Baby Smith is here!

Guess who is here?

Baby Smith! 

Harrison Edward Smith was born after a long day on Wednesday, April 20, 2011, weighing 5 lb, 12 oz, measuring 19 inches in length. 

We're so in love. 

But let's backtrack, okay?  And let me tell you how it all went down...

Tuesday night, I got home from work feeling not that great.  So, Coop Dawg and I walked in the backyard some, hoping to relieve this Momma of some serious back pain and swollen feet. 

We went to bed early that night, around 9:30pm, because Mr. Smith had an early morning work meeting at 7am (needless to say, he didn't make it there).

My lower back was killing me, and I would doze off, only to wake up with it getting stronger and more intense.  I walked around the house - a lot - and debated on waking Mr. Smith with a "This is it!" call to action.  By 3:30am, I couldn't take it anymore.  Either there was an invisble 400-lb. man sitting on my back, or something was seriously wrong.  Either way, I wanted to go to the hospital to check things out. 

I woke Mr. Smith up, got him in the shower - which bordered on 30 min, I swear - and we were at the MEU (Maternity Evaluation Unit) around 4:30am.  As soon as I waddled in, the nurses there took one look at my Shrek feet and said - Oh girl, you're in labor.  After three blood pressure tests (they were through the roof), they checked me in as "active labor" since I had been laboring progressively since 10:30pm.  We started calling our families at that point, I think it was around 6-6:30am with the news. 

Within a couple of hours, our families had gotten there, and I let them know I wanted to wait on the epidural so I could see what all some real contractions would feel like.  Crazy talk, I know.  But I just wanted to know, ya know?  I had been on the Pitocin drip since around 7am, and I took it - by myself - until around 11:30am.  So, I can proudly say I went a little over 12 hours without the epidural. 

Within minutes of the epidural, they broke my water, and the Doctor let everyone know it would at least until 4-5 pm until my body was at 10cm and ready for some real action. 

Around 1pm, the Doctor came back to survey the scene and popped back up saying, "Okay, everybody out, she's at 10cm and we're ready to push."  Talk about my body wanting to spring into action!  The families (except for Mr. Smith) left the room in a hurry, with the doctor saying it would be about an hour before the Baby made his debut.  (Famous last words...)

I started pushing around 1:10pm, with Mr. Smith and Nurse Jenny (my new BFF, who was amazing during all of this).  A little after 2pm, Jenny let me know that we had stopped making progress, because the Baby was "sunny side up" - which means he was face up, instead of face down - and that Dr. Hoover would need to come back in the room and turn him.  A few minutes later, Dr. Hoover appeared, assessed the situation, got right up in there and turned the Baby around with her hand, and let me know that now it shouldn't be any trouble at all.  (Basically at this point, we were starting over in the process, since she had to push him back up in the placenta to get him turned.)  Still, we were in high spirits.  We had watched "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" and "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?" during all of this, laughing and pushing during contractions.  God bless epidurals.  Ooo.... and we had a mirror during this part, so I could see everything going on. 

Around 3:30pm, after an hour and a half of more pushing, Jenny let us know that the Baby was stuck in the same spot - again - and that she needed to beep the Doctor because it looked like he was stuck on my pelvic bone.  Correct, Nurse Jenny!  The Doctor agreed with her and around 4pm, the decision was made to move us into the Operating Room for a C-section, since my pelvis was too small for him to go through.  By this point, I'm not going to lie, I was a little defeated.  It had been almost 24 hours since I had eaten last, the epidural was wearing off, and I could feel almost everything going on down there. 

They quickly got us in the Operating Room, where it took almost an hour to get my epidural level back up to where I wouldn't feel anything.  Obviously, this is not routine; I was just having an adverse reaction to the epidural and did not want to be "put under completely."  Once the epidural reached its appropriate level, Baby Harrison was out within 10 minutes, and the Doctor let me know that any future Smith babies would need to be born via C-section.  Mr. Smith rushed off to watch the baby's assessments, and I laid there waiting to meet him.  (I did get a little sick to my stomach during the stitching up because of the epidural, so no more cherry popsicles for this Mama.... ever.)

Once they moved us into Recovery, the nurses let us know I would need to be put on Magnesium for 24 hours because of my high blood pressure.  They likened it to having flu-like symptoms.  I liken it more to being placed on the face of the sun, because you're body gets so hot that you're loopy.  But, at least it didn't make me throw up. 

It was a true, 24-hour Labor and Delivery story.  But, except for maybe a solid hour or two, it wasn't that bad.  And, as my Doctor and I were talking (trying to put a positive spin on it), my body and I got to pretty much experience both sides of labor, which I'm now recovering from. 

We are forever changed, and so in love! 

More details to come...