Owen D Glenn
Owen's birth was about as mellow and uneventful as Mya's was crazy and overwhelming. And it was exactly the birth that I had been hoping and praying for ever since Mya was born.
Around 4:30 the morning of the 11th I had a contraction that woke me up, but didn't think much of it since I had been having contractions like that since Thanksgiving or so. I got up and went to the bathroom, but when I came back to bed I realized that I was already having another contraction. As I lay there trying to fall asleep, I had another one. I started to wonder if this might be the real deal, so I pulled out a clock and decided to time them (if I had anymore). Sure enough, they were coming about every five minutes. At that point I started to get pretty excited. After timing my contractions for a half hour or so, Dunc started to stir and I told him I thought I might be in labor. My contractions had continued to come every 5 minutes or so and were starting to get a little bit closer together.
I was too restless to go back to bed, so I decided to get up and shower and start to pack a few things to take to the hospital. While I was in the shower I had Dunc time my contractions for me and they were coming about every 3 minutes. I think that was when I realized that I was actually going to have a baby and I might even have one that day! Dunc, on the other hand, wasn't exactly convinced. When I told him he might want to get up he told me he was tired and ready to back to sleep. That little bum. Ha ha. I think he was a little in denial about the whole thing. He kept asking me, "So how sure are you that we're actually going to have a baby today?" and "Are you sure this is the real thing?" After about twenty minutes of me threatening to kick his bum if he didn't get out of bed, he finally got up and started to get ready to go to the hospital.
We woke Mya up, got her ready to go, packed her bags to take to Mimi's, ate some breakfast and then got everything loaded into the car. We opened the garage door to start backing out and saw about 18 inches of new snow in the driveway!
As we were backing out, we got stuck halfway in the road and halfway in the driveway. After a few unsuccessful attempts at pushing and rocking the car, Dunc went back to get the shovel and dig us out. I love that Owen picked the snowiest day to come! Luckily Dunc had us out of there pretty quick and we headed over to my parents to drop Mya off.
When we got close to my parents' neighborhood we realized that their street hadn't been plowed and there was no way we were going to make it up the hill in our little car, so we called my parents to come meet us at the bottom of the hill. Sure enough a few minutes later, my mom comes barreling down the hill, honking her horn like crazy. Ha ha ha. That lady is crazy sometimes. :) Apparently she was sliding on ice and couldn't stop or something. Maybe she was going a little too fast... My mom's friend heard all the honking and came outside to see if everything was okay to which my mom yells, "We're good! Just came to get Mya. Liz and Duncan are going to the hospital to have their baby!" Nothing like letting the whole world know mom. :)
After that, we had a very uneventful drive up to the hospital. I think all the excitement with the snowy roads had made my contractions slow down though. By the time we got the hospital they were only every 7 minutes apart. We decided to walk up and down the stairs a little bit before going to Labor and Delivery to try and get them to come closer together, but after a few times around the hospital, Dunc was getting tired of lugging the heavy backpack around and decided that we were just going to go to L&D and see what they said.
So we got checked in and hooked up to the monitors and then sat there and waited. The contractions were still every 7 minutes or so apart, so the nurse said she was going to call my doctor but she thought they would tell me to come back when they were closer together. About 5 minutes after the nurse left, my body decided it was okay to go into labor again, and the contractions started coming every 3 minutes. So instead of letting us go, they had us stay on the monitor for another hour and a half. At this point I was dilated to a 4, but the contractions kept coming and going so my nurse said she was going to check with my doctor but that we could probably go get some lunch and then come back and check how things were going. I was pretty excited about that prospect since it was lunch time and I was already starving, but when the nurse came back, she brought my IV and told me we were officially being admitted. I had mixed feelings about not getting my food, but was pretty excited that we would definitely be having the baby!
After we got into our room, time started to speed up. We were admitted around 12:30, my doctor came in around 1 and broke my water, I got the epidural around 1:45 and then Owen was born at 5:37. It all seemed to go so fast but yet slow enough that we could actually be excited about the whole process.
After I got my epidural, Dunc and I played a full game of Phase 10. Unfortunately, I had to let him win because he was getting a little testy when I got ahead of him. It was a big milestone for Dunc though because I don't think he's ever beat me at Phase 10 before. Thankfully it put him in the perfect mood to be an awesome support for the rest of the delivery. :)
Toward the end of my labor I had to wear oxygen because Owen's heart rate would drop every time I had a contraction. My doctor said she was okay with how things were looking because his heart would recover between contractions, but she said if I was uncomfortable with things, we could go ahead and do a C-section. That was the last thing I wanted! And I was feeling good about everything, so we decided to go ahead with the VBAC and just keep watching his heart rate. After half hour or so and then about 45 minutes of pushing, our little Owen was born at 5:37!
The cord was wrapped around his neck one time, and that's why his heart rate had been dropping with each contraction. He also passed some meconium during the delivery, so he had to be suctioned right after he was born, but everything went well and he didn't end up aspirating any or having any respiratory problems.
Owen weighed in at a solid 7 pounds and was 20ish inches long. (We're not sure how accurate that 20 inches is because when I took him to the pediatrician 3 days later they told me he was 21 inches.)
My favorite part of the whole experience was watching Dunc's face as he carried Owen over to me. I'm so glad that I had the camera to capture it. He was so happy and his face was just glowing. It was definitely something I will never forget.
Overall it was such an incredible experience. I am so grateful that I was able to have a successful VBAC and could enjoy the whole delivery process instead of having another C-section. We are so happy to have little Owen here and are overwhelmed with how blessed we are!