Finally!!! A Baby!!!!

It's a Boy!

Aubrey Shepherd

Born at 6:22 PM January 5th

Weighing in at 8 pounds

He's a long one at 21 3/4 inches

For those who want the whole scoop:

Our midwife came over around 1:30 to check me.  We let her know that we were thinking of going to the hospital and that we wanted to first see where I was, knowing that the ER wouldn't admit me until I was at least 4 cm dilated.  Low and behold I was 6 to 7 cm dilated, just a wee bit off from hitting transition.  I seriously was doubting I could handle anymore of this labor, as it had picked up and I was having strong contractions every 4 minutes for two hours at that point.  My blood pressure was high, my pulse fast and thready, so clearly I wasn't handling it the best.  The baby's heart tones were fine.  But then she checked for his positioning.  After three long attempts at getting him to turn during this labor he was STILL posterior.  As soon as I heard that I *knew* I needed to go to the hospital.  With the way the labor was already going, and knowing it was following a typical posterior labor, I knew I had a lot more work ahead of me.  So off we went.  I did start having some transition contractions in the van.  Not fun. But the Lord was merciful, and gave me a longer time between the contractions, and several that were very easy.

I was very concerned that checking in would take a long time.  Oh, my, was I wrong.  As soon as they saw me, one lady quickly motioned for me to come over to her and asked how far along I was.  I told her 6 cm, and I never saw a wheel chair come up so quick!!  We were whisked off to labor and delivery.  It took them a few minutes up there to check me, and get some info.  I was able to get into a room and had my IV put in all within 15 minutes!  It was funny because the nurse asked me to sit down before she put the pain meds into my IV.  I told her I could only handle the contractions (which were now coming every 2 minutes) if I was standing and could I please wait to sit until the meds took effect.  Ha!  She told me they would hit me within 3 to 5 SECONDS, and that I would be feeling dizzy at first, which is why I needed to be sitting.  I was seriously doubting it could act that quick, as I've never experienced anything like this.  But she was right on!  Five seconds later, I was in la-la land :-)  The next contraction hit about 30 seconds later and I felt just a tinge of pain.  After that no pain, just the huge pressure feeling.  Oh, it was amazing.  I was sooooo tired, and to be able to get a break like that was such a blessing.  I was able to put my head back and just relax.  I think it was an hour or so later that I asked about being checked as I know that "normally" transition lasts an hour for me.  Imagine my surprise when I found out I was still only 8 cm dilated, which is what I was when I got to the hospital.  The doctor came in a few minutes later and broke my water.  About three contractions later I had to push.  And push I did, and push and push and push!  For almost two hours!!!  That posterior position AND the fact that he had the biggest head of all our kids really packed a double whammy.  Even with the rest I got from the meds, I was totally exhausted by the end, begging them to just get the suction machine and get him out.  But they insisted that I could do it.  And I did, I'm not sure how because it seemed totally impossible at the time.  But during one of those pushing contractions he finally, finally, finally budged free.  It was quick after that.  They did whisk him off to suction him as he had meconium.  Thankfully they did not have to do the deep suctioning as he cried immediately after coming out.  I think his APGARs were an 8 and 9.  So he was a kickin and a screamin :-)  I, myself, had my eyes closed and trying to finally breath, and restrain myself from pounding on Jeremiah.  Seriously it was so painful I was hitting him!!!  Not that I was thinking about what I was doing, I wasn't exactly in my right state of mind with the pain.  Thankfully he totally understood and told me I could pound on him all I wanted.  It was after he said that that I realized I was hitting him!  Ha, ha!

They finally got Aubrey suctioned and handed him over to us.  Oh, he is sooooo beautiful!  The one good thing my kids have going for them as far as newborn looks go is that their heads don't get all mashed up and molded.  Bad for me, good for them.  We got a bit cleaned up and they transferred us to another room.  All of the nurses, doctors and staff have been wonderful!  I mean, seriously I feel very blessed by our experience here.  We had a wee bit of a concern as one of the doctors came in to tell us that we would have to stay another day as they needed to have blood work back before we could take off. They had to take labs on Aubrey and myself for beta strep.  And we were told that they need to wait at least 44 hours after to go home.  On top of that there was a chance that there may not be a room open for me to stay.  I would stay somewhere, one way or the other as I refuse to leave my baby, but that certainly wasn't something we were hoping that we would have to be face with.  A little while later a couple of chaplains came in to see if they could do anything for us.  We asked for prayer about the situation.  Then a couple of hours later another doctor came in. And I have never met a more wonderful doctor yet (well, actually I think our family doctor matches exclusive level ;-)).  At first I was a bit freaked out as he was a neonatalologist, and said something about talking to us about the beta strep protocol.  I was wondering if they got the blood work back and something bad had come up.  Ends up he was there to tell us what the protocol states, things like 96% of babies would exhibit sepsis in the first 24 hours if they were to get sick.  He said he knew we had other children waiting for us to get home and that we were clearly seasoned parents and he felt confident that we knew what we needed to look out for in a sick baby.  He said that it was pretty common sense, and that the 48 rule was for those that didn't know these things.  He didn't feel that we needed to be lumped in and be made to stay longer because of that rule.  How amazing is that?!  He then stuck around talking to us about all sorts of interesting things (immunizations, cell phone usage, diet).  He even asked US if he was taking up our time!!??  So we should be going home tonight!!!  Yeah.

I know I was getting so angry with God the other day.  But now I can see how He had been preparing me for all that has happened.  And He was so gracious to have blessed us by it all!!!  I had felt from the beginning that this was going to be a totally different, and hard.  I kept having people talk to me about "just in case" scenarios (revolving around going to the hospital), which is not normal.  I have to admit that had someone told me I was going to have to go to the hospital with one of our other four homebirth babies, I would have freaked out.  Um, can we say "idol"?  We can make an idol of anything or anyone.  In this case I believe homebirth was an idol for me.  But the Lord was good enough to soften that for me, and prepare me for it.  Don't get me wrong, I was still having some difficulty with it, but more on the level of I felt like I was a failure.  On top of what the Lord was preparing in me, He also gave my sister the need to pray for us at a certain time the other night.  Now nothing at that time happened.  And at first I was a bit confused about it, as absolutely nothing even came up during that time (I had recently started pushing).  But I felt that it was more about Him showing me that we had made the right decision to come here.  It had more to do with what could have happened at that time with me at home.  I mean with the blood pressure reading I had, and my pulse....something bad could have happened during that time.

So far our experience here has been wonderful.  And we have been blessed with wonderful friends to come along side of us to help us out in our time of need.  It's not an easy position to fill, Babysitter needed for 6 children :-) Everything has really fallen into place.  Little Aubrey has been very good.  I know that newborns can be sleepy the first few days and then show you their 'real' selves. I am hoping he will be just as good!  He's been sleeping great and feeding well.

It is almost time for another feeding.  So I will be off to get a few things taken care of and rest until he wakes up. When we get home I'll have to post a few pictures of Aubrey.

Thank you to all who have prayed!