Owen's arrival

We are a little late with this post, but it has been a busy past 2 weeks. For those of you who are interested, I wanted to share Owen's journey into the world. It may be  too many details, but I want to have them recorded for myself as well.
   We checked into the hospital Sunday night around 5 and they started cervidil which prepares your cervix for the induction process. I actually began to feel some contractions that night and morning. They took the cervidil out at 3 AM and started pitocin at 6 AM. Dr. Light came in and broke my water at 7AM and by 8 AM we went ahead with the epidural. I spent most of the day just trying to rest or position myself so they could be able to monitor the baby well. I must say God blessed us with the most amazing nurses. Monica and Rachel really were such a blessing that day. They were very nurturing and encouraging throughout the entire day. They actually ended up both staying past their shift to see Owen come into the world. Wonderful nurses make a huge difference.
    We were making pretty good progress throughout he day and thought at one time we might be ready to push about 3pm... but by the end of the day my cervix decided to stay at 9cm. So close to 5 pm Dr. Light came in and helped me along and we basically pushed through to 10 cm with some help from him. We then began pushing...every contraction: 3 pushes counting to 10 for each push. David was a great coach...he counted, held my leg,  supported me, bragged on me, encouraged, fed ice chips....anything I needed. We all actually talked casually between contractions. David shared with them how we had been together since we were 14, and it was just amazing to be sharing this experience of bringing our son into this world after all we had been through together.  Owen took his time (as he likes to do), but an hour and a half later at 6:43 he entered this world weighing 7 pounds 9 ounces, measuring 20 and a half inches long.
    As soon he was born, they placed him on my chest and he was crying. It was amazing to finally have him in my arms and see him for the first time. Such an unbelievable moment. Shortly after they took him away and started checking him out. There were alot of people in the room at this point. I noticed that things just didn't seem quite right and asked David what was wrong.  He was having a difficult time breathing, it was really taking alot of effort for him to breathe. They decided he needed to go to the NICU to be sure he was ok. So they quickly let me hold him one more time before they took him away. David went with Owen for a little while to the NICU. Monica, one of my nurses, hugged me and explained what was going on and that this was fairly common and things would be fine.  Owen had swallowed some meconium which caused him to have difficulty breathing.
   This was a pretty low point for me. I just sat there and cried. This was not how I had imagined it going, and I could not be with my sweet baby. It was very sad. My mom came and sat with me while David was with Owen in the NICU.  I had to stay in recovery for about an hour and then they took me to the NICU so I could see him. They wheeled me up there and all I could do was look at him and touch him as he cried. They said he was doing much better though and would be able to go to the well baby nursery and to our room.
   We finally got him back in our arms about 10:00 that night. It had been a long day for us all, but were so relieved he was ok. We just looked at him in awe and thought can you believe he is finally here and ours!  He was perfect and beautiful. We were in love.

With Dr. Light who delivered Owen