Happy Birthday Rogan!

And now Rogan's story continues. After trying unsuccessfully to relax and not wake Chris and Ameryn up I decided to go ahead with the epidural. At that time I had to lay only on my left side, because Rogan responded better to the contractions that way. This made them much harder for me to bear unfortunately, and as I knew that I would want one sooner or later I decided to opt for the sooner. My Mom and sisters had been in the waiting room for awhile trying to let Chris and Ameryn get some rest, so they were able to take Ameryn out of the room for the procedure. I had always said that I would not be comfortable with a student shoving a giant needle into my spine, but when the sweetest girl came in and asked if I would be willing to let her practice on me I couldn't say no. I of course asked her the obvious question of how many epidurals she had done (to be sure that I would not be the first) and she told me that I would be her 40th patient. Everything went great ( as great as it can be with someone shoving and shoving a catheter into your epidural space) except that there was a kink in the line when she programmed the dose into the computer. This meant that I did not receive the full dose and was unable to get any more for a certain amount of time. Whatever she gave me was plenty enough to make the rest of my labor nice and comfy:) . At about 4 a.m. Doctor Kyzer came in to see how things were progressing. I was at 2 centimeters by then. I tried to get some rest but again, nada. I was 3 centimeters at 6 a.m., and then 4 at 7 a.m. Chris' family began to arrive at about 8 a.m., and I was found to be at 5 centimeters. I was able to brush my teeth in bed and Amy put my hair up for me because I didn't want to move my hand with the IV in it. I should have looked in the mirror, for when I later saw my pictures (which will not be posted here!) I vowed revenge on her when she had her babies! By 9a.m. I was a full 6 centimeters dilated. The nurses were expecting me to have a while to go, but I was feeling like things were starting move move pretty rapidly. As I experienced with Ameryn, my body likes to go from 6 centimeters to 10 in about an hour. By 10 a.m. I was feeling some pretty intense pressure and asked for the nurse. like I expected I was a full 10 centimeters and ready to go. They called for Dr. Kyzer and started to prepare the incubator. While we were waiting, Rogan' s heart started to really slow down during each contraction. They had me lay on my left side again to help him out. it happened again with the next contraction and the nurse walked calmly over and gave my stomach a little shake. That seemed to work for him and his heart rate came right back up. When it happened again with the next contraction the nurse gave him another shake and that seemed to be enough for him. He didn't make me worry any more:) . They were ready for me to start pushing then, and with the first one they realized that they would need the Dr. pretty quickly. I don't know about you, but someone telling you to stop pushing once you have started is pretty much next to impossible! Dr. Kyzer rushed in and with five more pushes (at 10:30 a.m., 13 hours after my water broke) our beautiful son was born! He was 7 lbs. 10.4 oz. and was 21 inches long. He has looked like a blond haired blue eyed version of his Daddy since day one and has added to our lives exponentially. He is my tiny ball of pure energy, and I love him to my core. Happy Birthday my son! Your Mommy loves you!