Mark Andrew's Birth Story

Mark Andrew was born on Monday August 29th at 2:04am, four hours before the scheduled induction was supposed to start. Sunday evening I was going around the house getting things cleaned up so that in the morning when we left it would be nice and clean for a few days. I vacuumed the front room, swept the kitchen, got the dishes done, and all the laundry folded. It was time for Katelynn to go to bed so we did her bedtime routine and then it was my time to relax and enjoy one last nights sleep. I went from Katelynn's room to the bathroom and knew at that moment that my water had broke. It was eight o'clock and my chances of having a good-nights sleep were now over.
Mary came over and we headed to the hospital and were admitted by nine pm. As we were sitting in the hall waiting for our room we saw a Dr talking to the nurses at the nurses station and saying goodnight to them and that he hoped not to see them again that night. As he was saying that Ben and I were saying to each other that he was the Dr on call for our group. He came down the hall towards us and as he approached I asked him if he was the Dr on call for Swanson. He stopped dead in his tracks and said, "Noooo." with a huge grin on his face. We stopped and chatted and he didn't think that I would have Mark till morning and Swanson would be able to deliver. Contractions hadn't really started then and I was worried about the long night ahead. He didn't start the pitocin, he just wanted to give my body a chance to start labor on it's own. Which it did. When I was checked at about ten I was 2.5cm. My contractions really started to kick in but I was so uncomfortable on their bed that laying on my back was the only position I could handle. Mark was still moving all over the place and the nurses were having a hard time tracking him. The charge nurse came in and had me lay on my right side which is the opposite side that I had been laying on for the past 9 months. That was when my contractions really kicked in. It was 11 o'clock and I was breathing heavily through the contractions and having the nurses come in and out to find Mark. At 11:30 I was 4.5 cm and was ready for the epidural. They started doing the epidural at 12 and was finished by 12:30. The moment the drugs were being pushed, which is painful, I had a contraction and the blood pressure machine went off. I was about to snap at that moment with all the painful stimuli going on but managed to make it through it. Ben was waiting behind the curtain while I was getting the epidural and Jody our nurse was holding me. We then spent the next half an hour rolling me from side to back to try and find Mark. At one o'clock he was found, I was comfortable and I wanted to take an hour nap. I told the nurses I didn't want to see them for one hour. Thirty minutes later I felt a drop and pressure. I knew my nap was over. The nurses came running in and asking me if I felt anything different which I did. His head was there and we needed the Dr. The next twenty minutes was spent getting everything set up. I couldn't feel my legs at all. I couldn't move my legs. I couldn't do anything. When everyone was ready and three pushes later Mark Andrew was born weighing 8 lbs even and 21 inches long. mark had the cord wrapped around his neck twice and wrapped around his leg. At home at that exact moment Katelynn woke up and didn't go back to sleep for an hour with Grandma.