Luke's story

Me and my Midwife Jen

...this post comes from my journal entry on the day Luke was born....

What an exciting day! I am so grateful that I had the blessing to be induced. It really was a good thing for this kiddo and baby Luke. But, that’s getting ahead of the story.

I woke up at 6:30am and Peter got up shortly after that. We ate breakfast (well, he ate – I didn’t ‘cause I didn’t want to throw up during labor) and then I let him play while I tried to do a couple of things around the house. Brandon woke up in enough time to get ready to leave the house by 8am. Then he and Peter drove down to Payson to get Grandma Deslie. On the way back, Peter got dropped off at Grandma Thomas’ for the day. It was a good arrangement that kept Peter happy.

While I was in the shower the hospital called to see if we could come in at 9am to be induced. Sadly, I knew Bran wouldn’t be home yet, so we went in at 10am instead. It felt so strange walking into the hospital and not being in labor. I had envisioned myself walking in and having to ride the elevator while major contractions racked my body. It was nice not to have to feel that way. When we arrived at Labor and Delivery they seemed all ready for us. We were ushered into room #10 which was awesome because it was a the end of a long hallway. As a result, it was really quiet. About 30 minutes later my amazing nurses (Michelle and Kelsy) arrived. Around 10:50am they started an IV of antibiotics because I tested positive for Strep B. Blah! As a result, they didn’t want me to deliver the baby until after 2pm. When the antibiotic was close to being complete they started giving me Pitocin to get the contractions going. Thankfully that got the contractions going pretty quickly, but we knew it would still be a while before the baby was born since I was still only dilated to a 3. Just before 11:30 Bran decided to run home to each lunch. Living 5 minutes away from the hospital was such a blessing. When he came back, he had a letter from one of the sweet sisters in my ward. It was about our baby coming. It was so much fun to have Bran read it to me while I was sitting there in labor.

Just after 2pm the midwife on call (Jen) came in to say we could get going any time. My nurses also came in to say that the dude that does the epidurals was out at the nurses desk just waiting for something to do. So Bran and I decided to go ahead and get the epidural done before the major pain hit. I’m so thankful we did it that way. I think it really helped to save my energy for the pushing part. After the epidural was done I was feeling good even though I could feel the pressure of each contraction. By the this time the Pitocin was at a level 16 and I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes. Jen then broke my water and we waited for the next stage of labor to begin. I was still dilated to a 3, but and hour later (3:45pm) I was at a 6. However, it only took until 4:30 for my body to be completely ready to push Luke out. They gave me some oxygen, got all the equipment ready, and then I began pushing with each contraction. It was the most incredible feeling to know that Luke would be out soon and I pushed with all my might as I kept that thought in the forefront of my mind. Finally, 15 minutes later Luke came out screaming and hollering.

We’ve had many adventures since this moment in time. Some of which include two days in the NICU, only a few hours of sleep each day, and lots of feeding time. It’s all been worth it though and we love our little Luke so much.

Peter took this pix of us while we were trying to have tummy time