Chase's Birth Story

I've decided (eventually) to turn our blog into a scrapbook, so I think it would be appropriate to blog about Chase's birth.

Dear Chase,

Sometime during the week of May 2, 2011 I began experiencing contractions that occurred randomly and far apart. From what I read in my pregnancy books I knew I was going through early labor. Then, on May 6, 2011 around 4:30am I got up to use the restroom. On my way there I experienced a contraction that was intense enough for me to bend over to get through it. Then another one hit me fifteen minutes later - same intensity. At 5:00am the third intense contraction came and lasted a little longer than the others. The next one came 7 minutes later! Before we knew it I was having a contraction every 5-7 minutes which meant if I kept that up for an hour we would have to go to the hospital.  I remained calm the entire time. I slowly began adding the remainder of my things to my hospital bag, I watered the plants, vacuumed, and picked up around the house. Of course this was the morning that Max decided to rip Kobe's new bed into a thousand pieces! So, Spencer worked on picking that mess up! At around 6:00am we knew that we needed to head to the hospital. We said "good-bye" to the doggies and hit the road.

On the way there I kept second guessing myself, "Is this really happening?" Then a contraction would come and I would be reassured. When we arrived at the hospital we had to go to the triage room where they hooked me up to monitors to check out the contractions. We were probably in there 30 minutes and then got moved to a labor/delivery room. At that moment I knew we would be meeting you today.  :-)  My labor/delivery nurse came in to meet us (her name was Jean) and she checked things out. She broke the news to me that both anesthesiologists were in surgery at the moment and it would be thirty minutes before I could receive an epidural. At this point my contractions were 2-5 minutes apart and they hurt, they REALLY hurt. There was nothing that I could do to relieve the pain I was feeling. Poor Daddy! He really wanted to help me, but there wasn't anything that he could do for me either. :-(

 Unfortunately 30 minutes turned into an hour and a half! By 10:30am the epidural was in and it was working. (A miracle drug I call it!) :-) At around that time, the nurse slipped some pitocin into my IV (to speed up contractions) and broke my water. Spencer, Jean, and I chatted and watched the news coverage on the MS River flooding. Around 11:30am I told the nurse that I could feel immense pressure below. She told me that your head was moving down and then she checked. Sure enough! I was at at 10cm!!! She had me practice a few pushes and said I did well, so she decided to call Dr. Powers.

He arrived around noon and we all discussed American Idol! (We were all fans of James Durbin.) I did two sets of  three 10 second pushes and Dr. Powers told us that your heart rate dropped to the 80s when I was pushing. This was not safe, so he used the vacuum and two pushes later we could see your head! Then he pulled you out and you were screaming and your arms were flying all over the place! I was giddy, your daddy was so happy and then I got to cut the umbilical cord. Then Dr. Powers handed you to me and you peed all over me! Nurse Jean took you over to check you out and daddy went over there to see you. He began talking and singing to you and you immediately calmed down and grabbed his finger. What a precious moment! Then we got to hold you and love all over you and will continue to all the days of your life. What a miracle we experienced on May 6, 2011.

Chase Allen Knowlan

May 6, 2011

12:22 pm

6 lbs, 10 oz, 19 in