Samuel David McLaughlin is here! (Birth Story)

December 28th, 2018 - Eviction Day

So when you are being induced, you have to call the hospital at 6 am to make sure they have room for you since it is an elective procedure. I think the possibility of them not having room gave me the most anxiety of the whole day! So I woke up at 5:30 hopped in the shower and then called the hospital. Of course the nurse said actually we are pretty full so why don't you call back at 7:30 and see if anything opens up. I about had a heart attack! I pleaded my case that this is an IVF baby and have been doing weekly stress tests and he really needs to come out today. She told me to call back at 7 when the day nurse manager arrived to see if she could find space for me. I said ok and sat down to wait. Well at 6 am I went to text Dr. Garcia  to see if he could pull any strings and the sweet nurse called me back at the same time. She said why don't you just show up at 7:30 and we will find a room for you. God bless that sweet nurse! We were still a go for the induction! Phew!

So we arrived, got situated in our room, got my IV and started the pitocin to make some contractions happen. At 9 am, Dr. Garcia came in and broke my water to get things moving. I was still only 2 cm dilated. I chose not to get my epidural yet, because I wanted things to get moving along in case it slowed down my contractions. We kept upping the pitocin every 30 minutes and slowly I started feeling things. By 10:45, I was at about a level 5 contraction wise so I decided lets get my epidural before things get too bad and it takes a hour to get an anesthesiologist in. So the epidural was placed and things slowly but surely got better! This epidural was different than my other 2 though because I could still feel pressure and tell when I was having contractions. The past 2 times, I couldn't move my legs or feel a thing! At 11:30 I was 3 cm and was having contractions every 2-3 minutes. At 1:30, I was up to 4 cm. Moving along slowly but surely... Then at 3:00, I was 6 cm. I was thinking ok things are starting to pick up maybe we will have a baby by 5-6 o'clock. Then the real fun began.

I was feeling way more than I would like to contraction wise and pressure wise. I kept asking the nurses should I feel this much and they kept telling me yes it is fine you want to feel some stuff just not pain. Well at 3:15 I started feeling lots of pressure like I had to poop. I knew that usually meant baby was ready, but I was just 6 cm 15 minutes ago so I couldn't possibly be ready. I had them check anyway and I was up to 8 cm. I told them I need more meds and they went to get an extra dose of what my epidural contained for my last few minutes and pushes. Of they went and 10 minutes later, I kept telling the fam, guys I really think this baby is going to come out of me. So again I called the nurses in, she checked me again and said, Yep we are ready to have a baby you are 10 cm! So they called Dr. Garcia to come down and I got my bolus. I surely didn't feel any pain get better but Sammy was ready to come whether I was ready or not. So Garcia showed up and I started pushing. I felt majority of what was happening so I said lets keep pushing instead of stopping in between sets to breathe. 4 short pushes and 2 minutes later, there he was. He had the cord wrapped around his neck once so Garcia unwrapped that quickly and put him up on my chest. He was a nice shade of blue, but he turned pink shortly after off they took him to do his check up. 

I only needed 2 stitches and all was good to go! Samuel was born at 3:55 weighing at 7 pounds 2 ounces and was 21.5 inches long. He scored a 9 on the Apgar test and all looked great! I couldn't believe he was finally here and we were holding our precious son! 

After Samuel was born, we were moved upstairs to the postpartum area and we got a dynamite room thanks to my friend Jessica who works at the hospital. The girls came and met their brother and were instantly so in love!

Stay tuned for the story of our 2nd day in the hospital.