Zeke's Birth Story

On Tuesday after getting home from MOPS I got the kids there lunch and then sat down with them to eat some macaroni and cheese. I took one bite, but it just didn't taste very good...plus we eat at MOPS so I wasn't too terribly hungry then. After putting Ella down for her nap I finished up a craft I was working on and then put a movie in for the boys and went to take a nap. I wasn't sure if I should take one at first since the last time I took a nap in the middle of the day I ended up sleeping horribly that night. But I figured if my body was telling me to sleep I should do.

I woke up from my nap at 3:15, went downstairs and told the boys to come snuggle me in bed and watch Curious George. The boys and I snuggle Jack on my right and Owen on my left. I asked them to talk to the baby and tell Baby Z that it was time to come out so they could snuggle. 5 minutes later my contractions started at 3:38pm.

I started monitoring my contractions and they were pretty sporadic at first, but then they became more consistent coming every 4 minutes. I had already called the on-call doctor and she told me to call her back when they were closer together. When I called her the second time she told us to come on in.

After I spoke with the doctor the first time I called my mom to tell her the news. She was getting a pedicure, but once she was finished they drove home, got their suitcases and came to the house to be with the kiddos.

It was a new experience...me going into labor while the kids were still awake. We talked about how the baby was going to come soon and that Ga-Ga & Pa would bring them to the hospital to meet their new sibling.

Ga-Ga and Pa got to our house around 6:45 and Pa took this last picture of us as a family of 5!

We got to the hospital a little after 7pm and went right up to triage. The nurse hooked me up to the monitor and sure enough I was contracting. She checked my cervix to see if was dilated...on Thursday at my doctors appointment it wasn't at all. In triage she said I was a 1 cm.

Sitting in triage waiting to get hooked up!

Poor Michael had the worst night sleep on Monday night so he was already running on fumes.

Since having Ella the rules have changed a bit at Swedish...I'm sure they have at other hospitals as well. Since I wasn't 39 weeks yet they have to make sure you are truly truly in labor before they will just take the baby...even though I technically don't have to labor at all. This is when I started thinking they just might send us home. To see if I could make more progress they had Michael and I walk through the hospital hallways for an hour. During that time the contractions got much stronger. At 9:10pm we headed back up to triage where the nurse checked me again and I was still at a 1 cm...no progress at all. The nurse told Dr. Pray how my contractions had gotten stronger and more consistent so when she came in to see me she said, "Are you ready to have a baby?" Heck yeah!

Baby #4!!!

After our nurse and the anesthesia doctor had finished running around trying to get everything they needed to start the C-Section...forms to be signed, IV to be hooked up and medical junk to be conveyed we ended up getting bumped back. Another woman came in completely ready to push so she got precedence over me. She seriously must have almost given birth in the car because I think we all ended up waiting another 20 minutes or so.

All suited up and ready to go to the OR.

Sitting on the table waiting to get my spinal block.

After spinal block...feeling a bit icky.

Crazy!!! Dr. Pray has her hand in my abdominal cavity!

Pulling baby out! Michael got to be the one to announce that Baby Z was a boy!

So happy my baby is here!

11:10pm May 22nd 2012. My friend Erin McGinnis guessed this day as Baby Z's birthday!

Baby Z really only let out a couple cries. He had a bunch of junk stuck in his nose and throat so they had to suchion that out.

Cute little guy....7lbs 5.4oz and only 18 inches long! I was sure he was going to be way bigger than that since I was so freakin' huge!!

Getting to hold my baby boy for the first time!

Poor baby had a bit of trouble transitioning from the womb to the outside world. At 12:15 he was taking up to the NICU so they could help him regulate his breathing and oxygen saturation better. It turned out to be a really good thing since I was having a hard time transitioning as well. Normally after my C-Sections I itch like crazy so this time the anesthesia doctor didn't give me a certain pain meds in hopes that I wouldn't have to deal with that. So the nurse ended up having to use some other pain meds to get my pain under control. I was also having a lot of bleeding at this point so they had to give me another med to make my uterus contract so the bleeding would slow down.

Around 4:10 or so my pain was under control so they wheeled me up to the NICU in my bed and I got to really see my baby boy for the first time. He was doing much better so I tried to nurse him...he wasn't quite getting it yet. Around 5am they took us down to our room.

Thankfully the bed for Michael in my room is SO much better than the bed he had to sleep on when Ella was born. He was seriously pooped out.

I really haven't slept much so I'm exhausted as well. Ga-Ga & Pa will be bringing the kiddos up to meet their new baby brother later today. Now I need to focus on getting some rest, feeding this cute baby boy and just plain lovin' on him!

Welcome to the world...Zeke Russell Martin!