The Story of Drew's Birth
On July 21, at 5:00am I went into labor. I got up to go to the bathroom, and my water broke. I had a sharp abdominal pain. I went back to bed to wait for something to happen. I told Eric that my water had broke and he nearly flew out of the bed. (he is a clean freak and thought I meant it broke in bed) He got up and took a shower while I timed the contractions. They were five minutes apart. I called my mom to let her know I was in labor and called the hospital to see if I should come in. They thought I better come in, since my contractions started out so close together. By the time we left for the hospital, they were two minutes apart. I tried doing my breathing exercises we learned in childbirth class. We got to the hospital in eleven minutes and about five contractions. On the way we talked about how it would be funny if we got pulled over for speeding. You know, it would be like the movies you see, where the cop pulls someone over and there is this woman panting in the passenger's seat. That would have really happened.
Anyway, when we got there I changed into a hospital gown and we kept timing the contractions. They started an IV on me and did some bloodwork. A nurse named Tina came in and introduced herself as my labor nurse. We figured the baby would be born by the afternoon. My contractions were still two minutes apart. After about four hours of labor, I got an epidural. It was an instant relief. I told the anesthesiologist that she was wonderful. She said everyone says that. After that, labor was a breeze. My contractions did slow down, though. I was able to even take a nap around noon. I had a few visitors while I was in labor. My sister, Kelly, my dad, my in-laws, and my niece, Jennifer stopped in. Eric and my mom stayed with me the whole time. It was about 5:00pm and Tina checked me to see how far dilated I was. I had been at nine centimeters for awhile. Unfortunately, I was still stuck at nine. The doctor came in and prescribed Pitocin to encourage dilation. It worked. About 6:15, I was "complete" and was allowed to push. My nurse's shift was supposed to be over at 7:00, but she said she was staying until the baby was born. A new nurse named Heather came in to help. I pushed, and pushed, and pushed!!!! Three and a half hours later, our baby was born. When the doctor said, "It's a boy!" We were so surprised! We didn't find out ahead of time what we were having. Andrew John Meyer was born at 9:54pm after seventeen hours of labor , weighing in at seven pounds, eleven and a half ounces. He was 19 1/2 inches long. He was named after his grandpa V. (John) All the nurses were wonderful, especially Tina, who stayed an extra three hours to see Drew.