The Stracener Scene: Luke's Birthday

I want to make sure I document certain details of the day so we can all remember before we forget the little things. It all started on Wednesday March 2nd. We took James to lunch to see the man that makes the fire (Stix) and then headed back to the house to wait on Meme and Papop to arrive. Once they arrived Chad and I said our goodbyes to James and headed to Mobile Infirmary. One last picture before leaving...

We of course were a little early so we drove by our first house to check it out and we talked about the day we brought James home from the hospital. Once we arrived at the hospital we began the check in process and were taken to a labor and delivery room, number 9. We were hoping to have the same room James was born in well because we are both creatures of habit so we asked if it was available and it was! Once we got settled in our room, the poking and prodding began. First came the IV which I fear every time and of course she hit a valve and had to start over...more pain. Then blood was drawn my second fear. Then the computer that monitors the baby's heart and my contractions was not working properly and we were told we would need to move to a different room. Great! So we went back to number where we began. I am thinking room 5 had bad karma.

Once we settled again in room 9, KK and Pop and Anna came by for a visit. We all chatted until the nurse, Sydney, came in to ask them to leave. She wanted to make sure I got enough rest before tomorrow. I was given my first dose of Cytotech at 9:30, a medicine to help things progress a little in preparation for the next day since I still was completely closed. I would take a dose of this medicine every hour throughout the night depending on how my body reacted. And then at 5am Sydney would wake me for a shower and we would start the pitocin at 6am. At 10pm I was given an Ambien to help me sleep through the night. At 11:30 I was given my 3rd dose of the Cytotech and at midnight my water broke. I had called Sydney to walk me to the bathroom and as soon as I got out of the bed my water broke. So much so it woke up Chad and I felt so embarrassed because I thought I had peed on myself. Sydney informed me that my water broke and we would discontinue the medicine. I was in complete denial until I started having pretty consistent and strong contractions. She asked if I wanted to go ahead and get my epidural at 1:00 am and I said no it was way too early in my mind that would come later in the morning. Once I experienced 6 or so contractions I decided maybe it would be best so I could get some sleep. I did ask several times if I was still going to be able to get a shower at 5am. Chad and Sydney laughed. Sydney explained that I could no longer get out the bed. Apparently the ambien made me question her knowledge because Chad said I asked 4 or 5 times about getting a shower. Around 3:30 am I was 4 to 5 cm and our nurse said we may want to go ahead and call my sister and see if she can make it to the hospital around 5 if she wanted to be in the room with us. We had previously decided that we wanted Anna to be in the room with us when the baby was born. Anna arrived around 5am and I was 8 cm. At that point we thought it might be best to call the rest of the family to let them know they may want to be at the hospital a little earlier than planned. Even though in my mind I thought it was not necessary because I was thinking the baby may not arrive until noon or so. Several people had mentioned the labor for your second child progresses alot faster but to me not this fast :). I was in and out of sleep and at 7:15 Dr. Helen arrived to check on me and I was 10 cm. At 7:45 our new nurse (there was a shift change at 7), Dee asked if I wanted to start pushing. I thought sure why not again I was so lackadaisical due to the ambien. After about 30 min of pushing at 8:13am our precious baby arrived and it was so exciting to hear It's a Boy! And to finally call this little one by its name, William Luke. Again we were in love.

He arrived looking very similar to his big brother with the exception of having lots more hair...which explains the heartburn with this pregnancy I guess. He was perfect. He weighed 8lbs 4 oz and was 21 in long. It was the most amazing day. We are so grateful. I was so glad Anna was in the room for several reasons. One because she got to share the experience with us and she was just as excited as we were and two because captured the moments so well with my camera. She took tons of pictures. I have include several below documenting the day and it was so hard to pick just a few...