Sam's here

Sam is 14 hrs old now, sleeping like an angel ("an angel born in heaven" for those "Raisin' AZ" fans). He was born Jan 30th at 4:06 pm, weighed in at 8 lb 6 oz. He's perfect, healthy and eats like a champ.

My OB stripped my membranes at the visit on Thurs which I'm usually opposed to because, as a OB triage nurse, I know it just makes women contract and doesn't always kick you into labor. But desperation is a funny thing. And, sure enough, I had all kinds of uterine irritability - little, uncomfortable contractions every 3 -10 min - the rest of the day. We sent Natty to a sleep over at Marmee and Papa's because Murray decided he wanted my mom to come with us to the hospital (I did too - it was great to have her there just like with Natty). I went to bed early, was woken up by a few stronger ones and at 6 am got up to face a possible birthday! 

They (the contractions) slowly got organized while they (mom and Murray) also got ready to go. As the ctx got more intense I remembered why I was dreading the 40 min car ride, but they mellowed out for that, thankfully. 

Then we were at UMass, in triage. A young, young, young ER intern was covering triage and when he walked in my little cubicle I'm sure my eyes got very wide. I thought, "YOU are going to check me? Have you ever done this before? Why, oh why, am I at a teaching hospital?" I reassured him I was an easy exam and concentrated on relaxing. (I was 3-4 cms)

I and my entourage (Murray, mom and my doula, Sharon) moved to a L&D room where my body got serious. Not fun. I did the birthing ball, met the covering OB and resident, focused through ctx, couldn't get in the shower, got very, very unhappy and decided I did NOT want to feel these ctx anymore. I wasn't a stoic, controlled, sweet patient. I was the moaning, huffing and puffing type. It worked for awhile and Sharon was great, but I wasn't up to focusing like I needed to be.

So we called in anesthesia (another resident!) and got an epidural (I vaguely remember wailing through that also - but it's all a bit of a blur). Lovely stuff. Chatted for awhile, dozed for awhile. Enjoyed a well-done epidural.

I started feeling a lot of pressure - what a cool sensation not to feel the ctx, but to feel the uterus move the baby down with every ctx. I changed position to semi-squatting but that slid him all the way back up and I didn't feel any pressure, so back to semi-fowlers I went and slowly the pressure came back. I was very happy to "labor down" but started feeling pushy at the height of the ctx so was doing soft little pushes that felt good but I guess no one else realized that. I gave one push and, "Ooops! Ummm, I just pushed and the baby's coming!" The nurse looked under the sheet and was like, "Oh my, here he comes!" boy, that got everyone scrambling and telling me to pant while the MD's rushed in. Murray was already at my feet to catch him and so the 3 of them were there (They very nicely let me catch him!-mb). I don't remember much except hanging onto Sharon's hand, trying to not push (impossible) and the overwhelming feeling of relief when he was finally out. 

There were a lot of tears when I saw/heard him because it brought back strong memories of Elias's birth when I didn't get to see or touch him when he was delivered (because it was a c-section and he was so sick) and he never cried. Sam was lusty, pink and happy from the get go. His dad was the first to touch him (Murray does nice deliveries - just like riding a bike?), cuddled him a bit and then I got him. What a cutie!

Natty, Marmee and Papa arrived shortly after I got cleaned up.  Natalie ran across the room to meet him in Murray's arms - adorable.   She is a fabulous big sister and takes it very seriously. At one point in her inspection of him she said, "I'm tickling him so he will laugh and make a new fairy!" Too sweet.  A much happier ending than when she met Elias so briefly.

Much love to all, Jen, Murray, Natalie, and Sammy