Baby Boy Packard 2012: Mason's Long Awaited Arrival!

Mason has finally arrived! Sorry for the delay in his arrival story, we have been trying to get settled in a routine with our little man.

Well to start off everything, Mason Kye Packard has finally made his entrance into the world! He was born via c-section on July 29 at 9:17 am. He was 8 pounds 12 ounces, and 22 inches long. He is a healthy little boy. :) We are so excited that he has finally made his arrival.

For his birth story, I will fill in what I can but there are parts that I do not remember.

My water broke about midnight, Friday going into Saturday. Friday was my original due date. At first I wasn't sure if it had broken for sure, because I only experienced a little trickle. I thought maybe it was the 2 glasses of Sprite I had drank at Buffalo Wild Wings earlier that night. I walked around for a few minutes, than I went and laid back down for about 15 minutes. Got back up, and started to feel the trickle I couldn't control. I had a really good feeling, that my water broke. I called labor and delivery just to see what they would say, and they said come on in. I wasn't having any contractions that I noticed. I let my mom know to get ready, and I got in the shower. I figured I would be nice give Bobby a small heads up and let him sleep while I was in the shower. Before I jumped in the shower, I bent down and grabbed my phone charger, so I could charge my phone in the bathroom while I was taking a shower, and that is when I got the big gush, that sent me running to the bathroom with my legs crossed. I didn't get it on anything. :) When I got out of the shower and got changed, I woke him and said let's go. I was pretty sure my water was broken. We finished packing our things, and headed to the hospital with my mom.

About 2 am, we got to the hospital and walked up to labor and delivery. I was sent to the triage area so they could check me, and see what was going on. Indeed, I my water had broken, and I was being kept. I was having contractions that I could not feel, but the monitors were able to pick them up. They moved me to the room I would be in for labor and delivery, admitted me, and I was settled in by 4 am. We walked the halls, (not much to look at or walk around), and bounced on the birth ball to help move things around. I knew we were on a time limit to get our little man out because of the risk of infection from my water breaking. I was made aware this, and it is usually 24 hours after your water breaks when the risk of infection gets to be a huge concern. At 8:37 am (I remember them from saying) they inserted a balloon into my cervix and blew it up. Part of it was on the inside, and the other on the out so it could put pressure on my cervix to help dilate me. When I was checked, when I got there they said I was only a finger tip dilated and still kind of thick, which was weird to me, for the fact that at my appointment on Wednesday I was 1 1/2 to 2 cm dilated and 75% effaced. The balloon should help me dilate to 3 1/2 to 4 cm, and fall out on it's own, if not 12 hours later they were to remove it and start me on pitocin. I was hoping it would dilate me and get me to progress so I would not have to wait those 12 hours, for the fact my water had already broken. Immediately I started to feel the pressure and contractions. I did what I could for an hour and a half before I was begging for Nubain, which is pain medication, which would take my mind off of the contractions. It was administered through my IV and it did not make me numb. I didn't want to have to get the Nubain, but when I was not getting a break from the contractions to relax and focus getting through the one, at all, I knew I needed to get it to relax my body. Come to find out I would peak at a contraction, start to come down from it, and peak again, and repeat. If it wasn't the contractions, he was moving and putting the pressure on the balloons down there. If anything I was getting a quick break every, I would say at least 15 minutes, for maybe 30 seconds. That's what it seemed like to me.

The nubain made it kind of out of it, which I was warned would happened. I was able to take naps and relax. I couldn't feel the contractions. From here it does it kind of blurry, I knew I could still eat food because they hadn't started the pitocin. I remember ordering my last meal to eat about 630-7 pm. I think it was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Than they took the balloon out and started the pitocin. I remembering have really bad back pains, getting the epidural, and than hearing I was fully dilated, but still had a "lip". Than they came back in and let me push. I started pushing I believe about 5-6 am. I pushed for about 2 1/2- 3 hours, in 3-4 different positions. Yeah there are apparently different positions to push in. I made no progress after all that pushing. He was stuck at my pelvis bone. The doctors kept checking and weren't for sure which way he was facing, face up or down or to the side, besides that he was head first. They tried turning him because they thought his head was turned just to the side. What they didn't realize he had been trying to come out face up, he needed to be face down. Well, after pushing for so long, I just stopped and gave up. I had no energy left, I hadn't made any progress, I was quite upset. They told me I needed to stop crying and to relax and they were going to give me some rest time as they were getting ready to switch shifts. Well I think it was a half hour later, the new doctor came in. He checked me and said I hadn't made any progress so we should do a c-section. We talked about it, and said let's do this. I am so glad I chose the c-section because no matter how long I would have pushed more, Mason probably wouldn't of come out. Thankfully through all of that, Mason did not go into distress at all. He was fine through it all. We called my mom up just to let her know what was happening so she could let everyone know what was going on. They than gave Rob stuff to put on over his clothes, so he could come into the operating room with me. They took me to the operating room, got everything ready, and than brought Rob in. Not long after, at 917 am, Mason Kye Packard was born. They than brought Rob over to Mason so he could see him while they cleaned him up. Rob came over to me and said something along the lines of "I know why he wouldn't come out. He is 8 pounds 12 ounces and 22 inches long." I was like, "You just said what?" Yes, Mason was 8 pounds 12 ounces and 22 inches long. My doctor was thinking he would be between 7 and 8 pounds, not almost 9. I was thinking he maybe long because at the ultrasound at 20 weeks, it looked like he was going to have some long legs. Once they had Mason all cleaned up and wrapped up, Rob held on to him the whole rest of the surgery. :)

I did have the shakes pretty bad, on the table, which is apparently normal with the epidural. I also ended up with hives on my thighs near my knees and on the back of my arms, and a scratched up face, because my face itched like crazy. We don't know what caused the hives, but the itchiness is another side effect of the epidural. I also kept dozing off on the table, and felt pretty nauseous.

We are very thankful, and grateful that Mason is healthy and everything worked out in the end. :)