He's Here!

Austin Louis Chadwick 

born February 22, 2013 

7 lbs. 8 oz. 20 inches long @ 11:56 pm 

We are THRILLED to invite little Austin into our lives and our family.  The process of getting him here was a long one, and a not-so-easy one.  But the outcome was DEFINITELY worth is.  Here's his story: 

My due date was March 4th and it was Wednesday Feb. 19th.  I had tried EVERYTHING to get this little guy to come out! My doctor stripped my membranes twice, I went to Zumba, went on walks, walked on the treadmill, used evening primrose oil, drank red raspberry leaf tea, did the...you know, ate spicy foods, pretty much anything and everything to get things rolling.  We had an ultrasound done and this kid was already suppose to be 8 pounds with 2 weeks to go! AND I was only dilated to a 2.5! That number hadn't gone anywhere for a couple weeks now.  

(SIDE NOTE...there is nothing more frustrating than when you've been on bed rest for an entire month just so you won't dilate and won't have contractions, and then when you want those things to happen...they don't! GRRR!) 

So, I knew I had to help things along.  I could feel it getting closer and was so excited to see this little guy.  That Wednesday (the 19th) I had my 39 week appointment with my doctor.  Another frustrating situation, is that I hadn't seen my actual doctor in over 2 months.  Pretty much, he put me on bed rest and then went on a month long cruise.  Then when he got back, he was so backed up with patients, and I would wait for hours and never get in with him. They were always asking if I could see someone else.  At first it was fine, and then it was annoying. My aunt started a job as an assistant to another doctor in the clinic so I started seeing him regularly when my doc wasn't around.  

I liked my doctor, but I LOVED Dr. Merrill.  He was so patient, and explained things I didn't know about my entire pregnancy, and always asked for concerns or questions I had.  Plus, he was super personable, and it felt like I was visiting a friend, not just being herded like cattle in and out of a doctors appointment.  

I wanted to switch doctors but knew I wouldn't be able to mid-pregnancy. So come back to Feb. 19th, I had another doctors appointment after school and finally after having a 4:30 appointment at 5:30 got in to see my doctor for the first time in 2 months. 

Well, it was quick and painless, and not much happened, but at the end of the appointment he took one look at my blood pressure which was a little elevated from it's normal 120 range to the 130 range and said "you're going back on bed rest" 

WHAT? 

Here I was trying to be active and get this baby out in my 39th week of pregnancy, and he wants me to go back on bed rest?!  I know doctors know what they are doing, and I shouldn't question them ,but I wanted a second opinion so on my way out I set up another appointment for Friday with Dr. Merrill to see what he thought. In the meantime, I did go on bed rest...kind of. Just to be safe! :) 

Thursday night, full blown nesting had kicked in! It had been for a while, but I totally went nuts, and didn't even care that I was suppose to be "taking it easy."  I loaded up the hospital bag, installed the car seat, tried to get the entire house picked up and organized, got my hair cut and last but not least, got a maternity massage..which was AMAZING! I highly recommend it to any pregnant woman! I also contribute that to helping me go into labor the next day! YAY for massages! 

Friday morning rolls around, and Dan had school that night so he wasn't working and wanted to see the doctor with me.  I told him to pack up his stuff just in case, and he told me he didn't need to.  Well, hate to say I told you so! ;) 

We got to the doctors, he told me I didn't need to be on bed rest, but then 5 minutes later, it really didn't matter anymore because as he was checking my cervix my water broke.  CRAZIEST FEELING EVER! Nasty actually! It was all over the place and I was really glad that it happened on the doctor's table and not my bed or couch. 

So conveniently, we walked down the hall and were admitted to labor and delivery! Here's where the fun begins! Actually not, because my contractions just never came.  I was admitted at 10:30 am and asked if they wouldn't start me on pitocin right away because I wanted to see if my body could start on it's own.  My friend Liz came and was there the entire day, she helped me walk up and down the L&D unit to start contractions while Dan did some of his homework.  But at 2:00 pm nothing had happened so the pitocin started. In hindsight I probably should have let them just start me right away since it still took hours for the "real" contractions to kick in. 

At one point the nurse came in and asked if I wanted the epidural, and I foolishly said "not yet, I want to be able to feel what real labor contractions are like." 

Dumb move. If I would have just gotten it right then, the rest of the night would have gone much smoother, because when those contractions came, they came fast and hard and unfortunetly in my back. :( Back labor is the worst pain I've ever felt in my life, honestly I can't even remember the contractions I was feeling up front because my back was in so much pain. 

The worst part of the night was the epidural attempts. I had 2 fears going into labor. One, that the pushing would take forever and my epidural would run out. Two, that my epidural wouldn't work. I have zero pain tolerance.  Well, when the anesthesiologist came in I was so happy and good to go, thinking this was going to take 15 minutes and I would be pain free! 

Nope. 

First attempt-fail. Instead of getting into the epidural space, he went into a blood vessel.

Second attempt-fail. I apparently have a curved spine, but didn't know it, so the tube didn't go down where it was suppose to and nothing worked. At this point I was super panicked  thinking it wasn't going to work and I was going to have to do this all natural. I don't know how anyone does this natural!  I was crying and moaning and scared out of my mind!

Third attempt-fail. after going in a third time, the anesthesiologist said, "you guys are gonna laugh, the tube is faulty and is broken, I've never seen this before!" No sir, we were not laughing, I wanted to roll over and punch the guy at this point. 

Fourth attempt-FINALLY! My prayers were answered and my legs went numb! Followed by the rest of my body which was GREAT! I actually slept a couple hours after and never felt so good in my life! :) But man, the experience of getting an epidural was awful and probably one of the worst parts of my whole labor.  With that being said, next time I will make sure the anesthesiologist knows about my curved spine so it goes a little smoother! 

After the epidural, they checked my cervix again and I had magically gotten to a 6! After an hour nap (which I was very grateful for later) I was fully dilated to a 10! Super exciting, super nerve racking! 

At 9:30 pm the pushing started.  It wasn't too bad, but then after 2 1/2 hours, I was exhausted. 20 minutes before I delivered I all of the sudden got a fever and had to be put on antibiotics.  Because of that, after Austin was born, he had to be put on antibiotics for 7 days since his lab results came back a little high.  

Finally the end came which made me so happy, but what didn't make me happy is that my epidural all of the sudden wore off! After all that trauma with getting it in and working...it STOPPED!! I started to feel my legs and was so worried and panicked I wasn't going to get through this.  I guess that's common for some people, and of course I'm one of them! :( Those last couple pushes I just had to bare down and just go. There was so much adrenalin I didn't feel much of it. But getting stitched up at the end was the WORST part of labor! Honestly, I would go through 50 epidural tries before feeling those stitches again.  It took about an hour to stitch everything up, apparently it wasn't pretty and not easy. I'm definitely feeling it today! 

Dan was a champ! Honestly, I thought he would just stand there with the deer in the headlight look the whole time.  He even told me he was not leaving my head and would definitely not be cutting the cord. But when the time came, he most definitely watched his son be born and cut that cord like a proud papa.  I don't think I could have done any of this without him by my side. 

But when all is said and done, I can't even describe the amazing feeling when my fresh newborn baby was put on my chest.  Looking into his slate blue eyes and seeing this tiny little human we created was so overwhelming.  I now have a new sense of love. One I have never felt before.  I appreciate my parents so much more and understand a little bit more the love of our Heavenly Father.  

Being a mom for the past 3 days has been wonderful.  Rough, but wonderful. I love my little man and Dan and I couldn't be happier to have him in our family.  We love you Austin!