Ross Edward's birth story

Ross, your birth story begins with your older brother. From my very first doctor appointment with you, we were on high alert that you might be a very big baby. Logan was 9 lbs, 13 ounces and babies usually get bigger with subsequent pregnancies. I carried you just like Logan - straight out. I felt huge but you were measuring right on track the whole time. When I was 38 weeks pregnant with you, we did an ultrasound to estimate your size. Your head was so big that the doctor couldn't get an accurate measurement because babies with heads that big have already been born. They estimated you were 9 lbs, 5 ounces. We decided to let me go another week and determine if we would induce then.

Three days before my due date with you, the doctor checked to see if I was close to being able to deliver you. I was 3 cm and 70% effaced - woohoo! That was a Wednesday and we decided to induce labor on Friday at 10am. My due date was Saturday.

Back to big brother... Thursday night we decided to go have a nice family dinner together and then get good rest for our big day. Around 3am, Logan woke up crying. Daddy and I went to him and he had had diarrhea in his bed. While we were cleaning that up, he threw up his dinner... everywhere! Needless to say, we were awake from 3am-6am cleaning up and getting Logan back to sleep. So much for a restful night's sleep!

Friday morning, I got a call at 7am telling me that the hospital was full but to call back at 10 to see if any beds were available. We called back at 10am and were asked to call back at noon. I was trying to stay positive that we would get to meet you this weekend. I decided to take a nap while big brother napped (remember, no sleep the night before) and about 20 minutes after dozing off, the hospital called and said they had a bed for us and to come on in! We called Logan's babysitter to come on over and we checked into the hospital at 2:30pm. 

We were put in a room and waited. Eventually two nurses came in, Rebecca and Susan, and got my IV started. Around 4:30pm we started the antibiotic drip because I was group B strep positive. Or so we thought. This drug needed about 4 hours to work before we could start pitocin that would start labor. The nurse came in to check on us at 6:45pm and noticed the antibiotic bag was still full. One of the nurses had hung the bag, and one of them had clamped it closed so it never dripped! Argh, that set us back two hours! We finally got that settled and relaxed and rested until 10pm, when we would start pitocin. The nurses changed shifts and Obi became our new nurse. 

While we were relaxing, I started noticing I was having regular mild contractions. This was a great sign that my body was ready anyway for you to come! At 10pm, we slowly started the pitocin until I was having regular, uncomfortable but not painful, contractions. At 1:30am, Dr. Chan came in and broke my water. So much water. About 2 lbs of amniotic fluid came out. No wonder my belly was so heavy! I was 4-5 cm dilated at that point. After that my contractions really started picking up and became so painful. Ouchie! Daddy tried to help but I just needed to not be touched. Around 2:15am, I asked for the epidural. The anesthesiologist comes bounding in and what do you know, it was Daddy's BSF leader! We were praying it would be him! He was so nice and made me feel soooo much better. 

The epidural kicked in around 2:40am and mommy could finally relax. Ahh! As soon as the pain of contractions went away, I started noticing a LOT of pressure on my cervix with each contraction. They checked my cervix again at 3am and I was already 8.5 cm! So close! The doctor said to give me a "few more minutes" before we started pushing. Obi was busy getting everything set up for the delivery. Poor Daddy, the sight of all of this kinda made him feel queasy. He had to sit down for a few minutes.

At some point they checked my cervix again and decided I was complete and ready to start pushing. Obi held one leg, a baby RN held another and Dr. Chan assumed his catcher's position. Daddy was at my head. I started pushing at 3:55am. I kept hearing the doctor and nurses saying things like "op baby" but I didn't know what that meant. 

Pushing is hard. Especially in the beginning when you don't make a lot of progress with each push. They would have me push 3-4 times with each contraction and I would be so out of breath when it was over. But the doctor, the nurses and Daddy were so encouraging each time. "Harder, sweetie, harder!", "that's it, that's the push", "good job, Chrissy, you're doing great!". Eventually I could feel your head getting further and further down the birth canal. At the end of a push, I could feel you at the end of the birth canal but then you'd slip back in a little. But with a few more pushes, you would be at the end and stay at the end so I knew we were getting close. That was really uncomfortable and it was hard to not push at that point. Then at 4:34am, a contraction started and I pushed and the doc said "you can stop pushing now" and the nurses and Daddy started exclaiming, "his head is out!" and then your shoulders were out. I reached down and grabbed you under the arms and pulled you onto my chest!!! 

Welcome to the world, Ross Edward! Being the second baby, it was so natural to start talking to you and telling you how proud I was of you for making it here and how happy we were that you were here. I loved you immensely and immediately. You were, and still are, so beautiful. You barely cried but the nurses seemed okay with it. They rubbed on you to stimulate you and you started breathing on your own. 

Daddy declined the option to cut your cord. Apparently it's not quite like cutting through paper and he didn't care to do it again. They took you to the scale and weighed you... 8 lbs, 5 ozs! You were diapered and brought back to mommy's chest. After a few minutes we decided to try nursing and you nursed for a whole hour, 30 minutes each side! Champ!

It turns out you came out of me face up or "sunny side up". "Op baby" means occiput posterior where you were facing my abdomen instead of my back. It's much more difficult to deliver a baby in this position because your head and neck can't bend quite the same to get down the birth canal. Most women push for 2-3 hours and most op babies end up in a c-section. So 40 minutes of pushing doesn't seem so bad! I guess we have big brother and his huge head to thank for that!

As for your name, Edward is your maternal grandfather's middle name. We are proud of the legacy you will carry on with his name. Ross is a name that mommy and daddy like. We think it's a masculine name and fits well with Martin and with Logan. Turns out that coincidentally both Logan and Ross are Scottish names. There is a Scottish Clan Logan and Clan Ross. Cool!

We love you so very much and are so thankful that God chose us to be your parents. We look forward to watching you grow, learning your personality, your interests, your likes and dislikes and seeing how you're going to positively impact this world. We noticed in the Bible that one of the ways God would choose to bless someone is by giving them a child and we definitely see you as a blessing. Thank you for being ours!