He's here!!!

Luke James Burton. 05/26/2010, 7:14 a.m. 8 lbs. 13 oz. 20 in. and PERFECT.

How ironic that the day before Luke came, Drew wrote a funny post about patience and waiting for him to come :) It was such an amazing experience that nobody can prepare for but it was so worth the wait. (I know, I say that now after complaining for 5 weeks.) This might be a huge rambling because I am so tired, but I want to write as much as I remember so we don't forget! :)

My contractions got progressively worse over the weekend, so we decided Tuesday night that we would go into Labor and Delivery, and if I hadn't progressed, we would talk to my Dr. about possibilities since the baby was so big. I really wanted to avoid c section, who wouldn't?!

We got to the hospital a little after 7 pm. As we walked in I said to Drew, "I am NOT leaving without a baby this time!" I know, I was getting a little impatient at this point but contracting every 2 minutes had me thinking it really was time. And I was right! They checked me when we first got to the hospital, and I was a 3 (like the last three weeks, so that was frustrating!) and they decided since my contractions were so regular they'd just keep me two hours and see what happened. Luckily, the contractions were strong enough this time to dilate me to a 4 in the hours they watched me. We were prepared for her to say "no change" and we would then ask for an amnio, ultrasound, or whatever was necessary in order to induce. So when she said I had changed and that he wanted to keep me and get me going, we were so so happy. It was now almost 10 pm so we called our parents and told them to head this way. However, it went pretty slow for a couple hours after that. She started me on a little pitocin, and when that kicked in the contractions hurt a lot worse but no progress with dilating. They started the epidural, which in my opinion is heaven sent for sure....that thing does wonders! I was really nervous to get it but it wasn't bad AT ALL.

After I got the epidural I felt so much better but it slowed things down quite a bit. She upped my mL in pitocin, but I still hadn't changed by 2 am. By this time our parents had showed up so we were all just hanging out in the room. We decided we were all too anxious to sleep so we didn't even try. But then at 3:30, I still hadn't changed and we decided now was the best time to take advantage of the quiet, and sleep. So our parents went out to the waiting room, and Drew and I turned the lights off and shut our eyes. Not two minutes later, I heard a pop noise and thought it was just a huge movement from the baby. Nope! It was definitely my water. :) I was so happy that my water broke on it's own rather than the Dr. having to break it for me. Drew went and got my nurse and she came and cleaned me up and told me things would speed up now.

Our parents came back into our room at about 4:30 am after we got more anxious now that my water had broken. Once my water broke I started feeling a lot more pressure and a little bit more pain and I realized my epidural was wearing off a little. Within 10 minutes I could feel a lot more than I wanted to, so she called the anesthesiologist to come give me another boost. After he gave me a boost I got really sick and threw up for about 5 minutes. Not the funnest of moments, but I was rewarded with my nurse checking me and telling me I had progressed to a 6, almost 7. Now things started getting a little more real. My dad and Drew gave me a beautiful blessing, and I knew that I would be holding our new baby boy within the next couple hours.

At 6:00 the nurses had a shift change and I was sad to see my nurse leave since she had been there through it all and shared in my excitement. But during the shift change, my contractions and pressure started getting a lot more intense. This part sucked because nobody was coming to check on me since they were busy changing shifts. My Dr. showed up shortly after and decided to check me. I was complete and ready to push by 6:20. My father-in-law, Ron, wasn't into watching the whole thing (who can blame him....haha) so he was the "detail noter." He says I started pushing at 6:23 a.m. (Luke was born at 7:14 a.m. so I pushed for less than an hour, and a total of 46 pushes, Ron said! :)

Pushing was a lot different than I expected, and a lot harder too. They kept telling me I was pushing too much up top and not enough down low, so once I got the hang of it, everyone started cheering me on which helped a lot. After pushing for about 20 minutes, they noticed Luke's heart rate had raised considerably (as did mine) and after doing some more vitals noticed that my fever was 101. It didn't help that the nurses kept making weird faces at each other and saying things under their breath. At this point, I got really stressed which made it all the more hard. Luckily, I had Drew, my mom, and Lori right at my side helping me and trying to keep me worry-free. I think my fever and heart rate got worse as the nurses kept scaring me, which in turn didn't help Luke out. My Dr. came in and let me know the risks of my fever on the baby and told me he was going to give me an episiotomy to help the process along and get Luke out asap.

Those last pushes were the longest moments of my life. He was crowning for what seemed like forever, but with the help of everyone else and positive thoughts I finally got the baby out. Seeing him come out was the most amazing thing I'll ever experience. Drew and I couldn't contain our emotions and the love we had for each other and our new little one was so present and real at that moment. They put him up on my belly as they wiped him off but I could tell he wasn't doing too great with breathing and it was a little scary. They didn't let us hold him for long, but we did get to see the scale and that bright red, "8 lbs. 13 oz." and 20 inches shining. Everyone gasped and couldn't believe he was so big for only being 38 weeks. (After doing some tests, the pediatrician thinks I was actually over-due, which makes sense.)

Anyway, they took Luke to the nursery and unfortunately he has to stay there and be monitored while getting antibiotics for atleast 48 hours in case my fever was because of an infection. They couldn't find a vein forever so the poor thing must take after me. They poked him a couple times and he had an oxygen tube put down his stomach (so sad on such a small tiny innocent baby.) The good news is, after 24 hours, he was doing so so much better and they think he might not have an infection after all. They think that he just had a very stressful delivery (probably because of my stupid stress....I feel guilty) and the transition from womb to air had him confused on how to breathe. He's getting it now though! He did develop jaundice rather early so he is under the lights now. He is nursing okay, still a little hard to catch on to, but we are working on it together and he is doing great for his 2nd day of life.

Other than my stitches and the pain from ripping (sorry if that's TMI) I feel awesome. I can't believe he is really here and he is so perfect. I can't wait to take him home and start our lives together. Drew and I know what a blessing he is and our love for each other has grown because of the blessing we now have. We're catching up on our sleep, and with a lot of help from the nurses, and our parents, we're as good as new. :) I don't have a ton of pics on the computer yet so the next post will be an overload of the pics. We'll be here until tomorrow morning for sure and then they'll let us know depending on his blood work and jaundice levels.

Thanks everyone for your support and love through this whole pregnancy. We are so blessed and never realized how it would feel to love someone so much. He is amazing. We decided on the middle name James because both of us have great grandpas named James, and it also translates to "Santiago," which is where Drew served his mission.

So there you have it. I'm sure I've left some details out, (can you believe it) but we are just happy to have him here and that everything turned out to be okay after such a crazy stressful couple weeks. Love you all.