The Moore Tales: Delivery Recap!

Rewind to Wednesday, November 21st which was my last day of work before leave. Since I hadn't made anymore progress, Dr. Lambert decided to schedule an induction for Wednesday, November 28th which just so happens to be my Dad's birthday! Aside from having the doctor choose my son's birthday, I wasn't against Preston and my dad sharing a birthday or him coming a few days late as long as it meant he was healthy. That evening we had a pretty relaxed evening at home. I never had many cravings during this pregnancy but I was really feeling like a Krispy Kreme donut so we piled into the car at 815PM and headed to Cayce to grab some donuts! We went through the drive through since we were all in our "jammas" as Baker says. I'm not sure if the 20 minute wait was prepping us for the patience we needed later that night or what but I've never had to wait that long in a drive through...ever! We finally got our dozen glazed donuts and headed home. Baker and I shared 2 donuts (each) on the couch before I put him down to sleep for the night. Little did I know that would be the last time I put him down to sleep as a 2 year old only child!

It was around 9:15PM and I decided to watch a little TV on the couch. There wasn't anything particularly entertaining on the TV and I remember feeling this overwhelmingly tired so I shut my eyes and fell asleep. Gordie was up playing on the computer and what only felt like a few minutes passed by and I woke up and looked at the clock and saw it was 12:15AM. Gordie was still on the computer enjoying some video games since we had off the next 4 days due to the thanksgiving holiday. I told him that I was headed to bed and that he probably should come too. We hadn't made Thanksgiving plans until earlier that afternoon just because we weren't sure when Preston would make his debut. Since not much had changed on the delivery front, we decided to go ahead and make plans to head to Camden in the morning and spend the afternoon/evening in Irmo.

I got ready for bed and the minute I got in the bed I had to go to the bathroom yet again. This wasn't uncommon for me as I was going to the bathroom several times before actually getting to sleep. So I thought this was just routine for me and then I'd be back to sleep in mear minutes. The first trip was a normal visit and then I got back in bed. Gordie then decided he would turn in for the night and got in bed himself. 5 minutes pass and I have to go to the bathroom yet again. I get up just like any other time and felt something different. I hated to yell for Gordie since he JUST fell asleep but this wasn't my normal bathroom trip...my water broke and it was VERY apparent this time at 12:50AM. This time it was much more of a "gush" than the "trickle" it was before with Baker. My first thought was "OH NOOOO IT'S BAKER'S BIRTHDAY!!!" I was telling everyone that of all days I wanted my boys to have their own special day...one that stood them apart from the other and one day that was THEIR day. How did I know that this would happen...my boys would SHARE a birthday...being exactly 3 years apart. What are the odds???

We called my doctors office and they paged the doctor on call (Dr. Jones). She told us to head to the ER as they'd go ahead and let the hospital know we were on our way. We then called my mom since we needed someone to be here to stay with Baker. I immediately started to feel contractions after my water broke. I was very uncomfortable at this point getting our last minute items together and waiting on my mom to arrive. The short 15 minute drive for her to get here on top of the 10 minute drive to the hospital felt like years. It was pretty embarassing walking into the hospital as I was literally SOAKING wet. Seriously I think I left a water trail walking into the ER...it.was.that.bad. Sorry folks! I guess it comes with the territory and isn't something they've never seen before.

We arrived at the hospital in the maternal assessment room # 2 and Tressa was my nurse. She was the most awesome nurse ever in that I didn't even feel my IV. Literally, she was awesome. We were all too familiar with Room #2 since 4 days prior (November 18th) I had contractions that started at 10 minutes apart and then got routine to every 7 minutes. My doctor told us to head into the hospital and by time we got there and were hooked up to the monitors my contractions became more irregular having 2 strong ones back to back and having a span of 10 minutes in between. After being assessed for a few hours, they gave me a shot of morphine and phenergan and sent us home. If it was early labor then the contractions would stop. If it was true labor then I was instructed to come back by 8AM as the contractions wouldn't stop. My contractions ended up stopping and I was back to normal! Preston was just teasing me since the 18th was the date I predicted he would arrive. :)

So here we are for the second time in Room #2 except this time it was for real. There was no sending us home this time as we were GOING to have a baby! I got decked out in the lovely gown and they hooked me up to the monitors where I endured the worst contractions I've ever felt. At 2:45AM I was 3cm dilated and they soon wheeled us over to our labor and delivery room (Room #11) where we were to get nice and comfortable!

