A Labor of Love - Part 2

Well, those nurses were sweet. They said, why yes, we always have room. So around 10 am, they took us down the hall, not to far from where we had the O'Bear, and started to monitor us. Yep, we were in labor.

One of the first things they did was put my IV in to see if my platelets were high enough to get an epidural. This had been a concern the last few weeks, so I was praying we were good to go. If this kid was anything like O, I might be needing that epi sooner than later. My tiny veins struck again. Two nurses couldn't get a vein. UGH. So, they called in the ringer. If she couldn't do it, no one could...um, ok. This sweet nurse was able to do it lickity split, and mentioned "don't be surprised when you see an extra charge on the bill, that's me." Joe and I were not shocked by this pulling from our last experience; we were more shocked that she was joking! Ha!

I was monitored and checked a few times. After telling the nurses that O'Bear was 9.4 lb at birth, they said, "Oh, this kid will just drop right out." They also said he'll be here shortly. Lying liars! Don't believe your nurses on time tables, it's ALL up the the kiddo! It was also confirmed somewhere in there that our sweet second boy was sunny side up like his brother, creating horrible bone on bone back contractions, like his brother. So, I did not dilly dally. When my platelet count was OK'd, I signed right up for an epi.

Then the real fun began. Contractions were hard. The nurses also began the fun of trying to rotate the baby by having me flip from side to side every 30 minutes or so. I also found out that my doctor was not in town, which I didn't know before hand, and was waiting for a visit from one of her partners, and it seems we labored so long, I got passed off to the on-call doctor who I'd never even heard his name before.

It seems though, God knows what we need. Our doctor was calm, irreverent, and had a dry sense of humor. It took our minds off the not so fun stuff going on. Right before the doctor came to see us, the baby's heartbeat dropped very low, very rapidly, so I was also placed on oxygen for the last bit of labor. The doctor suggested a bit of pitocin to get us over the last hump (as I seemed to have stalled out about the same with Owen). Shortly after the pitocin was started, I was ready to start pushing.

As the nurses started to get everything in place, our doctor kept us occupied by showing us pictures of his kids and other patients, telling us odd family stories and filling us in on what he was texting his wife on why he wasn't home yet! Ha!

About four good rounds of pushing, and our sweet boy was here!! And the most amazing thing -- his full head of dark hair! Where did that come from.

Joe and I worked on names when we got to the hospital (again, seems to be our thing). We had it whittled down to Corbin Jack or Jack Alan. Joe wasn't quite sold on Corbin, but I asked to keep it in the running. I had a dream about it, and it just seemed like we needed to keep it. Corbin is Latin for dark or raven. And corban (found in Mark) is a Hebrew word for "a gift devoted to God."

When I saw his dark head of hair, I knew that his name was Corbin.