Zachary's Birth Story

Zachary arrived a little earlier than we were expecting. What a sweet surprise?!? I was more than happy to have him out of my belly and in my arms. Here's a quick recap of how things happened to get him here. It has to be quick because life with two little ones is crazy! We are loving this adventure, though!

-Woke up at 2:00 Wednesday morning with painful but irregular contractions. Continued to feel bad and have contractions all day Wednesday. Went to bed praying for some sleep.

-Woke up at 3:00 Thursday morning with painful contractions again. I'm pretty sure I cried and prayed that those contractions would turn into labor because I just knew I couldn't deal with them for another 11 days.

-Got up to take a bath at about 5:00 because I was so uncomfortable and didn't want to bother Derek.

-At 6:00 I had to ask Derek to come help me out of the tub because I was in so much pain that I could hardly move. He came in the bathroom and started timing my contractions. They were about 2 minutes apart. He asked if I wanted to call the doctor. I told him not to because I didn't want to go in for false labor.

-Started dry heaving because of the pain. When that started I finally insisted that Derek call my doctor. She asked me to go on to the hospital and get checked out.

-Since I still had 11 days until my due date I hadn't finished packing my hospital bag. We also had no idea what exactly we were going to do with Joshua. Derek's mom had planned on keeping him for us, but his sister was scheduled for surgery that day. His mom had been telling me that I was absolutely not allowed to go into labor on the 11th because of Tabitha's surgery. Derek went into super-dad mode and finished packing for me and packed a bag for Joshua.

-We called our friends Nichole and Greg and they told us to bring Joshua to them. Later on we talked to David, and he said they would be more than happy to come get Joshua and take him to their house for our hospital stay.

-On the way to Greg and Nichole's house we got stopped at a stoplight that cycled through 3 times, skipping our lane every time. I was seriously about to start swearing.

-Dropped Joshua off at about 8:00, and he cried as Derek took him in Nichole's house. Joshua has never once cried or not wanted to go to his buddy Ayden's house. He knew something was up and knew that I was in some serious pain. I felt terrible about how we parted ways with him. I also didn't get to properly tell him goodbye or give him some mommy loving before we left.

-Got to hospital at about 8:15 and was immediately taken to a room when I told them my contractions were 2 minutes apart.

-My awesome nurse, Holly, checked me, and I was 4 cm dilated.

- She asked about my preference for pain management. I asked for an epidural as quickly as possible. She then asked if I wanted something to "take the edge off." Thinking back to my labor with Joshua and how I hated those drugs I told her I would just deal with it until I got an epidural.

-Had my arms and left hand stuck 3 times for an IV with no luck. An anesthesiologist was called in to get an IV in. She was successful with my right hand...ouch! Fluids for the epidural and antibiotics for GBS were finally started.

-Got my epidural at 10:15 am.

-I had been having chills and had a low fever. My fever kept going up so Dr. Maydew decided it was best to get the baby out. She broke my water at 10:30 am.

-Was started on two new antibiotics for the fever since they didn't know what was causing it.

-My mom got to the hospital at a few minutes before 11:00 am.

-Stayed at 4 cm for a while, so Dr. Maydew decided to give me some pitocin to make things progress.

-At 1:30 pm I finally started making some progress and was 6 cm when the nurse checked me. She said she didn't think it would be long and started getting things ready for the baby.

-At 2:00 I told Holly that I was feeling so much pressure "down there" and felt like I was getting ready to "potty" on the bed. Okay, sorry if you didn't want to know that part.

-She checked me, and I was already at 10 cm and said the baby's head was right there ready to come out.

-She insisted that I wait for the doctor before I started to push because she didn't think it would take long. (With Joshua I pushed with my nurse for a good 30 - 40 minutes before the doctor came in.)

-Started pushing at 2:09 pm and our precious little Zachary was born at 2:19 pm.

-He weighed 6 lb 15 oz and was 19 in long. He was pudgy and oh so cute and had semi-long brown hair.

-After spending a little time with us and having a great nursing session with mommy the nurse checked him out and said she needed to take him to the special care nursery. His breathing was very rapid and he was having to work extra hard to breathe.

-That was very hard for me to hear.

-He spent such little time with us that we didn't even get a picture of my mom with him. She stayed with us at the hospital all day and was in the room when he was born and we have no proof. It was also very weird to be in the hospital after having a baby and not having your baby with you.

-He was finally brought back to us at about 6:15 pm. He had worked his issues out and seemed perfectly healthy. What they think caused his rapid breathing was the fact that I only pushed for 10 minutes and that wasn't sufficient to squeeze all of the fluid out of his lungs.

-Sadly Joshua had already left with David and Pamela to go to their house before Zachary was brought back to us. I was so so sad that he came expecting to meet his baby brother and was not able to.

-David surprised us Friday night by bringing Joshua to see us!! We had told him not to worry about it and that we would just see him on Saturday when they brought him home. We hated for them to keep driving back and forth since they live an hour away from the hospital.

-We stayed in the hospital until Saturday and were finally released to go home around lunch time. With Joshua I was terrified to leave the hospital. This time around I was so ready to get out of there by Friday afternoon.

-We reunited with Joshua Saturday afternoon and were so happy to finally be together as a family of four!