Sawyer James Manis

Sawyer James was born 10/20/2010 at 8:47 pm. I had him at the Riverton Hospital. He was 6lbs 15 oz. 19 1/2 in. long. We are so excited that he is here! My due date wasn't until the 25th of October, but my doctor (bless his soul) was going out of town that whole week and he wanted to be the one to deliver me. So he said that because the skin on my belly looked like a rash, he would say it was PUPPS ( a super itchy rash caused my hormones, the only cure is to deliver the baby). My Dr told me this on Tuesday the 19th. "And that way," he said " we can start you tomorrow."

Yikes!! Tomorrow!? I was so excited I couldn't handle it! But so nervous too! I called Jarod from the office and we decided to go for it!

I had pretty much everything ready but there were a few things I needed to run out and do and then some things at home I needed to do. I felt so rushed! That night I had intentions of going to bed early but that didn't happen, and once I did it was like Christmas for a little kid, how could I sleep!?

I finally got to sleep but had to get up to call the hospital at 6 am to see what time they wanted me there. At 6 they said to call back at 8. Yes more sleep! By this time I was so tired, I felt like I could have slept forever! So I called back at 8 and they told me to be at the hospital between 9 and 9:15. Yay!

I got dressed and of course curled my hair and took the last pregnancy pictures and we were off!

We got to the admitting desk in Labor and delivery at about 9:20 and they started me on Pitocin at about 10:00 am. My plan was to have him natural, no epidural. I told the nurses this and they asked if I had taken the classes and when I told them no they just said,"we'll see then."

Whatever, I wasn't totally against getting an epidural, I just wanted to see if I could do it without.

By about 2:30 pm I was having contractions about 2 min apart and they were predicting that I would have him sometime around 10 pm. I decided that since I was already so tired, if I wanted to have any energy left when it came time too push, I had better get the epidural.

The anesthesiologist was in my room in about 10 min.

While he was giving the the epidural though, he hit a nerve and I totally jumped. Let me explain though the jump was totally involuntary. For those who don't know, that is a big no-no when the guy has a giant needle inserted into your spine.

The anesthesiologist not so nicely told me that because I "freaked out" I had increased the risk of me getting a spinal headache from 1 in 200 to "a lot more likely." Yeah it was all my fault, dang reflexes. This and the way he said it made me start crying. And then he tells me that if I do get the spinal headache, the only way to get rid of it is for him to do another epidural and take some of my previously drawn blood and patch the hole in my spinal column or wherever it is. And that just made me cry even more because the last thing I wanted to do was that AGAIN! Especially with him. He was not nice about it at all! After he left my dad and Jarod gave me a blessing and I felt so much better about that whole thing.

Once I was calmed down I was so glad to be able to relax and rest. Though I didn't sleep for more than about 5 minutes, I was able to relax and that was nice.

I was not progressing very quickly and though my Dr being optimistic and had said "hopefully by 5 or 6" it was looking like it really would be more like 10pm or 11pm.

Then a little after 7pm, I threw up (I had been nauseous throughout the day so I was prepared for that) and after I did I felt a lot of pressure. The nurse came in at 7:30 to check me and she said "Oh you're ready to have this baby!" and I said "WHAT!?....Really?!" I was so scared/excited at that moment!

She said she would give me a little while before I started pushing which ended up being at 8:15. I was so paranoid that whole time that he would just start coming out and the Dr wouldn't be in there and the nurses wouldn't be in there. But the nurse reassured me that he wouldn't. Ha Ha.

So I started pushing at 8:15 pm and by 8:47pm he was here! What an amazing experience that is! Truly. It took over an hour for the us to be able to go to the mom and baby room, there were some slight complications after I delivered, nothing life threatening or scary, but I was definitely glad I had the epidural.

Jarod and I have awesome families, everyone was waiting in the waiting room to see little Sawyer. As they wheeled me past the waiting room on our way to the mom and baby room we waved to everyone but I was so tired that my eyes wouldn't even focus and I tried to smile but I'm sure it looked more like I was wincing in pain.

Our family members took turns coming in the room 4 at a time and it was well past midnight before they all left, I think it was around 1 am. They are crazy! And awesome!

What a long day! But it went by so fast! We are so grateful to all of our family and friends who came to visit us at the hospital and at home and to those who sent their congratulations, we are so blessed and we love you! We are loving being parents and Sawyer is teaching us so much everyday!