Meeting baby Coda

Thursday morning I had my weekly doctors appointment. I was 39 weeks along. Since I had my appointment at 8:45 I wasn't going to go into work until after, so I had a great morning getting all cute, finishing all my thank you cards from the baby shower, and making a nice lunch for work. I met Chris at the doctors office where they took my blood pressure and sent us into a room to see the doctor. I got all pantless and sat up on the paper covered patient chair-thing. The doctor came in and first went to listen to the baby. I wasn't sure if I had been having contractions, or if the baby was just stretching. So when it happened while the doctor was right there I asked. The doctor felt my belly and said that it was a contraction. He said I was having pretty good contractions too and told Chris I must have a crazy high pain tolerance (bam! Take that contractions!). Next thing was next and the doctor got ready to check me down low. Then all of the sudden I felt some craziness go on. I told the doctor "I don't know what just happened down there, but I didn't do it on purpose". I was so embarrassed because he was just about to go down there. He looked at me and said, "your water just broke, go to the hospital". I couldn't believe it. I had to ask, "so I'm going to the hospital right now... and not leaving until I have a baby?" We left the jeep and Chris drove me to the hospital just 5 minutes away. We called my mom to tell her to get on her way. Chris called my work and his, and then proceeded to let our families and friends know. We checked into the hospital around 9:30 in the morning. It felt kinda funny just walking all calm like to the elevators.

They put us in a labor room, gave me a gown and put moniitors on me. Then we sat down and waited. Some friends from rexburg had just had their baby days before in the same hospital. They found out we were there and came to visit. That was such a funny surprise. It was nice to see how great katelyn looked, I thought to myself, "that is going to be me in the not too distant future".

Cameo and Jenise came down from st. George and hung out with us for most of the day. They brought me a hospital survival kit and flowers. They also got Chris food. I wasn't allowed to eat, which I didn't know about before, but I did fine not eating all day. The time passed so quickly and I was so excited the whole time I didn't ever even feel hungry. I was thirsty, but the ice chips took care of that.

They put me on pathossin a couple hours after we checked in, since my contractions were only 4-5 minutes apart, instead of 2-3. Chris made me pose to check my pain level.

We had a lot of time to kill while we waited (Chris made sure to play with as many hospital gadgets as he could). When we first got there I thought I should have packed a craft or something to do, but turns out the day flew by. One of the nurses commented that I was always smiling, she thought that as things progressed that would change, but in the end she told me, "I think you smiled that whole time!" I was really having fun, as weird as that seems. It was so exciting, I couldn't believe it was actually happening. I got an epideral when I got passed 4. Then I was more comfortable than I had been for months.

 We had some scares when our baby wasn't handling contraction very well. His heart rate dropped a few times below the safe zone. I can't describe the panic I felt when that happened. Chris ran out to get the nurse a few times, but the nurses were always watching the monitors and would be running in at the same time. They took me off patossin a few times to back off the contractions. I was so happy when they decided to use internal monitors, I could hear his heart beat so much easier then. I progressed very slowly until I completely skipped 6 & 7 and went straight to 8. By that time he was handling the contractions great.

I had been hot and sweaty all day during labor, so I had the nurses turn the temperature down, which almost froze Chris out. Jenise and Cameo ran to the store and got him a sweater, he was still cold. They left around 7 that night. It was very nice to have them there to visit with and they took care of Chris.

Mom got to the hospital right as I was getting to 10. I had been doing so good the whole time, but right before mom got there I started shivering uncontrollably even though I wasn't cold. So I was quite the sight for mom to see. I used my finger monitor between my teeth to keep from chattering. The nurse called the anathesiologist and he came in. I was asking if there was anything that could stop the shivering. He said, "yeah, have this baby". But he gave me a booster epideral anyways, which did stop the crazy shivering. But then I lost feeling in both legs (before I could at least feel my left leg) and lost the ability to move either of my legs, or even wiggle my toes. Bad news because it was about time to start pushing. My nurse had me do a practice push. I pushed for all I was worth... Nothing. So we had to wait for some of the epideral to wear off.Then it happened, it was time to call the doctor. Game time. 

There were 3 nurses and the doctor who came to help. Mom helped at first too holding my left leg, then Chris took over. Pushing was so hard, not like how I'd imagined it would be though. I thought it would be like trying to bench press too much weight. It was hard because I didn't know how to push, figuring out how to use those muscles especially when I couldn't really feel them was frustratingly difficult. The baby's nurse coached me about half way through to do it differently. That made a huge difference. She was such a blessing, she cheered like crazy for me. And I needed the cheering. I thought the doctor was going to give up on me. They started all saying, "this is it, next time and we will have a baby". They said that a lot of times. I always pushed 3 times per contraction, then the babies nurse got serious. She said, "alright one more contraction and you are going to push this baby out" and she laid the receiving blanket on me. I pushed 3 times and still he wasn't out, then all the nurses cheered for me to push a 4th time and I did it! A total of 1h20m. The nurses later told me I was lucky to have the doctor that I did, they said any other doctor would have cut me by then.

Chris cut the cord and the babies nurse took him quickly under a warming light. Chris followed. I couldn't take my eyes off him. I know I was saying, "hi baby" a whole lot. She did all her nurse stuff quickly, then brought him to me. 4:45 on Friday morning. He weighed 7lbs9oz and was 19 inches long, brown hair and blue eyes.

It felt so good to have him on me. His eyes were open and when I talked to him he looked up at me. Here my memory gets a little blurry. Around 7:30 we moved to a new room. But I don't exactly remember what happened in that 2h45m gap. I think I just held him and stared at him. I was tired, but not tired enough to sleep yet. I tried to sleep in the next room, Chris was sleeping and mom had gone to our place to sleep. The baby was in the rolling bassinet sleeping. I spent most of Friday with my eyes closed quickly opening them at every sound he made and staring at him some more.

We spent two days after in the hospital because he had a fever when he was born (that quickly disappeared) but they wanted to do blood work. I was happy for the extra day.

Saturday was my birthday. Chris had a whole BBQ planned on the top of a little hiking hill near our home with a bunch of friends, obviously that didn't happen. But Chris went and got Dairy Queen blizzards that we celebrated with.

We spent all Sunday morning picking Coda's name. Chris wrote our two favorite names on different pieces of paper and placed them at my feet until I chose. Once I chose and it felt so good to call him by name instead of baby boy.

Chris was anxious to get our little Coda boy home.

We are so happy to have this super cutie in our family. There is nothing to compare how wonderful it is. I can't think about how lucky I am when I am by myself with him or I'll totally start crying. I hope he knows how loved he is.