D Day

At a previous check up my doctor told me for my sake he hoped the baby would come early or he would be a 10 lb baby. He also requested that I wait to have the baby until after the weekend because he would be out of town. Of course, our son was born that Friday. He was due 08-21-08 so Tau and I had our bags packed and were ready to go camping that night with our friends. I got up for one of my routine bathroom stops at 5:30 am and my water broke. This being my first time, I thought since I wasn't having contractions, the hospital would send me away so I continued to go about my day. I curled my hair, shaved my legs, packed my bags, etc. Tau heard me and woke up. I told him my water had broken and he almost fell out of bed. I assured him that all was well and that we could still go camping that evening as long as I didn't get dirty. We went back to bed and I woke up at 7:30 am to call the doctor just in case. He said I should go in right away but it was my sister Naomi who convinced me an hour later that I should go in or I could kill the baby. I got out of bed to tell Tau we better go. He hadn't gone to sleep since I woke him earlier. He was running around the house washing dishes, cleaning the tubs, sweeping, etc. I guess he was pretty excited.

Getting ready to go to the hospital.

We checked in at 8:30 am and I was still only dilated to a 1. Tau and I went walking around the building for an hour, we danced a bunch of our old Living Legends numbers and I did Hawaiian warm-up basics and still no baby. They hooked me up to the monitor and the nurse was surprised to see I was having contractions, but I couldn't feel them. By 10 am they hooked me up to pitocin and cranked it up to the full dose so that by 2 pm I could feel my contractions and dilated to a 5. Thats when I called in my "team" (I invited my mom and Liz to attend the birth and help me just in case Tau passed out - he gets kinda queezy with the sight of blood). I dilated to an 8 just fine with their help and one of those big bouny ball thingy's.

Waiting for baby to come. Check out my view.

My team of coaches

Then my nurse changed to an old fashion one that wanted me on my side in the bed with a monitor on the baby's head, and oxygen for me, even though every thing was fine. I was upset because she wasn't letting me do things my way. I could handle the contractions sitting on the ball, but they hurt way too bad laying down. I couldn't relax this way. Finally I gave in and asked for a walking epidural (Hello? Why in the world did I try to go natural? Epidurals rock!) I wasn't trying to be tough or anything, I was just afraid that with Tau's and my size, I would have to have a c-section and an epidural increases the chance of having one. It was then that I was glad I had so many coaches. Each one was great in their own way and the best one of all was Tau. He worked so hard that as soon as I got the epidural, he passed out (not from the sight of blood mind you, but because helping me wore him out) We let him sleep for a little under an hour. I guess having a baby can be very stressful to the husband too.

Before the epidural

2 minutes later with epidural

He was out cold. How cute

I reached a 10 by 7:30 and seeing as how my son was going to be born on 08-08-08, I tried to push him out by 8 pm. LOL! Good story ... he decided to come at 9:34 instead.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for ... I present to you, Noa Tauailoto Ioane. Born Friday, 08-08-08, the 8th grandchild. 7 lbs 12 oz and 20 inches long.

Before bathAfter bath. Look at all that hair