Michael Erik's Birth Story

I can't believe our baby boy will already be 2 weeks old tomorrow! Here is his story:

I was scheduled to be induced on Thursday, 10/27 due to ongoing High Blood Pressure for me. The plan was to administer Cervidil and then 12 hours later give me Pitocin.  I was told to call the hospital at 6pm to see if they had a room. I called at 6, they said call back at 7. I called at 7 and they said call back at 10. My husband had a baseball game at 8, so we decided to put the hospital bags in the car and to go to his game. At 10 I called the hospital and they were ready for us. When we got there they were finishing cleaning my room, so we waited. Finally it was time to get this show on the road. By the time we got settled in the room, got me hooked up to the monitors, signed all the consents it was 3am. The nurse checked me and I was at 3-4cm without even knowing it. (I had been 1cm for 2 weeks, last checked 2 days before and I was not having contractions that I was aware of.) They decided to have me skip the Cervidil to start getting my body ready, it was doing that on it's own. They decided to let me rest for a few hours and at 6am Friday 10/28 they would administer the Pitocin. So, we did just that (except I didn't sleep)

The Pitocin was given to me at about 7am. Around 10am my dr came and broke my water. At that point the contractions were getting stronger and coming close together. I was at 6cm and asked for my epidural. Having contractions while getting an epidural is not fun, but about 10 min later I felt great. I could still feel pressure when I was having a contraction (which became VERY uncomfortable towards the end), but no pain. It was perfect. Around 11:30 I started feeling an enormous amount of pressure with each contraction and the babies heart rate dipped briefly. I told Erik that I think it was time to push. The nurse came in to check me and determined I was ready to push in about 10 minutes. My mom had run down to get some lunch and I called her and told her to get back now, this was happening so fast.

I started pushing around 11:50 and at 12:11pm our beautiful baby boy was born. He weighs 5lb, 13oz and is 18in long.  It was the most amazing experience. I really thought I was not pushing hard enough, but before I knew it he was on my chest. The experience was SO amazing! They took him over to the incubator to check him out, but he was not turning a nice pink color. The nurse and Erik went with him to the NICU for over an hour. I was so worried. Turns out he swallowed quiet a bit of amniotic fluid. They took it out and monitored him for awhile and he started doing better. He did develop Jaundice pretty bad and had to be monitored for another day. We got to come home on Sunday and his Jaundice cleared on Tuesday.

He is such a good baby, so easy going. We just love him to pieces. It's been amazing watching my husband turn into a daddy! I'm a mommy! It's just awesome. We can't wait to share him with the world. He truly is our miracle baby. After my cancer diagnosis 8 years ago, we didn't know if we could get pregnant. Here we are now with this huge blessing.