Luke’s Birth Story – Part Two

Today I’m sharing Part Two of Luke’s Birth Story…if you missed Part One, you can catch it here!

Once we made it to the hospital, it was about 8:00am. Blake made sure I was checked in and settled in my Labor & Delivery room before going to move the car. We had called my parents and Blake’s dad on the way, so Blake’s dad was making his way to Atlanta from South Carolina at this time. My parents live 2.5 miles away from us, so they got a few things together and came to the hospital (my mom told me later that my dad stopped at the gas station and at Costco on the way and she almost went crazy because she was so excited about getting to the hospital!).

At this time I was about 3cm and they confirmed my water had definitely broken. I met the Doctor on call and was introduced to my nursing team. I didn’t know this at the time, but the Doctor who delivered Luke is actually on a Bravo! reality TV show called Married to Medicine. She was a funny, no-nonsense straight shooter who scared me at first but ended up being exactly what I needed to get through the delivery!

At about 10:30, I still wasn’t having very many contractions and was stuck at 3cm so they started me on Pitocin. Good grief – that stuff is the real deal. I definitely started having contractions at this point and even started having some layer on top of each other…which felt as painful as it sounds. My parents got here at this time and did a good job of distracting me for a while. Finally I couldn’t take it anymore and asked for the epidural. My goal was to make it to 5cm before getting the epidural so I wouldn’t slow the labor process down too much, but wasn’t checked until after I requested it and luckily had made it to 7cm! After the epidural I was totally in a daze. I could move my legs slightly but just felt totally drained and exhausted. I kept whispering to Blake that I felt like I was on drugs, to which he would reply “you are on drugs” while holding back a laugh.

Finally they checked me and I was 10cm and 100% effaced…aka it was go time! They prepped the room, our families went to the waiting area and…nothing happened. Everybody left the room and nobody came back in for almost two hours. I was told later they were letting me “labor down” so I wouldn’t have to push as long but those two hours felt like days!

The doctor came in with a new round of nurses just before 8:00pm and we were ready to go. I was really nauseous from the Pitocin and the epidural and got sick right before I started pushing and then felt 100% better. I pushed for about 30 minutes and then ended up having an episiotomy right before the final push.  The only people who were in the room while I was pushing were my nurse, the doctor, and Blake, so he was completely hands on – especially when the nurse would go look at the monitor and he would have to take over. Blake was my biggest cheerleader and involved in the process every step of the way…I don’t think I could have gotten through it without him there next to me!

And then, just like that…Luke Holden entered the world and it was the most incredible moment of my life. They handed him to me and I was able to hold him on my chest for a few minutes before they needed to take him to suction out his lungs a bit. Then it was just Blake, Luke, and me and I will forever cherish that hour with my new little family. It brings tears of happiness to my eyes just to think about that “golden hour”! It was such an unreal experience – just the three of us getting to know each other while Blake and I kept looking at each other with goofy smiles.

We are so blessed by this little boy and are forever grateful we were chosen to be his parents.

Luke Holden, you are everything to us and you are loved more than you will ever know!

xoxo,

Lauren