He's Here!

Some of you saw the announcement on Facebook, but for those of you who haven't heard yet... 

LOGAN MICHAEL made his fast and furious arrival on Wednesday, February 5th.

I have been saying all along that we are apparently just a family of extremes and that he was for sure to be born in the middle of a snow storm.  I had Olivia in Texas in the hottest summer they had in twenty some years.  We lived in Texas for two winters and they were super mild back here in Ohio.  I told Michael, "You watch!  We are going to move back and it is going to be the worst winter in years and he will be born in a blizzard."  It wasn't blizzard conditions, but it was pretty close.  Here's the story:

Things were moving along as normal and I was waiting for my 39 week appointment, which was scheduled for the afternoon of Wednesday the 5th.  On the night of the 4th my friend Laurie brought us over dinner.  I kept saying that I just wish he would come on his own, because I didn't want to have to make the induction decision.  When she got ready to leave, we opened the door to a couple of inches of snow.  She joked that he was for sure coming that night and should she just spend the night. (She was going to be staying at our house for labor and delivery so Olivia's routine could remain the same.)  I said, "I haven't even had any contractions yet, so I think we are good."

Not a half hour later and I started getting period type cramping.  I knew this was sort of normal.  There was nothing to "time", so I just endured.  It went on for a few hours while we watched TV.  I told Michael that I hoped that meant when I went in that I would be dilated more or that Logan had moved into position--something!

Since I've been having trouble sleeping, we've been going to bed pretty late.  We went to bed a little before 1.  As we laid there talking, we could hear that the snow had turned to sleeting ice.  We were discussing the upcoming birth and what we should do in certain situations, etc.  At 1:30 I felt a "pop" and told Michael that my water had just broke.  I knew it was going to take Laurie at least 25 minutes to get to our house.  I instructed Michael to call Laurie and then the doctor and I hopped in the shower.

I just took a quick shower and was doing good, but as soon as I got out the contractions started, and they started with a vengeance!  Michael was scurrying around trying to find all of the items on my "pack at the last minute" list.  He got an app on his phone to time the contractions.  I told him that they were coming way too fast!

He had to stay under the heat lamp for a bit after his bath because his hair was taking so long to dry! :)

In the meantime, Laurie was stuck in her driveway from all of the snow.  Michael was trying to instruct her, help me, pack the bags, and run around to do what needed done.  

The pain got so bad that I ended up on all fours in our bedroom, puking and saying things like, "Michael!  I can't do this!"  He reassured me that I could.  He kept asking if he should call 9-1-1.  I didn't want to be that person that called claiming to be needing help and only be at 4cm or something.  Remember--with Olivia I didn't feel a single contraction, so this was all very new to me!

I told him that we didn't have time to wait for someone to show up.  We needed to get Olivia up, get in the car and get on our way.  Our hospital was 30 minutes away in good traffic!  So as he woke Olivia up and was getting her settled, I had a contraction that didn't stop.  I had left his phone on the other side of the room, so I'm not sure how long it was but it was definitely a sign to me that we were in trouble.  Once he got back in the room I told him to go ahead and call 9-1-1.  We were not going to make it to the hospital!

The dispatcher started walking us through things.  She said my breathing was good and was coaching me on how to relax through the contractions instead of tense up.  She told me to just let my body do what it was meant to do.  I kept saying that I did not want to have a 10 pound baby on my bedroom floor, and she said that it would be fine.  She was instructing Michael on gathering towels and what he should be doing.  At one point she told him that for every contraction he needed to firmly place the palm of his hand under me so that the head didn't come out too fast.  Um, yeah.  Things got real, and FAST!  Michael did great. He was staying calm, but I could tell that his hand was shaking just a bit.  I asked where the paramedics were, and she said they were on their way, but because of the storm they might be a little delayed.  Great!

They finally arrived.  4 EMT's and 3 firefighters walked in.  The first guy says, "Oh crap! Are you kidding me?!?"  Yeah... that was comforting.  Apparently when Michael called the dispatcher and told them my water had broke and my contractions were too close together, that did not translate to 'this baby is coming NOW!'.  They started calling for what they would need off the truck.  I guess at some point some of them were shoveling our driveway.  Then the head guy says they need to move us to the basement.  That made no sense to me, so I started arguing with him a bit.  Finally they put me on this tarp and carried (banged me from side to side) down the hall and down the stairs, where they put me on the stretcher.  Just at that time I hear Laurie say, "Where is O?".  She arrived literally just in the nick of time!

I got loaded onto the ambulance.  I guess Michael was originally going to drive.  He already had our bags in the car and it was running.  At the last second he got worried about getting stuck in the snow, so he asked if he could ride in the ambulance.  They said yes, but that he had to ride in the passenger seat.

We started off down the road and they were trying to get an IV in me.  That never happened.  Michael was talking to me from the front. I told them I needed to push and they kept telling me not to and that I was just needed to have a bowel movement.  Apparently they didn't know that my water had broken.  When they found out, they mildly started freaking out.  Finally, I told them again that I HAD to push.  On the next contraction I crowned. (insert more paramedic freak out).  Push two and his head was out.  Push three and he was out!

I had to remind them to look at the time of birth.  Logan arrived at 2:45AM--exactly 1 hour and 15 minutes from when my water broke.  We were literally about 10 minutes away from Michael delivering him in our bedroom!

We got to the hospital about 7 minutes after Logan's arrival.  At one point the grumpy paramedic called me Brittany a few times. I responded with, "It's Bethany.  If I have to go through all of this, you can at least get my name right!"  He wasn't my favorite of people, but he did later apologize to Michael for them being a little abrupt and intense.  Pretty much all of the nurses and doctors have said that paramedics do NOT like to deliver babies if they can help it.  That was clearly apparent.

The hospital had a team waiting for us.  As soon as I got into the hallway a nurse was there to take Logan.  She grabbed him and said, "Whoa!  He is a BIG baby.  Did you have gestational diabetes?"  (OH. MY. WORD.  Seriously already!!!!)

I was taken into one of the closest rooms where I delivered the placenta.  I'm glad I didn't deliver at home.  The paramedics said I had delivered the placenta in the squad, where I clearly did not.

Logan was doing great.  His temps were good.  He was 9 pounds, 14 ounces and 20 inches long.

Yes.  That's right.  I had one labor where I felt nothing, and then one where I basically delivered a 10 pound baby with no epidural.  Talk about extremes!

It turns out that had this happened any other way, we likely would have had him on the side of the road in the freezing cold.  There was a semi jack knifed on the freeway that we would have needed to take.  The road was closed, and we would have been stuck.  It all worked out just as it needed to.  We didn't end up at the hospital we were suppose to.  They ended up taking us to the closest one.  I think this was God's way of laughing at me.  It turns out, having a baby in an ambulance is probably going to be a lot cheaper than having him in that cushy hospital room that we had planned for. ;)