Luke Thomas Barker

Now that our little bean is two weeks old, I figured it was way past time to write about his birth story.

Around 2:15am Thursday March 28, I woke up with contractions.  They may have been going on longer, but they weren't strong enough to wake me up until around 2:15.  So I laid in bed for about an hour timing them.  They were around 10 minutes apart.  Around 3:30am I woke up the hubs.  He laid there with me for a little while timing them with me.  At this point the contractions were closer to 8 minutes apart.  So we decided we should get up and get ready.  As the morning progressed, the contractions got more uncomfortable.  So it helped me to walk through them.  I basically was walking circles around our bedroom until we were ready to go downstairs, and then I was walking circles around our downstairs all while continuing to time the contractions.  By about 5am the contractions were around 5 minutes apart. 

John's parents (who were in town visiting and asleep upstairs) woke up around this time and were able to see us off.  By 5:45 we left the house for the hospital.  We called my parents on the way to the hospital to let them know...this baby was coming on his due date!

We got to the hospital around 6:15 am and I got checked into Triage.  When the midwife came in to check me, I was already dilated to 6cm.  Within about a half hour they had me checked into my birthing room suite.  The contractions were much stronger at this point, and were seeming to last much longer than I had anticipated.  Within the next 2 hours I had progressed to 8cm and the contractions became unbearable.  This is when I got the epidural.  It was so reassuring to have John by my side through all of this.  I know it was hard for him to see me screaming/crying in pain, but he was such a good coach, and so motivating.   

Let me tell you, that thing was a life saver.  After that I was able to relax and sleep some.  Which turned out to be a very good thing.  My contractions were not regular, and were not progressing in the "wave-like" motion that they are supposed to.  I was having contractions that were 7 minutes long versus 1-2 minutes.  They would intensify, and just stay there.  Luckily after the epidural, I only felt some mild to moderate pressure when the contractions came.  The midwife and nurse ended up having to give me pitocin to regulate my contractions because apparently 7 minute long contractions do not help with getting the baby out. 

It took a very long time for me to progress the next 2 cm.  My water still had not broken and Luke had not dropped.  The midwife was holding off on breaking my water because Luke's head was not lined up with the opening of the cervix and there was a possibility of the umbilical cord coming out before his head if they broke my water too early.  And that would mean emergency c-section.  Finally, after I had gotten sick (for the 4th time) he dropped down enough for them to be comfortable breaking my water.  That was around 6pm.

Around 7pm was when I was ready to start pushing.  First I tried laying on my back to push (the more conventional way I suppose).  But in that position, I felt as though I couldn't breathe.  Then they tried sitting me up some to help me breathe.  But that made it so that Luke's head couldn't fit under my pelvic bone, so the pushing was not going anywhere.  John and my mom were amazing coaches for me during all of this.  Finally I laid on my side and our baby boy was born about 30 minutes later. 

Luke Thomas Barker was born (on his due date!!) on March 28, 2013 at 8:13 pm.  He weighed 8 lb 5 oz and was 21 inches long. 

The nurses laid him on my chest and he stopped crying almost instantly.  We opted for the delayed cord cutting.  So once it was ready, John was able to cut the cord.  We are so in love with this little guy.  He melts my heart every day.  And seeing John with his baby boy just makes me feel complete.  I love our new little family :)