Well it has certainly been a busy couple of weeks for us! Lots of big changes in a short amount of time!! I guess I’ll start our story back on the Monday, the 3rd of May, 5 days past my due date. At our doctor’s appointment that morning, my OB said that we should start thinking about induction because my body was doing so little to prepare me for labor. It was clear that baby boy Skarin (aka Jumping Jack) was quite comfortable where he was and was not really all that interested in seeing the world on the outside. Bruce and I spoke with my doctor about options and decided that Thursday night into Friday was when I would be induced. (If you aren’t interested in the details of Thursday night and Friday and want to skip ahead to Evan being born, skip down to paragraph 4.)
So on Thursday, May 6th at 6 pm we arrived at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Worcester, checked in and started getting settled. I was really hoping that we were just spending the night and that I would not be hooked up to monitors all night but that was not the case. I suppose in hind sight it wasn’t so bad but at the time I really didn’t think it was necessary. The doctors and nurses took a complete medical history and gave me a drug to start getting me ready for labor. I experienced minor contractions all night Thursday and then Friday morning, the doctor broke my water and started the Pitocin. I experienced contractions of varying degrees all morning and afternoon on Friday, some more bearable than other, while Bruce and I played cribbage. (The nurses kept telling him to let me win but he didn’t. I still say it was just because I was clearly distracted and likely missing points!)
While I was having contractions, they were not productive and each time the nurse increased the Pitocin the result was not what they were hoping for. My body would become more stressed but still not get into a pattern of productive contractions. Around 3:30 Friday afternoon, the pain was becoming more unbearable and I was getting tired. Not knowing how many more hours I was in for, I asked for the epidural. Around 4 pm the anesthesiologist came in to give me the epidural and I was able to relax. At 5 pm, after laboring all day, my doctor started talking about a C-section. It was clear that the induction was not going quite as expected and so we needed to figure out plan B. Bruce and I wanted to give it a little more time to see if the Pitocin would be more effective now that I could relax thanks to the epidural so we decided that if there had been no progress by 7, we would go ahead with a C-section. And that is exactly what happened.
So at 7:45 on Friday, May 7th, our little man, Evan Robert Skarin, was born via C-section. I say little man but there was really nothing little about him, at least by newborn standards. He was 9 pounds and 8 ounces and 22.25 inches long. Quite a big boy!! And he is just perfect!! While my body was in shock from all I had been through, I will never forget the moment I first saw our little boy. Bruce was right beside me as I watched the nurses clean, weigh and measure Evan. As you may know we hadn’t decided on a name prior to seeing Evan but when I saw him, I just knew. Evan Robert just seemed to fit! Thus began our journey as a family of three!!
Once we were back in the labor and delivery room, we began making phone calls to let everyone know that Evan had arrived safe and sound and perfect!! Papa and Gramma, waiting anxiously at our house in Millbury, came to the hospital that night to meet their third grandson. Grandpa Bob and Omi were in Yakima and were excited to hear our news and probably felt as though Wednesday couldn’t get here fast enough.
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