AJ's Room and Story

In the hustle and bustle of moving, having a baby, hubby getting ordained, Thanksgiving, Christmas, learning Spanish, feeding clothing and nurturing Olivia, and New Year's I failed to post AJ's birth story.

Olivia came into this world via C-section because she was breech, and therefore we faced the decision with AJ-- another C-section or VBAC. When my OB welcomed me back the second time around, she explained to me the risks of having a VBAC. Since C-sections carry their own number of risks, and Olivia was a C-baby simply because of her breech position, we decided to go for the VBAC. My OB here was supportive of that decision, but we agreed that if I din't go into labor by my due date then we would proceed with another C-section (patossin (sp?) is a no no if you've had a previous c-section- so being induced was out of the question).

I was 3cm and 90% by the time I started my weekly appointments. On Friday, October 13th, I went out to pick out fabric to re-cover the cushions on AJ's rocking chair. That was something I had to do before the baby came, and that day I felt like I really needed to get that done. Looking back, I spent that whole day getting ready for the baby as if I were to go into labor that night. I did go into labor that night. It started that evening with a few contractions. Alex was sleeping, and I was sitting up finishing off the last few pages of Baby Wise. The contractions quickly went from "oh- a contraction" to "OOOOH -a contraction!" I started timing them at about 10:30 p.m. They were about 10 minutes apart, so I called my mom. She said that I should call the doctor. Alex was still sleeping. I called the doctor, and he said to wait until the contractions were 3 minutes apart and lasted for about a minute. Well, 8 minutes later they dropped down to 4 minutes apart. I went upstairs and woke up my husband while I was getting my bags together. He apparently did not sense the earnestness in my voice when I said "Honey I think that I need to go in tonight-- should I call ....". He nodded his head and rolled back over. I called a family friend and made arrangements for Olivia. I hung up the phone and threatened to drive myself to the hospital. Alex suddenly perked up. By the time our friends arrived, we were both standing at the door with the suitcases in hand. We headed off to the hospital. The contractions were still about 4 minutes apart, and I called the doctor while we were on our way. I was excited, and I know that I sounded a little more chipper than a woman about to give birth should sound while talking to the doctor, so I imagined that he probably thought he was dealing with an over-reacting rookie. He told me that I could go ahead and come in if it made me feel any better. Great! Because we were pulling into the parking lot. Now, Alex and I had never been to this hospital, never taken a tour, and never taken a class. So, we drove up to what we thought should be the entrance. The door was locked and there was a handwritten note on the side that said "push button and security will come and unlock the door". We pushed the button and waited and waited and waited. No security. We started walking around to see if there might be another door we should go through, but I was really hurting and could hardly walk anymore. I thought "oh great- I'm going to have the baby right outside the hospital". Finally a cleaning lady saw us and opened the door. It was about 12:30a.m. when I was settled into my room and already 7 cm. I told the nurse that I wanted to go ahead and sign up for an epidural. I wasn't looking to win any metals that night, so I unashamedly asked for any pain meds they could give me as I waited for the anesthesiologist to arrive. She gave me something that took the edge off the pain, but made me a little loopy too. She was such a great nurse. The epidural arrived around 2:30 a.m. and when all was said and done, I couldn't feel a thing-- on one side of my body! Great. It would be my luck for the epidural to only work on one side. The nurse propped me on my side for a few minutes, and the epidural worked its magic :) After that we waited and rested for a few hours. At 5 a.m. we were ready to go. 30 minutes later, AJ was born. TaDa! Everything went so smoothly (except for my eyes swelling up the next day because I sort of forgot to mention I was allergic to naproxin)! When I saw my beautiful baby boy and his head full of black hair-- it was love at first sight.

Now here is his room. It is still a little plain, but this is about as far as we are going to get for now. He seems to like it!

We bought this rocking chair for $10.00 at a rummage sale. It was dark brown and the cushions were orange. Yummy! Alex spray-painted it with Fusion spray paint, and it looks beautiful. Grandma made the cushion covers.

I still need to hang curtains in there, but I can't find red,1/4" gingham 100%cotton material.