Our Owen's Arrival

Wow, this post is much later than I thought it would be, but being a new mom is tough… plus those “baby blues” have gotten me down a bit lately. But I thought that I would document, more for myself/journal entry, the events that lead up to our dear little boy coming. We are so happy to have him in our lives. He is one special, healthy, happy, and pretty darn cute little guy!

His arrival story all started Thursday 2/4 when I went to the doctor for my routine checkup. After all the same old check-ups they took my blood pressure, and saw that it was a little high. I had to lay on my left side for about 15 minutes, and then they came back to take it again. It went down a bit but not enough for them to feel "comfortable" about everything. So then they sent for some more tests and told me that if everything didn't really check out I would be induced the next day!! So you can imagine my surprise, anxiety, and excitement! It was so surreal to think that I could potentially be having a baby within the next 24 hours! However, after a few hours of excitement and anxiety the doctor's office called and said that everything still looked okay. But there really was no advantage to waiting, so he told me to pretty much pick a day next week to be induced and have the baby!!! He told me that Tuesday he had an opening at 6 AM, and that sounding pretty good to me! There we had it all scheduled out, I would be induced Tuesday 2/9/2010, and we would finally be parents.

I spent Thursday and Friday making lists of things I needed to get before the baby, and trying to catch up on all the house cleaning. Friday was supposed to be more of a productive day, but all day I had been feeling extremely uncomfortable and just "off." So I made a rather large "To-Do" list for Shad and I to accomplish on Saturday to get all ready for this little boy. Friday night we decided to have a final night out with some friends going out to eat and playing games. Around 10:30 I was completely beat and wanted to get to bed before our big day of baby prep. So Shad and I settled down into bed, put on a movie, and were just about to drift to sleep... when I feel an odd sensation. I told Shad that the baby just kicked me pretty hard, and suddenly I thought I had to pee. I said "Oh no, the baby just kicked me in the bladder, and now I'm peeing!" However, the rush of fluid kept coming uncontrollably, and so then I was worried I was bleeding! Shad looked at me with big eyes, and said "Um... Honey, I think your water just broke!" After the realization settled in that indeed my water broke, Shad and I jumped out of bed in a panic! WE STILL HAD 3 DAYS TO PREPARE... this could not happen now... here at 11:15 PM on Friday night! I rushed off to the bathroom trying to control the fluid rushing out of me, while Shad raced around the house in a slight panic trying to get our bags packed. He called my parents immediately in excitement/panic as we tried to calm ourselves to get going to hospital. We called the hospital, finally got our bags together, and controlled the fluid still gushing out of me. And 45 minutes later we checked into the hospital and started our long night of labor.

The night was somewhat surreal, Shad and I both couldn't believe that this was actually happening, that our lives where about to drastically change in the next 24 hours. After all the checkin procedures I was hooked up to all sorts of monitors, IV, and started on the hormones to get the labor really going. After a few hours the contractions were starting to come and go pretty regularly and both Shad and I were starting to get pretty sleepy. They brought in a nice cot for Shad to snooze on and told me to try and get some rest considering it would be a while before baby would get here. However, around 3 AM my contractions were coming every 3-4 minutes and were pretty intense, so sleep seemed unlikely. They told me I would need to go a bit longer before the epidural, but offered me some pain killers to help me sleep. Not really knowing what they were offering me I said yes, because I was so tired and hurting. They injected me with this medication and it immediately knocked me out, and made me feel woozy and like I was swimming underwater. NOT GOOD. However, it did the trick for at least 2 hours and I was able to sleep somewhat through some of my contractions. Finally around 6 AM I was able to get the epidural and was dilated to around a 4. Once I had the epidural I was finally able to get some sleep a little bit and relax...I couldn’t feel a thing! However, the effects from the previous medication really took a toll on me and I was still feeling really out of it, and dizzy. Unfortunately, that nasty effect lasted all day, and I was pretty much in and out of it all day, as well as nauseous and throwing up from it.

As the morning progressed I was doing pretty good dilating and having regular strong contractions. The doctors and nurses got a little worried there that his head was perhaps positioned wrong and did a quick ultrasound to make sure he was in the right place and not too big. Again, they told me he was probably going to be around an 8 pound baby. Then around 11 AM I sort of stopped progressing and dilating, I was stuck at a 6. The doctor came and told me that she wanted to wait another hour, but if I didn’t show any more progress we might have to look into C-section options. YIKES! Shad and I really were hoping not to have to go that route, so we immediately did some hard praying that it wouldn’t come to that. In the meantime, Shad and I were still discussing name options for Owen, Shad had loved the name Owen from the beginning, but I had a hard time accepting it. We had a spreadsheet of a few names that we liked and finally narrowed it down to Owen or Nathan. After a couple of hours of sleeping and name discussing, our prayers were definitely answered, because suddenly, it seems like I went form a 6 to a 9 in a short time, and by 1 PM we were getting ready to have this baby!!!

Perhaps the weirdest sensation was feeling him drop down, and feeling the pressure there when I finally hit 10 centimeters. Then...it happened... the urge came to push around 1:50 PM and the room suddenly filled with lots of people ready to catch this baby! Being one of the only patients at the hospital that day really paid off to have lots of attention for both Owen and I. So I had lots of encouragement from all the nurses and doctors there as I was trying to push. Lots of people in the room, granted I felt a little exposed, but nothing they haven’t seen before, right?!? Shad was at my side the entire time, encouraging me and really making me feel like I could do this! I was a little worried about how he would handle the entire thing, because he tends to be a little squirmy with blood and that stuff, but he handled it like a champ! He was so great, and so happy to watch our little man arrive! Finally, after 30 minutes of pushing, our little Owen came into the world Saturday 2/6/2010 at 2:20 PM, weighing only 6 pounds 12 ounces, 19.5 inches long, and lots of dark hair!!! Shad and I looked at him, and agreed (as well as all the nurses!) that he was defiantly an Owen Sakari. Sakari, being my father's middle name, and the Finnish spelling and pronunciation of Zachary. Just Perfect.

One of the best moments in my life was hearing his little cry when he arrived and seeing that he was a happy, healthy little guy. Completely perfect, and completely pure. This last week and a half with him has been surreal, hard, wonderful, and totally rewarding. Shad and I really can’t get enough of his smiles, stretches, cries, and snuggle time! We are so lucky to have this perfect little baby in our lives.

Here are some pictures of our little guy, and his birth day:

Father and Son... Love this:

One PROUD momma!

Our new little family:

Owen's first bath, lots of hair!!!

New Grandparents!

And just because he's SO cute: