Owen's Birth Story

On Monday June 18, I had my routine 37 week appointment. I went in and of course my blood pressure was high. We went in, I got checked and was still 3 cm dilated and about 40 % effaced. My doctor was talking to us and telling us he was concerned about my blood pressure, even though it was okay at home and decided to schedule my induction for the following week at 38 weeks. As we were scheduling the induction for June 28th, he decides he should run some more labs for PIH (Pregnancy induced hypertension). I have had these blood tests done about a billion times, so I didn't even think twice about it. So we got everything done and went home excited to know that we were going to have little Owen on June 28th! Two days later on June 20th, I got a call in the morning from my doctor's office. For some reason I knew it had to do with my blood work and I started to get a little nervous. I answered the phone only to hear the voice of my doctor's nurse. She said hi and asked me how I was feeling. I said I felt fine and she said well that is good because your labs are showing us otherwise. I was like oh great... Apparently my liver enzymes were elevated and my blood platelets were low, which were signs of HELLP syndrome. His nurse told me that he wanted me to come in immediately so he could talk to me about what was going on! So I called Tim to have him meet me at the doctor's office, then I called Tim's mom and got arrangements for her to watch Calla, called my mom and then off to the doctor I went! We got there and he showed me my labs and said that they weren't awful by any means and that we should be okay to wait until my scheduled induction... what a relief it was to hear that! We spent the rest of our time in the office with Tim and my doctor talking about golf haha :) Oh and I had to get more labs drawn before we could leave. So I went and got Calla and was driving home when I heard my phone ring... I looked at who it was and it was the doctor's office. I was kind of freaking out, so I answered it and it was his nurse again. She said my levels had gone up again and that my doctor was ready to get the baby out the next day. She had already rescheduled my induction for the next morning! I was kind of in shock and called everyone to let them know that baby Owen would be arriving the next day! That night we scrambled to get everything ready. I put my hospital bag together and got Calla all ready to stay at Tim's parent's house. The next morning we had to get up super early and wait for the call that they were ready for us to come in. We got the call at 6:30 saying that they were ready for us to be there at 7:30! We were freaking out, but we got Calla situated with Grandma and made our way to the hospital. We got there and got all settled into my room. I met my nurse Wendy, who was amazing and got in my gown. Now is about the time that everything kind of just took off! Wendy got my IV started, and my doctor came in, checked me and broke my water. Thankfully Owen was head down! I was still only 3 cm dilated, but his head was pretty low, so that was good. Both my doctor and the nurse said my cervix was really soft, and predicted that I would have him by the afternoon! A little bit after my water was broken, the nurse started my pitocin. I started feeling the contractions, but they were definitely manageable. The nurse kept telling me to get my epidural sooner rather than later, and I was like well I will see how far I can make it. So the contractions start to pick up a bit and it was getting really painful, but still manageable. The nurse came in and was going to up my pitocin, but wanted to make sure I didn't want my epidural first. I said no, but then like a second later I had a monster contraction and said I need it now... The anesthesiologist came in and it was the same one that did the one I had with Calla. He is hilarious and does an amazing job. I have pretty much had two perfect epidurals! Wendy then checked me after the epidural was in and I was only a 4. I was so disappointed that I had only made it to a 4 before I needed an epidural :(, but oh well, because I felt great after that was all done and was just so happy. While we were just waiting for me to dilate, we noticed Owen's heart rate would drop really low during my contractions which really scared me and Tim, but we were assured by the nurse that the doctor said everything looked just fine. Wendy told me to tell her whenever I started to feel pressure, and I said well I never felt that with Calla, but we will see if I do this time. A little bit after she left I started to feel some serious pressure like he was going to come out, so I called her in and she checked me and I was already 10 cm dilated! I went from 4 to 10 cm in 20 minutes! I was so thankful I had gotten that epidural when I did! Thank you Wendy haha! She quickly called my doctor to come down for delivery (their office is in the hospital). When he got there he put the stirrups back down and just put my feet on the side things because it was happening so fast. He started to have me push and they could see him coming pretty quickly! I could feel him coming out, but it didn't hurt. With just 2 sets of pushes Owen was here! I actually watched him come out which was a pretty amazing thing to see. Silly boy was holding onto his own cord as he was coming out! He just wanted to stay with mommy of course :) So Owen was out and just had a little bit of fluid in his lungs, but was just perfect and healthy as can be! Tim got to cut the cord and this time I actually saw him do it! He did great once again! :) Owen Robert Pranger was born on June 21 at 11:22 am weighing 5 lbs 12 oz and was 19 inches long! My doctor finished doing what he needed for me and was all finished! We thanked him and talked about needing to come see him in a week for repeat blood work and then he left to get back to his appointments upstairs, or another women in labor haha! He was awesome and I am so glad he delivered Owen :) I got to hold and nurse Owen and it was just amazing. I was then sent up to recovery with Owen, and let me just say I had the best nurses for this whole experience :) Labor and delivery and recovery were all amazing! Tim, Owen and I got to leave on Saturday, June 23rd and start our lives as a family of 4!