He called Brigette and we started gathering our things to head to the hospital. It was a bit of a relief knowing that the kids did not have school that day. Brigette got there a bit before 1:30 am and we headed off to the hospital. The contractions were every 3 to 4 minutes already and I was feeling them big time. I had to pant through them in the car. When we got to the hospital it was around 2 am and I gladly accepted the offer to ride in a wheel chair. When we got to the elevator 2 other ladies were getting in and I was starting another painful contraction and trying not to make too much noise as we went down.
When we checked into Triage all I wanted was for them to run and get the anestheisiologist, but from my angle they were taking their sweet time. The nurse asked me if I could leave a urine sample, and I think I just glared at her. She left the room and I asked Jake why she was taking so long. She came back and checked me. I was dilated 8 cm. Now she seemed to take me a bit more seriously. Jake explained that I wanted an epidural and was worried it would take too long. She reassured me that the anesthesiologist was there in the hospital and they would start prepping me right away. She waited through my next very painful contraction to get an IV in. She missed and I about started crying... now I would have to wait through another contraction for a second nurse to try on my other arm. The second nurse had no problem, and after that they were wheeling me to the labor and delivery room.
The contractions were really close and I was moaning and whining. Whatever position I tried only seemed to make them worse. I was beyond relieved when the anesthesiologist showed up. I felt the needle go in and he said I might feel a bit of a shock. I thought that it was weird for him to say that, I had never felt a shock with my other epidurals, but sure enough I felt a jolt down through my legs and jumped. It did feel like I had just been shocked. The next contraction still hurt immensely but by the third one I wasn't feeling the pain anymore.
I started shaking right off, but didn't mind so much because the pain was gone. One of the nursed put a warm blanket on me and the Dr. on call, Dr. Webb, came in to check me. She said I just had a little bit of a lip left and that she would come back in a 30 minutes. I thought that sounded like forever because I was already feeling a lot of pressure. Luckily I think there were a few other women in final stages of labor and she felt that I was the closest to giving birth so she came back in ten minutes instead.
She said something to Jake about his BYU sweatshirt and happily joked about how she figured we had this down and the baby would come easily. She told me she was going to break my water and thought the baby might flush right out with it. After my water was broken she checked and said I was ready. When my next contraction came she told me to push. The nurses told me to hold my own legs back, which I wasn't very good at because in Singapore the nurses had done it for me. I tried to hold on to my legs and Jake held one of them. As I pushed I could feel a strong burning sensation that I hadn't felt before. When the contraction was over but Dr. Webb told me to keep pushing. His head was out but for some reason I felt like I was struggling with the shoulders. I kept pushing and the burning stopped. I heard her say that he looked like a 9 pounder as she put him on my chest. Jake cut the umbilical cord and I snuggled the warm little guy close. It was 3:30am when he was born. I asked the Dr. if I tore and she said she didn't think so, but when she checked I needed 2 stitches. They took the baby to measure and weigh him. He was 8lbs 10 oz. and 19.7 inches long. As soon as he was born he was looking to put his thumb in his mouth and was sucking on his hand when they weighed him.
When the Dr. and nurses left Jake looked at me and said "Dantley Jacob?" I asked if we had any other names from our list that we wanted to consider, but neither of us really did. So it was agreed -- Dantley Jacob Lewis.
I nursed him for a while and then the nurse came back in and bathed him while another nurse helped me get to the bathroom. Because I only had the epidural for such a short time I was able to walk but for safety reasons they made me hold onto a walker. I only took tylenol for the after pains, which didn't seem as bad to me this time as they had with Trey, and felt pretty good.
Here he is during his first bath.
We are so thankful he is here safe and sound. He is as precious as possible
I love this blog Vicki -- it's such a great idea!
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