Welcome Liam!

Liam Henry Pemberton blessed us by joining our family on February 16th.  I haven't been feeling up to doing much so this post is delayed a bit, but I have been wanting to write down his birth story before I forget.

On Wednesday morning I was scheduled for my routine weekly checkup.  It also just happened to be my due date.  I had been feeling fairly miserable the week prior and was eager for the baby to be ready.  Lola, always the Mommy's girl, decided she wanted to come along for the appointment while Bella stayed with Nonni.  The nurse came in and checked my blood pressure as usual, and it was high.  I had been flirting with preeclampsia for the last month or so, and she seemed a bit concerned.  I really didn't want to be induced via pitocin, but was certainly interested in seeing if there was something we could do to jump start labor.  I asked the nurse what my other options were and she was a little vague with her answer and then said that the doctor would be right in.

A few minutes later, Dr. Grade came in and asked "Are you ready".  I, at 40 weeks pregnant of course said, "Yes!".  She then proceeds to tell me, "Well, all the numbers are looking like he's ready to come out, and I think you are going preeclamptic on me, so I'm going to send you over to be induced."  Me:  "Like, now?!"  Dr. Grade:  "Yes, now."  At this point I start to freak out.  I hadn't brought my suitcase with me, I had Lola with me, and I was driving myself.  She told me not to worry, that the hospital would allow Lola to go back with me until someone could pick her up, and that she would be over for the delivery later that day.  Okey-doke...

I called my parents and Bob on the way to the hospital and they promised to be there as soon as possible.  Lola and I calmly valeted (this is Scottsdale) the car and went up to get checked in to have a baby.  Weird.  Lola was a total sweetie the entire time.  She held my hand and calmly ate her snacks and read her books in the hospital room until Bob arrived.  It was super cute.  I really enjoyed having her there.

After checking my cervix and determining that I was between a 3 and a 4 already, they started me on IV fluids and the dreaded pitocin around 11am.  I began having regular contractions, but they weren't too painful.  My Mom and Bella came to pick up Lola, and they went to have lunch with Bob in the cafeteria.  Around 3pm the contactions had definitely picked up in intensity and I asked for my epidural.  Ahhh...bliss.  The nurse notified me that the doctor would be in to break my water and I just laid there enjoying a pain-free labor.  Fabulous.  When the doctor came in to break my water, she discovered that it had broken on it's own (which I couldn't feel due to the epidural) and that I was dialated to about a 6.  From there things started to go downhill.

I wasn't making much progress, but I definitely FELT like I was making progress.  I started feeling like the baby was moving down, and I began to shake pretty uncontrollably.  It was awful.  The baby's heart rate began to drop with each contraction which the nurse said was a good sign that he was moving down into a birthing position.  She set me up with a birthing ball shaped like a peanut which I had to position between my knees while lying on my side in bed.  Apparently it helped because I quickly started to feel strong pressure in my bottom.  She came back to check me again, and said that I was dialated to a 9.  Feeling confident that birth was imminent, she called my doctor to come over.    She began setting up the room for the birth and getting me into position.  Before Dr. Grade arrived, I began feeling the urge to push.  We started and the nurse checked me, but I didn't seem to be making any further progress.  Dr. Grade arrived around 6:30 pm and checked me.  She determined that the baby was sunny side up and that was why my pushing wasn't doing anything.  He was stuck. And backwards.  Lovely.  She started having me move from side to side and push.  We did this for about 30 minutes.  Still no luck.  Finally, she decided to have me "labor down" for awhile while the nurses went through shift change and she put the peanut ball back between my knees.

Almost as soon as the doctor and nurse left, I started to feel quite a bit of pain along with the pressure.  Poor Bob was the recipient of quite a bit of yelling on my part.  Mostly gems along the line of "I am NEVER doing this again!"  By the time the new nurse came into the room, I was in tears and REALLY feeling the need to push.  She told me to breath through the contractions, which was becoming increasingly difficult.  About the time I started groaning uncontrollably, she decided to call Dr. Grade back.  From here things get a little fuzzy, but Bob told me that by the time the nurse came back she was fairly panicked and obviously praying that I would be able to keep from pushing long enough for Dr. Grade to get back to the room.  No such luck.
Try as I may, I couldn't stop from pushing.  By the time Dr. Grade got back in the room, the baby was crowning.  She didn't even have time to put on gloves, and had to just roll her smock sleeves around her hands to catch him.

Liam Henry Pemberton was born at 7:29pm and weighed in at a whopping 9lbs 4.2oz.  Ouch.  Thankfully, he was as healthy as a horse and only his poor little skull showed any sign of the trauma he had just gone through.

We are loving having our sweet baby boy at home and I can't believe it's already been a week since he got here.  We love him so, so much!