Welcome Rowan

Rowan Zachery Van Wyk is here! He made his way into the world on January 20, 2011- which was his ultrasound due date, and the day that I said he would be born :) If you don't like birth stories- you better stop reading now. Here is how Rowan made his debut.

On Wednesday the 19th Sawyer had a bad croup attack and we ended up taking him in to the ER where I work at 5 am. He came into our room with dusky blue lips and fingernails, and he was shaking and wouldn't open his eyes. He was fine, got some steroids, got to visit with Dr. D at 5 am :) but there were about 10 scary minutes at home before we took him out in the cold car and he started to get better- I had contractions pretty much the whole time- nothing makes me nervous ussually but I love my kids and it was a bit scary. We got home at 7am and I noticed I had lost my mucus plug- no big deal, you can lose it and not go into labor for weeks, but with Sawyer I lost it when I was IN labor. Had an OB appointment at 10 am- had Dr. W strip my membranes and I told him "tomorrow is the day I guessed he will come, does that work well for you?" And we had a good laugh and I went home and spent the day with playing with Sawyer, cooking, cleaning, ect. That evening I noticed that I was having some really really mild contractions, and they felt different than my usual braxton hicks contractions- because they actually didnt hurt at all and sometimes my BH did hurt a bit. I laughed and told Zach "well tomorrow is my guess and I think I could be trying to go into labor!" Went to bed and slept well most of the night, except waking up to go to the bathroom and check on Sawyer a lot. At 430 am when I was going to the bathroom I noticed I was having contractions. Was up again at 530 and still having contractions. Sawyer woke up early at 630 and came to our bed to cuddle and I announced to him and Zach, I think we get our baby brother today! Horray! Everyone was excited- Zach decided he would go in and get some orders dropped off for the week if today was going to be the day- so he didnt have to worry about doing it after baby came. He told me to get up and time a few contractions before he left. Got up at 7am and timed my first set of contractions and they were about 5 minutes apart, and once I was up and about, they hurt! I told him to go to work but to make it quick because this wasn't going to take 26 hours like it had with Sawyer, I could tell! I got up and got ready and got Sawyer ready and was by 830 when he got home I was breathing through contractions every 3-4 minutes. Sawyer went to Zach's parents house and I decided I would sit down and see how far apart my contractions were if I relaxed a bit- they were still 3-5 minutes apart and painful. We decided to go to OB at about 930 or 10am- I wanted to make sure I didn't get to far along before I could get my epidural because with Sawyer I transitioned without it and it HURT and I had noticed I was already having bloody show at home. Got to OB around 10ish and was 5cm dilated and contracting every 3-5 minutes with strong contractions. Labored there, did admission stuff, and waited for Dr. W. Zach rubbed my shoulders and we played monopoly on the ipod to try to distract me from the pain. Dr. W. came around 1130ish and I was 6cm. He said to go ahead and get my epidural and he would be back to break my water. Got my epidural from one of my best friend's husband's and he did an awesome job. He gave me a half dose rate because I told him I wanted to be able to feel my contractions still- it was wonderful. I could move my legs and I could still feel every contractions but the pain wasnt bad, they just felt like a LOT of pressure. Once I was feeling good Zach went to get lunch- it was about noon. Dr. W came and broke my water while he was gone, and when Zach came back upstairs with food Dr. W. joked that if Zach got to eat, he wanted to also. I was feeling amazing so I told him to go enjoy his lunch! A few friend from work came down to see me and we chatted a while. Immediatly after my water was broken i could tell my contractions were really strong and were coming one after the other. at about 1230 dr. w came back from lunch and checked me and declared i was complete and ready to push "he's right there!" our nurses were pretty suprised how quickly i had progressed. they got all the baby equipment in the room and at 1247 i started pushing. I pushed about 10ish times and 21 minutes later at 108 Rowan Zachery Van Wyk arrived. Everyone was shocked at how big he was (although i thought he seemed so small compared to almost 2 year old Sawyer) he was a big 8lb 9oz and a shocking 21.5 inches long- too long to ever wear newborn clothes even though he is so long that his legs and waist are too slim for newborn still now. and the best part was- even as big as he was i didnt tear at all- so even right after he was born i felt great. i told zach if it was going to be like Rowan i could have 10 more kids- he told me no way to that many :)