The Story

Wow! What an amazing experience we had with bringing our baby boy Tayven into the world. It all started Wednesday the 15th of September. We had our routine Doctor visit with Dr. Robison. He came in the room and said that we could be checked and go home, or we could be checked and he could strip my membranes. I had heard that stripping your membranes was pretty painful, so I wasn't sure about the whole thing. He said that it works about 50% of the time and if it did work, it would put me in to labor that night or the next night. Shawn and I looked at each other and didn't know what to do. Dr. Robison was probably laughing at us hysterically inside. Shawn was hoping it didn't put me in to labor that night because he had a pretty big day the next day with clinicals down at school. We decided to do it and headed on our way. That night I went walking at the church, but woke up the next morning feeling pretty good and headed off to work.
Thursday night I went to dance and did what I could. I was having some pain and some contractions, but nothing that was regular and unbearable. I took off a little early, went home and crawled in bed.
Friday morning about 3:00 I woke up to a contraction and waited to see what would happen for a for a bit. They kept coming pretty regular (about 6-8 minutes apart). I finally woke up Shawn around 4:30 and he was ready to go. I told him that I was going to shower and get ready while he piled things in the car. He was pushing me out the door when my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart.
We arrived at the hospital at 7:00 and the nurse checked me. The nurse checked me and said I was dialated to a 3-4. She recommended that I walk for about 45 minutes and see if that moved things. I could barely walk by the time 8:00 rolled around and the nurse check me again. She said that I had improved and they were going to call my Doctor and get me submitted. I, of course, asked for the epidural right away!
They came in at 10:00 to give me my epidural and it was smooth sailing from there. This was the part that I was most nervous for and it wasn't bad. I could no longer feel my contractions and I could still wiggle my toes! I was set to go!
The next couple of hours I was able to sleep. They came to check me at 12:30 and I was still progressing. I was now dialated to about a 5-6. The nurse rolled me to my side, and said if I didn't keep progressing, they were going to put me on the pit. I fell asleep and an hour and a half later I was dialated to an 8. She rolled me to my other side and 45 minutes later I was almost fully dialated. I kept thinking how I was actually going to meet my baby soon! I always knew it would come, but it always seemed so far away. They started prepping the room while I "labored down" (a technique the hospital uses so I didn't have to push for very long!)
Bonnie, my nurse, came in and we started getting ready for delivery. We started pushing and about 10 minutes later Bonnie was telling me to stop pushing. The girl that was in the room next to me was at the same stage I was and we both had the same Doctor! I had to wait about 25 minutes so he could deliver her baby. In the mean time I took a little nap and was ready to go when the Doctor came in. The Doctor had asked Shawn earlier in the day if he wanted to help deliver and Shawn said sure. It was pretty cool for Shawn to be able to help. He was a little nervous at first but did awesome.
It truly was such a spiritual experience for us to have a healthy, beautiful baby boy born. He was born at 5:07, weighed 6 lbs. 14 oz., and was 20 1/2 inches long.
We had lots of visitors Friday and Saturday and were ready to come home Sunday afternoon. I cannot thank Dr. Robison and Mountain View Hospital enough for the wonderful experience we had. I was preparing myself for the worst and it was one of the best experiences we could have had.