Drew Joseph Martin was born on October 20, 2011 at 5:05 pm weighing in at a very healthy 9.9lbs and 22.25 inches long. This little man has completely stole our hearts. We are in love. When the nurse announced his birth time the first thing Andy said was, "awesome that's the start time for game 2 of the World Series"! My midwife asked if he was always this funny, I said "he's serious about this, not joking".
How it all began...
My due date was October 18 and there was no sign Drew wanted to make an appearance on his own anytime soon. My midwife did an ultrasound and guessed he was close to 9 pounds and decided it would be best to just induce me. So the date was set for us to go into the hospital Wednesday evening at 9pm. We checked in and got as comfortable as possible and the nurses started the process. I was given Cytotec to begin with, a pill to "ripen" the cervix. My third dose was given to me at 7:30 the following morning and not much was happening. I was laying in the hospital bed waiting for them to come check me again thinking I really needed to use the bathroom when all of the sudden my water broke at 8:15am. My midwife walks in and I said, "I'm pretty sure my water just broke but I definitely could have peed my pants"! Sure enough it had broke but I was only at 1 cm. This made me nervous thinking about the possibility of a C-section if things didn't start moving quicker. Sure enough the contractions started kicking in and I was hurting. It was all back labor at that point and was not coming and going like everyone said contractions do. I wanted to wait as long as possible to get an epidural just in case I didn't get keep progressing. Hours went by and I was feeling aweful. Finally I told the nurse to call anesthesia for an epidural or I was gonna cut this baby out my self! She gave me some Fentanyl to help me relax but all that did was make me vomit a billion times. Finally anesthesia arrived and it was my friend from our ward..."nice he gets to see my butt" thoughts ran through my head, however I really didn't care at that point.
The epidural kicked in and I was feeling much better. I could still feel all of my contractions but they were much less intense. At 2 pm I was only dilated to 4cm and getting kind of discouraged. They were about to start Pitocin and I was in alot of pain on my left side. It seemed that the epidural wasn't quite positioned right so the nurse called anesthesia back to have them check it. Sure enough it was in a little too far so he suggested pulling it back to distribute the block better. At first I thought it had worked and then I realized I was feeling everything!
I told my nurse that something was wrong and literally was screaming "someone help me". She decided to check me at this point and I was already at 8cm. She convinced me that the pain I was feeling was just pressure but I literally could feel my pelvis pulling apart, I wanted to die! Two hours after starting the Pitocin I had gone from 4cm to 10cm and was ready to push.
My midwife was called but she was in clinic and wasn't coming anytime soon. I told the nurse I didn't care I wanted this baby out! Apparently like most things in life, I tend to think of them as a competition and child birth wasn't any different. I knew there was another lady near by about to deliver as well. When I heard a toddler crying in the hallway Andy told me I asked, "did she beat me?" My midwife and nurses were laughing hysterically! I pushed for an hour and five minutes (which seemed like forever at that time) and Drew was out! It was the most amazing and overwhelming feeling of love (& relief) all at the same time.
We never thought we could love someone so instantly and as much as we do him.
He was placed on my chest and they waited for the umbilical cord to stop pulsing before Andy cut it. Drew was so alert and his eyes were big and wide. He was so calm, he wasn't even crying. He just kept looking at me and with his sweet eyes and my heart melted. While Drew was getting cleaned up my nurse told me she was going to take out my epidural. Nurse looks at me and says, "Oh, no wonder you were having so much pain, it's already out". Yea looks like anesthesiologist pulled it out a little too far...Thanks for that!
We thought he'd be close to 9 pounds, not 10!
His little big feet barely fit on the card space
All cleaned up and so peaceful, straight from Heaven...
The following morning I was already itching to get home. Drew's Pediatrician is one of my Attendings at work, so once he stopped by and gave us the go ahead he didn't mind if we headed home early. I was glad to leave the hospital and bring this precious baby to his new home. We got him dressed and ready to go in his car seat and now he is ready to hit the courts!
I am so grateful for this wonderful blessing that has been brought into our lives. Now that he is here, I could never imagine life without him. He is perfect in every way. So sweet, so delicate, so heavenly. We love you Drew.
