The Lowrys: *Roczen James Lowry*

Alright here's the story:

Saturday January 26 Scott and I went to Lethbridge in the morning around 11 ish. I was starting to have contractions at this point and I was feeling a ton of pressure down yonder...for lack of a better term ;) We went into Costco and I could seriously hardly walk it hurt pretty bad so we only stayed there long enough to eat and walk around for like 5 minutes. As I was leaving the lady by the door asked when I was due? I told her feb 4 and she was like "Oh, by the way you're walking I bet he's a lot closer than you think" I was pretty encouraged by this! haha So when we went to Walmart I just sat in the car because walking was not an option. So we drove home, went to Rick and Barbs and I just sat on the couch while Scott got his hair cut. I was having contractions pretty much every 2 minutes but I was not getting my hopes up because the week earlier the same thing happened where I had contractions for 15 hours every 3-5 minutes..and no baby. The contractions weren't painful, mostly felt like really strong Braxton hicks.
So now it was evening and we had wandered on home and I started bouncing on the yoga ball again like I had the night before. Also I had been eating a lot of pineapple over the course of the week because I heard that was supposed to help too. Some hours the contractions were still 2 minutes apart and other hours I only had about 5 in the hour. They were getting more intense though. Something just felt different this time though and I really thought the baby was going to come. But the hours kept passing by and no baby. So we went to bed around 11:30 and I tried laying there but I was so uncomfortable and the contractions were still getting a bit stronger but not really painful yet. I started feeling reallllly sick which did not help matters and I was getting in and out of bed. Finally at 12:30 ish I was laying there and I felt a TON of pressure and I swear I even heard a little pop and all the sudden WHOOSH! Huge gush and it just kept coming and coming. I jumped out of bed quick because I didn't want to get it all gross (a bit late for that) and just stood there on the carpet while it kept coming out...gross I know. So when I jumped outta bed I started saying oh crap oh crap so Scott jumped up and was like what's wrong? I told him I thought my water had broken (thought? seriously? How could I have been mistaken) and he was all "Are you sure you didn't just pee your pants?" UM take a look at me! So then he quickly started packing all the essentials like glasses, tooth brushes etc and I walked across the hall to put a pad on and what do you know, another huge gush! Lovely. So I put some new pants on and off we went with a towel to put on my seat incase we needed it. About halfway to Lethbridge I started feeling a ton of pressure again and lets take a guess at what happened next...yup HUGE gush...again! This time it was the most of all and it soaked the whole seat, every inch of my pants, some of my shirt....ya gross it seeped up, dripped down my legs leaving puddles on the floor... TMI??? We got to the hospital in 10 minutes...impressive if I do say so myself. During the whole packing, and ride there I didn't feel any pain at all but as soon as we checked in they started coming. I got into the gown and they monitored my contractions and the baby for a bit and checked to see how dilated I was and I was already at a 4. I told them I would like an epidural as soon as possible haha About an hour later I got the epidural and when they checked me again I was a 7/8. I wanted that anesthesiologist in the room with me the whole time, he was the best haha As he was giving me the epidural he was saying things like "You are a strong woman, you can do this" In this really calm voice it was great haha He told the nurse to keep an eye on me and that he'd be around if he needed to come back and adjust it. I was progressing aloooot faster than I had ever thought I would. An hour or two later I was ready to push even though she told me I couldn't...worse feeling ever! Well the first half hour of pushing went okay....side note: There was only 1 nurse and Scott there helping me, each holding one of my legs...I thought it was super weird because I was expecting at least 2 nurses and had told Scott he wouldn't have to do anything but hold my hand because I knew he was grossed out and didn't really want to see any of this stuff. But nope he's standing right there pushing my leg back for me while still more fluid gushes out with each contraction. I started getting SOOO hot and felt super sick. Scott was amazing through this whole thing and kept wetting cold wash cloths to lay all over me and holding my hand, rubbing my arms, stroking my hair, telling me I could do it. I was seriously so impressed with him. He is THE best ever! I couldn't have done it without him. Anyways after that first half hour I started noticing a ton of pain in my right hip. It was the most excruciating pain I have ever felt in my whole life, I honestly cannot even describe it. I felt pretty bad for Scott because I basically just