Friday, May 20, 2011

Hunter's Birth




Wow, what an amazing week I've had.  Hunter Larry Powers thankfully decided to come a couple days before his due date.  I had been having strong contractions the last month of my pregnancy but Monday evening they started to come on even stronger and more intense but they were only 10 minutes apart.  At about 6:00 p.m. I told Cody that we needed to go on a walk to help the contractions come closer together.  We walked and walked and walked until they were coming about 7 minutes apart.  That's when I decided it was too painful and we needed to go home so I could sit down.   As soon as I sat down my contractions slowed down too and they were back to every 10 minutes.  We put Jackson down to bed and at around midnight I told Cody to go to bed too because the baby just wanted to take his time.  I was up ALL night that night with VERY painful contractions coming only about 7-10 minutes apart.  By 6:00 a.m. I was so exhausted and frustrated.  I went in the bedroom and just broke down and started bawling.  I told Cody I couldn't do it anymore and that's how I truely felt.  Well, Heavenly Father must have had mercy on me because at that exact moment my contractions started to come every 4 minutes.  I waited about an hour and told Cody "This is it!  Call your Mom!  We are going to have a baby today!"  His Mom came to the house to watch Jackson and we left for the hospital.  We got there about 8:30 a.m. and they checked me and I was dilated to a 6 and 70 percent efaced.  They put me in a room and by this time my contractions were even more intense and more painful.  I asked for an epidural around 9:30 and they told me that the anestesiologist was busy with an emergency c-section and I would have to wait.  So I got on a medicine ball and bounced through my contractions which suprisingly really helped.  Keri and Tara (my sister in-laws) came to keep me company and that really helped too.  I didn't get my epidural until 11:30 am and by that time I was dilated to a 7 and 90 percent efaced.  The epidural was heaven!  I rested for the next few hours and around 3:00 I started feeling pressure.  The nurse checked me and said I was a 10 and asked me to give her a practice push.  I gave a quick push and Cody said "Lis!  I can see his hair!"  The nurse said we were gonna have the baby NOW and quickly grabbed the doctor.   Tara left the room to go get Sherry (my mother-in-law) who had come to see the baby born.  The doctor came in the room and had me push.  It only took two contractions and Hunter was born at 3:23 p.m.  By the time Sherry got to the room Hunter was already out!  He weighed 8 lbs 8 oz and was 21 1/4 inches long.  He was perfect!  He started to cry right away and they put him on my chest.  He laid on me skin to skin for the next hour and a half and we all just couldn't stop staring at him.  I am so grateful for the little miracle that has come into my life!  He is such a mellow baby.  He is great at nursing and he just mostly eats and sleeps.  I am loving life right now!

Cody, Melissa and Jackson