Zach's birth

Most, if not all, of my blog readers have probably heard our great news about Zach, but I doubt many of you have heard the whole story...so here it is!

As I mentioned in previous posts, I was really worried about going into labor early. I just didn't feel ready! Well, when I woke up on Friday, May 22nd, I finally was at peace about it...I was just hoping for one more day!

Friday, May 22nd was my wedding anniversary. Dan and I have had 5 wonderful years of wedded bliss! To celebrate, we booked a luxury jacuzzi suite in a hotel an hour and a half away from our house. My brother and his wife were keeping Toby at their house overnight so Dan and I could have some alone time (we hadn't had an evening and overnight to ourselves since before Toby was born two years ago). Well, on the way to our little getaway early Friday afternoon, I had a few painful contractions. I thought, "Okay, things are progressing...I will probably go into 'real' labor within a few days or so." We went to a movie at 6 p.m., and I had contractions every 9 to 13 minutes, and they were getting more painful. I began to worry, but I was thinking positive--the real labor was yet to come, and Baby would wait until the next day!

By 11 p.m., my contractions were getting very painful and were 5 minutes apart. I called the Birthing Center and told them that I our drive would be more than an hour--should I rush to the hospital, or do I still have time? The nurse told me to take a shower or bath, walk around, drink plenty of fluids, change positions if I was laying down. If it was false labor, it would go away with those changes. I tried everything, and finally at 2 a.m., I woke Dan up and told him we needed to drive. What a trip home that was--an hour's drive, with contractions coming every 4 minutes!

At 5 a.m., I got my epidural, which I was really excited about. When I had one with Toby, it took away nearly all the pain, and I still felt the pressure of the contractions--perfect! Not so much with this one. The epidural took away my feeling entirely! While this may sound good to you, I hated it. I couldn't even lift my hips, and I had no idea I was even having contractions, which made the pushing stage very frustrating. Baby wasn't handling the contractions very well. His heart rate was going way down with each one, and I had to go on oxygen. (And I had a terrible head cold--this just added to the fun!) I was getting really worried about my baby, and I was ready to order a C-section, as much as I had wanted to avoid having one! We had half a dozen attendants in the labor and delivery room, monitoring everything.

Shortly after 7 a.m., the doctor told me it was time to push. As I said, this was very frustrating as I had no urge to push--I couldn't feel the contractions at all. Baby's face was turned in a way that made it difficult for him to come through the birth canal, but after an hour of pushing, Zacharias Andrew Fry was born at 8:22 a.m. Saturday, May 23rd. The umbilical cord was wrapped once around his neck, which was why his heartrate had been going down so much with the contractions. (The nurse had told me this was a probability, which was why I was so worried!) Thankfully, he was born healthy. He weighed 6 pounds, 12.7 ounces, and was 19.5 inches long. Our beautiful Zach is such a joy! Praise God for my little boy!