Guess Who?!!!

So guess who has a new baby? We do!

Baby DB was born Monday at 9:28 p.m. He weighed 8.2 lb. and was 20.75 inches long. If you are interested the whole story read on. Also, if you want to know his whole name, email us at eastasiabrowns@pobox.com.

Monday morning I had an appointment to see my doctor. He checked me out and told me he was suprised I had not gone into labor over the weekend. Me being the ever positive thinker sarcastically thought, "I'm not"...I was a bit disappointed. I asked him about the possibility of being induced, but when he checked Labor and Delivery to see if there was room at the hospital to induce, they said the next available spot is next Monday. They were full. Talk about a let-down. We went ahead and scheduled it and hoped he would make an appearance before then.

In our hopes that my doctor would give me something to encourage my body into labor, we had stayed up the night before cleaning and preparing to hopefully have a baby on Monday. We even packed our van with the hospital suitcase, infant carrier and other things just in case. Afterwards they just served as a reminder to me that I should not get my hopes up to deliver this week and I even got onto myself for thinking we would actually deliver on Monday. I think I was being a little too hard on myself, but who can talk sense into a pregnant woman wanting to deliver her baby?

At 11am AB had an appointment to receive the first round of the dreaded travel injections. That is a whole story in itself, but essentially afterwards we took her to Chick-fil-a, with the playground, to try to cheer her up and let the injections work through her leg muscles. That is when my back first started to hurt. As I have said in other posts I have annoyingly strong Braxton Hicks contractions, and they usually also radiate through my back. Therefore, at that time I just dismissed it as another case of the same old stuff. Also they were not bad enough to keep me from walking back up to the counter and ordering a chocolate peppermint shake. I love those things.

When we got home AB was feeling pretty crummy and running a fever from the injections, so we gave her some medicine and put her down for her nap. KB put himself down for a nap, and I tried to take a nap...however, I was in a bit of pain and had a hard time falling asleep. Although I thought it was futile, I began timing my contractions. They were somewhat regular, but so were all those other cruely convincing contractions. I do not think I realized they were growing in intensity until I noticed the pain in my back was so strong that I could not feel the contractions in my abdomen. That was when I thought, "this is more like when I was in labor with AB." I talked with my mom and sister on the phone. They both encouraged me to get it checked out but I had a fear of going to the hospital and getting all embarassed when they tell me I am not in labor. I decided to wait.

However, by 4:45 p.m. I decided that I needed to go to the hospital. Either I was in labor or they were going to have to give me something to help my back because it hurt really really bad. I called my mom, and she made it to our house in record time. We asked her to tell no one we were going to the hospital. I did not want people to get all excited thinking I was in labor just to be told I was not in labor. We were in the van on the way to the hospital by 5 p.m.

I walked into Labor and Delivery at 5:30 p.m. I filled out some paperwork and sat down expecting to be seen quickly - after all I told them I was in labor. This is my one complaint about my delivery experience. At this particular hospital, they only see people in the order they arrive. So the 2 woman who arrived before me, and who were not in labor were seen before me. Guess how long I waited just for someone to confirm I was in labor, just guess. I waited an hour and a half. I sat in the waiting room, in one of those hard waiting room chairs with all the family members of all the other people waiting for babies to be born having contractions for an hour and a half...does anyone else see anything wrong with that? Does anyone else think that is cruel? I think "in labor" should put someone at the front of the line. By the time I was called back to triage, there were about 8 pregnant ladies behind me waiting to be seen. They probably waited a long time, and I really hope none of their babies were in a life or death situation because L&D was not going to be hurried that day.

At 7:10 p.m. they took me into triage, and at 7:20 p.m. they confirmed I was in labor and dilated to 5. By 7:30 p.m. I was settling in a L&D room and all of our family was notified I was in labor.

I had back labor with AB, and it was apparent I was also having it with this baby because my back hurt so badly I could not even feel my uterus contracting. Therefore from the moment I walked into triage I told every medical professional I saw that I wanted an epidural. I probably told 8 people. It worked because I had a wonderful epidural in my back by 8:10 p.m., which is also the time my doctor walked into my room. By 8:30 p.m. my water was broken and I was dilated to 7.

After my water was broken KB and I began to settle in for however long it was going to take to dilate the last 3 centimeters. I freshened up my makeup. We made sure the camera was ready, and KB found the TV remote. At about 9 p.m., before we could even select a TV show to watch, I began to feel pain in my lower abdomen. I thought this was odd since I had an epidural, but I thought maybe they needed to (I am going to sound so technical when I say this) turn it up. I called my nurse and in the 2-3 minutes it took for her to make it to my room, the pain had gone from annoying to very sharp. She said she needed my doctor take a look at me to make sure everything was okay. Much to everyone's surprise, apparently in those 30 minutes I had become fully dilated and effaced.

In the next few minutes the room was prepared and then I began pushing. After about 3 or 4 minutes our baby was born at 9:28 p.m. He was healthy and absolutely beautiful. Hanging above the bed I delivered on are some shiny lights, and I was able to see the whole event in their reflection. Although a little gross, it was amazing. Also, since my epidural was not all that "turned up," I was able to feel him coming out of me. It was a unique feeling, and I am really glad I was able to experience it.

The whole thing went so fast. Just 2 hours after being admitted, our precious baby boy was in our arms. Even 2 days later that still amazes me.

We are home now. AB met DB for the first time today, and as far as we can tell she is cool with him. She likes to give him kisses on his head and to bring him his Curious George stuffed doll. I think DB looks like a boy version of AB. The only difference is his dark hair, and we think he has KB's nose. Most of our good pictures are on my dad's camera. We will post them once I get a chance to download them.

We are exhausted and happy. It is perfect.