Day 65 ~ October 4, 2010

Happy Birthday to our beautiful baby boy! Rowen Todd Lotz was born today at 3:12 pm. He weighed 6lbs 5oz and was 20 inches long. We're so happy he is here!

We arrived at the hospital at 6:00 am for our scheduled induction. The nurses started me on Pitocin through an IV to help stimulate my uterus to contract. They increased the amount of medicine about every 45 minutes because I wasn't progressing. Upon arrival at the hospital I was dilated to a 2. At 1:00, the midwife came in to check me and I was still at 2 cm dilated. They decided to break my water to help things along.

And boy did it! After they broke my water I was dilated to a 3. The contractions were getting much more intense and frequent. The labor pains radiated around to my back and down through my thighs. I could not find a comfortable position. After leaning on the birthing ball for a while I decided that I'd like to try out the jacuzzi tub to see if that helped ease my pain. I was in the tub for about 15 minutes when I decided it wasn't working. I told the nurse that I'd like to talk about getting an epidural.

They got me out of the tub and checked my progress. I was dilated to 7-8cm! I had a few more contractions and felt the urge to push so they checked me again: 9cm! After one more contraction I was fully dilated and ready to push. There was no time for an epidural or any form of IV pain relief. I had to do this drug-free! Once I started pushing, it was just a matter of minutes before he was born. With the help of the vacuum extractor (because his heart rate went down), I pushed for 7 minutes.

I was in active labor for about 2 hours, so it all happened very quickly. Zach and I were so excited to bring our bundle of joy into the world. Happy birthday, Rowen! Mommy and Daddy love you so much!