Luke's Birth Story

Before too much time passes I figured that I should document the details from Luke’s birth so that I have it here to look back on.  I have included way too many details and horrible grammar, so don’t feel like you have to read it!

October 11, 2010 was just your average day in our little life.  I woke up and had a routine doctor’s appointment (my 39 week appt.), picked up Aubrie from a friends house, we ran an errand (Target), and then we came home for naptime and just chilled til Aaron got home from school.  While we were waiting for him to get home and just playing around the house, a friend (Nicole Pead) texted to see if we would like to join her and her cute family for dinner at a yummy barbecue restaurant (can’t remember the name!) that they had been wanting us to try! Since I was feeling just fine (no Braxton Hicks contractions that day surprisingly!) and I knew it would be a fun time, we accepted and joined Nicole, Jake and Gavin for a delicious dinner! We even hung around talking for a good half hour at the restaurant after we finished and let the kids play outside.  We finally left and headed home.  We got to our house barely before 9pm.  Aaron immediately got Aubrie in the bathtub, since it was past her bedtime and I started feeling contractions around 9:something pm.  I tried to help Aaron put Aubrie to sleep, but since the contractions were actually hurting, after a few of them Aaron insisted that I take a bath to see if that would help ease the pain.  After sitting in the tub for a few minutes and still being in pain, I got out and ran to tell Aaron that they were still hurting and that I was going to call Mercedi to see if she could watch Aubs in case we had to go to the hospital.  I wasn’t sure how serious it was yet, so I called and just kind of warned her that we might go “get checked” at the hospital. 

 I started to blowdry my hair b/c my hair takes forever to dry and I didn’t want to show up at the hospital w/ wet hair and looking frumpy… and after putting on a little makeup (I could barely do it cause the contractions were extremely painful at this point) I told Aaron “let’s go!” so we packed up some bags and called Mercedi to come over (Thanks a million by the way!) and we headed off.

 When I got to the hospital I had to sign a few papers and insurance information (even though I had already pre-registered) so when I walked up to the desk at Labor ad Delivery there were two nurses standing there.  I told them that I had an appointment earlier that morning and that my doctor told me that I was dilated to a four and that I would pretty much go into labor very quickly so that if I felt strong contractions or if my water broke he said to head right over to the hospital.  The nurses asked me if this was my first baby.  I told them it was my second and that the contractions were killer.  They asked how far apart the contractions were.  I told them that they were about every 5 minutes, 4 minutes, or 6 minutes apart.  One of the nurses said, “Oh so they can’t decide how far apart they want to be!” They were pretty much mocking me cause they thought I was weaksauce, but I continued to be polite.  They handed me so many papers to sign and fill out and finally Aaron saw how much pain I was in and interrupted and said he would fill them out, cause I could hardly stand up.  Finally after we finished paperwork up they said that a nurse would be with me in a few minutes.  A few minutes later a really sweet nurse took me back and said she was going to check me.  I told her I was having a contraction, so she waited for it to finish and when she checked she literally said, “Oh my gosh sweetie!! We would never have taken you back to triage if you hadn’t been smiling the whole time.  You are fully effaced, dilated to a 7 and the baby is very low. Do you want an epidural?!!” I said yes.  She quickly made a few phone calls and before I knew it I was signing paperwork to get an epidural and I was wheeled off in a hospital bed to my delivery room.  My Labor and Delivery nurse was amazing.  They weren’t very busy so another really sweet nurse stayed and helped out since they were in a big hurry to get everything set up.  They quickly set up my IV, took some blood, got the blood pressure and other monitors going and before I knew it my bloodwork was back from the hospital lab and my anesthesiologist was giving me the epidural.  The anesthesiologist that was on-call that night does not do epidurals unless he has your bloodwork back from the lab (blood count and to make sure my blood wouldn’t clot), so by the time I got it I was dilated to a 9.  They made Aaron leave while I got the epidural because they said they have too many fathers pass out and they didn’t want to have 2 patients.  He came back after about 15 or 20 minutes because he heard a baby crying and thought it was Luke (thank goodness it wasn’t!).  It felt like it took forever to get the epidural… probably because I had about 3 or 4 horribly painful contractions while waiting for it to kick in.  The nurses said that I could have definitely made it all the way without it, but after all those contractions I had no desire to feel any more pain.   About ten minutes after I got my epidural, the doctor who would deliver Luke came in to “check” me.  She came over and introduced herself and about 2 seconds later as she was “checking” she said “Okay we are going to have this baby right now.  So she stood up, got her scrubs and all that gear on and they got me ready.  She broke my water and about a minute later I was pushing.  They asked me if I could feel the contractions at all and I remember saying, “I just got my epidural like 15 minutes ago so I can’t feel anything.” My contractions hadn’t slowed down after my epidural and I was having an epidural every minute. They said okay you are having a contraction, take a deep breath and push.  I pushed twice during 3 contractions and little Luke was here!!!  I was so happy, but kind of in shock (not literally) that it had all happened so fast (3 hours of labor total).  I literally felt like I had NO time to think about anything… my contractions were very painful and consumed most of my time and as soon as I couldn’t feel them I was pushing out a baby! It all seemed very surreal.  I am just so happy that we made it to the hospital in time and that I was able to get my epidural so I could enjoy part of it.  They handed me Luke as soon as he came out and I fell in love! Ha! He was so sweet.  He cried for the first half hour of his life and has been a little angel since then.

 Luke is really is such a sweet baby.  He still sleeps all the time and gives us sweet smiles after he eats! Aubrie loves being a big sister and that makes me even happier.  She smothers him with kisses and hugs all the time.  I am a little jealous cause I have to pretty much beg for a hug or kiss these days.  She is becoming more and more of a daddy’s girl each day, too. Enough about that though, this story is Luke’s!! He is 4 weeks old tomorrow and I can’t believe how quickly the time has flown.  We have gone out almost every single day since he came, but maybe 4 or 5 of them.  He is a little trooper. He has had a lot of visitors since his birth (Grammie, Aunt Ashley, Uncle Brad, Cousin Braylee, Nana, and lots of our friends!).  He has also had quite a few doctors appointments, all of which have gone really well! The doctors say he is growing perfectly and is very healthy and that we don’t have to go back until he is 2 months old! Yay!

I still can’t believe I have 2 babies! I love my life.