Nash's Story {Surprise Baby}

**Lots of random post coming in the next few days. I'll be "re-posting" them later on the correct date but for now they'll be on the wrong date so they show up in your readers!!

February 6th, 2014

Thursday night my parents came over for dinner.  I made Fajita Pizza for all of us for dinner in return for my Dad helping hang the last few things in Nash's room.  For the past few days I had been having some real contractions but never more than one or two in an hour.  They were mostly in the evening so I never really thought much about them because I felt like they were mainly from me just being up on my feet all day.  Plus, at my last appointment I wasn't dilated at all, so the contraction weren't even doing anything.  

After my parents left, I decided to go on and go to bed to relax while Matt watched The Hobbit in the living room. I had my computer out and was working on Nash's letter (which I still need to publish…..just need to add pictures) and watching Nashville.  I had a contraction at 8:30 and then again at 9:00.  At 9:45 I had another contraction but I also felt this really funny pop feeling in my lower abdomen.  It felt so weird that I hopped right out of bed because I didn't know what was going on.  I though maybe my water had broken but no fluid had come out.  Since I wasn't leaking any fluid, I didn't really think my water had broken, but I didn't know what else that pop feeling could have been.  

I told Matt what was going on then I called my Mom to tell her what had happened and to stay on call for the evening because if my water had broken they were going to have to take Pearson.  

I stood in the bathroom for a little while without my clothes on to see if any fluid would leak out but nothing was coming out.  I was so confused.  I decided to hop back in bed and finish my TV show.   As soon as I sat down I had another contraction and while I was having a contraction I felt like I was peeing in my pants…..but I wasn't peeing.  That's when I knew for sure my water had broken and I was just leaking a little bit of fluid at a time.  

I called the on call service for my doctor's office and they said that the doctor would call me back shortly.  I was so sad whenever the female doctor of the practice called and it wasn't my doctor.  I completely forgot that Thursday was my doctor's day off so he wasn't on call.  She told me to go ahead and come in and get admitted.  I expressed my concern to her that I really wanted Dr. Harn to deliver Nash and she said that depending on how I was progressing we could possibly hold off on surgery until the morning so Dr. Harn could do it.  I had already had to switch doctors mid-pregnancy, I really didn't want to have to have another new doctor.  I had really grown fond of Dr. Harn over the past 20 weeks.  I just handed it over to God and knew that he would take care of the situation.  

I called my Mom back and told her that they needed to come over and get Pearson.  While we were waiting for them, I hopped in the shower.  One of the beauties of a planned c-section is being able to go in to surgery with hair and make-up all done.  Even though I was no longer having a planned c-section, I was determined to still get my hair and make-up done before I delivered!!  Thankfully I had already packed my hospital bags and just had a short list of "last minute things to pack".  While I was getting ready, Matt was finishing up packing my bag.  I'm pretty sure he thought I was crazy for fixing my hair and putting on make-up, but it was important to me!!  

As soon as my Mom got to our house, I asked her if she would paint my toenails.  I had planned on going to get a pedicure a few days before my scheduled c-section but I didn't get to do that since he came early.   So while I was having contractions and putting my make-up on, my sweet Mom was painting my toe nails.  At this point my contractions were now about 10-15 minutes apart and starting to get a little more painful.  

After I got all ready and got all my bags packed, I threw a bunch of stuff into a suitcase for Pearson.  I hadn't even though about packing a bag for him yet.  We woke him up (It was about 11pm at this point)  and told him we were headed to the hospital to meet Baby Nash.  He was so sleepy but was excited to go with Lolly & Pops.  The last thing we did before we walked about the door was take my final baby bump pics!!

We left the house around 11:30, so we knew that we would be having Nash on February 7th.  When we were having Pearson, Matt got online to see what famous people he shared a birthday with.  We decided to do the same with Nash.  We found out that he would share a birthday with Steve Nash.  How ironic, huh?  We didn't name Nash after Steve Nash, but we definitely thought of him when we picked the name.  On our drive to the hospital my contraction started to come every 5-7 minutes and were really painful.  The pain moved to my back just like when I was in labor with Pearson.  The whole drive I just couldn't believe that we were on our way to the hospital to have a baby.  It just hadn't even crossed my mind that he would come this early!!

We arrived at the hospital around midnight.  The nurses offered me the plain ole standard hospital gown and I let them know that I had my own!!  I just love the hospital gown my Mom made for me…..all the nurses love it too!!  I'm sure the nurses tell everyone this, but they kept commenting on how cute my little belly was, how I was all belly, and how tiny I was.  I sure didn't feel tiny, but they made me feel really good about myself.  

Our nurse Shannon (who we loved!) asked us lots of questions, got my IV started and got me all settled in the bed.  Around 12:30, she checked me and I was at 3cm.  She told me that I could totally have a VBAC if I wanted.  She said I was laboring good, he was little, and my cervix was nice and soft.  I thought about it for a second, but I didn't want to make a last minute decision.  We had planned all along to have a repeat c-section so that was what we were going to stick with.  

She told me I had two choices.

1.  They could get me all ready for surgery and wheel me back immediately to have the on-call doctor deliver Nash.  

 OR

2.  They could get me all ready for surgery, including getting my epidural, but hold off surgery until 6am when my doctor would be coming in for the day.  They said my epidural would probably slow down my labor.  They said as long as I didn't get to the point where I needed to push, they could hold me off until morning.

We decided to go with Option #2 because I really didn't want to have another baby in the middle of the night and I wanted my doctor to deliver Nash.  As ready as we were to meet him, we thought a little sleep might be good for us.

The nurse went ahead and called the on call doctor to let her know that she didn't need to come in because we were going to wait until morning.  Come to find out she had actually called my doctor and told him the situation.  He said, "No way she's waiting until morning, I'll head up there now."  When the nurse told me my doctor was on his way up to the hospital I about cried.  God answered my prayers and worked everything out!!  We were about to have our baby and my doctor was going to be there to deliver him!!

They started getting us all ready for surgery around 1:30.  Matt called our parents and let them know.  Since it was the middle of the night we weren't able to get ahold of anyone in Matt's family.  My parents had Pearson so they knew what was going on.  They actually took him to my grandma's house and headed up to the hospital so they could be there for the birth.  Poor Pearson kept getting shuffled around in the middle of the night, but he did great!!  

They wheeled us off to the OR around 1:50 to get my epidural.  My anesthesiologist was amazing.  I absolutely loved her.  

It was like de javu all over again while getting my epidural because I was having horribly painful back labor when she was putting it in just like I had with Pearson.  They also did some sort of spinal tap too I think.  I really can't remember exactly what it was but it was the oddest feeling.  As it went in, I felt it literally running through me.  It was warm on my back then my thighs, and then down my legs.  Weirdest feeling ever.  Epidurals are amazing.  The first contraction after was bearable, then I barely felt the next, and then they were gone.