WELCOME IAN JAMES LIEN

If you follow facebook, you have read this narrative. Why reinvent the wheel?
The waiting is over!! Yesterday we welcomed Ian James Lien into the world at 5:07 p.m. He wieghed 7.5 lbs. 20.4 inches long and is absolutely perfect, even if he was awfully hard on his momma coming into the world.

My water broke Thursday night at about 10:PM. I was brought to the hospital so I could be started on IV antibiotics for group B strep and since my cervix was thin, but I wasn't dilated or having contractions, I was put on petocin (sp?). Now, we didn't think it would kick in until the next morning, so we'd get some sleep. Wrong. I started having contractions a half hour later at about 12:30. By 1:00 they were coming every 2 minutes. The adjusted the petocin, the best if got was 2 and a half minutes. By 2:00 we got the IV med. Nubane was administered at 2:30. It was great for the next 3 hours. We thought I was going to do pretty good. The contractions started to get worse and I'm still not dilated. The second dose of Nubane was called for at about 6. It did absolutely nothing! Nothing! Contractions were coming every 1.5 minutes and they were very hard. I wasn't dilated at all and we had to call for the epidural.

At 7:30 the RNA showed up to give me the epidural. I am very lucky. I know the whole story now, it is good I didn't know then. You get three tries for an epidural. I was having contractions every. 1.5 minues. So, he had to stop so I could have them, I had to have contractions while in position and not move the stuff in my back. He missed the first two tries. My vertebra are apparently very tight. First time he bent the needle. Second time he couldn't get through the three vertebrae, just two, so he had to take it out and try again. Third time he made it. The good news. It as the perfect epidural. I could move my legs. I could feel the pressure of the contractions, the only thing I could not feel was the pain of the contractions. He did a marvelous job. If it were not for the epidural, the C-Section would have had to happen because I wouldn't have been able to make it through. I barely made it anyway.

My OB left on vaction the day before (that was how we knew I was going to have the baby this week! (heehee) So, another doctor had to be dispatched. She came in and said point blank the she was pretty sure I had ruptured prematurly and that we'd do the best to get me dilated and let me have a vaginal birth, but most likely we were having a C-section and she had made arrangements.

Our fabulous nurse Theresa (this woman was one of many of God's gifts to me), Dustin and I decided that we were going to prove her wrong. We almost didn't. By 1:00 I was dilated to 9 centimeters. We just hand one to go and some cevix. We thought we were home free. Our friend Kris came, she was my back up coach if Dustin couldn't be here. We asked her to come and Dustin and I needed her, the extra help and encouragment was what we needed. Thank you By 2:30 or so I was ready to push. I pushed and I pushed. I pushed with all my might for 2 hours. We were so close, just not close enough. The doctor was thinking it was time for a c-section because I had been working so hard. It took a lot to get his head around the corner and I was running out of steam.

Because Ian was not in distress, she said she would let me keep trying if I wanted to. I said I was going to do it. Another half hour of pushing. I was making progress, I had been the whole time, just never enough. We got the vacuum out and she said she would give it 3 tries and then we were probably going to have to call the surgeon. The first try with the vacuum did a lot. The second set of contractions with the vaccuum did even more, but the suction came off during my second round of pushing, I thought the doctor was going to fly across the room when it went. The good news, it went so well that she let me keep trying. I did not have a lot of strength left, so our last effort was an episiotomy. I figured I had 6 pushes left in me. That was two sets of contractions, three pushes each. On the first set of three. I delivered Ian. Dustin, Kris, Theresa, Dr. Hoggarth and I willed that baby out as much as I pushed, I have no idea how our Good Creator was able to give me that last bit of energy to get him into the world, but I am so thankful that it was there, because I know it wasn't my energy, I had to borrow it from somewhere.

Also, leave it to a Lutheran Pastor to have her baby on Good Friday (the day of the crucifixion) I guess Good Friday has extra meaning for me today, it is a day of life all around. Possible, potential and real. My own Death and Ressurection day rolled into one.

So, I did it! We have a beautiful baby boy. He is so healthy and precious and perfect. We are very proud. I have to say, if it wasn't for feeding, which only I can do, his father wouldn't have given him up at all. Dustin and our family were the main ones to hold him yesterday. As exhausted as I was, it was probaby okay. At 3:AM this morning, Ian and I had a good hour and a half of mama/son time with feeding and me not willing to let him go back to the nursery yet. I sent Dustin home last night to get some sleep too, everyone needed it! He'll be back this morning some time. I think everyone is just leaving me alone for awhile to rest.

I will post pictures as soon as Dustin comes back with the camera. He took it with him to show it off to the staff in ER on his way home last night.

So, there's my week in a nutshell. No more waiting! And all the pain and craziness. Totally worth it!