WELCOME AXEL ROBERT ANDERSON

I know what you are thinking, WHAT? Her baby widget says she still has 24 days to go?
For those of you who don't want to read about my labor experience, (its a long one sorry) here are the basic stats.

He was born on Friday Aug 28 at 9:08 am

(he was an entire month early!)
He weighed 6 lbs 1 oz
(it was actually 6 lbs .07 and they rounded up)
And is 18 inches long

Here is how it all went down...

POP!

At 1 am on Friday morning I rolled over in bed to change positions, and all of the sudden I heard a POP and felt a gush of fluid. Half asleep I thought to myself "Did I really just pee the bed?" So I hopped out of bed and waddled to the bathroom.

Not quite sure what happened I then waddled back to the bedroom and said to my resting husband "I think my water just broke". Kory then advised me ever so tiredly to "call your doctor"

So I called my sister :)

After talking to her we came to the conclusion that it probably was just pee, and that I should go back to bed, but then I stood up, and GUSH! more water. She then advised me to put a towel between my legs and waddle my cute pregnant butt to the hospital because he was coming.

So I wake my sleeping husband again and tell him we are heading to the hospital to have a baby. Because it was an entire month early, I didn't have my bag packed for the hospital. I barely had his bed put up and his clothes sorted. So you could say I was a bit nervous.

CHECKING IN

When we got to the hospital they admitted me right away and checked me, and sure enough my water had indeed broken, and I was dilated to a 2. But I wasn't having contractions really, so they started me on ptocin to initiate labor.

It was about 2 am at this point. We were both feeling in shock at this point and I was just worried, and really could not believe it was happening. My worry list was endless as I thought of all the scenarios that could happen to us in the next 10 or more hours.

EPIDURAL

My nurse came in and asked me to let her know when I would like my epidural. Since I hadn't had any real contractions yet, I thought I would wait and see until it progressed. Well after one real contraction I decided I wanted an epidural. ( Its not like I am a baby or anything, I just felt like I needed to get it started :) ) Anyway, so the anesthesiologist came in and gave me my epidural. He was so awesome! Seriously I hate needles, and I hate shots, even getting my blood drawn gives me severe anxiety. So before my epidural I was feeling pretty anxious. But my anesthesiologist talked me through the entire thing, letting me know exactly how it would feel each time he did something. And it felt just like he explained it. When it was all said and done it was so much easier than I had imagined it would be.

So its about 4 am by the time we get the epidural in, and I immediately start to feel numb and only feel one other contraction. My nurse decides to check me again and says oh you are still only to a 2, so we are going to up your ptocin to help you progress quicker.

OXYGEN

The main concern at this point was that Axel was losing his little swimming pool surrounding him and he was having these "variables" and as I had contractions his little heart rate would dip. So it was important that we got him out sooner than later. Oh and they put me on oxygen to help with that, how that helped I still don't know. The oxygen made me really really cold and shaky. I think this was the first time my whole pregnancy that I was cold. :)

My nurse said to me that I should now progress about 1 CM an hour. So all we had to do now was "get some rest" So Kory, Axel and I just kicked it for about 3 more hours. Then at 7, even though I was really numb and had no control of my legs at all, I felt all this pressure in my back and hips.

Right around that time, my mom showed up. I told her what I was feeling and she requested the nurse check me. We were anticipating to be only to a 5, because 2 plus 3 is 5. But the nurse checked and said oh you are at a 10. Its time to have this baby!

PUSHING

I remember feeling completely shocked, like are you kidding? I thought I had more time? The nurse went and called my Doctor, who was in a surgery, so she said we would begin pushing in 45 minutes to an hour because most first time moms take 3 or so more hours of pushing anyway. And that we had plenty of time. ( But when have I had plenty of time with this pregnancy, lets be honest here folks the kid was already a month early. ) Now, to me that sounded great. My mom however was a little nervous, and was like, not my girls they don't, once they are at a 10, that baby comes, and it comes quick.

But we waited anyway, it ended up being about an hour and a half instead before my doctor showed up. So it was about 8:30 when my doctor showed up, he checked me and said ok lets begin pushing.

Because I am a procrastinator I didn't take a class on labor, or even read about it. The only thing I knew about labor was the horror stories I had heard from everyone else. So I was pretty nervous and very unprepared.

The nurse explained to me briefly that we would begin pushing while the doctor got ready. On each contraction I would need to take a deep breath and hold it while I pushed, and I would need to push 3 times for 10 seconds each.

That was it as far instructions went. We just had to wait for the next contraction to start.

She then instructed Kory to come hold my leg and she would hold the other one. So she grabbed my foot and the next thing I knew my leg was by chest. I looked over and was like "is that my leg?" I could not feel it at all, it was the strangest feeling in the world.

We then waited for the next contraction. It was the longest minute of my life.

And the pushing began. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,...10 (you get the idea) and again and again. And Rest.

We did that through a total of 5 contractions before the doctor and the resident showed up.

They then threw those floppy legs of mine on to the stirrups and we began to push.

We did that through one contraction . The second contraction I had, I pushed once and then my doctor told me to take a big breath and then let it out, and BAM there was my little Baby Axel. Beautiful and white.

MEETING BABY AXEL

He was white because the cord was wrapped around his neck, (which explains the variables) the doctor said the cord was not tightly but moderately wrapped. I don't remember that part so much because I just was too distracted by him and the emotions of it all. He was beautiful, in every way, even covered with the icky sticky white stuff. He was there and alive and all mine.


What I do remember about the cord was the look on Kory's face when the doctor asked him to cut the cord, he was very excited and just thrilled. This brought me even more joy as I watched intently my husband enthusiastically cutting the cord of our baby boy.

I couldn't believe it, he was here, and he was healthy considering how early he was. Because of the cord they quickly took him over to a little station in our room to get him to breath a little better and to monitor him since he was so early. While they did that I just stared and watched as nurses and doctors and Kory surrounded my baby all encouraging him to be strong. And he did not disappoint.

The doctor predicted he would be about 5 lbs because I was only 35 and a half weeks. However he was a whole pound heavier. This was very reassuring to me.

They worked on him for a little bit and then brought him back to me to let me hold him for about a minute before they took him to the NICU. I got to cuddle him in my arms and kiss his little cheeks. But then had to give him back to them and watch as they wheeled him off to the NICU.
That was hard.

NICU

Kory went with Axel, and my mom stayed with me. They got me all cleaned up and then Kory came back and said that he was doing well but they wanted to put him on a CPAP machine to help his lungs and breathing for about an hour.

After they got me all cleaned up and stitched up, it was time also for me to transfer to the Mother/Baby floor. They told me I would be able to swing by the NICU to see him on my way down, so I was very anxious to get going on that.

They wheeled me into the NICU and took me back to see my baby boy. He was so tiny, and plugged into the CPAP machine. I wanted to scoop him up in my arms again, but knew that he needed to get better. They let me touch his little hands and toes for about another minute before they wheeled me off to my room in Mother/Baby.

At this point I felt very empty. I had my mom and Kory but I wanted my baby. He felt so far from me. This was very hard for me. I wanted to be by his side, cheering him on to work hard and show them how strong he is, but instead I was so far away half numb, cold and shaky.

WAITING FOR AXEL

The waiting game was at that point the hardest thing I had to do thus far. I would feel my stomach move and I would think "Oh he is kicking", but then quickly realize, no that is just my stomach, he is on a completely different floor, and it made me really sad, even more emotional, and helpless.

They decided to keep him on the CPAP Machine for another hour and then around noon they finally wheeled him into my room and I finally got to be with my baby boy.