Logan Richard Holdaway

Born: August 4th @ 9:40 pm

7lbs 4 oz

21inches

Luke & Logan

My 3 boys

At the hospital to be induced

Sorry it has been so long, but I have started this post so many times and can't seem to be uninterrupted for very long. As the story goes, I went into the hospital to be induced at 5:30 am and by 7 am they had me hooked up. I was dilated to 2-3 cm and 80% effaced. My doctor said he wouldn't break my water until I was continually progressing on my own because he wanted to avoid doing a c-section. So, I had to be at 4 cm on my own before 4 pm or he was sending me home. I was okay and not okay with this because I was set on having a baby that day and if I was sent home that would be pretty disappointing.

Anyway, all morning and into the afternoon I was waiting for something to happen. My contractions gradually got more and more painful, but still at 2:30pm I hadn't dilated anymore. I had just ended a phone call with my mom telling her that I still hadn't progressed, when my water broke. Hooray! The nurse checked me and said that she was pretty sure that's what it was, but it wasn't really flowing much because the baby's head was blocking wherever the hole was. She also said I was about at 4 cm and she went to tell the doctor that I was staying.

At 4pm the doctor came in to assess me himself and to break my water all of the way. At this point my pain level was creeping up to a 6 or 7 on the scale and I knew once he broke my water the pain would intensify quickly. So, they decided to get the anesthesiologist to give me an epidural first. Well, my doc left with the nurse to go deliver a couple of babies down the hall (he had already delivered a couple early in the day and had spent most of the previous day and night delivering babies. Apparently all of his patients went into labor at the same time.) while the anesthesiologist was paged to come and drug me.

Just after 5pm my nurse came back to check on me after delivering some babies. She came in and said, "I bet you feel so much more comfortable now." Then she saw how tightly I was holding onto the bed and was stunned/upset to find out that I still hadn't had my epidural. She immediately tracked down the anesthesiologist, but she was in a c-section. So, the nurse offered to give me some other meds to take the edge off while I waited (by the way this made me feel really sick). After more waiting, more pain (8 or so), and no doctor she found the anesthesiologist assistant to come give me my epidural. It was now after 6pm.

I finally got my epidural and it seemed like all was well, but I felt it working more on my left side and was still feeling some contractions. Probably 15minutes later the doctor came and broke my water and I almost immediately noticed the epidural really wasn't working completely. There was a section across my lower abdomen that hadn't been penetrated by the drugs at all. I was in so much pain and was trying to be calm and not hysterical like I was when I delivered Luke. A different anesthesiologist came in and kept giving me more drugs and telling me I needed more because I am so tall. Well, it still didn't help and just made me feel like jello. So, they did the epidural again while I was on my side. This time she did a spinal block thing with it and immediately the pain went away. Ahhhh...relief.

About an hour later at 8:30 I was ready to push, but still thoroughly exhausted from laboring all day long. When I started to push, I could mostly tell when my contractions were coming, but I couldn't feel my body at all. There was so much medication in me I had no control over my lower half. After pushing for an hour, vomiting many times and being way too tired to even open my eyes I had just a little bit of assistance with a type of vacuum device and Logan was born!

It was so amazing! Mark went and told my mom to come in the room and of course we were all crying. Then she brought in my little sisters and Luke to see the baby. It was a great experience. Even though this labor was a lot longer than it was with Luke I preferred it because I worked up to the pain and was able to handle it really well. I think also letting my body take its time has really made a difference in recovering. I have been mostly up and about on my own since day 8 and have been running around town with these two boys since then. I went back to church a week and half later and people thought I was crazy. They still think I'm crazy and said that I'm making them feel bad because they stayed cooped up for over a month. Well, I feel just fine and I really hate being cooped up in the house for too long.

Looking back now it is hard to believe that I actually had a baby. I can't believe my body can do something like that. Pretty stinkin' awesome!

Update:

Logan is now 6 1/2 weeks old and is already growing up too fast. He has gotten so much bigger and isn't that tiny little newborn that hardly keeps his eyes open. He is awake a lot more and has become more vocal. He smiles, laughs and makes noises as though he's trying to have a conversation. It's so sweet! Logan is a really great baby. I honestly can't complain. Here's a picture we took last night to prove that he's gotten a whole lot bigger.