Davis Birth Story

Our darling baby boy made his grand debut on March 4, 2017. To preface this story, let me say that once March 1st hit, and we were officially in the safe zone (37 weeks) and the boys knew it was "march" aka- the month baby brother was going to be born, we were all getting a little impatient for him to come. I knew I was being silly, but I still was longing for him to come earlier rather than later and even told my doctor at my appointment that I'd really like to have the baby that weekend, which just sounded like a good time to me.

January and February were hyper-nesting months for me. I had all his little clothes washed and ready to go, the nursery stocked, meals prepped and in the freezer, and the house clean (as clean as it could stay while we still lived there). I was still going to the gym 5 days a week, I even went a had a pretty decent workout on Friday, March 3rd, the day before he came. I was so ready! On Friday, Hudson told me that Davis had told him he was going to come the next day- a thought he repeated several times throughout the day. 

Saturday morning came. I'd slept awfully on that night, feeling lots of cramping, but nothing consistent or labor like. Then, while lying in bed that morning I felt a gush of fluid. I hoped it meant my water had broken, but I continued to second guess myself as I went about our morning, got all ready and now, of course, started washing my sheets. I didn't say anything to the boys about it, but while I was fixing breakfast Hudson came up to me, placed his ear against my belly, and said, "Davis is talking to me! He says he wants to come today!"

Ben finally convinced me to call Dr. Spencer and get his opinion, which was of course, to go in and get checked. My mom ran right down to be with the boys and we headed out. I had a fairly pessimistic attitude as we drove to the hospital, and felt like 90% sure they were going to turn us away and I would feel foolish. Contractions weren't coming super frequently and weren't painful at all, and I wasn't continuing to leak fluid (which is a fairly sure sign that water has indeed broken). 

We got to the hospital around 9:00 am to find it totally quiet and not busy at all. They quickly checked me and concluded that my water had broken! We were going to have the baby today! I was so excited! It really was the perfect day to have him. It was easy to have my parents watch the boys, Ben didn't have work, we didn't really even have any plans for the day! It took awhile to get an IV going and all that, but once we did they started some pitocin to get me in a good contraction pattern, since I wasn't really in one.

My plan (when I planned this labor in my head) was that I would already be dilated to a 6 or 7 upon arriving at the hospital. Hudson's labor was so fast I was fairly certain this one would go faster. I guess Davis had other plans. Although things got painful fairly quickly, it never "took off" like it did last time. I kept putting off the epidural thinking that soon enough I'd make that quick transition to complete, like I have in the past. For the first few hours I felt like I was working through the pain really well and staying fairly calm. Ben rubbed my back and feet and held my hand through it all and I felt like we were going to make it. After being stuck at 5 cm for 2 hours, with contractions getting more and more painful, I knew I needed an epidural. I finally ordered it, and at that point I really have never been in such pain in all my life.  It was SO intense. It took a half hour for the CRNA to get there and she couldn't come soon enough, it was so so hard and so so painful. Ben mentioned to me that this time I was working harder and in more pain than the other two combined. Dr. Spencer checked me right before she put in the spinal block, just to see if I had miraculously gone complete in that time, but I was just at a 7 and he recommended we go ahead with the block. 

She did a spinal block, instead of an epidural, which has the benefit of working faster (within 5 minutes) but doesn't leave a catheter in the spine so it isn't easily re-dosable. Which we were fine with, knowing that the end should be near. I think I'd been comfortable for all of 15 minutes when they checked me and sure enough, I was at a ten and ready to have the baby. I think my body needed to relax at that point, I was too tired and too tight with all the pain, that I just wasn't progressing well. Bless anesthesia! I think the spinal went in around 2:10, and started working around 2:15 pm. 

They quickly set up the room, I pushed through one contraction and out came our sweet, perfect little Davis! It was so surreal. After such an emotional, painful day, I couldn't really believe he was even here! They let me hold him skin to skin right away and just take in all his sweet goodness! We immediately noticed how tiny he was (compared to our other boys) and that he has RED hair! After leaving him on my chest for a few minutes they took him over for monitoring because he was grunting. They worked on him for awhile, put him on oxygen, suctioned a lot of fluid out his little lungs, and finally got him to pink up and breathe a little better. They were just about ready to take him to the NICU when my sweet nurse said, "let's just let him stay with mom for a few more minutes, I'll watch him closely." They let me have him back, I nursed him, and he seemed to do even better. When the NICU came 5 minutes later to take him, they ended up deciding that he was doing just fine and let us keep him with us! I was so grateful! Ben and I spent a wonderful hour with him, bonding and admiring our sweet little son.

 The next best part of the day came when my mom brought the boys over to meet him. They were so excited and so sweet to him. Hudson immediately whispered in Davis' ear "Let's go home!"  And then quickly later whispered to Davis "I'm so happy!" Chase held him and sang him the sweetest little lullaby. Hudson held still to hold him for a long time with a huge grin on his face. This long awaited little brother is very loved!

Davis Jack Hugo

March 4, 2017 2:36 pm

6 lbs 15 oz 20 inches

So there is the story of how we met our sweet little Davis. It was honestly one of the best days of my whole life. We love this little angel so much and we are so happy he's here!