January 7, 2011

It will take an entire entry to cover this important day!

On January 6th I started to feel like baby was imminent, nothing I could concretely describe, I just felt like it was time.

When Freeman came home from work that day, he was still pretty sick, and by the time we went to bed, he still had a fever of over 102 again. I was worried. I knew if the baby came and he still had a fever, he might not be able to be with me during the birth. I knew I couldn’t do it without him.

On Friday the 7th I woke up to contractions at about 1 am. They were coming every 10 minutes and lasting about 30 seconds. I drifted in and out of sleep between contractions and watched the clock. Finally at about 5 Freeman woke up and I told him what was going on. I rolled over and felt his forehead. No fever! He jumped out of bed and announced that he felt great. This was truly a tender mercy. I needed him to be well, I needed him during labor!

Contractions were getting closer together, now about every 7 minutes. He took a shower and I started to gather the things we needed. Every time I stood up a contraction immediately seized me, and if I stayed standing they came every four minutes. So I stopped standing. I told Freeman the last minute things to throw in the hospital bag. At 6 we called Mom Linton, and she was to our house by 6:30. By then I was on the couch, talking myself through some pretty painful contractions. Luckily, our hospital is only 7 minutes away. I arrived at 7 am and Freeman wheeled me in. Once we got to labor and delivery they checked me, I was already dialated to 5 cm (with my first two it took me 20+ hours to get to that point!). They started taking my vitals and getting my history, which took 45 minutes. At that point I was having contractions every 3-4 mintues and was dialated to an 8, woo hoo! Love this third baby stuff! My doctor arrived about 15 minutes later. The contractions started to be wowzers. I was grateful Freeman was there to talk me through them. The doctor told me that when the water broke, there was meconium, so the entire NICU staff was now waiting in our room, since babies with meconium often have respiratory problems. Labor progressed, and there was a lot of barbaric screaming on my part. In front of an audience of at least 12 people. There is no way around it, the last phase of labor is just…well, painful doesn't quite say it! There was no novelty or mystery in this labor like the last.....just full knowledge that this was going to hurt and hurt bad. Finally it was time to push. It didn’t take long, I pushed less than 10 times. Tucker James Linton was born at 9:00 am. One ounce shy of 9 lbs and 21 inches long.

The relief of having the pain over was such a strong emotion that I completely forgot that the baby might be in danger because of the meconium. I just hung on to Freeman’s neck and cried because it was over. Then I looked over at the baby incubator. There was a FAT little man baby, with tons of thick, black hair, fat cheeks and thunder thighs. Nothing like my other scrawny babies. They were pumping his stomach to remove the meconium. Then I remembered that he was in danger. The doctor assured me that he was doing great, breathing fine already, and had an APGAR score of 7-8. She also told me that when he was born he had the cord wrapped around him twice, once around his neck. This could have caused serious problems, and often results in a C-section, but didn't. They let me hold him briefly before whisking him away to do some tests. I don’t remember ever noticing how SOFT a new baby is. It was like kissing velvet, no way softer. He was sooooooo soft. Oh he was so wonderful! I reluctantly gave him up to the nurses. He was back soon, searching for something to suck on.

I stayed two days in the hospital. Tucker took to nursing quickly. It was a strange hospital stay. All of our family was sick and we have no close friends here yet -- simply because we haven’t been here very long, so it was just Freeman and I, no visitors. The nurses in Oregon were very warm and very involved in my natural labors. The nurses in Texas were anxious to help, but it was clear that they don’t do many natural labors, they just stood back and watched it happen. Afterwards, one of the nurses told me that my labor was the only one that had ever made her cry in 16 years, because I looked like I was in so much pain. Nice. I guess I was just that dramatic, tee hee. She also said that she would guess than less than 5% of the labors in that hospital are done without epidural, so she just doesn’t see natural labors very often. My screaming probably traumatized the entire floor, Texans aren't used to that!

We are so grateful many blessings involved in Tucker’s birth. Freeman becoming well the MOMENT I needed him, no complications with the meconium and no complications with the cord wrapped around the baby. Every healthy baby is a miracle, and we are so grateful.

Tucker has brought so much love and softness to our home. He is a good eater, and wants food every 3 hours fairly consistently (yes, including during the hours after 10 pm). The kids love to love-maul him, and do many times an hour, if he survives that, I’m sure he’ll survive anything. We are tired and sleep deprived, but feel so so blessed to have this sweet, perfect spirit in our home.