Fenn's Birth

In the days leading up to Fenn's birth, I was frantically running around trying to run errands, clean the house, and finish the nursery, all while continuing to work. My last day of work was Thursday, December 6, 2007.... just 4 days before our scheduled induction. My mom arrived in Knoxville on Dec. 3rd. We spent that time getting her settled, showing her where things were in the house, and letting her practice driving to and from the hospital so she would be prepared to do so on her own. On Sunday night, December 9th, we were quickly running out of time. And then the hospital called to ask us to arrive at 5:30 a.m. instead of 6:00! Yikes! Apparently, they had several inductions scheduled for that day and were having to make a few adjustments to the schedule. Needless to say, we didn't get to bed as early as we had hoped because everything was taking longer than we thought. Dan and I both took an Ambien (my doc said it was okay) hoping to ensure we both got a good night's sleep. Well, it worked for me.... but not so much for Dan. He didn't feel quite right the next day.

Why didn't we take any photos of us getting ready on Sunday night or us leaving the house on Monday morning???
We arrived at the hospital around 5:35 a.m. on Monday, December 10, 2007... just a few minutes late. They took us to our room and told me to change into my hospital gown... ever so flattering! I swear, I need to design hospital gowns using better fabrics! The nurse (I feel so bad that I forgot her name because she was really nice) started my IV and Pitocin before going off her shift at 7:00 a.m. Then our Labor & Delivery nurse, Brynn, came on duty. We could tell we were going to like her immediately and hoped Fenn would be born while she was still on duty. Around 9:30 a.m., Brynn came in to check me ~ I was still only dilated 1 to 2 centimeters. She told me I needed to speed things up because the girl in the next room was ahead of me! She was already dilated 5 or 6 centimeters and it was her first child, too, and she was induced at around the same time as me! Of course I said, "That's not fair!" She gave birth a couple of hours later. At 10:30 a.m., I decided the pain was bad enough that I didn't want to see what it would be like when it got worse, so I decided it was time to get the epidural. It didn't really hurt. The worst part was having to hunch my shoulders over with my big 'ole belly in the way. I couldn't breathe! And it took the anesthesiologist a few times to get it right, so I had to hunch over longer. Throughout the day, we listened to music on our Bose stereo. We had taken some favorite CDs: Shawn Mullins (Soul's Core), Michael Buble' (Call Me Irresponsible), Billie Holiday, Barry White, Chicago, Norah Jones. The nurses would come in and say they wanted to stay in our room because we had the fun room. It was actually a really relaxing day once I got the epidural. Dan and I felt like we were hanging out waiting on someone else. Around 1:30 p.m., things had really started progressing ~ I was dilated 5 to 6 centimeters. Hooray! Then around 4:00 p.m., I was dilated 9.5 centimeters! It was almost time to push. They made me hang out until close to 5:00 p.m. (when Dr. Cottam would be back in the hospital). I started pushing right before 5:00 and then Dr. Cottam got there a few minutes later. With Dan holding one leg and my Mom holding the other, I pushed for a little over an hour. At some point, they got a good look at Fenn's head.... he had blonde hair! Fenn was born at 6:19 p.m. on Monday, December 10, 2007 weighing in at 8 lbs. 9 oz. and 20.5" long.... to the music of Michael Buble' ~ his Call Me Irresponsible CD. Unfortunately, we don't remember which song was playing. About an hour after Fenn was born, I said, "OK, I can do that again." It really wasn't that bad. I never broke a sweat.... which is amazing since I sweat within 30 seconds after walking outside in the summer.