Aaron Joseph's Birth Story

Aaron Joseph

Aaron Joseph Rasmussen entered the world on May 4, 2012 at 2:29 am.  He weighed in at 5 lbs 10 oz. and was 18 inches long.  He looks a lot like Alex.  To answer everyone's question: it doesn't look like he has red hair.  He does have some blonde peach fuzz but it looks to have more dark tones in it so we will wait and see. 
Here is the birth story:  I had been having contractions off an on fro about a week before Aaron came.  On April 24th they were pretty consistent so we headed into the hospital.  After 5 hours of contractions they stopped completely and we couldn't get them restarted so we headed home.  The next day I went to the doctor and she stripped my membranes.  In the parking lot it felt like my water had broken so my mom headed up to watch the boys but no contractions had started yet.  When we got to the hospital we discovered that my water had not broken so once again we were sent home.  At this point I was so tired and frustrated I just consigned myself to being pregnant forever. 
Andy had finals on Tuesday and Thursday so we all just chilled out and hoped we could get finals out of the way before baby came.  On Wednesday I had a foot zoning appointment and was told it didn't look like labor was close.  She did show me a few of the points to help with labor induction and sent me on my way.  Then on Thursday I had a massage appointment.  I figured I would be as relaxed as possible when labor started.  I was told my left hip had a lot of stuck energy so she worked through that.  She also did some reflexology points and said she was thinking it would be 2-3 days before labor started.  She also said she was picking up on boy energy and that she was 90% right on that. 
That night I went to bed without any pain and was looking forward to a nice long sleep.  One I desperately needed.  At 1:05 (I looked at my cell as I woke up) I got up to go to the bathroom.  As soon as I sat up I heard a pop and then I was all wet.  Because of the false alarms I was hesitant to think this was the real thing.  I cleaned up and started to put things in my hospital bag just in case.  About 1:30 the contractions started so I woke Andy up and told him we needed to head to the hospital.  We spent some time trying to figure out which neighbor to call and wake up in the middle of the night.  Thankfully, our next door neighbor's light was still on so Andy went over there and had him sleep on the couch.  We didn't want to drag anyone else up from Salt Lake if it was another false alarm.
We gathered everything up and headed to the hospital about 2:00.  As we drove the contractions picked up but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle.  Andy parked the car and I tried to get out.  I couldn't stand up at all.  Andy ran off to get a wheelchair while I finally got out of the car and to the grass.  At this point I was trying to tell myself it wasn't that bad and I could handle this.  I truly thought I was being a wuss because I couldn't walk.  I told myself I could do this and I just needed to stand up and make it in to the hospital. 
Andy wheeled me up to the second floor where we skipped admit and  went right in.  The nurses must have noticed something because they quickly wheeled me in to the first room available.  The nurse asked me to stand up to get me in a gown and I tried but immediately was met with a sharp pain running through my body.  I told her I couldn't stand and fell back in the wheelchair.  She told me I needed to get in a gown so they could check me.  Two other nurses came in and pushed me up out of the wheelchair while another nurse took off my pants.  As they did this I felt this intense urge to push which I thought was crazy.  There was no way I was that close.  As they helped me to the bed to sit down Andy noticed the baby crowning.  They swung my legs on to the bed and tried to get me to breathe so the doctor could make it in to deliver.  Well, Aaron had different plans and came out without a push onto the bed.  The CNA scooped him up as another nurse and the doctor came into the room.  They had to guess time of birth as no one looked at the clock when he popped out.  They say 2:29 was the time.  Since we didn't know gender I turned to Andy and asked what the baby was.  He announced "IT'S A BOY."  They then placed him on my chest but I was still in my street clothes so I couldn't do skin to skin with him.  Andy took him over with the nurse to get him checked out and make sure he was ok after such a crazy birth.  He was given a clean bill of health and since we didn't have a name yet was nicknamed Speedy by the nurses.  Once again my placenta didn't deliver so I ended up having to get a spinal so my doctor could get it out.  I HATED that feeling!!  I am not sure how people can handle those.
I have had a lot of people say how wonderful it must have been to have delivered so fast.  To be honest, I was a little disappointed that it was so fast.  I had worked so hard during my pregnancy to train my body to relax and to prepare for labor and then wasn't able to use any of it.  Overall, I was just so happy to have this little one here without any complications.