Dane’s birth story.

It was a Tuesday. 4:00 am. I woke up with some very mild cramping. Went back to bed. Got up probably at 7:30 because no baby. Some spotting. Thankfully, I had a doctor appointment at 9:30 am. My OB was out of town because it was a holiday weekend. I told Dane to please wait until she got back. Spoiler alert: He did not. Went to my weekly appointment and the doctor said I was dilated 1 cm and 90% effaced and that I probably shouldn’t go anywhere because I could have this baby soon and I most likely wont make my 2/21/2016 due date.

I was supposed to bring a friend a meal because two weeks prior she had her baby. When I got home I threw some chicken in the crock pot and hopped in the shower. Around 11:00 I had even more cramping and I started noticing it wasn’t going away and in fact, it was getting worse. I had Travis rub my back and I remember getting to a point where the contractions hurt SO bad that he needed to punch my back or not touch me at all. At one point, Trav was like, “So… is this considered labor”? Eye roll. I labored at home for two and a half hours. We checked into the hospital at 2:00 pm and the nurse said I was already dilated to 6 cm.

The car ride to the hospital was terrible. Horrific. Awful. Miserable. I was in so much pain and not comfortable sitting. I remember getting my blood drawn and then the epidural. Which was AMAZING. You go mamas for natural birth. I have an extremely low tolerance for pain. A hang nail hurts. I stub my toe and it’s the end of the world. The doctor broke my water, I felt like I peed my…hospital gown?, and then he said he will check in later. I had to have an oxygen mask which was kind of scary because the the team thought the umbilical cord was wrapped around Dane’s neck which was my number one fear!

Around 3:20pm, I remember feeling like I really needed to go to the bathroom. Like bad. I kept saying I had to go to the restroom. The nurse made me practice push and then she called the doctor. When she hung up the phone, she said, “I’ve delivered babies before”. That’s a cool statement for a first time mom. I wanted the doctor there because I thought the cord was wrapped around Dane’s neck. I don’t even know what time I started pushing, but I pushed for about 20 minutes and Dane was born at 3:53 pm. And the cord was not wrapped around his neck. He just had a short cord. We first noticed his dimples and his hair. A ton of dark hair. He was the cutest, tiniest, purple-liest, baby. We instantly fell in love with our sweet boy.

Oh, I ate my friends crock pot chicken. Sorry.

I had a pretty easy, short labor and delivery. I see now why people do it again. We are blessed. Babies truly are perfect and good gifts from the Lord.