The Long Awaited Arrival of Demitri Shane Dooley
I was having a normal pregnancy with slight differences from my first. These include carrying much lower and having contractions all of the third trimester. Consequently I was not surprised that on November 16th I was having many contractions. A few days before I was told by my doctor that when labor started it would proceed quickly since Demitri was so low, and I should leave as soon as I felt labor signs (I guess I should have clarified exactly what that meant). I used Shane's handy dandy contraction app on his phone to time my contractions for fun, and I was surprised that they were relatively consistent. I timed 5 contractions all about a minute long and varying from 10-12 minutes. I thought to myself wouldn't the hospital laugh if I came in with contractions that far apart. As you can read about Daphney's birth that meant she was approximately 2 days away when I had contractions that far apart. So I was really surprised when I read the next 5 contraction times.
8:31 - "I must have not timed it right."
8:24 - "That is weird."
6:19 - Show Shane my contraction record history.
4:23 - Shane packs a bag without any "I told you to have these ready"
4:36 - Whisk Daphney out of her nap and strap her into the car. (Actually I sat in the car and Shane did everything)
We dropped Daphney off at a ward members house. (Daphney ended up wearing half of their daughter's clothes because we had to pack bags so quickly). And we arrived at the hospital between 6:45 and 7pm.
At The Hospital:
They had me wait in a triage room to decide if I was going to stay. Well duh I could have told them that! They kept asking exasperating questions for while you are in labor like-
1.) What do we have going on today? - Well I am having a baby! How do you want me to expound?
2.) What do you guys have at home? - Everybody asked that wanting to know if Daphney was a girl or boy. I being in pain really wanted to start listing all the items in our home...
Anyways... after a while of waiting there they quickly moved me into another room that I would be staying in for the remainder of my time there. PS. Throw carpets in hallways are a bad idea when you are going to be wheeling around women in labor. Long story short- I had the option to break my water to quicken labor and "die" because of all the pain or to try to get an epidural and hope I would not deliver before it could take effect. Needless to say I am weak and chose the epidural until I found out that he was being called in from his house. Needless to say I am weak and decided to stick to that by choosing then to break my water and just get this over with. I actually thought that this natural birth I learned a great deal from, but never want to go that route again!
* I was in the middle of labor when I told Shane to text mom and tell her I was not getting an epidural. He responded, "Now?" I said, "Yes I can't do this unless I know she is thinking of me and feeling sorry for me." : D
He was born at 7:59 pm on November 16th at 7 lbs and 8.6 oz. Lucky for me he came early since my last doctor told me never to have a larger baby than Daphney who was only 6lbs and 10 oz. If he would have waited the remaining 11 days I might have been in big trouble. Demitri eats wonderfully and is already above his birth weight.
We were so excited when after church Daphney got to come and visit us at the hospital. As you can see she was a little hesitant at first, but warmed up really quickly. After Shane and Daphney left for a minute and came back into the hospital room Daphney had the biggest smile on her face when she saw that I still had the baby. I think now it is a toss up for Daphney's favorite: Technology or Baby Demitri. Our son was a little jaundice and so we had to have a billirubin blanket for a while. Daphney kept standing on the machine so she could get to Demitri. She is a great big sister and they are going to make quite the Dooley Duo. 