Introducing Stockton Seth Watson!

My Labor
Mr. Stockton was scheduled to come into the world on August 1, 2011. We felt comfortable having my mother fly in on the 29th. I was even a little hesitant to have her come 2 days early because I didn't want to waste her time. Luckily, she was here! Around 9:00pm on the 29th I was having some minor contractions. They were pretty consistent so we decided to go to the hospital. Under our circumstances I wasn't sure how fast I would go into full labor so we drove 40 minutes to St. Luke's. Once again they said I was 1-2cm dilated. I was so worried that he would come and we wouldn't have time to get to the hospital. They sent us home and I didn't have any contractions on the way home. Once we walked into the house I ate a little food and I took a little shower. We got home around 12:30am so we were really tired. That night there happened to be a bull frog outside of our window. It was so loud. It kept me up and my contractions started again. I did not sleep one bit and my contractions were every 15 minutes. I did not want to wake Seth because he was so tired. I took a bath and they seemed to calm down but once I got out they started again. I went to lay down in bed because I was just so exhausted. I just closed my eyes but then a contraction would come. I got up and decided to just get ready for the day at 5am. Seth woke up around 8am and my contractions began to come a little more frequent. Once Seth was done getting ready I told my Mom that I guarantee this baby will be born by 4pm today. My contractions were 3-5 minutes apart and I told Seth that we had to go once again. We got to St. Luke's about 9:30am I was dilated to 6 centimeters. They admitted me and they asked if I wanted an epidural. In Texas they have to check your blood before you get an epidural. The anesthesiologist decided that he would just give it to me early. I was so thankful. The epidural started to work and I could feel my legs getting a little numb. By this time it was about 11:30am and I was just waiting to be completely dilated. Dr. Kirshon, my OB/GYN, was not on call so one of his associates was called to deliver me. Around 1:30pm I started to feel my contractions come back. I called the nurse and the nurse anesthetist came and gave me more pain medication. He told me to call him in 30 minutes if it didn't work. Well, I continued to feel my contractions very strongly because they added a little pitocin to my IV. He gave me another narcotic and another medication through my epidural. He told me that this was the most he could give me in this time frame. The pain did not stop so they stopped the pitocin. They did a few tests on my body to see where the epidural was working. I could not feel hot/cold on my legs, arms or chest. I could feel my contractions and all of the pain down below. I have to tell you that this was excruciating. I seriously thought I was going to die. They told me that my body created a "wall" against the epidural and it just wouldn't work. I was so scared that I couldn't do this naturally. Around 2:30pm I could feel the urge to push. The doctor was no where around and she was not even in the building! Can you believe it? I literally can't remember what I was saying but I remember yelling and screaming at all the people in the room. I could laugh about it now but I was telling everyone to "be quiet" or "shut up." Around 2:50pm the urge to push just became so strong. We were all just waiting for the doctor to come and I kept telling them time after time that I had to push. I couldn't wait any longer. The nurse let me begin to push and the doctor came in, FINALLY! Stockton was so low that I only pushed for 5 minutes and he was out! Relief! They let me hold him for just a couple seconds and they brought him out of the room. He was beautiful, he took my breathe away. He is amazing. We just love him. They immediately put two umbilical lines in so they could start with his prostaglandin (PGE). After they were done getting him all set up they told us he was 7.7 pounds and 19 1/2 inches long. They brought him back to me in an incubator and he was so calm. He just looked at me for what seemed like forever. They quickly took him and Seth up to the cardiovascular ICU at Texas Children's Hospital. I was able to see him a few hours later and he is so beautiful. We are so grateful that he is finally here and we can share these precious moments with him. We love having a son and we are over joyed that he is doing well. We love you baby Stockton!