By 3:30 AM, I was on the road! I met Kris and Ami at the hospital where they admitted her after a short monitoring period. The little baby was experiencing heart decelerations after each contraction and that had the staff a little worried. After they checked her in, threatened an emergency C-section, and did a quick ultrasound, they saw that baby had cord looped up by his shoulder and it was being compressed. As long as Ami stayed on her left side, he was fine. So there she stayed (for the most part).
At about 2:00 PM, Ami got a dose of fentanyl to help with pain and to help her relax. She tried nap and I headed to the lobby to visit with the famous Crystal Poppins and children. When I returned an hour later, Ami was ready another dose, but she wanted to wait just a little longer so she could have the pain killer when she really needed it. She was also hoping to get an epidural, but wanted to wait until the perfect time-she didn't want to have it long enough to cause further interventions, but she also didn't want it to be "too late."
Ami was probably the best patient the hospital had ever seen. She was polite and clean and quiet and kept her sense of humor the whole time. She was good at giving instruction to Kris and I when we were doing something she didn't like and she was willing to try my "doula tricks." And she was amazing. Just before little Erik was born, she said, "Where's my epidural?" I looked her right in the eye and said, "Your pain relief will be here in about ten minutes." She could see right through my cover. She knew the baby would get here before the anesthesiologist!
And he was! He was born very quickly...like so fast that the doctor wasn't there and the trays of this-n-that weren't set up. The nurses were scrambling and trying to push me out of the way (nice try, ladies), but babies are born on their own schedules and there was no hospital policy or procedure that could stop this little guy. He was born at 4:14 on October 20th and he was 7 lbs 14 oz and 21 inches long!
He is perfect. Absolutely perfect. The family is settling in together without a lot of outside interference, which is how it should be. Little Erik is pretty mellow at this point and his big brother shows an appropriate amount of interest and disinterest. At some point we will go back up and bring food and fun for big brother, but at this point, they are doing great!
