Welcome to the World, Leo Paul Barnett! Part One – The Labor

Oh friends, I just can not believe it. Almost three weeks ago I welcomed my first child, Leo Paul Barnett, to the world. We waited and waited and waited for this child and I am still in disbelief that he is here and mine. Below is a little glimpse into his birth story. It includes a lot of details – but it was important to me to get it down in writing! Stay tuned for part two of the blog post – all about how his first days are going and a tour of his nursery!

You may remember from my three part series about having a baby in the classroom, that it became harder and harder to move during my third trimester. I wanted to stay with my class for as long as possible, but also didn’t want to go into labor one night and not get to say my goodbyes. I decided to stop work one week before I was due. I never knew if I was going to make it that far – I am glad I did though! I was able to leave everything exactly how I wanted it and say my proper goodbyes – I was thankful for that!

First day of school vs last day of school…same t-shirt! Tiny baby seed vs 39 week belly!

Following that Friday I was able to get all my last minute things done. The important stuff – laundry, cleaning, planting, pedicure, waxing… ; ) I was feeling pretty ready. Then, on Tuesday I decided to make a last minute hair appointment for Wednesday. If you know me, I still travel home to Indy to get my hair done. I knew I couldn’t make the trip for awhile and wanted to cover my sparkles! I woke up Wednesday morning and didn’t feel quite right. I now know that was because I lost my mucus plug. I didn’t know what was happening, but decided to not call my doctor because I was afraid I would miss my hair appointment. Priorities ; ) I ended up going to the doctor after and she said I was still only 2 cm dilated and didn’t see any signs of labor. I went home from that appointment feeling crummy and defeated.

At 2:00 am Thursday morning I woke up and saw that my husband, David, was awake also. We both couldn’t sleep. I started reading a book hoping that it would put me back to bed, but I was tossing and turning. Around 3:30 am I started to feel contractions. I hadn’t had any contractions leading up to this point and kept wondering what they felt like. I felt them in my lower back (OUCH!) and didn’t quite realize what they were at first. I tried to sleep through them, but they kept getting worse. At around 5:30 I started to write down how long they lasted. I was waiting for the magic number of less than 5 minutes apart and 45 seconds or longer. They varied though and were inconsistent. I was pretty positive I was in labor – just didn’t want to be wrong! I called the doctor’s office at 9:00 and they said to come in and get checked. They told us to bring our bags with us in case this was the real thing!

My chicken-scratch notes with my contraction times!

Once we got to the doctor – around 10:00 – I was definitely feeling them. It was a lot less dramatic than I thought it would be though. No screaming and crying, just a lot of painful faces and trouble breathing! The doctor checked me and said that I was at 4 cm and it was time to have a baby! My husband and I both freaked out for a good moment. I do not think I will ever forget that!

We arrived at the hospital – got settled in and got checked again. I was already to 5 cm. They broke my water and started pitocin. They told me I could had my epidural at anytime. With the contractions getting stronger, I said bring it on! The epidural didn’t quite go exactly as planned, but I made it through. When I was done, the anesthesiologist asked me what I did for a living. When I told him I was teacher he said that he knew it. His said the only people that I can sit patiently like that are teachers and people in the armed forces!

Our last picture as just the two of us.

After the epidural kicked in, I got to 10 cm quickly. They decided I should wait to push so that his head could keep coming down. He was a lot higher than I realized! I know this is crazy to say – but I actually had fun pushing! We laughed during the process and joked about everything that was happening. I think I was just so happy to be at the end of everything. I pushed for about an hour and a half and he was born at 4:57. All in all not a bad labor experience!

Our time spent at the hospital was a whirlwind. The nurses were fabulous and we had a lot of visitors. I never even left my room. We were discharged Saturday morning and came home to start our new life.

The basket I put together for the nurses!