The new man in my life:

We are overjoyed that he is here--happy and healthy. He weighed 6 lbs, 10 oz. and was 19 and 3/4 inches long.


We checked into the hospital Tuesday night at 7:00 pm to begin the "cervical ripening" since I was not dilating. I received the medicine around 8:45, and within the hour, my contractions were about 3-4 minutes apart! The baby's heart rate began to drop after most every contraction, so the nurses kept coming into my room every 30 minutes or so to change my position in hopes that he would respond better; no luck. He didn't like contractions in ANY position (I can relate).

Eventually the pain got pretty bad, so they gave me an IV narcotic which didn't really take away the pain, but it did make me hallucinate really funny things when I closed my eyes. Like rows and rows of elephants in straight lines or rows and rows of frogs. (The animal changed every time I opened and closed my eyes again.) Around 5:30 am my contractions were 1 minute apart, so I got my epidural (thank JESUS), and life was good. About 8:00 am they began the Pitocin to try to speed up my labor since I was still only dilated to a 3, even though my stupid contractions were so close together. Not long after, they stopped the Pitocin because baby was still under stress. We just waited and waited to see if I would dilate more and keep progressing, but the only thing that progressed were my contractions (even after they STOPPED the Pitocin--really??). At some point around 1:30, my doctor came in and said that we really needed to go ahead and get baby out and needed to do a c-section. My whole pregnancy I was hoping and praying I wouldn't have to deliver via c-section, but at that point I was almost relieved because I was so nervous about putting the baby into even more stress when I went into active labor/pushing, etc. So 10 minutes later they wheeled me out (after a pep talk from my mom, who had a c-section with me) and down to the operating room.

I think Clint and I were both petrified of the surgery; I know I was. The second they wheeled me in, I started shivering! It was the strangest thing, though the anesthesiologist (blessed, blessed man) told me that shivering was very common (??). I got my spinal block of morphine, which caused me to need to vomit/pass out, so I got more meds for THAT. Lol. I was SOOOO nervous knowing I was about to get cut open, and I just couldn't stop shaking. Finally they brought Clint back so he was right next to me when they began. I definitely did NOT like the sensations of the cutting and pulling out the baby (that was the worst part), but I am SO thankful my baby boy is here and safe.


I was so drugged up that the moment he was born and they held him up over the curtain, it was so surreal, and I just laid there smiling. I think I may have said "awww..." Lol! The first real words I remember saying were when they called out his weight, and I said "Really?!" because I really thought he'd weigh much more!

Anyway, that's my birth story. Well, Hudson's birth story. :) A dramatic entrance to the world, which is scary--he must take after me!