Saturday, September 24, 2011

My Miracle

September 11 was seriously one of the best days of my life.  It's right up there with my wedding day.  On this day, the sweetest little boy in the whole world was born.  His name is Travis Allan Zeugschmidt and I am so in love with him!  The whole experience of him being born was very special to me but I know people are interested in how it all came about.  I will give you the short and sweet story (OK, after writing it I realized it isn't short and sweet; I'm not good at that).

First, here is the last picture of me pregnant.  WOW!!!  I was huge...


The beginning of this story starts on September 9.  I woke up that morning feeling some cramping.  I knew something was going on with my body and that made me excited.  I got up and went to work just like any normal day.  Throughout the day I kept feeling more cramping and a little more pain.  It wasn't too bad though.  They had a party for me at work that day to celebrate me being there 3 years, my birthday, my baby and me leaving.  I'm glad I went to work that day!  When I left I was 95% sure that I would not be coming back.  I was right.  Once I got home the cramping turned into contractions and the pain was getting worse.  We went to dinner with some friends at Red Lobster and the whole time I was having contractions every 15 minutes for 30 seconds.  Our poor friends.  I bet it wasn't fun eating dinner with a girl in early labor.  Once we got home the contractions started to get worse, more painful and closer together.  They weren't so bad that I felt I needed to go to the hospital yet.  Well, I tried to sleep, but there was no way I was going to sleep through the pain and discomfort.  Needless to say, neither Eric nor I got ANY sleep that night.  Eric was so great with trying to help me relax.


Let's move forward to Saturday, September 10.  I "woke-up" around 7 and showered.  We decided to go to the hospital and headed out around 8.  I got there and they watched me for an hour only to tell me that I hadn't progressed at all.  I hadn't even really progressed since my appointment that Tuesday.  I was NOT a happy camper.  They sent me home with a morphine shot that they said would help me sleep.  That's not true...  I still couldn't sleep.  So, all day Saturday I was dealing with contractions every 6-8 minutes.  My brother and his friend came over to watch the BYU game that day.  They were probably both a little weirded out that I was in labor.  I was so exhausted but I didn't think it was time to go back to the hospital so Eric and I just hung out and timed contractions all evening.  I was in so much pain!  At 11 PM Eric and I went for a walk and WOW, that was the most painful walk of my life.  Eric convinced me to go to the hospital (I was terrified of being sent home again) and we got there at midnight.  They watched me for an hour and I had progressed 1 cm.  I was so happy!!  They checked me in and here is where the real story starts!

I tried to sleep, since I hadn't gotten a good nights sleep since Wednesday (I was up all Thursday night with awful heartburn.)  They gave me some basic painkillers to start off, but they were not doing much.  I was just so exhausted and needed some sleep, so at 5:30 AM I got the epidural.  It was not as bad as I thought it would be and it definitely helped.  I finally was able to relax! They put me on the lowest dose of pitocin and at 7 AM  my water broke.  At 8 AM my body was all ready but my doctor wanted him to descend a little bit more.  At 9:15 I started to push.  The nurse thought it would be super fast.  It wasn't.  It turns out that little Travis was face up.  The way he was laying made it hard for the doctor and nurse to determine this until 1.5 hours into the pushing.  They did an ultrasound to confirm it, and then my doctor had to manually turn him around during each contraction.  Otherwise, I would have had to have a c-section.  She was successful in turning him, but all of this had been a little stressful on him, so the doctor had to use forceps.  At 11:15 my little son was born and he was perfect.  He was healthy in every way!  Eric got to go hold him and watching him hold our son for the first time was a perfect moment that I will never forget.

Our little man was 21.5 inches long and weighed 8 lbs 7 oz.  He was a good size.  He has Eric's ears and face shape, my lips and my long torso.  That's all we can decipher so far.  All I know is that he is the cutest little boy and I can't stop staring at him.    

Birth really is an amazing thing.  I'm glad that Eric was there to support me through the whole thing.  He was so great.  So there you go, the story of our little Travis being born.  Now here's the good stuff; the pictures.  I have a lot, so I narrowed it down a little.  Enjoy looking at my cute little boy.



 

8 comments:

Mindy said...

He is absolutely adorable!! I'm sorry that was such a tough first labor for you..I cringed just reading it! I'm so happy everything turned out good, and you're both healthy and perfect! He is seriously SOOOO handsome! congrats, I'm so excited and happy for you!

D & C Larson said...

So precious! I am so glad I was able to stop by and see you two- he seriously is the cutest little boy! Congrats again!

Sarah said...

Congrats! He is adorable!

Tess said...

Yay! I love birth stories soooo much, thank you for sharing! I'm glad the doctor was able to figure it out and turn him around...that must've been stressful! The pictures are so fun and I am so happy for you all!

Wesley said...

I love it Love it LOVE it! Congrats!! I'm so so happy you didn't have to have a c-section-- so glad you had a competent doctor! Hopefully the next go around is a lot smoother. Call me when you feel up to it! Can't wait to hear more!!

Wendy said...

Loved your story and so glad that everything turned out great! Can't wait to meet this little guy. We may be coming through Utah at the end of October. We will have to stop by! Congratulations!!!!!

Kristen said...

I love it. One of my favorite pictures is Travis in his car seat. He is so little!!! You forget how little they are when they are first born...... Congrats again! (I know, I've said it a million times)

CHO said...

YAY!!!!!!! CONGRATS, ALI & ERIC!!!! He's so beautiful and perfect in every way. I'm sooo happy for you! :) Can't wait to see more pics and hear more stories about your new, sweet baby boy!