Labor Pains

Owen Wylie was born on Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 8:26 a.m. It was supposed to be my last day of school and I was planning on taking a final.

The night before he was born I was having regular Braxton Hicks contractions. Brad and I went on a long walk and the moment we walked in the door of our home, they completely stopped. I was hoping that we would be going to the hospital so that I wouldn't have to study for my final. But after all that walking I was too tired to study so I went to sleep at 11 p.m.

I woke up at 6 a.m. with mild cramps. Brad and I made a plan: we would get dressed, have breakfast and take Honey for a walk to get the contractions coming at a regular pace. We got out of bed at 7 a.m. and within 10 minutes I was having painful contractions 5 minutes apart. We modified the plan: Brad would take Honey for a quick walk while I finished packing. While he was walking with Hun, the contractions starting coming every 3 minutes and they were so painful I couldn't stand up. As I was calling his phone to tell him "We have to go NOW!!!", he walked in the door.

We loaded the car and left for the hospital at 7:45 a.m. Brad didn't have the doctor's phone numnber programmed into his phone, so I was reading it off to him. He looked up and saw that the cars ahead of us were stopped at a light. He slammed on the brakes and swerved into the oncoming lane. Thankfully no one was coming! We called my mom to tell her we were on the way to the hospital.

Brad pulled up to the hospital at 8 a.m. and grabbed a wheel chair. As we entered the hospital I was having a contraction and was moaning loudly. People were jumping out of the way. We got into the elevator and I started having another contraction. There was another man in the elevator who asked Brad if we were having a baby (duh!). I can forgive him though because his wife had a baby the day before and I am sure he was exhausted.

As we pulled up to the desk, I handed them the pre-registration papers that I was supposed to send in months before. They wheeled me into a room. I promptly took off all of my clothes (I was burning up) and laid on the bed. My first question was "Is the anesthesiologist at the hospital?" The nurse said that he was with my doctor in a C-section at the moment and that I couldn't get an epidural until they had started an IV. So I told her to please start an IV.

While Brad went to get me a glass of water, the nurse checked my "progress" and found I was at 8 centimeters, too late for any drugs. THis was not our birth plan. In all of the baby classes we had taken, I was often the only woman in the room who readily admited I was not going to have a natural birth and that I would get an epidural during the class if they would let me. Boulder is very supportive of women giving birth without any drugs. I was very comfortable with my decision to get drugged up and watch TV all day until Owen arrived in the afternoon. But now I was going to be an "earth mother."

With the epidural option not viable, my back up method for pain relief was screaming and squeezing (clawing) Brad's arm. I was scared. The nurse went to get the doctor out of surgery (luckily there was another doctor who could take over). Just as the doctor walked into the room, my water broke with a huge gush. I told her I had to push. She sat down, pulled on gloves and her mask and told me to push.

I pushed once . . . twice, and the doctor said one more push and he would be here. I gave it my all and Owen Wylie Sykes was born at 8:26 a.m. I was only in active labor for an hour and a half. He was born so fast that I didn't have an IV and I wasn't even in the computer system! They put him on my chest and toweled him off. Our precious son had arrived.

Brad called my mom at 8:30 to tell her she was a grandmother. Kai didn't understand. She hadn't even had her coffee since Brad had called! She was planning on having a leisurly day and coming to the hospital in the afternoon. But she told us she would throw some clothes on and come see her grandbaby!

Owen weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and was 21 inches long. He was born two weeks before his due date. We went home on Sunday, I wrote a final paper on Monday and took an essay final on Thursday (Owen turned one week old while I was furiously scribbling). Owen and I graduated on Friday and then I celebrated my first Mother's Day on Sunday.

It was absolutely insane and I couldn't have been happier!