Ross' Arrival

Well I will try to recap Ross' story and hope that he stays asleep long enough for me to finish! Sunday around 12 AM, so technically Monday the 6th, I noticed I was leaking a little. Sorry this is too much information. I didn't think it was my water breaking, it was more of the mucous plug. So I'm reading up in my books and learn that labor could be hours, or weeks away. At this point, I'm exactly 3 weeks away from my due date so I'm not getting too excited. Around 4 AM, I start having contractions and timing them. They're about 18 minutes apart. I figure they're the Braxton Hicks. I've never been in labor, I don't know what this is supposed to be like!! Dave went to school like normal, and I spent most of the day on the couch. I decided that I should finish getting my hospital and diaper bag ready, just in case. In the evening, the contractions started to get worse. Dave kept asking, do we need to go to the hospital?? Again, I have no idea!!

Keep in mind that I have only met with my Dr. once and we haven't discussed the process of what happens when I do go into labor. Around 10:30 PM I decided to call her, just to talk about it. Rather do it now than at 2 in the morning. She left it up to me on if I wanted to go to the hospital. I just really didn't want to get there and have them send me home. She suggested I take a shower, then take a Benadryl and try to sleep. So I took a shower, popped a Benadryl and laid down. Bad idea. As soon as I laid down my contractions got worse. Again, Dave's saying, Shauna we really should go to the hospital. Finally I decided that he was right. So with wet hair, no make-up and a sad excuse for a hospital bag we were off. Dave was so great throughout. I couldn't move much so I was bossing him around telling him what to bring. Poor thing.

We checked into the hospital at 11:50 PM. Once we got to the room, we had a nurse who was "helping" us. She wasn't very nice. I think she thought I was a dramatic, first time mom who really wasn't in that much pain. So she was taking her time getting the Dr., setting up monitors, etc. She even said something like, Well even after you get checked we'll have to call your Dr. to see if she wants you to go home or walk around. I was in a lot of pain. Again, Dave was great. Fanning me when I got hot, not touching my leg when I asked him not to. Ha ha. After about a half hour, the resident Dr. came in to check me. I wish the nurse could've done that earlier. The Dr. checks me and says, 'Ok well we're gonna have a baby. She's dilated to a 7 and 90% effaced.' I think Dave, the mean nurse and I were all caught off guard. I was so worried about being a 1 or 2, but a 7!! We should've come to the hospital earlier. Dave immediately asked the Dr. if I could still get an epidural. He said that he would try. The Dr. came back and said that he'd ordered the epidural so it should be down soon. Then the nurse said, Well she can't have it yet. We haven't even done blood work or finished admitting her. Oh geez lady!! What have we been doing for the last hour! So then it got kind of frantic for a little while. She was hurrying to try and get my IV in and get my blood drawn. Then they wheeled me into the delivery room. We waited another 45 minutes or so before my blood work was even back! When Dave asked the nurses if I could get my epidural, then basically told him it was probably too late and that I'd go too quick anyway to get it. The Dr. checked me and luckily I was still at a 7. So Dave asked him, can she get the epidural?? Ha ha. He was taking care of me. So the Dr. was able to order the epidural. He came down really quick and was really good. It definitely took the edge off of the contractions, for which I was very grateful. Then I started to get the shakes. I just couldn't stop. Dave was rubbing my legs and getting me blankets and took great care of me. We laid there for about a half hour, then I was fully dilated. Yay! I couldn't believe I was actually in that moment about to give birth to this baby. Unreal. My Dr. got there and we were ready to push.

I really liked the atmosphere though. Dave was there, one nurse and my Dr. sat calmly at the foot of my bed waiting for baby. It took about 4 contractions worth of pushing and our little Ross was here at 3:06 AM. It was so cool watching Dave while I pushed. He was crying and would smile. It really is just a miracle.


Ross was 6 lbs, 5 oz. 21 inches long. Just perfect. I was planning on having an 8 lb baby so this was quite a surprise.

Our familiy of 3.

Look at that hair! Dave and I both thought he would be bald. Dave was sure that he'd have red hair. But he has a lot of brown hair. We'll see if he loses it all.

Right after his first bath.

It was a complete miracle and I am so grateful that Dave and I got to share this together. Ross is amazing and we couldn't love him more!