In regards to this post's title, the first most life changing day in my life was January 3 2009 when I was sealed to the love of my life and we started our little family unit. The second most life changing day was April 2 2012, my sweet boy's birth day.
I was 39 weeks and 6 days pregnant that morning. After a weekend of false labour, I was very much looking forward to my induction appointment later in the day. I woke up, made Matt's lunch and sent him off to work, not sure of how long he would remain there as we would be called into the hospital - no set appointment time. Then I waited. At 7:30, I got tired of waiting and called my mom. I like to be in control of the situations I'm in so the following conversation is very typical of my approach when I am asked to wait. "What does 'We'll call in the morning' mean to hospital staff? Does that mean they'll call at 8:00? 10:00?" My mom suggested that I call the hospital as she had no idea what the answer was. I called the Grey Nuns Labour and Delivery unit and asked the nurse when they typically call the scheduled induction patients. She was just getting organized and would then be checking the lists. She asked for my last name and then told me to just come in. We arranged that I would be at the hospital for 9:00. I got off the phone and quickly called Matt, who had been at work for only half an hour. "Are you ready to come home?" I asked. He was on his way shortly after and I hopped in the shower so I was ready for whatever the day held in store.
After registering, they wheeled me up to the third floor and took me straight into a labour and delivery room. Can I just say I really liked that I could go through my whole labour in a private room? Awesome. After monitoring me and the baby for awhile, the nurse, Becca, started telling me about the effects of the oxytocin they would be giving me. She said most women don't start progressing until two to four hours after the drip began. At 10:15, after two unsuccessful IV attempts, I was finally hooked up and Becca started the drip. My contractions started increasing in length and intensity in half an hour. I was taking well to the oxytocin. My intent going into labour was to try it naturally but I was not going to say no to an epidural if the pain became too much for me. At 2:00, I was getting to the point that I wanted to cry with every contraction and I had only dilated to 4 cm. My nurse had told me that I was experiencing contractions on steroids - how true is that?! She also informed me that the anesthesiologist had two c-sections to do and another woman who wanted an epidural so if I wanted it, now was the time to get it before he got too busy. I was very ready to not feel anything anymore, so in came the anesthesiologist. What a wonderful man! Matt later commented that if he were to be a doctor, he would be an anesthesiologist because you have pretty easy work and everyone likes you. The latter part is definitely true.
After a few hours, I started to feel the contractions again gradually. I asked for a top up which Dr. Wonderful willingly gave. I still felt the contractions and when I asked the nurse, she said I would for about three to four contractions after the top up. Three, then four, then eight contractions passed and I still felt the pain and it was getting worse. I told the nurse again and she asked if I could feel them on both sides. I thought that was weird but the next contraction, I felt my left side and sure enough, I was not feeling anything on that side, only my right side. They had me change positions, gave me another top up and I was good to go. I was so frozen that when they did the ice test to see how frozen I was, I couldn't even feel that they were putting anything on me. So awesome! I will always get an epidural if I am able to.
Around 6:30-7:00ish, my OBGYN came in to check up on me. I had this rare cyst that he needed to drain before delivery so he did that and ruptured my membranes while he was at it. I hear that's a really gross feeling but luckily, I was frozen. :) At this point, I was 6 cm dilated. Dr. Chua came back an hour later to see how I had progressed. I thought I'd be at 7 or 8 cm, but no, I had fully dilated in just one hour. Dr. Chua said I could start pushing at any point now. I started to panic. I was not ready for this baby to come out. It had only been an hour and I couldn't possibly be ready to push. Luckily, I had a wonderful, calm husband and an understanding nurse. My nurse (whose name completely escapes me right now) said that we didn't have to start pushing right then. Some women didn't start pushing for an hour after they reached 10 cm. My job at that point was to pay attention to the pressure I was feeling. When I felt pressure that was similar to a bowel movement, then it was time.
Around 8:20, I started to feel some pressure so I told the nurse. She suggested we do some practice pushing before the real deal. We worked on breathing and the "three push" technique (yes, I totally just made that name up) and she instructed Matt and the student nurse what they needed to do when we started pushing. At 8:40, it was time. I was quite surprised that even though I was completely frozen, I still knew when my body wanted to push. It made it so much nicer having me in control rather than having a nurse watch my contractions and telling me to push when I didn't have an urge. I had the best nurse ever! Both of my L&D nurses were fantastic but the second one was perfect for the actual delivery. She coached me so well. She pressed where she wanted me to focus my pushing, she encouraged and praised and just made it so easy to keep pushing. At 9:00, my nurse pushed the button for the doctor. Another nurse came into the room and said, "He's just stitching up another patient. Can she wait?" Do you have any idea how hard it is to have the need and urge to push and being told not to? It's way harder than pushing. No lies. But again, my wonderful nurse allowed me to have cheater pushes, just small ones when the pressure became too much. How I loved her! By 9:15, Dr. Chua was there. I should also note that along with him, there was my nurse, a student nurse, two intern doctors and a "baby nurse" (as she was called) in my delivery room. Talk about crowded but they don't lie when they say you won't care whose watching when it gets time for pushing. After a few more pushes, my son was out.
It was 9:23 and they gave him straight to me. As I held this precious bundle, all I could do was cry. I was done. He was out. He was perfect. He was mine. They took him to be measured and weighed. My baby was 6 lb 5 oz and 21 inches long. He is the smallest baby born into the Owen Woodruff family to date and I am totally ok with that. ;) Matt was already so in love. I was a little nervous for our baby's birth because Matt had told me that in his opinion, no newborns are cute. I knew I would think our baby was adorable but I wanted him to think so too. He did.
Matt was very much already set on a name so after things slowed down a little he asked what I thought. After looking at my son and having a talk with him about his prospective name, we finalized it - Oakley Dallin Kastendieck.
We had a few visitors that night. Grandma Woodruff and Auntie Emily were the first to meet Oakley. After we were moved to our theme room, Grandma Kastendieck, Auntie Rachel, Uncle Zak and Uncle Tanner came to see the new babe. Throughout the next day, Oakley had met most of his aunts and uncles. We took him home on April 4th and have been thoroughly absorbed by our little man. We sure do love you Oakley and we look forward to being your parents. Heavenly Father loves us. :)
Our first family picture
Daddy and son snuggles
Mom having some skin-to-skin cuddles
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