Griffin's Birth - Part 3 - Happy Birthday To Us!

{see part 1 and part 2 here}

It's 2:30, I'm at a 9, friends and family are updated and we are so ready to get things going! Just as our excitement reaches its height... we get the news that my doctor has an emergency c-section that she has to attend to first before she will be available for my delivery.  Not only is she booked for at least 45 minutes, another doctor had an emergency c-section too that was more important, so she had to wait for the other one to finish before starting hers.

So just when we think things are about to get going, the nurses actually stop my pitocin to halt any progress I was making. We ended up hanging out and waiting for the next 2 hours while everything was taken care of with the c-sections. Finally, around 4:00, the nurses came back in and started the pitocin back up to resume the labor process. About 4:30, the nurses set me up and had me do a practice push through one of my contractions. {it was real pushing, but they were just talking me through how the process was going to go and giving me instructions on holding my breath when I pushed, push for 3 10 second sessions then relax, etc.} Once I made it through the practice, they announced that it was finally time to start pushing!

Cody was actually down in the cafeteria with my dad getting a coke when the nurses said it was time to start pushing. My mom went out to the waiting room to go grab him and upon seeing he wasn't there, his mom called and told him it was go time and I was about to push. Sadly, it wasn't clarified to him that even though I was about to push, it was still going to be a while. Poor Cody got the call, thought I was about to have the final push to have Griffin, and sprinted from the cafeteria to the Labor & Delivery room to make it in time. He showed up in the room out of breath and slightly freaking out, only to realize it was still going to be a while!

Funny enough, right as we are in the middle of the first contraction with a real push, we hear a knock on the door. The nurse goes over to answer and all we can hear is: "I'm a friend of theirs, just dropping by to see if this was a good time to visit." The nurse bluntly said "Not a good time!" and slammed the door. We realized from the voice it was our friend Nathan stopping by to say hi. Cody and I had a nice laugh about it and knew it was a good thing the nurse stopped him... one more step and he would have been scarred for life!

I started pushing at 4:30.  For each contraction I had, I would push about 3 times.  My contractions were about 5 minutes apart, so I did have a good amount of time to rest before I had to start pushing again. Around 5:15, Dr. Mascorro came in and sat with me through a round of pushing. After watching me, she said she was happy with how I was doing but wanted me to take a 20 minute break for me to really rest before I started pushing again.  Up until this point I really had no idea when I was having a contraction. {see epidural: GREATEST INVENTION EVER} and had to rely on the nurses, Cody & my mom to tell me when to push. Once I was told not to push though, I could definitely feel the pressure of Griffin's head and had a natural reaction of my body telling me to push. I began to ask Cody if I was having one and he verified them on the screen.

I later found out that my mom followed Dr. Mascorro out into the hallway after she said I needed to take a break just to make sure that everything was ok. Dr. M said I was doing great, but she wanted me to rest just to make sure I didn't over do my heart. {one of the many, many reasons I am so thankful to be one of her patients!}

At 5:45, the nurses came back in and said it was once again go time... and this time we were finally going to have a baby! They did laugh and said this morning they guessed they wouldn't have a baby until 6, so we better hurry to make it happen!  They quickly transformed the room to truly get it ready for delivery: changing the table, pulling out a big trash can, turning on the mega bright lights. Dr. M came in, put on her protective clothing and I started pushing again at 5:50.

At this point they no longer had anything connected to me to track my contractions, so I really was just pushing when Dr. M told me to. I believe I ended up pushing for 3 contractions  following the same 3 xs for 10 seconds, but gave one last extra push with the last contraction. I will never forget Dr. Mascorro's calm, soothing voice as she said, "Ok Abby, I need you to open your eyes and look up to me." I will never forget being met with the most beautiful sight:

our son!

Cody was able to cut the cord and I still laugh remembering Dr. Mascorro saying: "You're going to cut in between the two clamps. If you see anything move, like a foot or a hand, immediately stop cutting!" Thankfully he made the cut without any movements from Griffin :) Also, do you notice how her hair is down in the picture? My mom and I marveled... she and the nurses both had beautiful, long hair and none of the pulled it back for any part of the delivery process! You think they would be more worried about getting something in it!







There are not adequate enough words to describe the moment when you first meet this perfect little human being. I have known him for 9 months, but to finally get to meet him was the most life changing moment. Cody and I both were so overwhelmed and so thankful for the gift we have been given.

While we were focusing on Griff {who, by the way, had the funniest squeaky cry when he first came out. we couldn't stop laughing!} Dr. Mascorro was talking with my mom and told her that she was prepared to come in and use forceps to help the delivery finish quickly in order to be the least amount of work on my heart. Once again, I cannot say enough good things about her care and concern. I do feel like I trusted her with my life in this delivery and I never once questioned the decisions she made for my care. The only complication we faced was that I did start passing out after the delivery was over.  All of the noises in the room got very, very muffled and they quickly laid my head down lower to get more blood flowing to my head.

Some of the details from here get a little fuzzy for me :)  It was probably 20 or so minutes before they allowed our family to come into the room and then a few minutes more before the nursery showed up to get his stats.  {he was 7 lbs, 3 oz, 20.5 inches long and born at 6:03 p.m. on what is now our birthday! he also scored two 9's on the apgar test}

{I was able to get to have my mom in the room to for the delivery, which only added to the specialness of the experience. Cody was a rock through the whole process, but there are just some times when you need your mom to be present.} 

{noni & griff} 

{scout & scout!} 

It was during this time when our family came in that we finally announced the middle name.  Cody and I have actually known what his middle name would be since the August 1 deadline I gave him, but we decided it would be more fun to keep it a secret between the two of us! Once it became apparent that Cody probably wasn't going to come up with a comic book middle name, I told him I would like to use a family name from my side of the family. Any children we have will carry on the Neinast last name, plus there is a Neinast tradition for a middle name for the second boy should we end up having one. We had about 3 names that we had it narrowed down to when my mom offhandedly gave us a suggestion, though I'm not sure she thought we'd really consider it!

My dad has long been known as the "scout" of our family, no matter where we are! Between the many hospitals we've been to and the vacations we've been on, you can always count on him to scout out the land and let you know where everything is! So we chose Scout as a tribute to my dad and our family! My dad had no idea that my mom even tossed the name out to us, so it was really fun to get to surprise him with it!

{my wonderful nurses!} 

{oma & griff}

{bami meeting her 6th great grandson!}

August 28, 2012 is hands down the absolute best day of my life. You life instantly changes for the better the moment you become a parent. I am so thankful for Dr. Mascorro and her guidance in my delivery. I do feel like it was as "easy" of a delivery as it could have been and I could not be more thankful for how everything took place. I can hardly believe it's already been two weeks since our little man entered our lives. The feeding schedule and lack of sleep is definitely rough to adjust to, but Griffin is really the best baby. He cries when he's wet or hungry and is pretty complacent otherwise. We could not be more thankful for such a sweet blessing!