About 5 days before my due date (which was October 19th), I decided I wanted to bring either my laptop or a journal with me to the hospital for then-unnamed Baby Boy Hawk's birth. With Nya, my water broke at 5am and I then waited in the hospital for about 8 hours before any real contractions started: this gave me lots of time to bounce on a yoga ball, take a bath, and walk (aka RUN) the hallways with my mom. It also gave me lots of time to think. And I wished I had had a notepad with me to journal what I was feeling in those last few hours before meeting our Little Doll. So THIS time, I had BIG plans to spend time journalling while in the hospital.
And then I forgot the laptop home.
AND my notepad.
So now I will type out Baby R's birth story as accurately as I can recall it (thankfully there was no drug-induced stupor, or all would be lost...)
****STOP reading NOW if you don't want to read words like, "dilated", "cervix", or, uterus".....ahhhhhh too late!
Like I said, my due date was October 19th. Because I went one week early with Nya's birth, I somehow thought that would happen again. In fact, I sort of thought EVERYTHING would happen the same, including the first sign of labour being my water breaking. Ummmm....yah. No.
At 3:30am on October 22nd (my brother James' birthday!) I woke up to a very mild contraction. No big deal, as I'd been having pretty crazy tightenings, often with cramping, for about a month or so. I got out of bed and used the washroom, had a glass of water, and laid back down. I timed the contractions for the next hour: they were coming between 5 and 12 minutes apart. At 4:30am I woke up Jamie (because the hospital is a bit of a drive from my parent's house, and I didn't want to have my baby on the side of the road!), and we decided to wake my parents and get ready to head out.
From my parent's house to the hospital (about a 35 minute drive), the contractions went from from a very moderate cramping feeling, to being pretty uncomfortable: I was still about to talk through them, and walk, but I was glad the drive was over!
Sooooo. At about 5:30am we went through assessment in Labour & Delivery, and found out that I was, in fact, in labour (ha), and that I was about 4cm dilated. They called my doctor, who would in turn contact the anesthesiologist (as I had already informed them that an epidural WOULD be happening at some point in my future!), and I was then able to walk (in between contractions...haha) down the hall to the room that would be my labour/delivery/home-for-the-next-2-days room.
The next couple hours were full of pretty standard "active labour" business. Bounce on yoga ball...drink water...try to find humour in husband's lame in-between-contraction jokes...you know, just the average stuff. Contractions were pretty close at this point, and getting very strong, and I was more than ready when the doctor showed up at 8:30am with the happy juice. AKA...epidural.
Here's something not fun: being 7-8 cm dilated and sitting on the edge of a bed, hunched over, while have contractions. This is probably the LAST position I would have chosen to be in, but unfortunately it's how one must sit while they put a needle in your spine. I remember having my first contraction while in that position, and asking the nurse who's arms I was gripping (they made Jamie sit in the corner in a chair...you know...because he's never seen a needle before!) if the epidural would be in before my next contraction.
Haaaaaaaaaahaha.
About 45 minutes later, it was in, and taking effect on both sides, and I was a very happy camper.
So from around 9:15am until 10:35am, I was able to basically just hang out with my mom, sister, and hubby, and discuss what we were going to name this Little Human once he made his grand entrance into the world! My doctor checked me at 10:35am, and I was 10cm and ready to push! I pushed from 10:40.............until 10:48. A grand total of 8 minutes, and my sweet little man entered this great big world! He was pretty purple, but so very sweet :)
I LOVED my birth experience with both babies, but something different about Roman's birth that I really enjoyed, was the length of time I was given for skin-to-skin: I think it was over an hour before they even weighed him! Those moments are so special.
Because of Nya's "name story", I've already been asked many times the story behind Roman's name. So here it goes.
Roman was born with no name.
And then about 30 minutes later, Jamie was like, "Hey, let's call him Roman." So we did,
The End.
And that LITERALLY is the whole story.
We had four names we loved. Eli, Smith, Nash, and Kane. I wanted Smith, Nya wanted "Baby Jesus". Jamie couldn't decide.
In the hour before I started pushing, we were talking about names again, and my sister said, "Hey, didn't you used to love the name "Roman"? I answered that I STILL loved that name, but Jamie didn't love it. And then Jamie was like, "Well...MAYBE I love it..."
So Roman he is.
Roman Roscoe James Hawkins: Roscoe is my dad's dad, and James is the oldest of my two younger brothers: Roman was born on his birthday!
So that is the "story" of Roman's name...and the story of his birth. And now I will print it out and put it in his baby book, so someday he can read it and be grossed out :)