Our New Year's Blessing: September 2010

I've been meaning to put this up for a while but with a new addition to the family and all, I haven't had the time! Here is Landon's birth story (warning: may be slightly graphic in some parts):

On September 6th (Labor Day) Dan, my mom and I spent the day trying to make me go into labor. I woke up at about 8:30 am that day and we were busy the whole day. I went to Target, ate pineapple, got a foot massage from Dan (trying to hit pressure points) and laughed all day. At about 9:30pm I posted on facebook "Labor Day did not produce labor" and started getting ready for bed. As I climbed into bed at 10:20 pm I felt a strange cramping feeling and then it went away and I felt some wetness. I looked over at Dan and told him that I though my water broke, who in turn called me a liar. I told him I was serious and waddled into the bathroom (there was no running at this point in my pregnancy), as soon as I sat down a bunch more came out. That's when I told Dan it wasn't a drill. He got very excited and as I jumped in the shower, he went to tell my mom in the other room (who called Dan a liar. lol) We all got ready to go, dealt with the dogs and jumped in the car.
On the way to the hospital (about a 30-40 min drive) I was having some minor contractions. We arrived at the hospital arround 11:45pm and had the valet take our car (yeah our hospital is awesome). We went back to triage where they checked to see if it was actually amniotic fluid and take my vitals. They confirmed that it was amniotic fluid and admitted me. They then checked my progress and said I was only 1cm and about 50% effaced (same as at my last doctor's appointment), which meant when I got into labor and delivery they would have to give me pitocin to jump start my labor.
At 1:30 am on September 7th, they wheeled me up to labor and delivery. I got all hooked up and started waiting for the contractions to hit. At this point we all started getting a bit loopy due to a lack of sleep. My mom and Dan were cracking jokes the whole time. At 2:40 am they started my pitocin since I wasn't making any progress on my own. At one point my mom had to run back to the house because we had set our alarm clocks and we were worried they would make the dogs bark when they went off, plus we had forgotten a few things. While she was gone the contractions started getting worse. I couldn't talk through them and they were coming one on top of another. I was just sitting quietly and breathing through them so I don't think Dan knew how bad they really were. Especially since, at one point, he looked at me from a chair over the laptop screen he was on and said "I think I'm going to watch a movie on the Netflix." I told him that he better shut the computer now and stop enjoying it so much because I was hurting! lol I didn't expect him to be hurting but I didn't want him sitting back and relaxing either!
At about 3:20 am I couldn't take the contractions anymore (the pitocin was making them much stronger, and they had already upped it once) and asked for the epidural. They said he would be there within 5-10 minutes, however that time frame went by and no epidural. The nurse came in and said the doctor's phone wasn't working so they were going to have to search the floor for him. He finally came in about 30 minutes after I had asked for the epidural. He was very nice and told me what to expect the whole time. It wasn't as bad as I expected it to be but it was hard staying perfectly still through contractions. So my epidural was finally in place at 4:00 am.
It worked great, my right side was numb immediately and my left side was numb after I was tilted to the left a bit. We decided this would be a good time to get some rest since I was still only 3 cm dialated. Dan had no trouble passing out, but I was having to lay at a tilt at all times (can't be flat on your back when pregnant) and nurses kept coming in every 1/2 hour or so to check on me so I got no sleep.
At about 8:00 am, I was checked again and was told that I was only 4 cm and 90% effaced so they were going to up the pitocin again. At this point, I thought we'd be there forever. At 9:00 am, I was just about to fall asleep and I noticed the heart rate monitor for Landon slowed down. Just as I was about to hit the nurse button to have them check they come bustling in. Landon's heart rate dropped from the 150's to the 90's for about 3 minutes. They had me shift to my other side, which then made his heart rate go back up. They said that my contractions were literally one on top of the other and very intense (thank goodness for the epidural) and it probably caused him stress.
I was told that if Landon wasn't born by 10:20 am (12 hours after my water breaking) that they would have to put me on antibiotics to prevent any chance at infections. So the nurse came in at that point and started checking monitors and getting my antibiotics hooked up. I mentioned to her that I was feeling some pressure in my bottom and she said that was normal since the baby was moving down, but at this point I would probably only be 6-7 cm based on the time frame from the last time I was checked. She said she would check me though if I wanted. I told her we could wait, but as she was hooking up my antibiotics I felt even more pressure and decided to have her check me. Thank goodness I did! At 10:45 am she felt around and said "Oh my! The baby's head is right there! You are 9 1/2 - 10 cm and ready to push! Let me call the doctor." So in only 2 hours I went from 4cm to 10cm, which was quick since it was supposed to be about an hour per centimeter.
I closed my legs back up in hopes of holding him in until at least the doctor came. The nurse told me to let her know if I needed to push, but I decided to let Landon labor down as much as he could on his own. The doctor arrived and got her gear on and broke down the bed. When she looked down below she said she could already see the head and asked Dan and my mom if they wanted to see this head full of hair. Dan originally didn't want to but he said his curiousity got the best of him and he decided to look and said it was crazy but awesome. My mom and Dan both said it was like watching a car accident, you didn't want to look at first but then you can't look away! lol Dan was an awesome labor coach, he had one of my legs with one arm and the back of my shoulders with his other arm while I was pushing (the nurse had my other leg). He encouraged me the whole time! After only about 4 or 5 series of pushes (about 10 minutes) Landon was born at 11:19 am. Dan cut the cord and they placed Landon on my chest. I had tears streaming down my face and Dan was bawling.
After a few minutes they took Landon over to get cleaned off and weighed, so my mom and Dan followed him while I got stitched up (2nd degree tearing). My mom got a bunch of pictures of Dan with Landon while they were cleaning him off. They then weighed him (6 lbs 10 oz) and measured him (21 inches). We were shocked at how small he was since EVERYONE, including doctors anticipated that he would be big. Thank goodness that he wasn't any bigger though, I don't know if my body could've taken it!
After about 2 hours we were transfered up to recovery with our bundle of joy! We are so in love with our little man!