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Mary Sex: girl Born: 28 May, 1999 Age: 9 years & 144 days Birthday in: 221 days Starsign: Gemini Development: See the 32 months page. Biggest achievement so far: -

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Rebekah Sex: girl Born: 21 June, 1997 Age: 11 years & 120 days Birthday in: 245 days Starsign: Gemini Development: See the 32 months page. Biggest achievement so far: -

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Theodore Jameson Sex: boy Born: 15 April, 2008 Age: 0 years & 184 days Birthday in: 181 days Starsign: Aries Development: See the 6 months page. Biggest achievement so far: -

Birth details

Type of delivery: Vaginal (with pain relief)
Duration of labor: About 10 Hours
Weight @ birth: 9 lbs 7 oz!
Length @ birth: 21 1/2\

Theodore-\`s birthstory

So - Monday the 14th we went to the doctor`s office for our 40 week checkup. I was due in two days with no signs of going any earlier. I was afraid to get induced because of my last (painful!) experience, but had gotten over it by the time of this appointment - I just wanted him here. We ended up scheduling induction for Saturday the 19th. On the way out of the doctor`s office I commented to my husband that now that we have the induction scheduled, I`d probably go into labor on my own (you know, the way adoptive parents often get pregnant as soon as they adopt!).

That night I was up and down all night long with pains and weirdy feelings. My body was playing weird games with me - had to pee, but not really, had to poop, but oh! just kidding, how about a nice cramp!?

Tuesday morning (the 15th) the contractions started and oh man did they hurt. So so so so so so bad. They were 8 mins apart, then 6 and they pretty much stayed right there... the doctor told me to come in to the hospital when they were 5 minutes apart for two hours. Well, I waited the two hours, but I wasn`t about to wait for them to get closer. I was hurting so badly with every minute-long contraction that I called the doctor and asked if I could just go in already. He was fine with that.

Through this my husband was phenomenal. Got the girls up and got them to school, fed the animals, took the dog to a friend`s, made sure all of our bags were packed, and stopped every time I had a contraction to come over and comfort me. We started the journey to the hospital at about 8:45am and although it only took about 40 minutes to get there, it felt like forever! We checked into L&D at 9:45 and by then I was so uncomfortable that I couldn`t relax between contractions and the pain started to just feel constant.

The nurse was fantastic - she checked me and saw that I was at 3cm and told me that we`d get me an epidural before we did any further paperwork or even trying to get me into a comfortable position. I figured that meant it would be hours (that was my experience in the past - took a couple hours before the anesthesiologist would show up), but oh man was I wrong. They were putting the epi in by 10am. The doc made the hole in the spine and inserted the meds... he told me it would be 5-10 mins before I felt anything - which I thought was weird because my butt was already numb. Then my abdomen, then my chest, and so on until I couldn`t move. He had put the needle in a smidge too far, overshot the epidural space, and got the medicine into the spinal space. This numbed me from the chin down, my BP dropped drastically, and so did the baby`s heartbeat. There were suddenly a bunch of people in my delivery room and things were kind of blurry there for me for a while. They got me stabilized and explained what happened. It was all ok, but kind of scary for a little bit.

After that my contractions slowed, so they hooked me up on some pitocin to keep them progressing. It took several hours for the pain medication to recede enough for me to start recognizing I was having contractions and then they worked for a little while to get the medication levels just right so that I was appropriately (and not overly) medicated.

All the while we were waiting for the doctor to arrive. They told me he`d come in, check me, and break my water. After that I would have my baby. Well, lunch time came and passed and he wasn`t able to make it. They told us he`d be in around 3pm, though. Then they came back and said he`d be in around 4pm. No worries... I wasn`t in a hurry, but I was curious about how far along I was. Then I started getting some anxiety about the baby coming and no one knowing, my nurse was great at reassuring me that anxiety was normal and I felt better after that.

Around 4:10 I thought I felt something weird going on, but wasn`t sure because I was numb. I asked my husband to check me because, crazy as it sounds, I thought my water broke. Sure enough! The nurse came right in and confirmed that my water had broken and she went ahead and checked me. She said, `Oh, I don`t feel any cervix, just head!` Woo hoo! Teddy was coming... but the doc still wasn`t there. My husband said he was prepared to deliver the baby himself ;)

The doctor showed up at abou 4:20 and they asked me to start some `practice` pushed a couple minutes later. I was so scared by that point because I was still numb and wasn`t sure if I could push or not, but three pushes later (including the `practice push`) Teddy was out!!! The first thing I heard when he came out was the doctor and the nurses saying `Whoah! That`s a big baby!` ... I figured they were just saying that, but it turns out he was 9 lbs 7 oz!!! We had no clue he was so big!!! My other kids were about 7 1/2 pounds each.

Because he was so big his blood sugar was low (it stabilized within a day, though) and they had to take him and do some stuff with him before I could rightly hold him (although they had put him on my tummy so that we could meet eachother right after he was born). Then the anesthesioligist came in and told me that I had to lay flat on my back for 24 hours to try an avoid getting a spinal headache from the too-deep epidural hole... so it was a while before I could sit up and hold him properly - but it was all worth it in the end. He`s wonderful and we`re so happy to have him in our lives!!!

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