October 1st 2012

i woke up at about 2 oclock in the morning to what i considered to be a not-so-painful-yet-very-uncomfortable contraction. i got up used the restroom then went back to bed to hopefully fall back asleep. bam. another little-more-painful-still-uncomfortable contraction. went again to the bathroom.... and that was a sight.... if anyone has ever lost their mucus plug before delivering.... their eyes are forever scarred. weird things happen when you give birth. this time i went back to the bedroom and told brett what was going on. he sleepily mumbled 'ya ok' and rolled over back to sleep. I layed down to attempt to sleep myself. HA! no way. i turned on the tv to just take my mind off the pressures going on in my huge belly every so often. i decided maybe i should sit on a towel just in case something else weird was going to come out of me. sure enough... 10 minutes after grabbing the towel.... gush..... 'ok brett wake up!!!' i literally have never seen my husband move that fast. if you know brett, he moves fast. 'where is the bag, do you need anything else, where is my shirt, i dont know where my keys are, let me get my shoes on' all came out of his mouth in a second with no breath. i literally laughed outloud saying, 'i think men react to labor like this in the movies!' we waddled to the car and i sent out the mass text to everyone saying we thought baby hill was going to make his appearance soon! since we were so busy getting our bag, and shirt, and keys and shoes we forgot to call the hospital to say we were on our way. we show up to labor & delivery and the nurses are like 'uh wait here, we have to get a room for you and someone has to check to make sure your water actually broke.' let me just tell you, it broke. so we go into this tiny room that im shocked they make for pregnant ladies to go into... plus any other people with them. i get dressed into the gorgeous backless gown. backless is popular now... these should really be on the runway. ha!
she sets me up on a monitor and makes sure my water had broken. by this time it was about 530 am. 

they set me up in a spiffy ride, just kidding it was a wheel chair, to go up to our room. i sat down in the chair and WOOSH! i thought my water had broken before. this was like a river flowing with milk and honey amniotic fluid. i begin to laugh at whats happening to me and more rapid stream begins to flow as i begin to laugh harder and harder. telling the nurse who was pushing me what was going on which made her laugh which made me laugh even harder. and all along i was worried about whoever had to clean up the mess i had just uncontrollably made all through the hall. 

i decided from the get to that i would most definitely be preventing any pain that modern medicine would let me. but i did want to see how long i could go before the epidural. i labored about 6 hours then decided that i didnt really care for these contractions anymore. they had checked me and i was at a 5 and really didnt want to feel the next 5. by the way... epidural.. extremely painful. ya, that hurt a lot. anyway... got that and was finally comfortable. i ate my little popsicle and enjoyed labor thinking i should have gotten this epidural at 230 this morning! 

im just enjoying myself while people come in and out to say hi and wish me luck and tell me how excited they were.
for just a moment i had the room to myself listening to my little guys heartbeat on the monitor. out of the blue the heart beat got slower.... and slower.... i felt myself begin to shake with worry over what was going on.
within split seconds 8-10 nurses and doctors came rushing into the room. hooking random things up to me, plugging things into my ivs, yelling different things to each other. while i just lay there wondering if my baby was ok!!! 

after several conversations which i didnt understand and oxygen off and oxygen on they seem to had gotten things under controll. by this time i was starting to feel some of my contractions so i pushed my magic little button and things got better. again several people came running back in again with the same heart-rate problem as before. the problem was not with my baby, it was with me. my blood pressure kept dropping. my body wasnt handling the pain medications at all. the doctor came in and said if this continues to happen we will have to prep you for a c-section. after shedding a few tears of worry over the situation brett finally talked me down with 'he is going to be ok, he is going to be ok.' i was oxygen bound and had developed a fever. they put the towel over my head and the mask around my face. i just kept breathing through the moments praying God would grant my body grace and strength. i hadnt really mentally prepared for things to be painful so i began a little stage of schizophrenia (ya, i googled it) convincing myself i could do this and feel it at the same time. we watched the monitor, breathed through contractions (because my epidural had completely warn off on one side of my body) got back-rubs, and i silently prayed for this little boy i was about to meet. 

it was 630, the nursed checked me and said i was so close to a 10. she told me to push a little to see if that would help. sure enough, pushing began. even though my body was working the most it ever has it was somehow a relief to be at this point. i was so focus amidst the 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. and the jumping up and down of my mother. then i hear the nurse say, i can see his head! a full head of dark hair! bring on the water works because i had prayed for a baby with hair. i was so ready to meet this little boy. after 9 dreaming months of how he would look. I want to see him! then the nurse got a phone call. im laying there catching my breath and preparing for the next fold-my-body-into-a-ball-and-push-with-all-my-might and she whispers on the phone 'well she's crowning.' more undistinguishable words were exchanged and she hangs up and goes, 'the doctor has asked us to stop pushing because she is in an emergency c-section.' im floored! wait... what?! then before i can even say anything my roaring mother begins to tell this nurse that there 'aint no way' we're stopping this now and that she thinks the nurse is more than capable of delivering 'this baby.' here comes another contraction i said 'i have to push' within 4 more pushes he was here! 7:45 pm. they brought him straight up to me and i held my miracle. i couldnt hold back any emotions. my sweet precious little boy in my arms. i remember saying 'oh brett look at him!' 

 

 

 

 

 

the next bit is kind of a blur to me, i just remember looking over at him laying under the light and them telling me he needed to go to the NICU because he was only getting 80% of his oxygen. 

i was just laying up on this table with no baby to show for all the work i had just done waiting for the doctor to get back so she could sew me up. my sister was showing me pictures she had taken of him to distract me. the doctor showed up and what was even more of a painful process than delivering a baby she sewed me up. still no parker in my arms. finally i was all modest and ready for visitors. my dad came rushing into the room to wrap me in his arms. he hugged me for a long while weaping. telling me how beautiful my little boy was. this was almost as special as my son being born. my never emotional father crying in my arms telling me how wonderful my son was. several other people came to see me and tell me how cute he was and how much he looked exactly like a devries. 

FINALLY after what seemed like an eternity they brought him back to me. All 7.4 oz of baby sweetness. God worked mircales and parker started breathing full oxygen on his own seconds before they were going to hook him up to the breathing machine. brett brought him over to me, my sweet little bundle of boy. 

Happy Day of Birth, Parker Michael.