Spencer

Spencer was born at the end of May. Yes, I know that was 3 months ago, but at least you are getting the details at some point, right?

I was hoping my little bundle of joy would come without any coaxing a week or two early.  I had a lot of early contractions with him and some that were consistent enough that I almost went into the hospital on a couple of occasions.  He was keeping me on my toes.

Nicole’s baby, Isabel was born at the end of April and once Isabel was born, I was dying to be done too.  It’s amazing how much longer pregnancy seems to draw out when your sister delivers just a little while before you do. :)  Isabel is a darling little baby with dark, long (and I mean LONG) hair, and little Native American brown eyes.

I asked my Mom to come down the week before my due date because I was so convinced I would go into labor early.  The week came and went, and still no baby.  I went into the hospital at about 9am to be induced, and after all the paperwork, they had me in a hospital bed and started the IV.  

I asked for an epidural right away since I figured there really was no reason to wait for the pain that was inevitably coming.  It was a rough epidural.  The anesthesiologist was the kind of guy who tells you everything that could possibly go wrong in a way that makes you wonder if he really knows what he’s doing and if you have made a smart choice in asking for an epidural.  Of course he ends every warning with a comment about how incredibly rare those things are, but I STILL wasn’t feeling so confident.  ESPECIALLY when he goes to give me the shot in my spine and all of the sudden I have this indescribable electric-volt pain down my left leg.  As I’m panicking and trying to stay calm, he tells me that he must have touched a nerve.  He warned me about what I would need to do to follow up medically if that pain returned later, saying that there may have to be some repair done if that sensation returned.  That wasn’t too comforting either.

Shortly after he left, maybe only 30 minutes later, one of the machines in the room started beeping.  As it turned out, the battery was running low in the epidural machine.  Easy fix?  You would think so, but when the nurse replaced the battery, she didn't realize that it reset the whole machine.  As you can imagine, it didn't take long before I figured it out and was calling her back.

She tried to find the anesthesiologist, who was busy in the middle of a surgery, and after a while finally came back with a nurse who said she knew what she was doing.  She pushed some buttons, said it was fixed and left.  But the pain didn’t leave.  In fact, it was getting worse and worse and I was having to breathe carefully through each torture of a contraction.  Brandon was so good to be there with me, helping me stay calm and breathe through the excruciating pain.  Neither of us had prepared very well for a natural birth and the breathing class we did take was under at least 5 years of memory.


The nurses started to move quickly around the room saying I was nearly completely dilated.  Low and behold the anesthesiologist appears and tries to fix the epidural machine, which is well beyond the point of being adjusted.  Then he gives me an injection of pain medication through the epidural line, which doesn’t work.  He follows up with a second injection, which is still not helping.  Finally, he pulls out the epidural line, and gives me a spinal tap (another spinal injection), and the pain subsides - just in time for me to start pushing.  It was definitely not an ideal experience!  

I know, I know, there are women who do it this way all the time, and even WANT to do it without any pain medication.  BUT how many people have to go through getting an epidural AND go through labor naturally??? Who has ever heard of a battery running out on the epidural machine???  Get a plug for heaven’s sake!

When our little baby boy came into the world, the whole experience was pushed aside for the tremendous joy that follows the birth of a new little one.  Brandon and I spent a little time discussing the names we had in mind and decided on Spencer Miles.  I knew that it would be just perfect for him.  He was such an angel and such a perfect little baby.  I spent the next few days in the hospital doting on him and loving his every breath.  I tried to soak in the quite time in the hospital before we went home to my other busy little bees.