I woke up Adam and told him we were having a February baby after all! I called Labor and Delivery to tell them we'd be in sometime that morning. The nurse urged me to take a shower and come in immediately. I was hesitant to rush in because I didn't want to be stuck in a bed hooked up to monitors when I wasn't even having contractions. When my water broke with Jenna I went to the hospital even though I wasn't having contractions. I eventually got Pitocin to get things started. I wanted to avoid that this time and labor at home for a while. But the nurse was pretty insistent that I should come in, since this was my 4th baby. So I took a shower and when I got out, I had my first mild contraction. I looked at the clock and it was 2:03.
We got to the hospital at about 2:30. I had been timing my contractions on the way there and they were consistently 8 minutes apart, but not terribly painful. I checked in, signed some papers, provided a urine sample, changed in to a gown, and then they hooked me up to a monitor in a small triage room. My contractions were getting more intense, but I was still able to talk normally to Adam in between each one. When a contraction started I would take a deep breath and then let it out very slowly, followed by two more slow breaths. I told myself that the second breath was going to be the hardest, but by the time I was letting out my 3rd breath the pain was easing up. Adam knew his job was to encourage me and remind me to relax my body. He kept asking me "Are you relaxed?" when I was having a contraction. I angrily told him I did NOT want him asking me questions, but instead to just remind me to relax. That one difference in the way he phrased his words was enough to bother me.
The nurse came in to check me sometime after 3am. Just one day earlier I had been 3cm, so I was happy to hear I had progressed to 6cm. The nurse left and I presumed she was preparing a room for me. It felt like she was gone forever, but it was probably around 10 minutes. My contractions were getting much more intense and closer together. I was feeling a lot of pressure, like I needed to have a bowel movement. Adam told the nurse and she came in to say we would be moved to a room soon. She reassured me that the pressure was just from the baby moving down the birth canal. She left again, and I felt like I could no longer lay on my back. I sat up, straddling the bed and leaning forward.
With my very next contraction I felt an intense burning. A very familiar burning! I suddenly had a flash back to right before Jenna was born, when I shouted at the nurse "That contraction burned!" I told Adam he needed to get the nurse back in the room. She came in with a doctor, who checked me and said "She's complete, get her in a room!".
At this point I was feeling an intense urge to push through each contraction. Can you believe I have never before felt the urge to push while in labor? This time was completely different! My body basically took over and I felt like I had no control over what was happening. As they pushed my bed down the hallway I felt like my body was pushing the entire time. There didn't seem to be any breaks in between the pain at this point. And that feeling of a bowel movement? Well let's just say I was right. This was a very messy birth!
The pushed me in to the room and asked me to move onto the labor bed. All I wanted to do was get off my back, so I flipped onto the labor bed on all fours. The doctor kindly told me that if I flipped over, I could have my baby. So I turned back over and put my feet in the stirrups. I gave a big push and the baby's head came out. The doctor told me to slow down and just give little pushes, and the rest of his body immediately came out. Andrew John Nullmeyer was born at 3:33am on February 28th, just 2 hours after my water broke and only 1.5 hours after my first contraction.
They put Andrew on my chest and the little stinker pooped all over my stomach! When it was time to put a diaper on him, he pooped again and then peed all over the floor next to Adam. Like I said, this was definitely our messiest birth experience! The hospital was so busy that night that we only had one nurse to take care of both me and Andrew. At one point I started to bleed really heavily and she was a little concerned about it. So Andrew's measurements had to be put on hold for a while. He was finally weighed almost 2 hours after birth, and he was 8 lbs, 6 oz and 20 inches long. The exact same as his big brother Ryan!
My first thought when I saw my new son was that he looked SO familiar. I feel like I've seen this baby before! I think it's because he looks a lot like his two older brothers. We chose his middle name after my Dad. Ryan's middle name of James is after his other Grandpa, and I always regretted not giving Lucas the middle name of John after my Dad. So now we had our chance! The first name was a bit trickier. I had a few names I really liked but Adam didn't like them. And I loved a few names that begin with J, but I didn't want the first and middle name to both begin with J. So one night we saw the name Andrew and just decided we both really liked it! We also like both nicknames that go along with it....Andy or Drew. (Or Drewski, as Adam is already calling him).
We are so blessed to have baby Andrew in our family and we just love him so much! Unfortunately he had to spend a little time in the NICU after being born, so stay tuned for that story in my next post.
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