BIRTH STORY

His name is Paul Alan. He weighed 9lbs 9oz and was 21 1/2 inches long! Pushed about 3 1/2 hrs (yes that is the push time not the labor time...) He was born at 3:52pm on Thursday 8/23 and is PERFECT! :) Here is the low down as I remember... Brian I think remembers all the details in his head.. it almost all seems like a blur to me now... Went into the hospital last Wednesday at 8pm (left after watching "Friends" at 7). We started Cervical strip at @10pm. Had some random contractions (couldn't feel.. but saw in the monitor)... and then began to feel some regular@ 3:00 am, 4-5 minutes apart.. and woke Brian (who stayed at the hospital with me) to help me breathe thru them.... at 6am I took a 30 minute shower and the warm water felt awesome... and by now the contractions were regular and getting stronger. At 7am, they started the Pitocin drip.. to keep them coming as they were.. and they definately got stronger and closer together, by 8am they were 2-3 minutes apart... Brian was amazing helping me through them.. couldn't have done it without him. At 8am, my awesome nurse Betsy came in to check on me, and I was at 4cm. She went to call the doctor and got me ready for the epidural... By 9:30, I was enjoying the epidural... it was AMAZING and I could still feel my legs... they were just really heavy and I could feel a little contraction pressure.. but the pain went away... for now.... At 10:30am, the midwife checked again, and I was at 6cm. Around 11:30am, the nurse checked me at I was at 8cm, and she started to get the room ready for the birth. Around 12pm, I started feeling more & wanted to top off the epidural. The midwife asked me how I was doing, and I said okay, and she said she would check me in an hour. Brian and I got in a little "tiff" then, because he knew I really did need more drugs... or possibly to start pushing. The baby's heart rate changed, and about 4 nurses ran in the room (must have known mom and dad were at their wit's end, and that it was time to get going).. but he was okay. At 12:30, the midwife checked me & said I was @ 10cm... so we got ready to push.... & push we did.... (now remember I was concerned @ size from the 41 wk U/S)... well he was big but I was determined to get the baby out... I was using so many positions... squatting, pulling, bar, etc.... at about 1.5 hrs in... they actually wrote the C-Section papers up because they thougt it was coming to that... but I kept pushing... and thanks to the awesome nurse & midwife... they helped us through it.... his head kept coming down... just really slowly... later on they called my doc who also came in... and after 3 hrs we were just about ready... they needed to use a vacuum and an episiotomy, and on one of the pushes, his head came out just to his nose... that really was not fun at all... I has to wait til the next contraction to push again... (I just think he really liked it inside!!!) and then I pushed out more.. but only 1 shoulder came... & this was probably the only time I wanted to give up.... but I did not of course, and he is the most amazing thing in the world to us. His apgars were 9 & 9... We came home from the hospital yesterday (Sat.) and couldn't wait to tell you all about it.

I do miss that kick in my belly sometimes, and stll rub his "hiney" when I hold him now, the way I did when he was inside... when we look at him we can't believe he is ours. He lookes EXACTLY like his Daddy... hands, hair, feet... his foot alone is 3 3/4 inches! No wonder those kicks were so strong at the end of the pregnancy! HA! He is so perfect. Truely a gift from God.




PAUL ON THE U.S. SWIMMING WEB PAGE