The Holyoak Family: Welcome to the world

(Warning: Some of this may be a bit graphic, it's a birth story and I don't want to forget any details.

Also I tend to be long winded. Sorry if this is extremely long. And I'm proud to those who actually read through the whole thing.)

It first starts with my 38 weekly appointment (Thursday), we went in like normal, however I was slightly worried because I was starting to show signs of preeclampsia again. My doctor reassured me that everything looked fine and that I was still progressing (dilated to a 3). We then decided to have her strip my membranes, if it worked I would be in labor within 24-48 hours. If not then it would probably help me dilate more. Well that night when my contractions usually would come for 2+ hours they never came.

During the next day (Friday), I still hadn't had any contractions so I thought I needed to take matters into my own hands. When Connor went down for his nap I decided it was time to get this baby out! I first started to climb our stairs non-stop for 10 minutes, man let me tell you how out of shape I am! But, after the 10 minutes I started to have contractions again. Well that was enough motivation for me to keep going! So I started to do little circuits, I would walk the stairs 4-5 times, then walk around the house, then 10 squats. Once the contractions became consistent I decided to stop and count them, however they stopped after a few hours again.

Saturday rolls around and I'm able to make it to my hair appointment. While I'm at the salon my contractions started up again, but they were very far apart so I wasn't worried. After my hair was done Brandon, Connor and I went to lunch. Again contractions started kicking in and so I started to time them. They were every two minutes lasting a minute each, we started joking about dropping Connor off at Brandon's parents house, however when we got up and left they stopped, awesome.

That afternoon we did end up going to his parents house. It was nice to let Connor play in their backyard plus I also got to walk/pace the baby out. Contractions were looking good, however every time I would stop or sit down they would stop, let me tell you it was frustrating! After a hour or so we decided to head home so Connor could take his nap before we ran errands.

When we got home I needed to use the bathroom and I had quite a bit of bloody mucous and discharge. I thought it was probably normal but I still told Brandon about it. We ended up calling the on call doctor to find out if everything was ok and she said to head to the hospital to get checked because I was loosing my mucous plug. (Keep in mind this never happened with Connor, so it was new to me). Anyway, Brandon called his Mom and also told her the situation and she told him the same thing, including the fact that baby was actually on his way (side note: Brandon never told me she said the second part until after we were admitted). Needless to say he was really excited and just wanted to go! I on the other hand didn't want to get to disappointed with the hospital sending us home, plus Connor had only been asleep for a short time so I told Brandon we should pack our bathroom necessities and a bag for Connor just in case. Once everything was packed and in the car it was time to wake Connor and get us all in the car.

The trip to the hospital couldn't have been better. I'm pretty sure we hit every green light and made it there in less than 10 minutes. I was already pre registered, so they just had to verify a few things and we were on our way to our room.

They had me change into my lovely gown and started monitors on me while Brandon set up a movie for Connor. After being there for about a half a hour they finally checked me and come to find out I was a 4+ close to a 5 and in pre labor. The nurse looked at me and said "well you're not going anywhere!" That was news to me! Shortly after that we started calling/texting family and friends the news.

After a hour or so Brandon's parents came to get Connor. I was blessed to have Brandon and my Father in Law give me a blessing after my doctor broke my water.

About 10 minutes after the blessing I was able to get my epidural and it was just the waiting game after that! They checked me again about a half a hour after the epidural and I was a 6 so they decided to not put me on pitocin because my body was already progressing naturally by itself.

After another short time Brandon had to meet his parents downstairs because he had given them our key to pick up Connors church clothes (we forgot to pack them, oops). When he came back there was someone else with him...One of my best friends, Jill! He had secretly contacted her to come and shoot the birth without me knowing, and she had just booked it from Utah County. I cried a lot, it was so nice to have her there, I've really missed her since we moved.

Another hour passed and the nurse came to check me and sure enough I was still a 6. Awesome, at this point it was 11:15 PM and they decided to put me on pitocin. They uped the dose of pitocin about 30-45 min later and around 12:30ish and said I was ready to go!

7 minutes of pushing, 5 contractions, 5 pushes and our baby boy was here! Might I add that while I was pushing the doctor said she saw a head full of dark hair, I thought she was joking and didn't believe her until Brandon said the same thing! I was in total shock!