Oliver Lawrence Baldwin was born on December 9th, 2014 at 11:06 am.
On Monday, December 8th, I went in to my doctor for my 41 week appointment. During my exam, my doctor told me he didn't think I'd last another day or two and should be able to go into labor on my own. Regardless, we scheduled an induction for that Wednesday. I was utterly disappointed. I wanted so badly to have as natural a labor as possible and was afraid how being induced would effect that. That evening, Trevor and I talked and he cheered me up by telling me that by the end of the week, we'd have a baby.
I woke up around 3am Tuesday morning with cramps and contractions. The contractions didn't feel close together, just uncomfortable enough to wake me up. After laying in bed for an hour, I decided to get out of bed and see if walking around would help them to go away. I hoisted myself out of bed, and suddenly felt a slight "pop" and a trickle of fluid as I walked out of our bedroom. I figured my water must have broken, although it didn't feel like how I imagined it would. In the movies, it's always a huge gush of fluid. I started shaking and I couldn't stop smiling - I was so excited this was happening, finally. I woke Trevor up and called our hospital's labor and delivery floor.
At 5am, we loaded our bags into the back of the car, double checked our carseat and drove to the hospital. We got to the hospital, went through check-in and questions and got a quick exam to confirm that my water had broken (it had). I was admitted and we moved down the hall to a labor room.
feeling good after being admitted and moved into our labor room
As I waited for my doctor to come in and be checked again to see how things were progressing, I used a birthing ball to bounce and wiggle as much as I could. Contractions were five minutes apart and moving around helped me get through them. At 6:30am, my doctor came in and told me that if I wasn't far enough along by 9am, we would discuss starting me on Pitocin to speed things up. I wanted to avoid that by any means possible. Trevor and I went and walked the halls, I bounced on the ball some more and did everything short of running up and down flights of stairs. My nurse came in at 9 to check me. I wasn't as far along as my doctor wanted... My heart sank and I told my nurse that I'd rather not go the Pitocin route. She suggested I hop in the jacuzzi tub in my labor room since that would often help people relax and speed things up naturally.
The jacuzzi helped immensely. The warm water and the jets helped my muscles to relax and take a break during contractions. After being in the tub for an hour, the contractions were around three minutes apart but still felt relatively mild. My nurse came in every so often to check the baby's heartbeat and to see how I was doing. At 10:30am, Trevor and I decided that I should get out of the tub so we could see how things were progressing. As soon as we turned off the jets and drained the tub, the contractions suddenly became remarkably intense. They were forty-five seconds apart and when they hit, I was doubled up. I told Trevor that if I wasn't half way to pushing out a baby, I needed an epidural because I couldn't handle it if the pain got worse.
I was so uncomfortable, it took me fifteen minutes to travel the twenty feet from the tub to the hospital bed. I told the nurse I had an urge to push and when she checked me, she said I was ready. She went to get another nurse and my doctor and after she left the room, I told Trevor I didn't think I'd make it till they came back.
Suddenly, I was laying in the hospital bed with my doctor and nurses around me. Trevor was holding a leg (until he turned a little pale). I heard my doctor say he could see the head and I was instructed to push. Two deep breaths later, I saw a waxy baby being held up and all at once he was put onto my chest.
The first hour or so after the baby's birth, Trevor and I held him and stared at this little person who was now a member of our family. The nurses assessed him as he lay on my chest, but Trevor and didn't even notice them- we were absolutely captivated by our baby.
Trevor and I named him Oliver Lawrence Baldwin and we already can't imagine our lives without him.
