Parker's birth

I'm recording this now before I forget much more else about Parker's birth. Already a lot of it is a blur!!

I had a doctor's appointment on Thursday June 4. At my appointment, I had an exam and my doctor told me I had progressed to 3 centimeters dilated and about 80% effaced. More than the week before, but still not a lot of progress. We discussed my options and decided to make an appointment for June 10 (Weds.) to do an ultrasound. If everything looked good then, she would induce me as my due date was June 8.

Friday June 5 I had contractions off and on all day, and was generally very uncomfortable. I visited with my mom for a little bit and then had the urge to do a lot of cooking. 1 chicken pot pie, 2 servings of spaghetti and meatballs, 2 bags of salsa chicken and 1 large bag of beef stew later, our freezer was full!!

Friday night I had an AMAZING night sleep. Looking back, I think my body knew what was about to happen. I woke up Saturday morning and had a lot of mucous discharge (sorry, TMI). But I didn't really have many contractions and felt pretty good. I made Chris and I cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and Chris decided to start painting the 1/2 bathroom downstairs. I started to get a little antsy, so went upstairs and pulled out an old sewing project.

I was starting to have some contractions that were getting a little strong, but they were not regular and very far apart. Then around 10:00, I felt what I thought might be my water break. It was not a big gush of fluid, but more some fluid where I thought "did I just pee on myself?" I called the on-call doctor who said the only way to know was to come in to the hospital. Chris and I talked and we decided to finish up what we were doing (painting and sewing), have some lunch and then head to the hospital.

Around 11am Chris stopped painting and made some lunch. I sat down to eat but wasn't very hungry, and the contractions were getting much stronger. Around 11:15 I told Chris that maybe we should move a little quicker towards going to the hospital. By 11:30 I was pretty much screaming and crying with every contraction and telling Chris we needed to leave NOW. I called my mom to take care of Biscuit, Chris packed up our stuff and we left the house for the last time just the two of us.

Chris drove about 90 mph the entire way to the hospital because he could tell I was in such pain. The contractions were about 2-3 minutes apart and so painful. When we got to the hospital around 12, Chris had to go get a wheelchair for me because I couldn't walk, they were so painful and so close together. We were in triage for about 30-45 minutes before they determined that my water had broken and I was indeed in labor.

I was moved to a LDR room and my mom met us there. Thankfully the nurses could tell that I was in a lot of discomfort and when they hooked up my monitor, they were like "no wonder!" The contractions were basically on top of each other. The nurse hand delivered my bloodwork to the lab and they called in anesthesia.

The epidural took a little longer to place than normal because I kept jumping around. It was so hard to sit so still and relaxed during the contractions, and my back reflexes (all crazy from my back surgery) didn't help. Thankfully the anesthesiologist was able to get the epidural in place around 2pm. What relief!! It made my left leg totally numb and dead, but I didn't care.

The epidural slowed down the labor and contractions, so they started me on Pitocin. With the epidural, I could tell I was having contractions but they no longer hurt. Chris' parents came to visit for a little while and we watched a bunch of tv. Every so often they would check me and I was making some progress, but not fast enough so they'd increase the pitocin. Finally at 12:30am they said I was complete and could start pushing.

Around 1:15 I started pushing. It was really hard for several reasons: I couldn't feel my legs so it was hard to know what I was doing, it was hard with my back and neck to get into the position they wanted, and my arms got really tired holding my legs up. I pushed for over an hour, but it didn't seem like it at all. Then they said he was really close and I'd have to really push as hard as I could.

It was the hardest thing I've ever done in my entire life, but I kept going and finally at 2:32am William Parker Ashford was born. They had to use the vacuum to help get him out, and I had some bleeding complications immediately after. According to Chris, they were getting ready to prep me for a c-section because he was getting stuck. I'm so glad I kept at it and that he was able to be born vaginally. He had an initial Apgar score of an 8 and a 10 minute score of 9. 100% healthy and 100% perfect.

Since I had some bleeding complications and some tearing, it took a while for me to recover and for them to take out the epidural. We got moved to an upstairs room around 7am. We stayed there for 2 days and finally went home on Tuesday June 9.

Welcome to the world William Parker! We love you so much and are so blessed to be your parents.