Birth Story: Part 3: Tobyn

After miscarrying between Gideon and this pregnancy, I entered it with a lot of nervousness. I struggled with wondering if everything was ok and doing all of the "right" things up until he was delivered. The nice thing about being pregnant and having two other children is that they keep you too busy to eat or act unhealthily. The business of taking care of them also makes the time go by so much faster. Tobyn was due on October 17th. The last part of August, Rod and I caught the H1N1 flu. After nights of chills and coughing, I spent two days feeling like I was recovering and then on October 6th, 2009 I felt that labor was beginning. Much earlier than any of us expected. My parents got on the road from Houston as soon as they knew I was in labor. I finally went to the hospital around 10pm that evening. They couldn't get an IV started on me, having three nurses try and then waiting for the "special team", so that I could get my epidural. Since my Mom was unable to be in the delivery room, my older sister joined Rod at my side. Finally, they got the IV started and we waited the allotted time for the fluids to be in my body so that I could get my epidural. By the time the on-call anesthesiologist arrived and was putting my epidural in, I was in the middle of transition. Not fun curving forward in the midst of those kinds of contractions. When all was said and done, Tobyn Valor emerged into the world at 2:29am.