Onto Masons birth story. My due date was August 18th but I technically thought it was the 11th based on my short cycle the month I got pregnant. In my head I was mentally preparing myself for an early August birth considering my first two were a week and 10 days early but of course, we all know due dates don’t really mean anything. Well, August 11th passed us by and I was still very pregnant with no signs of labor except a couple Braxton Hicks contractions which I had been having for weeks. Up until this point I was fine with going a little late. Once you have a kid or two you know how much your life is flipped upside down once the baby comes. That thought changed quickly when I got to a point where I was starting to feel claustrophobic. I can’t really explain it but it wasn’t fun and I was ready for this baby to evacuate. Rob had grounded himself from travel and was working from home some days, the kids were home from school but I was too tired to take them anywhere and we just felt like we were in limbo waiting to meet this little guy. The days were crawling and I was just waiting to go to bed hoping that I’d go into labor each night. After meeting with the Dr. on the 16th, she asked if I was ready to have this baby and I think Rob and I answered her before she was done with the question. We scheduled our induction for the next morning even though I thought 8.18.18 would have been a cool birthday, I was done. I had never been induced with my other kids so I didn’t know what to expect but I felt relieved that I knew when everything was going to happen. I didn’t have to worry about whether or not it would take us an hour to get to the hospital with traffic, whether or not my water would break in front of my 12 year old and traumatize him for life, I didn’t have to worry because we now had a plan. Although that’s when reality and fear set in that this was really happening.
I didn’t get much sleep on Thursday night because I was having contractions so we woke up bright and early and headed into the hospital. Knowing we were going to meet our baby that day was such a great feeling...scary but great! We got checked in and to labor and delivery, had one of my favorite almond croissants from Au Bon Pain (sorta bad and good that this was downstairs at the hospital) and got everything rolling. I broke down a couple times because I hate needles. They can never find my veins and the digging around is enough to keep me on the verge of passing out. I’m so fortunate to have Rob who is a rock in these situations. He’s so familiar with hospitals because of his line of work and his dad being a Doctor that he puts me at ease and I know I’ll be ok if he’s there. They started the pitocin around 10am and they said hopefully we’ll have a baby within 3 hrs. Well, that wasn’t as successful as we hoped because the baby wasn’t liking it. His heart rate would drop after each contraction so they had to stop it. Although it was helping to make my contractions more consistent and stronger we had to let everything progress naturally. When the Dr came in and checked me I was only 4cm dilated so we waited and I received my epidural. This had to be done twice and I’m lucky I didn’t pass out again. I really wish they didn’t have to describe what they’re doing as they’re doing it. I tried to rest a little bit because I thought I had a long night ahead of me. I’m still traumatized from my first ones birth (24 hrs of labor in the hospital and 3.5 hrs of pushing). After a couple of tricks from the nurse to try and get the baby to move into position my contractions started coming on strong. I asked the nurse if I should be feeling them and she had the anesthesiologist came back in to check to see if it was in the correct position. He told me it’s normal to feel them. With my last son I felt nothing so this was new to me. I thought I wasn’t supposed to feel anything, isn’t that what the epidural was for?? Let’s just say they weren’t fun. They started to get stronger and so the Dr. checked again 3 hrs later and I’m still only 4cm. Fear is now setting in at this point. Is his head as big as his brothers, is he not going to drop down, am I going to need a c-section, is the baby ok, am I going to be pushing for 3.5 hrs?? Then all of a sudden the pain and pressure that I felt was unreal. The nurse called for the Dr and I had gone from 4cm to 8cm rapidly. I wasn’t breathing through the contractions because I hadn’t had a birthing class in 13 years and I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing so instead I held my breath and prayed for them to stop. The opposite of what your supposed to do, right?! Then all of a sudden I said to the nurse I think he’s ready. The Dr came in and it was go time. Our little man arrived at 5:18PM on August 17th waving with his hands next to his head as he made his way into this world at 7lbs 2oz and 20 inches long. The smallest of his brothers and capturing our hearts from the moment we met him.
Since we delivered later in the evening we didn’t get to postpartum until after visiting hours so Mason’s brothers had to wait until the next day to meet him but it was the sweetest thing I’ve ever witnessed in my life. We knew our 12 year old wasn’t really thrilled about a new baby coming and our 9 year old was acting like his older brother even though we knew he was so excited to have a baby. He’s begged for another sibling for years. Has always been obsessed with babies and his friends little siblings. He’s a natural nurturer. He scooped up his baby brother and is so in love with him. There is a BIG age gap between our kids so it’s really neat to see the interaction with the older ones and hope they'll remember these days with their baby brother.
We’re so excited to welcome him to our family and couldn’t be more in love with him. Rob and I have both said to each other this makes us want more babies (about an hour after he was born). I’ve always wanted 4 kids but our first 2 stopped us in our tracks. So you never know what will happen but for now we’re going to enjoy this little bundle of love!
