It Is Finished....or....It Has Only Just Begun

I prefer to think of it as being finished for now. Finished, as in, finished with being pregnant for-e-VER. I am even more resolved and content with the current expansion of our family being the last, barring an in-person visit from Christ Himself telling me to have another child. Once you hear how labor and delivery went, I think you will understand.

But anyway, here are a few pictures from right after he was born. We were not able to get any video and very few pictures. So, without further ado....

Introducing....

Chase Michael Dunham

Born May 17th, 2009 at 9:39 am

8 lbs. 4 oz. -and- 20 inches long

I have to admit, he seems a bit "prettier" than I was expecting a little boy baby to look, but then again, why exactly did I expect a boy baby to be uglier than a girl baby? I'll have to psychoanalyze myself on that one at some point (or never). I think he looks almost exactly like Anna when she was born except that his hair is darker, almost black. He is pretty chill and laid back at this point.

Okay, so, for all of you into the "birth story," hold on to your shorts, because this one's a doozy. I am still amazed myself that it happened the way it did. It proves you can have all the well-laid plans and preconceived notions about how life will go, but ultimately any control you think you have over your life is an illusion.

Now that I've gone all Matrix on you....

This story begins with me eating an embarrassing amount of pizza at Steven and my favorite pizza place Saturday. As a result, I tossed and turned and felt pretty horrible all night. I thought it was just me reaping the consequences of eating like a total pig and having severe indigestion. Yes, I was having some cramps and contractions, but they were never regular and did not have that top-to-bottom cascading effect that I had experienced in my other 2 labors. I thought it was just more of the same I had been experiencing for the last few weeks.

That is, until about 6 am. That's when I felt my water break. It went POP, right below my belly button. "No big deal," I thought, "at least I know I'll be having this baby in the next 24 hours." I was in no real hurry to go to the hospital, honestly, because with both Anna and Brooke my water broke before active labor, and I went immediately to the hospital---only to have my labor grind to a halt both times. I ended up having to push for 2 1/2 hours (with Anna) and be given Pitocin after 6 hours and no progression (with Brooke). There was no indication that anything was wrong, and baby was moving in between my still irregular contractions.

I called Pop (the designated minder of the wee ones for this occasion) at 6:45 am and told him to head on over at his leisure. Mistake. He got to our house about 8 am, and it was at that point I knew I was in some serious trouble. The closest hospital was a strong 20 minutes away, and my contractions were now every 3 minutes apart, and strong enough that I almost couldn't stand through them (yes, I was standing and walking---it hurt too much to sit).

Just so you understand the next part of this story, I am not the hugest fan of Steven's driving. I am constantly on him to slow down when we are all in the car with him. My point is, I told Steven when we left the house, "Please don't drive like a fool, I don't want to die before we get to the hospital." Five minutes later...."Steven. Drive as fast as you can and do not stop." He was going about 80 the whole rest of the way. That is, until we got about 3 miles from the hospital. Two cops were going the other way and busted him going 75 in a 35. Yeah. I saw the cops turn around to nab him, and I totally lost it. "Please don't stop!" I bawled, "please don't stop!" We pull up to the emergency room (cops in tow) and out run half the ER medical staff. Steven got a severe tongue-lashing from one of the cops as they wheeled me away, but they did let him off with a warning.

In the meantime, I was hauled up to L&D. The nurses did there thing, got me all hooked up and checked in, etc. It was now 8:30 am. The doctor came in and checked me---only 6 cm. I signed the epidural paperwork, and they were trying to hurry up and bolus me with fluids so they could get it in. In the meantime, my blood pressure began to skyrocket, and the doc decided to break my water (by the baby's head). That's when they discovered that the baby had passed his meconium. This happened at 9 am. Then somebody decided to crash elsewhere in the hospital, and there was only one anesthesiologist at the hospital (I still find that hard to believe). It was at 9:15 that the nurse informed me I would NOT be receiving an epidural. Or any other pain medication, for that matter, because the baby and I both were under too much stress to qualify for it (this, too, I found hard to believe). By this point my contractions were about 30 seconds apart and rapidly getting to the point where it was just one constant contraction. I probably would have begun to call down curses on the medical staff if I did not all of a sudden feel the need to push. Steven went running out to grab the nurse. Doctor and nurse come back in and find that I am indeed fully dilated and baby is ready to come. They discovered quickly that baby was coming out face up, which apparently means that you end up pushing longer. With a mighty "Oh, hell, no" I pushed that kid out in 5 pushes with no stopping to rest. The nurse told me later that the force of my pushing actually turned him back into position and immediately squirted him out. Both the nurse and the doctor said they had never seen anything like that before. And as far as I'm concerned, they never will again.

Chase did exceptionally well. He was surprisingly quiet. I didn't get to hold him immediately because of the meconium, that, and they couldn't get me to stop bleeding. But, eventually we both got all fixed up and it was all behind us. Thank goodness.

And I have to say, to those who wear their "natural" labor like a red badge of courage---you are all crazy. Steven asked me if now that it's over if I was glad I had experienced one without pain meds. HECK NO. If I could go back and have had an epidural instead, I absolutely would have. I guess some believe that you soon forget the pain of childbirth. I will never forget that. It was truly awful. I burst a blood vessel in my left eye, I blacked my right eye, burst several blood vessels in my face. I literally am so tired it is all I can do to feed the baby and pee. Everything else seems too hard. In the end worth the effort, definitely, but not worth the pain and exhaustion just to say I did it. Not for me. But, different strokes for different folks. You can have your "natural" labor.

Here is Anna with Chase. She LOVES him. She wants to hold him all the time, and gets upset with me if I need to take him away from her. This makes me so happy. Brooke is a little less excited. I could see the insecurity wash over her face when she first saw Chase. I am doing my level best to love on my little girl. I know in a few months it will be a distant memory, but right now she is feeling it a little bit. If nothing else, it is augmenting her relationship with her Daddy. I think she is going to be his big-time Daddy's girl.

That's all I've got for right now. I've actually been working on this post for a few days because I have been so exhausted. I promise to put up more pictures soon.