Warning: This is a long post. You don't have to read it, but we want to record the birth story so that we remember the day that our baby boy entered the world. Also, Craig is amazing and without his role in the birth I would have had the baby at home or on the side of the road and would have been in much more pain than I was with his help.
Monday night we went to bed pretty discouraged. My due date had come and gone. I knew we'd either wake up in the night with contractions or I would be going back to work in the morning.
Tuesday morning came and I got out of bed to get ready for another work day. First I came downstairs and got a little something to eat and then got in the shower. I felt a little cramping while I was walking around but didn't think much of it. While I was in the shower I had a couple of contractions. I just swayed through them and kept thinking that there was no way I was actually in labor. This baby didn't want to come.
Once I was out of the shower I got straight back in bed. Craig rolled over and I told him it might be time. I was counting 15 second contractions but hadn't figured out how far apart they were yet. I told Craig to take a quick shower. I sent a text to my mom and told her to get Brady ready and that it might be time and another text to work saying I wasn't sure what was happening but I would not be coming in. Craig had pulled up a contraction counter on his phone and I timed a contraction while he was getting ready. I was a little shocked to see it was 45 seconds. Turns out I was counting according to my breathing and not the actual seconds. All of the sudden this was real.
Between the next few contractions I put clothes on, brushed my teeth, and put moose in my hair. I wanted to lay back down and have Craig call the doctor but he said no. We were leaving for the hospital and he would call from the road. So we came downstairs and I told Brady bye, that I loved him and gave him a kiss, my mom took a picture of Craig and I and out the door we went.
It was about 8:30 am and we had to make the drive down the Diagonal Highway into Boulder during the morning commute. My contractions were coming every 3 minutes and lasting about 45 seconds. A second contraction would follow the first before the longer break until it would all start over. I had roughly 10 contractions in the car. They were pretty intense but I tried to play it off as much as possible so Craig would concentrate on driving and not trying to help me. About 10 minutes into the drive the very thing I had been dreading since I found out I was pregnant happened and back labor kicked in.
We got to the hospital and made our way up to labor and delivery. We got off the elevator and walked into construction only to realize it was the second floor and not the third. Back in the elevator and up to the third floor we went with the two construction workers that had joined us for the ride. They laughed and said it was understandable that we would get off on 2 instead of 3 since we had a little bit going on at the moment.
We quickly checked in and got escorted down to our room. I walked slowly but didn't have to stop. We were in the room next to where I delivered Brady. I went straight into the bathroom. While I was in the bathroom and I had a couple of pretty intense contractions.
After that I went into the room and climbed up onto the bed on my side with a pillow between my legs. The nurse came in and started to ask her questions and get me situated. By this point Craig was hard at work putting counter pressure on my back like he had the majority of the 8 hours I was in labor with Brady. The nurse left the room for just a minute while they monitored the baby and my contractions. While she was gone I told Craig I was going to ask about an epidural. The million dollar question throughout this pregnancy has been if I was going to get drugs or not. My answer the whole time has been that I don't know. I will start out that way, but there are so many things that can happen along the way I just don't know how you can fully say that you will or won't do something.
The nurse came back in to check and see how far along I was. The previous Thursday I was 3 cm dilated and 80 percent effaced. I had not had any contractions until about an hour and a half prior to the first check in the hospital. She reached in and got a funny look on her face and said she could not feel my cervix. I was almost completely dilated and my bag of waters was bugling. We just laughed and I thought, no wonder I wanted an epidural! I was in the middle of a hard, fast labor. So I crossed the epidural off the list and as the nurse ran to get the doctor.
Doctor Shimoda (the happiest, cutest, little doctor you ever did see) walked into the room with a huge smile on her face and asked why I wasn't making any noise. She checked me again and said there was just a tiny bit of cervix still hanging on one side and offered to break my water. Once she did that she thought the baby would be on its way. We said yes so they got their stuff together and broke my water. They told me that as soon as I got the urge to push to go for it because the baby was right there.
After a minute or two I got crazy hot and had constant contractions for about 5 - 10 minutes. Transition had arrived. Craig needed three hands at this point because he was trying to fan me, but I needed him to keep pushing on my back. I had to have the nurse pull up an arm on the bed because I had him pushing so hard I was about to fly off the bed. As soon as things calmed down I got the urge to push. They called the doctor back in, made some adjustments on the bed and it was go time. I pushed for about 10 minutes and out he came. I did yell at the baby to get out a time or two during the pushing stage.
Samuel Owen Montgomery joined us on Tuesday September 23 at 10:03 am weighing in at 7 pounds 11 ounces, 20 inches in length with a 13 inch head circumference. I was in labor for 2.5 hours total. We were in the hospital for 1 hour before he was born. It was fast and furious and beautiful.
As far as his name is concerned we wanted it to be meaningful knowing that he has a long road ahead of him as he deals with bilateral clubfoot. My Uncle Tommy Hughes sent this to my mom after Samuel was born and it beautifully and succinctly explains why we picked his name:
We did not know how we would feel or respond to seeing Samuel's feet. He was on my chest for about an hour before I even saw them since there was a blanket over us during skin to skin and him eating. Once I got a glimpse of his feet I saw that they are beautiful and although we know they can't stay the way they are we will miss them once they are corrected.
Tuesday is our first appointment with his pediatric orthopedic specialist. He will undergo the Ponseti Method and it will involve serial casting (6 -12 weeks), 23/7 wear of boots and bar for approximately 3 months, and then he will sleep in the boots and bar anywhere from 3-5 years old depending on his situation. We would appreciate your prayers for Samuel, his doctor and her team, and the rest of our family as we walk down this road.
Our baby boy is here and we are so in love, thankful, and blessed. God has been so good to us.
We love you, Sammy!
Mama, Dada and Brady
