Owen Henrik joined our little family on December 20, 2013 at 2:50p.m.

We were originally scheduled to go in for an induction on the 18th. The doctor scheduled the induction very early on due to my history of precipitates delivery. I really didn’t want to be induced so was dead set on putting myself into labor on the 17th, we see how well that worked out! The morning of the 18th we called and the labor and delivery floor was too full so they said it would be Saturday, the 21st. A few hours later they called back and said they had spoke to our doctor and we would be induced on the 20th. Again, I tried to put myself into labor with no avail.

The morning of the 20th we packed up and went to the hospital at 7am. I have to admit I was a little nervous at this point. We got all checked in and hooked up and waited for the doctor to come and break my water. She did so about 8:30a and Zach and I started the walking. We walked and walked and played games then did some more walking. At one point I went to get out of bed, thinking the worst part of the “gushing” was over, only to quickly find my socks soaked. All the nurse and I could do was laugh. At about 10:30a I had not progressed enough so they started me on a low dose of pitocin. We still had the goal of a baby by noon and were hopeful this was going to happen.

Now that I was on pitocin I wasn’t able to get up and move a lot but I was able to sit on a ball, which I did until my contractions were too much for me to handle. At one point they were so close together I couldn’t even catch my breath before the next one started. At this point our nurse told me what to watch for as the “cues” I was going into labor and she left. About 10 minutes later I pushed the call button and a poor CNA came to answer. As soon as I told her what was going on she ran out of there right quick. I latter came to find out that she was still going through orientation and was very new…no wonder she didn’t want to delivery my baby!

My nurse came in shortly after and started “rallying the troops” about 10 people were in and out of the room and I told them this baby was coming, the nurse at first was hesitant and after checking me sent the resident doc to update my doc. About 2 minutes later I told the nurse that the doctor better hurry, she checked me again and this time believed me. At one point I squeezed Zach’s hand really hard during a contraction. After it was over I told him I was sorry. The resident said, “don’t be sorry, he did this to you.” At that exact time I got another contraction and said, “We did it together.” I never thought I would hear a room of nurses and doctors laugh during a delivery like I did at that point! She called the doctor and said, “Iverson needs to be here…like 5 minutes ago.” Dr. Iverson showed up shortly after that they put some gloves and the gown on her, dropped the bottom of the bed, I pushed twice and out was Owen.

I had asked that they put him on my stomach after he was born and while they did that they realized that he had a very short cord, they could barely get him out, so Zach snipped the cord and they took Owen to check to make sure all was well. Meanwhile, Zach is left holding the scissors, and it isn’t until the doctor points out that someone can take them that he gets rid of them. It was rather funny at the time.

They checked Owen over and made sure everything was ok and gave him back to us to snuggle and feed. He was a champ when it came to eating and latched on right away. We got him for an hour before they took him to the nursery to do more tests and his bath.

Overall the birth was a lot different than William’s but the end product was just as wonderful!