Maureen was my nurse in the labor & delivery. She was a great nurse and was there for me every step of the way. Dr. Richards was the anesthesiologist that did my epidural. It was hard this time having Gordie leave the room. It is hospital policy that he leave so the room was as sterile as possible. We even had to wear masks. It was quite a different experience than I had before. He was able to be with me when I got my epidural with Baker so this time it was a little hard not having him in the room. I had to sit up and hunch over a pillow and Maureen was there right in front of me for me to squeeze to try and hold still. Mind you, I had to endure 2 horrible contractions while he was doing my epidural and it was so difficult because you.cannot.move.an.inch. I did pull out one of Baker's blankets to keep me company. Dr. Richards did a great job because I barely felt a thing and he stayed in the room afterward to make sure it worked well and that I was starting to feel the effects. I started to feel the effects almost immediately and much more on my left side than my right. My entire left leg was gone, numb, worthless but I could still move around my right leg.

At 345AM, Dr. Jones checked me again and I was still 3cm and his head was engaged at a 1 so she decided it was time to give me some pitocin to help jump start my contractions since at this point they were 8 minutes apart. They started the pitocin and we were going to rest until the next check at 6:00AM. Gordie tried to sleep and I tried to rest but I was too excited!! I put the TV on some gentle, soft music to listen to and in between resting, texting, and looking at my phone the hours ticked by incredibly fast. At 6:00AM, I was already 9.5 cm and was going to be ready to push around 6:30AM. The nurses got everything ready in the room and it was all surreal watching everyone hustle around the room getting prepared. At 6:45AM, I was ready to start pushing. We were going to push every other contraction. I pushed through 2 contractions and then Dr. Jones noticed that Preston's heart rate was dropping so they put me on my side which was where he seemed comfortable and his heart rate stablized. They were throwing around words of the cord must be wrapped around him somewhere. Hearing those words were absolutely terrifiying. The last thing I wanted to hear was a cord was wrapped around his neck??!! As long as we heard a heart beat then we knew he was okay. To not bring anymore undue stress, Dr. Jones decided to let Preston and gravity do its work and for me to stop pushing and have him work his way down on his own a little more. At 7:00AM, it was shift change which meant I got new nurses and a new doctor in the middle of my labor! I wasn't really prepared for that as I wanted Maureen and Dr. Jones to stick around to the end!! Who is prepared to have shift changes in mid delivery?? Dr. Gee was my new doctor and I absolutely loved her. She was out on maternity leave whenever I was supposed to meet her in the doctor rotation in my office but she was absolutely perfect. I couldn't have asked for a better doctor to deliver Preston. Around 7:45AM, she decided it was time to push again...I pushed thru 3 contractions and Preston's heart rate was still dropping each time. Dr. Gee didn't want to use it but said we may have to use the vacuum to get him out because they didn't want to risk him in the process. She was going to give me 2 more pushes to try to get him out on my own. I didn't want them to use the vacuum so I pushed harder than I've ever pushed before and Preston must have heard her say vacuum and he cooperated because at 8:06AM, Preston Boyd Moore was born weighing in at 7 lbs 10 oz 20.5 inches long! He looked so tiny when he came out which made me think he was around Baker's size; however, he was almost 1 pound bigger! Once again, we were on cloud 9.

Big Brother Baker came to visit right away and was absolutely in awe of his baby brother. He loved the Caillou present that Preston gave him and I really am so proud of Baker and how well he behaved he was coming in and out of the hospital during our 2 day stay there. I was really worried that he wouldn't handle coming in and leaving us but my parents and brother did a great job entertaining him that he didn't even care when it came time to leave. I know he asked for us several times while he stayed at their house but I'm so glad we were near family so they could take such good care of him without us worrying! I'll let some pictures do the talking...