The Story of Hudon's Birth

I won't go into a lot of details but if you're weirded out by all things pregnancy related just stop reading and check back in a few days. This is mostly for my personal documentation, and so I don't forget how everything happened. Let my first start out by saying that I fully realize how lucky and blessed I am that I had a relatively pleasant pregnancy. I never really threw up a lot and my nausea phase did not last long. I did however have a lot of back pain because o,f an injury in high school, but I knew I would. Doctors told me I would have a lot of pain because of how my back had healed. Besides that, and just being generally uncomfortable the last month I was able to function pretty normally. I still went to the gym regularly and traveled as much as I would have, had I not been pregnant.
We've moved around quite a bit while I was pregnant. Starting out in Utah, then Rochester, then Boulder, then back to Utah. We are happy to be back, and any one will have a hard time convincing me of being in a car for longer than 2 hours for quite a while.
I started seeing a midwife as soon as we got back to Utah. Ryan actually found it. One of his ex girlfriends works at the practice, and we didn't have a lot of time to find one. I had a midwife in Rochester and I really liked her a lot so I was excited to be back to one after having a Doctor in Denver. I didn't love the practice from the beginning but I thought I'd give it some time.(not that I really had any to spare) But I didn't really have many other options.
We signed up for a labor and delivery class that was for Friday 1st, and Saturday 2nd. Friday afternoon I started having contractions. I knew what they were because I had to have an NST earlier that week and I was having contractions then. So we went to our class Friday night and when we got home and we were talking to Kristen and Scott I told everyone that I knew I was going to have the baby by the end of the weekend. Saturday morning around 2 am the contractions were closer together and pretty painful. The nurse in my class the night before me had told me that when the contractions were 4 minutes apart lasting a minute for an hour it was time to go to the hospital. So I timed them and for an hour and a half they were 4 minutes lasting around a minute and woke up Ryan and told him it was time to go to the hospital. I was in quite a bit of pain at this point but they weren't super strong. I called the midwife who was on call and couldn't get anyone to call me back for over a half hour. When she finally called me back she told me she'd meet me at the hospital.
When I got to the hospital and the nurse checked me I was only dilated to a 2 but they were getting closer and closer together. So they told me they leave me hooked up for an hour and if I wasn't any more dilated I would just have to go home. When the nurse came back my contractions were every 2 minutes but I wasn't any more dilated so they sent me home, gave me a pain pill and told me to come back when the contractions were stronger. (The whole time I'm thinking, if I've taken a pain pill, how will I know when they are stronger) I never saw my mid wife.
So we went home and went back to bed before we had to be to our Labor and Delivery class at 9am. The class went until 3pm so it was long time to just be sitting all day while having contractions. Although they weren't 2 minutes apart anymore they were still pretty consistent all day. Let me also say before I move on....that I am sooo happy and grateful we went and took the class. It was so informative and helpful and I think I would have been terrified the next morning had I not had the information and breathing exercises she gave us. I think it was really good for the two of us to do together. She also gave me some things to do to help me dilate more and faster.
By the time I got home the contractions were pretty strong and painful. I took Moose for a walk, went to Walmart, did my exercises to help me dilate more while Ryan went to the priesthood session. We went to bed early but I never really fell asleep, I was in too much pain. At 4:30 Ryan decided it was time to go to the hospital. This time I got a hold of the midwife (a different one then the night before, one I had never met) right away and she told me she'd meet us at the hospital. The car ride was miserable and I obviously have never been in so much pain. I just kept thinking..."I can't believe anyone would do this more than once!"
When the nurse checked me this time I told her if she told me I was only dilated to a 2, she was going to have a brawl on her hands. She laughed and told me I was dilated to a 6! I could have kissed her! I got my epidural a little later and when the checked me 45 minutes later I was at a 7. After I had the epidural I took a little nap and Ryan went to get some food. When the nurse came back to check me again I was at a 10 and she looked a little worried but we were still waiting for the midwife who was supposed to be there 2 hours earlier. They put me on oxygen because my heart rate was so low, but no one seemed too concerned so I wasn't. So we waited and waited. She finally walked in and it was time to push.
I also need to say that Ryan was incredible through the whole thing. I really thought he would be so weirded out by the whole delivery part but he was very involved and he was incredible at helping me remember my breathing through contractions. I pushed for about 20 minutes. The only people in the room were Ryan, myself, the midwife, someone she was training and the nurse. It was very calm and relaxed. The nurse was just sitting on the side of the bed and the midwife was sitting the end of the bed. Ryan kept telling me how awesome it was. When he was finally out it was a rush of excitement that I can't really explain. They set him up on me but he was pretty blue and wasn't breathing and the cord was kind of wrapped around his neck so for a minute everyone seemed a little panicked. This of course made me little panicked and I didn't really know what to think or how to feel. They took him over to the side and the nurses worked on him for minute and he started to cry, which made me feel much better. Everything turned out fine and when they gave him back to me I instantly fell in love. He had a hard time maintaining his temperature for a while but the by the next day he had passed all his tests and we were able to go home. He is so precious and we love him to death! I feel so blessed that he is here and healthy.