Luke's Birth Story

We had made the appointment for an induction on April 26th. I really did not want to be induced again, but Dr. B had us make the appointment just so spaces didn't fill up. He also did not want me to go past my due date because at our last sonogram Luke was already weighing 7 1/2 pounds.

Here I am the morning we left for the hospital.

 

Since I did not go into labor beforehand, Monday March 6th came and we were ready to go. My mom came to our house to watch Samuel at about 6:30 and we left for the hospital. We got settled into our room and I got my epidural and pitocin at around 8:30. Dr. B examined me and I was still 2 cm dilated. Every time I got examined, I was a tiny bit more dilated. By about 5:00 I was still at 3.5 cm. Matthew and I filled the time by watching TLC (thanks, honey!). I was discouraged because I really thought this time would go much faster.

Matthew went to get dinner at around 6:00 and I was just laying there watching TV. All of a sudden I started feeling some pressure. I pushed the button for our nurse Rebecca (who was wonderful) and she opened the door saying, "Do you feel pressure?" I think she was as anxious as we were to get this done! She examined me and I was at a 7. Thank goodness! I went from a 7 to a 10 by 7:00 so it was time to push. At this point, Matthew and I thought we'd have our baby here in just a few minutes.

Well, I pushed for almost two hours. I was making progress, but Luke just wouldn't make it all the way down. And, every time I would push, Luke's heartbeat would get (sometimes) dangerously low. I would have to push through a contraction then turn onto my side to wait until the next one. That's when I heard the dreaded words from Dr. B. "Well, either I can help out (use forcepts) or we can go ahead and do a C-section." Of course I am thinking that I can't believe this is happening again. This is pretty much exactly what happened with Samuel! (You can read about Samuel's birth story here: http://irbydugout.blogspot.com/2011/06/this-is-story-of-how-our-precious-baby.html). I knew that Dr. B was a veteren doctor, he is awesome with forcepts, and this is how he delivered Samuel so I decided to go for it. I really, really did not want a c-section. So I said okay.

I was not as scared of the forcepts this time around because I'd done it before. Dr. B had Luke out in no time!

 Here is the first picture of our precious boy.

 

You can see the bruises from the forcepts here.

Luke was having some trouble breathing on his own right after he was born. Instead of crying, he was "grunting". The nurses sucked out his nose and mouth but were still not satisfied with his breathing, so they had to take him to the NICU. I was so very sad to see my baby go right after I had met him, but I knew he would be okay. We got Luke back around 3:15 in the morning and I was able to nurse him for the first time.

Samuel met his little brother for the first time on May 7th. He was precious...hugging and kissing him and saying "Baby Luke". It's like he knew this was coming all along!

Samuel kissing his little brother for the first time.

 

 

We had lots of visitors in the hospital (Nana, Granddaddy, Uncle Rob, Cammy, Outpaw, Aunt RaRa, Uncle JayJay, Hannah, Kara, Frank, Isaiah, Camille, Grandma, Aunt Katina, Hannah). Luke sure is loved!!