The Verpooten Family!: Welcome Drew Craig! -- The hospital -- Sarah's version

Drew Craig Verpooten -- born 4-22

Throughout the pregnancy, I kept saying that this baby had a mind of its own. Now, we know it's true.

Dustin will give a much more dramatic post about the story of Drew's birth, but I want to get down some of my own details from the day. :) So, SPOILER ALERT: If you want to read Dustin's version first, don't read on!

I had been having contractions off and on all day Saturday. I knew they were semi-real ones because they were hurting. But, I didn't think too much of it because they were super irregular -- every ten minutes then nothing for two hours, then every 20 minutes, etc.

We went to bed at 10:30, but I just couldn't sleep. I tossed and turned with the (still irregular) contractions. At 11:58 p.m., I felt my water break.

I woke up Dustin and by the time I had gone to the bathroom and gotten dressed, I had already had TWO more contractions -- strong ones. At that point, I figured we better hurry.

My mom came immediately to stay with Miles and we headed to the hospital. By the time I signed the paperwork and got on a gown in my room it was 12:45 a.m. adn the contractions were still every 2-3 minutes.

The charge nurse Roxanne was there with me and asked if I wanted an epidural. Honestly, I had never considered NOT getting one. All along in my head, I was going to have to use multiple drugs to induce the baby. We were scheduled to come in at 5:30 that night. Since I was in labor on my own and actually had a decent chance of doing this naturally, I himmed and hawed for a while. She finally told me she needed a decision and I said yes.

She started the antibiotics that we needed to have in my IV for four hours to make sure the baby didn't get Group B Strep and Dustin and I settled in. This was 1 a.m. I was 6 cm.

They had to call the back up on call anesthesiologist. He arrived around 1:40 ish and at that time I was definitely in pain and happy to see him. The nurse told him he better move quick.

So, I swung my legs to the side of the bed and Dustin helped hold me up while he inserted the catheter. All I remember is the first numbing shot and the doctor joking that I didn't need him -- I was having this baby now. I have no recollection of the rest of this normally painful procedure because:

The baby was starting to come. I could feel the unbelievable urge to push from all the pressure. I was starting to lose my (until then) quiet composure.
Dustin was taken away from me. He was about to pass out.

At that minute everything happend at once. Roxanne the nurse flung me on my back. (She told me later she had never seen an anesthesiologist tape someone up so quickly.) I started to push. They never had time to actually start the epidural. No drugs. No doctor.

Dustin was hit with smelling salts twice. The took him all the way to the floor and got him some juice. One of the nurses left me to call the ER.

I remember feeling glad that I had something to worry about besides the pain.

I remember Dustin trying to encourage me from the floor in slurred words.

I remember a nurse telling me to stop climbing the bed. (With each contraction I would grab on the bedrail and heave upwards with the pain of it).

I remember them grabbing me by the knees to pull me back down.

I thought that this would take hours and I started to freak out.

Then, his head was out.

I calmed down.

One more push and he was out.

I have a vivid memory of my first glimpse of Miles and I wanted to burn this image into my head too. The had set him down between my legs, but I couldn't see if he was a girl or boy.

I asked and they told me but I was so distracted by what was going on with Dustin that I definitely didn't have that "moment" of my big surprise. I moved on quickly to listening to the baby cry and reassuring Dustin that he was ok. Dustin hadn't seen anything from the floor. He still couldn't see the baby.

I held him for about 30 seconds and I heard Dustin say he was coming to see him. He made it halfway up and was right back down on the floor. I told them to take the baby to the floor with him.

It was about then that the doctor showed up. Looking back, I'm sure it was quite a scene to walk into.

She helped with the rest of the delivery and clean up and apologized about 50 times for not being there. She only lived 5 minutes away. They called when I was 8 cm. She thought she had plenty of time.

Clearly, she didn't. Who could blame her though? I sure didn't expect to go from 6 cm to 10 cm and pushing in 45 minutes.

At 1:51 a.m. we welcomed a nameless baby boy into the world. He was 7 lbs. 5.5 oz and 20 inches long. His apgar scores were 9 and 9 at one and five minutes. He was beautiful and had a dark head of hair.

Luckily, my dad was there right after he was born and was able to take a few photos. This was about 10 minutes after he was born.

Once they got him cleaned up, we got to meet each other. I think I was looking over at the nurses to make sure Dustin was ok.

Daddy, mostly recovered, is able to sit upright and hold the baby.

The rest of our hospital stay seemed to fly by. I'll upload pictures of all our visitors in a separate post. We were exhausted but thrilled and spent much of our time trying to name the baby. He wasn't Drew until about two hours before we left the hospital.