Graham David Karner

What a difference a few hours can make! Keith and I had our final appointment set for Monday morning. I took a picture before the appointment to see how my belly was STILL growing well past the due date.

As you know from my previous post, the doctor worked some magic to try and get me to go into labor naturally rather than doing the induction. His magic worked! Sorry, this gets long. I'm just trying to write it all down so I don't forget, so feel free to skim or skip over parts!

On our way home from the appointment Keith and I made a few stops at different places doing some last minute things to get ready for baby. I was having contractions on and off but nothing regular and nothing strong.

We went home and decided to just order a pizza for dinner because we were both pretty tired. Keith ran out and grabbed dinner and a few other groceries we needed and had a few other stops to make. I started feeling more regular contractions but they still weren't very strong at all. We ate our dinner and I continued to time my contractions. They were about 5 minutes apart for about 1 hour so we decided to call the hospital to see what they said. I spoke with the oncall doctor who said that I should maybe keep trying for another hour to see what happened. She thought I didn't sound too uncomfortable and wasn't too convinced that I was in labor. 1 1/2 hours later, I was still having regular contractions with no pain. I called again and she said I could come to the hospital if I wanted and walk around for a few hours there just to be on the safe side, but she still sounded fairly unconvinced that I was in labor.

Keith and I thought that we would rather get to the hospital and be turned away than not go and wish we would have. So we both showered in case we were in for a long night and around 9:00 headed back to the city. As we were walking to the hospital I was pretty convinced they were just going to send me home and started regretting driving all the way downtown for nothing.

We got checked in and into a room around 10:45. They hooked me up to some monitors to watch the contractions and check on the baby. Then the nurse checked me around 11 and said I was at 4.5 cm and that I would be moving to labor and delivery soon to have this baby.

We hung out until around 11:45 and then started the process of moving up to L&D. When I got there the plan was to give me my epidural, break my water, and give me a little pitocin to get me started. I still wasn't in pain so it was nice to have the epidural even before I had any pain. It was way easier than I thought getting the epidural and the worst part was the cold spray they put on my back after the tube was in.

After my epidural had time to set in, a Resident came in and broke my water. It was a little green so Mr. Graham had shown us his first poop. They told us a pediatric team would need to be in the room when he was born just to make sure everything was okay with him when he came out. Around 2 am they left us alone and Keith and I both slept for a few hours.

My epidural started to wear off and it wasn't working like it was supposed to. I was in a fair amount of pain and pushing the "give me more" button quite a bit so I figured something wasn't too right. After about an hour of suffering I figured I'd get things straightened out and I'm so glad I did! They came in and upped my dosage and I felt relief in about 10 minutes. The nurse came to check me around 4:30 and said I was at 6.5cm and getting closer.

I got to sleep for a little bit longer. The nurse told me to let her know when I was feeling some pressure so she could check me out again. Around 6:00 when the nurse came in I had felt a little pressure, but nothing bad so I let her know and she checked me out. I was completely ready to and she seemed pretty surprised because she could already feel the baby's head getting ready to come out.

The nurse talked me through how to push through the contractions and what I was going to do. About 6:25 things finally got started We did a few pushes and the doctor came in to check on things. He said everything was looking great so I kept pushing for a little bit during my contractions. After a few pushes they called in the pediatric team and the doctor got all ready to deliver. At 6:54 Graham David Karner made his grand entrance into the world and to celebrate he peed all over the doctor.

They got him cleaned up, found he was doing well and then after about 20 minutes of checking on him I FINALLY got to hold him. It was amazing!! Then we got wheeled up to recovery and started hanging out in our room. The few days at the hospital went quickly and now we are home hanging out and adjusting to life as a family of 3! He's the best baby ever!