Happy Birthday Sawyer James Miner

He's Heeerrreee!

Our sweet little Sawyer was born on March 24th at 10:12am. Here's the story...

Friday March 22nd I had my weekly OB visit, I saw Dr. Mayes. I told her I just was not feeling well. My back was hurting, I was nauseous, I had a headache... I just wasn't right. I even had to take a Zofran for the first time in months that morning. She didn't have a lot of advice for me but she asked me if I was ready to have the baby, of course I said YES! I was so done being pregnant. She stripped my membranes and said she had a good feeling I would go into labor soon. I was 3cm and 80% effaced and my bag of water was bulging. For the rest of Friday I felt horrible. Exhausted, achy, nauseous. I thought for sure Id go into labor that night. Nope, I was wrong. I woke up on Saturday morning feeling fabulous, all of my symptoms were gone. I was disappointed to say the least. Although, this meant I could keep my spa appointment for a pedi and some much needed R&R time with Courtnee. We had our pedi's and hung by the pool, ate some lunch, and had a fabulous time. I got home in the late afternoon and I started feeling bad again, but this time I was having some big bad contractions. I started timing them around 5:30 and by 7:30 I told Matt that he needed to call his Mom who was lined up to watch Hudson. They were manageable but getting closer together. Well, Martha had just sat down for dinner with some friends so she sent Carla, who was also just sitting down for dinner- PS I felt horrible but would have felt worse if I wasn't actually in labor. Oh did I mention that Hudson had a fever and was feeling yucky and totally clingy. It was not the most ideal timing but honestly it's one of those things that I had zero control over so I just rolled with the punches. We checked in to OB triage around 9pm and were admitted about an hour later. I was 4cm and 90% effaced- bag of water still bulging. 

I went for a couple short walks and then settled back in to my L&D room. I was ready to get the show on the road but my nurse was not supper excited about moving my labor along for one reason or another. She really wanted me to rest... I really wanted to have a baby. Anyway, she told me the anesthesiologist was here and if I wanted an epidural this would be the ideal time. Although I could have waited I didn't want to inconvenience the doc by calling him back after he went to sleep for the night (and I figured he'd be a bit more awake and alert if I did it now versus in the middle of the night). As he was getting ready to start the procedure he got a vocera from another nurse saying the lady in the room next to me was requesting an epidural, he looked up at me and I said "Go, she probably needs it more than I do" so I bought myself a little extra time. Well, he came back 10 minutes later (it takes no time at all!). As he was getting set up him and Matt started chatting away about what else but dangerous hobbies. They hit it off to say the least, they were chatting it up the entire time he was putting my epidural in. It made me a little nervous so I actually asked him in a very nice way to please stop talking during the procedure and to pay attention and then again to double check the pump (because they had started talking again by that time) Ugh!

So, I mentioned that I had very low BP during my pregnancy and with the epidural I was concerned that my BP would drop even more. The anesthesiologist made sure I had a liter and a half of fluid instead of just the standard one liter. Well.... apparently that was not enough. My BP started dropping and started feeling yucky. I get very anxious and felt like I was going to pass out. At this time my BP was around 60's/30's My nurse gave me another bolus and it helped for a while but I quickly became symptomatic again and I was horribly itchy from the Fentanyl in my epidural. The only thing that kept me comfortable was a wet washcloth on my head.  After a few more boluses my nurse finally decided to give me some ephedrine. It only took one dose and some of the fluid to finally catch up with me and my BP finally stabilized. My nurse still wanted me to "rest", again I really wanted to have a baby so really all night I just stayed awake and waited. Finally day shift came on, I had one very seasoned nurse and a nurse who was on orientation, she had recently transferred to L&D from ICU at St. Lukes. The seasoned nurse was quite a bit more aggressive than my night shift nurse and was determined to get my baby out (thank you Jesus). She had me use the peanut ball and flip from side to side every hour, although the baby was still high I was now dilated to 8! She also increased my pitocin fairly aggressively.  She called the doc and they decided to break my water, apparently I had a lot of amniotic fluid, the doc was impressed with the amount that came out. I immediately dilated to 10 and the nurse had me do some practice pushes. After 2 rounds of pushing she called the doctor back and told me not to push with the next contraction. As soon as the doc came in and put on her gloves I was having another contraction and I pushed a couple of times and out Mr. Sawyer came. 7 lbs 8oz of love. My Heart doubled in size at that very moment and I could not have been happier. 

We stayed in the hospital just overnight and worked on nursing and resting a little bit. I could have stayed another night but since Hudson was sick I was totally conflicted. I didn't want to bring the baby home to a sick brother but I wanted to be with my Hudson. So we came home the next day. Hudson got to meet his baby brother for the first time and he was so sweet. I wish I would have video'd it but we have some very sweet pictures.