Luke's Birth Story

It's crazy to me that it has been almost 6 weeks since Luke has joined our family! We are still trying to figure things out with him but overall he is an easier baby than Mason. Maybe that means the next kid will be even easier?? I can dream lol.

I wrote things down in my phone as they were happening in the hospital; it was a whirlwind of a day/night. I woke up at 4am that morning to use the bathroom, and realized my entire body was INCREDIBLY sore. Like, imagine you had worked out HARD for the first time in a long time, full body, and you can't move. That's how I felt. I couldn't use my arms to push myself out of bed or roll over. I fell back asleep until about 6:30, and was still super sore, but couldn't fall back asleep, so I got out of bed around 7 and started working. I mean, I still had a bunch of time to kill before I had to be at the hospital at 1 that afternoon. I worked for an hour and a half, and was too tired to focus on the screen. So I watch Friends for a few hours to kill more time. Ironically, it was the end of season 8 where Rachel is pregnant/giving birth. Fitting for my day later!

I called my OB's office around 9;30 and asked if I should come in early because I was feeling so crappy. Of course, it was the awful terrible nurse that answered the phone, and after putting me on hold, she told me to wait until they had me scheduled. FINE! I cried then watched more Friends. Sean made me a quesadilla for lunch, and at 12:30 we left, dropped Mason off at Sean's parents' house, and went to the hospital! At this point I was in a much better mood, although I still ached all over.

They got me into my room, and about 1:30, my nurse Kacy did my IV, and at 2pm nurse Lori started the pitocin. I was at a 2+ at this point, not quite a 3. At 3;30, the nurse anesthetist came in and did my epidural, and she, the nurses, and Sean and I were all cracking jokes. It was such a relief to be able to have humor abounding at this point. After I got the epidural working, they tried upping the pitocin levels, but baby did not like that. His heart rate kept dropping. At this point I was like, really? This is turning into Mason's delivery all over again! At 4pm they checked me again, I was at a 4. Slow progress, but progress nonetheless.

Around this point, Jenny showed up with food for Sean, and hung around for the delivery. She is a great cheerleader for anyone interested lol.

Right after that, I started getting really shaky. They put like 3 heated blankets on me and checked my temperature. It was over 100 degrees, and probably had been all day. They gave me Tylenol at 4:30. At 6, I got a new nurse, Jen. She checked me at 7 and I was at a 5. They started me on two different antibiotics at this point through my IV to help with the fever, and to get it in my system so it got into baby's system as well before he was born. I also ended up rolled over to my right side, and his heart rate stabilized after that.

Shortly after they checked me, I started to feel pretty much EVERYTHING that was going on. I squeezed Sean's hand so hard with every contraction. The nurse anesthetist finally was able to come back in and give me a huge new dose, and by 8 I was hardly feeling anything again. Hooray!

But it didn't last long. Within 30 minutes I started feeling like I needed to push. We paged Jen, and she came in with another nurse, and I was at a 10! I had fully dilated that whole time my epidural wasn't working. No wonder I was hurting! Through the fever, contractions, and stuffy nose (yay pregnancy congestion) I was miserable, so when they told me I was at a 10 I was so happy! They called my doctor, started setting everything up, and started making bets on when baby would be born. I started pushing around 9:20, and after 3-4 pushes, he was born at 9:40pm, as guessed by Jenny! The cleaned him up and did the APGAR test and all the other things they do, and then put him on my chest for skin to skin. Love that!!

Luke Thomas Parker - 12/30/15 - 7 lbs 11 oz. 20 inches long.

My rock and my cheerleader. Love them both so much!

The fun did not stop there. Luke was totally fine, but I still had a fever, and kept going between hot flashes and severe chills. They took Luke to the nursery, and Sean went with him, Jenny stayed with me and held my hand through some of the most violent, severe chills I have ever had. At one point I think my fever was almost 104. Finally things settled down, Sean came back to the room, Jenny went home, and they brought me manna from heaven, the first meal I'd eaten in 12+ hours. I know it's just a crappy deli sandwich but it is the best when you have been through childbirth. I could go for another one right now...

Anyway, Sean went home around midnight or 1, and I tried to get some sleep. Luckily Luke did really well with breastfeeding, and after he finished he went right back to the nursery. The nurse had to keep coming in to check on my fever and uterus and bleeding, so I didn't sleep a whole ton that night.

My day nurse was Raiden. She was awesome. I told her about the day before, and what all hurt (hemorrhoids...) and she ran into my bathroom, and said "You don't have a tub! You need a tub. I'm going to switch you rooms!" And she did! My fever would always come back as my Percocet was wearing off, so I went through a lot more hot/cold flashes, though none as severe as right after Luke was born. Raiden was awesome and would bring me heated blankets to help warm me up. My night nurse that night was Sheryl, and I slept a little better that night. The next day, my nurse was Vickie then Wendy (there weren't a lot of people there so Vickie got to go home). That afternoon, while Carly and Bryce were visiting, my temperature spiked again, The on-call OB came in and switched my antibiotic from Mefloxin to a combination of Ampicillin, Gentimicin, and Clindamycin, and that started doing the trick.They all kept apologizing "sorry you have to stay an extra night" and I was like "Uh, I'm kinda on vacation right now even though I'm sick, so no worries!"

Carly is like 35ish weeks pregnant in this picture. Baby Grant kept kicking Luke, like, "Hey man, that's MY mom!!"

My night nurse was Jodie. I was telling her about how badly my IV was hurting, and she finally switched it to my other hand for me. That was a huge relief! Before she switched it, I could hardly hold Luke to nurse him. My day nurse was Raiden again, yay! I went all day without a fever so finally I was able to go home! We left the hospital around 6:15pm and started our life as a family of 4!