screamed and screamed for the next hour. Every contraction multiplied the pain like 10 times. Bringing my leg up to push was getting to be impossible and I started begging the nurse to let me just have a c-section. She kept just telling me to push...I didn't like this nurse at all! Finally I don't know if she got the anesthesiologist or who did but he came in and pretty much started chewing the nurse out...he was ticked at her! He was like this is not characteristic of an epidural and something should have been done about this a long time ago, this should not be happening. So some people came in to pretty much try and scare us out of a c-section and it almost worked until another contraction came and I felt like I was going to die and I knew I needed to just have a c-section. Dr. Kahn...I think thats how you spell it?? Came in and checked me because she was the Dr. on call and said that the babies head was still pretty far up as well which even further helped me decide that a c-section was the way to go since he was not coming down.
So they started prepping me for surgery and the anesthesiologist kept giving me more and more freezing (or something...I dunno what was happening really at this point I was so out of it) with each contraction though I could still feel the pain although it was getting a bit better...slowly. He told me they were taking me to the O.R. now and that he would continue to give me the freezing until we got there and if I could still feel pain by the time we got there I would have to be put under. That thought really scared me but I really didn't see any other way out of this. Lucky for me when we got there I wasn't feeling any pain. They transferred me to a different bed or table or something, put an oxygen mask on and started asking me a bunch of questions. They did the ice test to see where I could and could not feel it. It's a weird feeling to know they have a bag of ice on your stomach yet you cant feel it at all. Scott came in after he had put the scrubs on and sat there holding my hand. They told me I would feel a lot of pressure but that it was normal. My silly husband asks at this point "Um, are you going to put a curtain up or something?" Poor guy, I don't blame him...I wouldn't want to see someones stomach get cut open. The anesthesiologist stood by my head the whole time and any time I started feeling any pain he would push some more freezing into the epidural and it would instantly go away. This whole surgery only took like 5-10 minutes I swear, it went by real fast. They had taken my glasses off so when they pulled the baby out and was showing him to us I couldn't even see him. They washed him off I think then gave him to Scott to show me since I had been shaking uncontrollably since the time I had gotten to the hospital and wouldn't have been able to hold him. I was seriously instantly in love. I teared up a bit and just remember thinking that he was all ours! We had really done it! oh man....now I'm tearing up again thinking about it...silly hormones. He was so beautiful and had so much hair which I was not expecting at all. I looked up at Scott then back down at our baby and was just so happy! This was our family!!
Well now it was time for them to take the baby to NICU...when they said that I about freaked out but they said they take all c-section babies there. Scott left with the baby I was left there getting stitched up and once again the anesthesiologist was amazing I kept asking where Scott was and where my baby was over and over and he kept patiently telling me. After that I was taken to recovery where I once again was alone without my husband and baby. The nurses there were great. I was given about 5 options for what I wanted for the pain of the incision and I chose morphine...mmmm love me some morphine. I think they gave me 5 or 6 injections of that. Every 5 minutes or so they would ask me to rate the pain and kept giving me more until it was gone. After about an hour in recovery they wheeled me into our room. As I was getting almost to our room I saw Scott walking down the hall, he told me he was going back to get the baby. I was in the room for about another half an hour before Scott and the baby came. And FINALLY I got to hold my baby :) The first 2 days after a c-section are pretty brutal. It hurts A LOT but I kept telling myself it was way better than that hip pain and it was easier to deal with.
And now we're home with our sweet little Roczen James and couldn't be happier! He's had mostly good days and nights...with the exception of the first night home where I pretty much bawled the whole time because he was super gassy and won't really nurse when he's gassy so he was in pain and starving and tired because he couldn't fall asleep. Every time I tried putting him down he went hysterical so I had to sit on the edge of our bed all night long and I was in so much pain still and I felt so bad for this little baby, I was exhausted and so pretty much sitting there bawling was my only option haha

And now you get to see a million pictures of my perfect little baby. He is the cutest baby in the world, hands down!