Welcome to the World

This post is LONG overdue (sorry Marci)! On March 24, 2009 Nathan DuPree King was born at 11:15 PM. He weighed 6 lbs and 15 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long.

My official due date was March 20th. The Dr. kept saying I wasn't going to make it to my due date because I had started to dilate and the baby was moving down. But each day came and went with no baby. I continued to go to work and everyone kept saying - "You're still here???"

At 5:00 AM on the 24th, I woke up with some contractions, but nothing major and so I didn't think much about it. We had a Dr. appointment that morning at 9:00, and the plan was to go to the Dr. and then go to work. I had decided that would be my last day at work! I was continuing to have contractions, but nothing regular and the pain wasn't that bad. So at the appointment, we decided to schedule an induction for Friday the 27th. They ran some tests to make sure the baby was fine and I had enough fluid and everything was good. Meanwhile, I kept having contractions - more than usual, but the Dr. still wasn't willing to say it was "labor". But he was willing to induce me that day if I wanted. I didn't want to be induced unless I had to, so I chose to wait it out.

Jeff and I went home and I decided to go ahead and stay at home and not go to work. The contractions were happening too often and I knew I wouldn't be able to do much at work. Jeff went on to work. I was tracking the contractions and they weren't stopping, but were coming sporadically: 7 min. apart, 10 min. apart, 5 min., 19 min. etc. . . .

Around 2:30, my water broke. At first I wasn't sure if that is what happened, because it wasn't a big gush of water. I called the Dr., and they said to come into the office so they could check. I called Jeff and told him to come home, we were going back to the Dr.

We got to the Dr. and he confirmed my water had broken. He said, go ahead over to the hospital and get checked in. (The Dr. office is right next to the hospital, so we just walked over.)

In the last few weeks of pregnancy, I had the desire to give birth naturally without any pain medication. But there were a few unexpected circumstances that changed my mind. I was doing fine at first managing the pain. But then I started vomiting and had extremely bad tremors. They gave me medicine to help stop the vomiting, and it made me spacey. The hospital wanted me to keep the monitors on all the time, so I didn't have the option of getting up and moving around to help control pain. So after 3 hours and I was 8 cm. dialated - I decided to get an epidural. That was the BEST decision of my life.

After 2 hours of pushing, Nathan DuPree King decided to join the world at 11:15 PM. He was perfect!!!

I now have a new respect for labor and delivery nurses. I had a great nurse - Valerie. Her husband actually works with my dad and she requested to be my nurse for the night. Dr. Stands was great too! But Nurses win the prize! I had no clue they did so much.