McGuire's of Arabia: Aden James: The Birth Story

He's here! We've been patiently waiting and our little boy has finally come. A lot of people have been asking for details, so here is the story of his birth.

It all started during our doctor's appointment on the 5th. After doing a physical, the doctor told us that I was 2 cm dilated and 80% effaced which meant that my body was ready to go into labor. Our doctor is scheduled to do deliveries at the hospital on Saturdays and offered to let us come in and do an induction because we live so far away. Our immediate reaction was to decline the offer because we wanted Aden to come when he was ready. The doctor scheduled us in anyway and told us we could decide later but he wanted to keep the option open. After much deliberation the next few days, we did decide to get induced. I had been having contractions on and off all day Thursday and Friday so we knew the time would come soon. This, along with the fear of actually making it to the hospital with the crazy traffic that can sometime happen, helped us to make the decision.

We arrived at the hospital at 4:30 am! After getting checked in and having another physical, I had the lovely experience of having an enema. Jamie was quite amused by the whole procedure and decided it would be great to take pictures of me pacing the room, thanks hun! At 7:30am Dr. Ashour (my doctor) came in and determined that I was only at 3 cm and broke my water. That got things rolling and on came the heavy contractions. I quickly asked for my epidural which worked very quickly and allowed me to finally get some rest. Jamie and I both took advantage of the quiet, pain-free hours and napped. At some point during the napping, my doctor came back in and started me on a drip of pitocin. Which was supposed to get me ready for labor. It worked, an hour later the doctor came in and said I was at almost 9cm and he would be back in an hour. 10 minutes later he came in and said "we are going to have this baby". Jamie said, "what, I thought we had an hour?" He was delivering babies all morning and didn't think he would be finished with a c-section he had to do before the baby came. 20 minutes later, little Aden was here! It was relatively easy, but the epidural worked too well. I was supposed to be able to feel pressure so I knew when to push, but I felt nothing at all. One doctor was pushing on my belly when contractions came, another was coaching me, our doctor was trying to get the baby out, and a nurse was my cheer leader. Aden's heart rate dropped slightly and they brought out the little hand-pump vacuum thing to use to pull him out. Once his shoulders were out our doctor said, "Tara, quickly give me your hands." He put my hands on the baby and with the doctor's help we pulled him out and put him on my chest. At 10:58am Aden was born. I was elated to be done pushing and to have this little miracle in my arms. From there Jamie cut the umbilical cord (he now says he wishes he would have brought his own knife like he thought about doing), they cleaned him up, and we sat in the delivery room for a while trying to make the final decision on his name. He looked like an Aden and we both thought so. Recovery went well in the hospital, the nurses were wonderful to us and Aden and some of our friends came to see the star of the show and tell us congratulations.

We brought Aden home Monday afternoon. The first night home was rough. There was little sleeping for all three of us and Jamie had to go to work the next day. We were quite nervous the next night because we had to be up to take him to the pediatrician. Aden slept in shifts of 3-4 hours. It was wonderful and he did the same last night!

We are very happy and satisfied parents. The only down side has been my headaches. The epidural needle can release spinal fluid if they put it in to far and they did. The doctor said my brain has sagged a little causing migraine type headaches. If I lay down they are ok, but too much activity is not fun. I should feel all better in a few days and Jamie has been doing a wonderful job caring for his family. He changes diapers, burps Aden, makes dinner, does the dishes and even did laundry and dusting around the house. He has definitely won the super-Dad award in our house.

Now for the fun part..... pictures! Some of these have been on facebook and some are being published for the first time.