Ezra Jacob Doan

Born: December 30, 2010
Time: 10:20 am
Weight: 6 lbs. 10 oz.
Length: 21 in.

The Delivery Story: (Feel free to skip to the pictures, this is mostly for me so I remember)
Jake and I stayed up until about 1 am after Gideon’s party just getting last minute things together before having to be at the hospital at 4 am…that’s right, FOUR IN THE MORNING, to be induced. Considering the enormous lack of sleep, I actually felt really great heading to the hospital. I was more than ready for the arrival of my little man. I like to think I got a power nap instead of thinking of it as a bad night’s sleep.

After getting checked in, changing into that super sexy hospital gown, getting the IV, and hooking up all the monitors , it was about 5:40 when they started me on the low-dose Pitocin. It started working right away, so by 6 my contractions were in full swing.  Since I was already at a 3 when we got there, I started to panic that I wouldn’t get an epidural in time. Not being a fan of pain, that was not an option in my opinion. :) But, I tried to keep myself calm and get some rest between contractions. At 7:05 my water broke! Around that same time, Ezra’s heart rate started dropping with every contraction, so they took me off the Pitocin since I would progress on my own from that point and called for the epi. The lady who gave me the epidural was really good at her job. Couldn’t feel it when that big nasty needle went in and couldn’t feel anything for a. long. time.  I actually slept for a little bit after that until they started to get really nervous about Ezra’s heart rate. They had to switch him to an internal heart rate monitor, which I was so freaked out at the time, I literally didn’t even realize they had switched it until she said, “His heart rate will sound different on this monitor, so don’t freak out.” Things were a little crazy!

They figured out that he had turned and was facing my hip and on top of that they were fairly certain his chord was around his neck. No bueno. Since I was still only at a 6, the nurses decided I needed to get on my hands and knees to get him to turn. Which would have been no problem except for the fact that I had no feeling from my waist down. Well, it was interesting to say the least, but I managed it with the help of my amazing nurses and luckily (or so we thought) he turned! Literally as soon he flipped over, I was at a 10! It was 10:o5 and baby was coming.

I expected things to go quickly. My other two deliveries were fast and easy and “they say” it just gets easier every time.  I guess it didn’t help that I NEEDED this delivery to go quickly because with every contraction his heart rate was still plummeting. There were lots of extra nurses in the room, in case I had to be rushed for a C-section. So scary! I was pushing and it seemed like nothing was happening. They tried to use suction, wasn’t helping. And I started to see some looks of uncertainty passing between my doctor and the nurses. I was trying so hard not to panic and could not figure out why I was having such a hard time. The only thing I could think of was that he had to be HUGE. They finally had to use forceps (HATE…they left his little head bruised) and after what seemed like FOREVER, but was really just a few minutes, there he was! Looking face up (If you haven’t had a baby, you may not know, but that is NOT the way they’re supposed to come out.) with his chord wrapped once around his tiny neck. My doctor quickly unwrapped the chord and Ezra let out a perfect cry while they rushed to check all the APGAR scores and to make sure all was well. Thankfully, He’s perfect! That’s where the complications stopped.

Apparently, he turned the wrong way when he’d flipped earlier, which made for the crazy delivery.  But luckily the labor went fast enough (just over 3 hours from when my water broke!) and I had a great Dr. and nurses to help me through it. Ezra was actually the smallest of my babies and my doctor said if he had been my first, I definitely would have had to have a c-section. He high-fived Jake and I after the delivery and told me I did good work. :)

I think we do great work. These pictures are proof:
 

It was definitely the most stressful and scary delivery of the three, but I was just so so thankful that it turned out how it did! We were able to go home after just 24 hours, so Ezra and I spent New Years Eve snuggling at home while Jake took the tots to his parents to ring in the New Year.

We’re so in love with our little man. He’s a great baby and he LOVES to snuggle. We feel so blessed to finally have him here and are soaking up every second of his new baby perfection.