A year already?

One year ago today I had doctor's appointment. It was on a Wednesday and I was supposed to find out what time I was going to be induced that Friday. Well, as it was with most of my pregnancy, it did not go as expected. By this time I was have weekly stress tests (they hook you up to a fetal monitor), because of the pre-eclampsia to make sure Owen was doing ok. They were picking up a lot of contractions, which I couldn't even feel. I had this happen a couple of weeks prior to this, but they gave me a shot to stop them. This time they decided to let it go and to move my induction up to that day!

Brian was out meeting customer's that day. He was being trained to take over the outside sales position with his company and was meeting all of his new contacts. My appointment was at 9 and they wanted to me to go straight from the doctor's office to the hospital. I convinced the doctor (who wasn't even my doctor because it was his day off) to at least let me run home and grab my bag. So I called Brian and told him that "today was the day!" We met at home, I through together what I thought we would need and we headed back up to Rockford.

It was a pretty long and boring process at first. I had to be on an IV for 12 hours before they would give me the pitocin to start the contractions. I wasn't allowed to eat during this time...so I was bored, starving, anxious, nervous, excited...basically just a big ball of emotions! My dad came up to hang out with Brian and I while we waited. Bailey came up also, as she was going to be there for the birth.

Finally a little after midnight I was able to get up and move around and have something to eat! My dad had brought me Jimmy Johns, so I scarfed that down...BAD IDEA! I never want to be in labor on a full stomach again! I felt miserable...ugh! They did warn me in my prenatal class not to do that, but I was so hungry that I didn't care or really think that it applied to me. I mean heck...I wasn't even supposed to have the baby until the next afternoon!

They started me on the Pitocin around 2 am. Owen did not like it. His heartbeat stopped being all over the place and settled around 145 bpm. Apparently this is not good...it should have some variability to it. So flat on my back I went. Have you ever had to get through a contraction lying still on your back? I don't recommend it! They lowered the amount of Pitocin that I was getting and then eventually stopped it after maybe 2 hours? I could already tell that I was going to have my handsful with this child. He wanted things done on his terms! But as luck would have it...his terms meant "I want out...NOW!" Very soon after they took me off of the Pitocin my water broke. That was a weird feeling! I just remember saying "OH" very loudly because it really took me by surprise. My contractions were still small (or so the monitor said) but getting pretty painful. While I suffered through them my support team slept on the cot next to me...thanks Brian and Bailey :-)

I was progressing pretty quickly so they decided to go ahead and get set up to give me the epidural...because YES I wanted drugs! Well remember how I said that the monitor read that I was having small contractions? Yeah well...it lied! Apparently the thing wasn't on the right spot on my belly and so it wasn't fully picking the contractions up. The whole time I just kept thinking...if this is a small contraction what is a big one going to feel like???

Well as they were rolling the cart in to get the epidural going I felt this tremendous urge to push. I voiced this to the nurse, who after giving me a shocked looked said "don't do that you're going to have to hold back the urge." YEAH RIGHT. I had lost total control of my body. It did not matter what anyone other than this child wanted...he had taken over! Needless to say...there was no epidural. From what I'm told, I then proceeded to call the nurse a few nasty names...oops!

Well about about three pushes and one second after the doctor got his gloves on, Owen arrived. Our perfect little boy greeted the world at 6:18 am on August 6, 2009. He was 7 lbs and 18.5 inches long. I immediately stopped caring about the lack of epidural, the 15 people in the room, and everything else for that matter. It was like my whole life up until that moment didn't really matter. I honestly never knew I could love anyone that much. And now, one year later, I am still amazed. Everyday I look at Owen in complete awe. It is incredible to think that Brian and I made this perfect human being. So tomorrow is going to be a bittersweet day for me. I am so thrilled to have reached this milestone as a family...our first baby's first birthday. But I am also faced with how incredibly fast this past year has gone. To think that there will only be 17 more of them before he goes off to face the world as an adult is just too much. If only we could make time slow down just a bit?