Shep's Birth Story

So....a month and a half ago, I said I was gonna post some pics and tell you the story. Yeah. It's taken me a little while to get back around to the old blog:) But lo and behold, I am back! I will be able to post some pics in a few days, but until then, I will at least tell the story, so as not to put this off any longer!!
On Monday, November 14, the day after Scott's birthday :), I went in for my appointment and I was 5 cm dilated. He gave me the option to go home and wait it out, but that I would certainly not make it more than another day. So, the other option was to just start some pitocin and break my water and go ahead and have this baby! I wanted to try to go natural, so I ideally didn't want to do pitocin, and I thought about it for about 5 seconds....then, I remembered that I hadn't slept for about two weeks and was EXHAUSTED! I opted for going over and getting things started:)
We got over to the hospital and I got hooked up to the monitor and IV in place, and we were on our way to meeting baby Shepard in a few hours. My mom and Scott's mom were there of course:). My friend Morgan was my stand-in birthing coach in the end, for when it was time to deliver, because our awesome doctor was gonna let Scott deliver the baby again! Also, props to LaJuan and Shay for taking pics and videoing so that I have documentation of this special day.
Anyhow, back to the birth!
I was moving right along and breathing thru my contractions. Scott was a great coach, because he kept silent, and turns out, that is exactly what I needed! Someone to be silent and not touch me! The doctor broke my water when I was still about 5-6 cm. Thankfully there wasn't a drastic change in the way my labor went. My nurse was a friend of mine who I worked with, and she was great! She let me go back and forth to the bathroom when I needed to , and get up on the side of the bed so that I wasn't confined to the bed the whole labor. I was worried about how that was gonna play out, because when you are on pitocin, you have to be on the monitor the whole time. So, getting out of bed was a great relief!
Around 2:30ish, my nurse checked me and I was 8cm. She walked out of the room and didn't even make it to the nurse's station, because with the next contraction I had to push!! She came running back in, and I was completely dilated. The next several minutes were a whirlwind. I went from making it thru and breathing thru contractions, to taking a sharp 90 degree turn of having to uncontrollably push out a baby!!!! Scott and the nurse were prepared and the doctor was literally running as he was making his way to the room. Scott was definitely able to deliver Shepard, because he came so quickly! My doctor walked in as Scott was delivering his head, and thankfully everything went smoothly and we welcomed a healthy baby boy into the world!
He weighed 6lbs 4oz and was 20 in long.
He is the most precious little angel, and it's hard to believe we ever lived without him:) He has been such a gift. We were surprised when we found out we were expecting him, but obviously the Lord knows what He's doing:) It has made me trust Him more throughout this pregnancy and birth. We are simply blessed :)