did, she said, "Oh, there is a baby right there!".  So suddenly the room was filling with people preparing for delivery! It was at that point in the midst of the flurry, I saw my Mom in the middle of everyone suddenly ask, "Who is in charge here?"!!  Everyone's motion stopped and all eyes looked to her. Ha ha ha ha! Then she followed with, "I just want to know if we can get the big brothers in here as soon after as possible.".  I'm pretty sure I saw a collected sigh of relief on all faces as they went back to their work with lot of, "yes, of course" and "Sure, bring them in".  :)    My midwife checked me again and as they were breaking down the bed in preparation, she had me do a 'practice' push.  It made so much progress that all the sudden I heard, "Look at all that hair!".  We all waited through one contraction because I had my face in a (nifty) barf bag with a feeling I needed to puke...  but it passed and on the next contraction I pushed again and through the next contraction, again.  Then someone (there were at least 6 or 8 doctors, nurses and my midwife present, maybe 45, I don't know!) told me to just keep pushing after that and all the sudden we had a baby!

I looked as they brought him out and to my chest and about the time I spotted boy parts myself, Derek's face was right next to mine and I heard him intensely, excitedly, yet quietly exclaim, "It's a boy!". Owen Gray Mleynek was born at 9:05pm on June 19th. We had some quality skin to skin time as we looked him over and bonded.

Eventually we weighed him and discovered he was a nice, perfect 8 pounds 5 ounces and 20 inches long.

With Owen's labor/delivery taking half the time our other boy's did, we all felt pretty good! What a good baby not even keeping us up during the night before his arrival.  :)

We're all in love... more to come!