Isaac's Arrival

For those of you that have asked me, here is Isaac's birth story. On Tuesday, August 25th, the day started off as it always does and I felt no different than before. I even had gone to the junior high and taken faculty photos. Little did I know that night things would change! My last appointment was on the 18th and I was dilated to 2 cm and was 75% effaced, baby was still pretty high. I had set up an induction at that appointment for Thursday, August 27th and given how good I had been feeling, I thought for sure I would make it til then. However, after going to bed around 9 p.m. on Tuesday night (the 25th) I woke up to a contraction around 11:39 p.m. I coincidentally had to use the bathroom so I did so and layed back down only to be woken up again by another contraction 6 minutes later just after I had dozed off again. I turned the TV on so I could pay attention to the contractions, however, another 6 minutes later I decided to wake up Ken. I told him I was going to hop in the shower and see if they went away since they weren't really painful and I also called my dad to give him a heads up in case we decided to head in and needed someone to come to the house while the boys slept. After getting in the shower, I had yet another contraction and decided we should probably head in just to be safe since my last labor was only a couple hours. We left around midnight or a little after for the hospital. Ken was a nervous wreck and was driving like a maniac not wanting to deliver the baby in the car, even though I kept telling him I wasn't sure it was the real thing because I wasn't hurting. I just kept glancing at my phone ever time I had a contraction to keep track of them and they were consistently 6 minutes apart. However, halfway down division they started coming every 4 minutes and then I thought ok, this must be the real thing. We walked into the ER and were wheeled up to the birthplace at exactly 1:08 a.m. I remember the time because I had to write it on my consent form, LOL. I had a lovely welcoming committee of former coworkers ready to check me in. I walked down to my labor room, got in my gown and was put on the monitor. When they checked me, I was dilated 5 cm, 95% effaced with a bulging bag of water. I couldn't believe I was that far along and wasn't even sure if I was really in labor! The doctor on call for my office that night was already in house so they expected him to come up and rupture me, hopefully to have a baby shortly thereafter. However, after about an hour or so without him showing up, my nurse offered to check me again to see if there had been any change--if there hadn't, I was given the option of IV pain medication or there was still the option of an epidural. My husband and I had the epidural discussion shortly after getting there, where he tried to convince me to get it as "this was going to hurt him more than it would hurt me" if I didn't get it. HAHA. I told my nurse, if there hasn't been any change I may very well consider some IV pain relief as the contractions were starting to hurt. When she checked me, she immediately said "yeah..no pain meds for you" and I replied "what am I, like 6 or 7?" and she said "um, no, you're 9"! I couldn't believe it and knew right then that if I was ok at 9 cm, I could do it with nothing. The doctor came in at about 2:45-2:50ish and broke my water and then we waited...I think 3 minutes had passed and with the next contraction my body started to push and I asked if it was normal (I just didn't think it would happen that quick!) and the doc said "normal if you're about to deliver a baby!" and so he came and checked my cervix and gave me the go-ahead to push when I felt the urge. Isaac Gregory Pegram was born at 3:01 a.m. and was perfect in every way! I felt so wonderful to have birthed him completely naturally--words cannot explain the feeling. Ken sat down after delivery when I first breastfed Isaac, looked at me and said, "I can't believe you just did that." I had such a wonderful team of nurses and techs in there for the delivery, I couldn't have asked for a better experience. We are so blessed to have another healthy son.