We welcomed our newest little blessing, Isaac James on 9/22/11 at 5:34 a.m. One of my prayer requests during this pregnancy was to go into labor on my own, avoiding another induction. While my inductions had been very smooth, I just wanted to experience labor without pitocin. I had been having pre-labor for 2 1/2 weeks before my due date and it was getting a little old. Every night, I'd have contractions 5 mins apart for an hour or two and then they would stop. The night of the 21st they were much more painful and got to 2-4 mins apart. I could still talk through them and do housework, so I told Gus to take Nathan to AWANA as I was sure it would stall out. While he was on his way, they got more intense and I knew it was the real deal. So I called my parents to come over and my Dad would pick up Nathan. Gus and I headed to the hospital and I was admitted around 8:30 p.m. Contractions were still very tolerable and I was 4-5 cms. I probably could have been at home a little longer, but my inductions had been 4-5 hours start to finish, so we didn't know how fast things could go.
Contractions gradually became more painful, but I managed them well sitting in a ring position, walking around and listening to K Love. Gus was able to sleep a little bit during that part! Around 3 in the morning, the nurse wanted to check my progress as the contractions were intense, but still spaced out. I was 7 c.m.. She mentioned pitocin, but felt I was progressing well enough without it. I continued what I had been doing and it was getting really intense. I needed to go to the bathroom and on the way there, the contractions really intensified. I decided I wanted an epidural. During the 15 min wait for it, I started feeling the urge to push. The anesthesiologist was there, so he got started, but while I was sitting on the edge of the bed, I really couldn't stop pushing. So the nurse had me lay down and got the doctor to check me. I was complete, but my water still hadn't broken and he was concerned about a risk of prolapsed cord if I pushed with the water intact as there was a bulging pocket of fluid. I agreed to have my water broken and then the pushing became very intense. The doctor told our nurse to have me start pushing and he'd come in when we were ready. I told him that I am a fast deliverer and he might want to stick around, but he didn't. On the first real push, Isaac crowned, so the nurse had me stop and called the doctor and the NICU team (had meconium in the fluid). Not pushing is not an easy thing to do! As the doctor was walking in, Isaac was coming out and there wasn't much I could do to stop that. Everyone started yelling at me to stop pushing, but I really couldn't. The doctor lunged across the room, not even having time to put his gloves on and caught him. Apparently the cord was around his neck twice, so the doctor had to hold him in while unwrapping it quickly. Thankfully, it didn't cause any problems at all and Isaac scored a full 10 on his Apgar. Gus was so excited to announce that it was a boy and we were so in love at first sight. We had two names picked out for a boy and we both easily agreed that he looks like an Isaac. His name means "laughing one" and it is our prayer that he is always filled with joy and laughter and is as trusting as the Isaac of the Bible. I have two uncles named James, but really it is just a name that we both liked and it is a book of the Bible which we love as well.
I was really happy to have my prayer answered about my body starting labor on its own this time. It was much more tolerable pain wise and I was happy to have gone without pain medication, even though I obviously wanted it at the end!! But I was also happy because the cord could have been an issue if my water had broken earlier, so we could clearly see God's hand over the whole process.
Here are a few pictures of our little guy and his siblings meeting him for the first time.
We came home from the hospital on Saturday and are adjusting well. A lot of that is due to the fact that Isaac is such an easy baby right now. He nurses well, sleeps well, and just quietly looks around when he's awake. At his 4 day old appointment with the pediatrician, he had already gained weight from his birth weight of 7 lbs 2 oz. Always a blessing! I'm sure we'll have some interesting days ahead as we transition to being outnumbered by our children, but so far, so good!
