FUN TIMES WITH THE FISHER'S: 39 + 5

I always knew Mason would be born on the 16th....until the 15th rolled around and I was having no contractions at all. My hips had about had it with this little boy planting himself on them for 9 months. He was head down my entire pregnancy and it was really beginning to wear on me. I went on a walk Sunday night around 6pm hoping that would help with contractions. No such luck. I left my mom's house that night around nine o'clock and told her as I walked out the door "he's not coming for at least another week." And I was dead serious. Little did I know a waterfall was about to explode. (Seriously, do not let anyone ever tell you that your water breaking is just a little trickle. It's not.) At 11:45 pm my water broke in bed. (Yay for mattress pads!) I was stunned. Literally. I didn't know what to do. I had not mentally rehearsed it happening like this, so I had no plan (and I need a plan). Dan turned on the light and we just stared at each other. Then I started laughing because the look on Dan's face told me that he had no plan either. In fact, his exact words were "I have no idea what is going on really. I'll google it" Um, we're having a baby honey. Once I turned my brain on I decided to get in the shower while Dan googled away. I wonder what he typed in exactly? I can only imagine. One 30 minute shower later (because that's how long it took for Niagara Falls to decide it was ok to calm down) I remembered my sister telling me to go straight to the hospital if my water ever broke. I called the nurse at the hospital and she told me to come in right away and they would check to see if my water was actually broken. I wanted to laugh when she told me that. I'm pretty sure I haven't been peeing my pants for the last 30 minutes. In fact, I think it's hilarious that the first thought pregnant women actually think of when their water breaks is "am I peeing?" lol so dumb. As if we go around wetting our pants for 9 months and can't tell the difference?! Denial is what I call it =). By 1am we were checking into the Family Birth Place. I knew the nurses didn't believe that my water had broken because I wasn't having any contractions at all. They weren't even going to put me in a real room at first, just an observation room. Once the nurse determined that it had actually broken, reality set in. We.are.having.a.freaking.baby. From here on everything went SO fast. They started pitocin and checked me around 2am and I was only at a 2 (I'd been a two for 2 weeks). Still no contractions. I asked the nurse when she thought I should call my mom to tell her to come in. She said to wait until morning and let her know that you're here and she can make her way in. I got the impression that she thought I wouldn't be having the baby until later in the evening on Monday. About 30 min later the pitocin kicked in. The contractions weren't too bad. They were bearable. At 3:30 my nurse checked me again and I was still at a 2 and the contractions were getting worse. Of course I started getting nauseated and throwing up, but I expected that because that's how I roll when I'm in pain. A little Zofran and we were back in contraction business. By this time Dan was sleeping on the most uncomfortable pull out bed I have ever seen in my life. Seriously, could we replace those at least once a decade?! At 5:00 my sister came into work. She works on the L&D floor so she got to come visit and check on me throughout the morning. At 6:00am I was only at a 3.5 and the contractions were terrible. I could no longer talk through them and the nurse had to remind me to breath. I tried really hard not to be dramatic about it. I've watched plenty of TLC's "It's a Baby Story" to know that people can get pretty annoying and dramatic while in labor, and I was determined not to be one of those. My nurse recommended that I get the epidural at that point because my cervix was so far back still and it wouldn't move forward unless I was relaxed. In fact her exact words were "you're getting an epidural girl!" I was amazed at how quickly the anesthesiologist was in my room. I was also amazed at how it seemed like it took forever to get the epidural in the right spot and working. I remember the Doctor telling me "about 10 more minutes and you should be feeling great" and I said "TEN WHOLE MINUTES? HOLY CRAP!" I thought I would die before the 10 minutes was up. But I lived. After the epidural kicked in I tried to rest. Around 8:00 am I decided to call my mom. Zayden had spent the night at her house the night before so I knew I needed to give her enough time to get Zayden ready and to his dad. At this point I was still thinking Mason wouldn't be here until that evening. The nurse checked me right before I called my mom and I was already at a 6. I told my mom not to rush, but that I was at a 6. Thirty minutes later Mason's heartbeat started to drop. The nurse quickly came in and said that we may have to turn off the pitocin if it kept happening. She checked me and I was at an 8. I hurried and called my mom and said "Uh, ok, maybe hurry a little." I did not want her to miss it. By 9 o'clock Mason's heart beat started dropping consistently. I was getting really nervous because I knew my nurse was in another delivery and no one had come in to check on me or Mason during the decels. I was about to push the nurse button when one of the other nurses came rushing in. She said she was going to check me because I was probably fully dilated. I remember saying "She just checked me a 20 minutes ago, there's no way." Her response? "You're a 10. I'll call your doctor in" I about died!

I called my mom and said "get here now!" She walked in the room right as I was pushing. phew! I was so relieved when she finally made it. Next thing I knew my Doctor was there with his big goofy smile. Seriously, the best word to describe him is "goober" He's just so relaxed and always has this big quirky smile on his face. I really like him though. It was weird to see him in jeans and a T-shirt. It's kind of like seeing your Bishop wearing anything but a suit. haha! Back to the story....The Doctor had me push about 5 times and BAM, our little guy was in the Doctors arms screaming his little brains out! Those first cries were so precious. Dan and I had said the whole pregnancy that we wouldn't believe we were really having a baby until we could see and hear him.

My first thought was how small he looked....and his head wasn't huge! (I had this irrational fear the whole pregnancy that he was big head Tod). My doctor had guessed that he would be around 8 lbs, so I was expecting a bigger baby.