Evan Matthew Ambler.

Sunday, August 30th, G and I stayed up to watch the Emmys and ended up going to bed little later than usual. As per usual, my bladder woke me up in the middle of the night. At 3:20AM, I took what I can only describe as an EPIC pee...which I thought was kinda weird because, well, I hadn't really had all that much to drink while Emmy watching. As I settled back into bed, I felt a two or 3 contractions in a row and decided to time them...just because. They ranged from 2 to 7 minutes apart. I whipped out my phone and used the handy dandy Droid app Contraction Timer and headed to the kitchen to grab the leaflet reminding me "when to call". With our track record, it said to call after an hour of contractions 5 minutes apart. An hour later, G woke up momentarily and asked me how I was doing. "Well, I've been having contractions for the last hour..." We got out of bed and I called my OB. Doctor Bird was the doctor on call. She told me to head to Labor and Delivery, but we didn't have to rush. We listened. It was nice, too...no traffic that early in the morning. :)



We got to the hospital and checked in at 5:30AM or so, I think. Nurse Holly (one of the nurses who helped deliver Andrew) was working and it was super comforting to see her face and have her take care of us. She took us to triage and checked "downstairs" to see how things were going. I was now fully effaced, but only slightly more dilated: A solid 4cm. "The Spawn" was still hanging out at -2 station. We were told to do laps of the ward for an hour to try to get things progressing. Laps started at 7am. A few laps into it and it was ALREADY more walking than I'd done during the entire pregnancy. Dr. Bird arrived, asked how we were doing, told us that her shift was about to end, and let us know that Dr. Bougas was up next. About 40 minutes into things, back pain took over and I wasn't feeling any contractions. Nurse Holly saw that I was still able to talk and walk without having to stop every few seconds and said something like, "You're walking like that? You're probably going home." Insert pouty face here. Go home? Seriously? False alarm!? C'mon! G and I were near tears. We SO did not want to go home. At 8AM, Nurse Holly's shift was over and we were given a new nurse when we got back to triage: Nurse Debbie. She checked me "downstairs" and said that everything still looked the same. Grr...Argh. A few minutes later, contractions started up again. Thank goodness! We discussed augmenting the labor with Pitocin. Nurse Debbie left the room for a few and when she came back, she said those 3 magic words: "You're being admitted." Say what now? Nurse Debbie escorted us to our delivery room. As we stood outside of our room, the boy paused. Room 214. Andrew's room...

We briefly considered asking to switch rooms, but decided to try to balance the voodoo of the room and entered. They gave me Pitocin which did it's job. Contractions were getting closer together and becoming more painful. We discussed pain management. At this point, I was still undecided as to what I wanted to do. The two options I was given were A: get on the Epidural list or B: get a Stadol iv to "take the edge off". Because of the gestational diabetes and Group B Strep, I really didn't want to have "The Spawn" potentially be any more drowsy than he/she needed to be AND Andrew was born without an Epidural so I knew I could do it...even if "The Spawn" was going to weigh a heck of a lot more then he did AND have a bigger head. Nurse Debbie left the room and BAM! "The Spawn" karate chopped his/her way out. It felt like he/she punched his/her way out by breaking the water. It was unreal...unlike any feeling in the world. This was at 1pm. Contractions worsened even more and I decided to go for the Stadol. They say it'd make me feel drunk AND boy did it.

I remember bits and pieces of the last part of labor. I know that Dr. Moen ended up being my delivering doctor. I know that it hurt like a sonofabitch and that with every contraction I felt the need to change sides...first lying on my left, then my right. My eyes were closed the entire time and there was a weird game going on inside of my head involving a 8 or so rectangles surrounded by a snake of Pacman-like balls rotating it clockwise. The balls would snake around each rectangle once and when they were done, the contraction was over and I needed to switch sides. I remember feeling the need to push and being told that I wasn't there yet, but then after the following contraction, I was. I don't know how many times it took, but I remember feeling his/her legs exit and being told "It's a boy." This was at 2:37PM. I remember them asking me what we were going to name him and the boy having me announce it. The whole experience was trippy. Later during recovery, I was told that I was extremely focused and pushed for only a half hour.   

And then there was bleeding. Lots of bleeding. Apparently, "The Spawn" did some major damage on the way out creating a 5 cm tear in my vaginal wall. Dr. Moen couldn't see the area that needed the stitches. Her figuring this out was more painful than the labor part, I think. The fact that she had to deliver another baby at pretty much the EXACT time I was delivering didn't help things. She sent me to the OR where there was better lighting and the tools necessary to to the job. I remember being wheeled into the OR House-style...feeling like I was in the middle of a television medical drama, meeting a doctor, feeling my arms fall asleep and then waking up in room 214 again feeling groggy. The boy and my mom were there and people kept asking me questions as I eventually came out of the fog. I remember them placing Evan in my arms and me analyzing his perfect tiny body. His fuzzy body. With an overbite. And oddly ridged ears. I remember my mom taking pictures of us and then being wheeled upstairs to recovery. Recovery will be another blog post altogether...

Evan Matthew Ambler
August 30th, 2010
2:37PM
7lb 8.4 oz
21 inches

PICTURES!!!