the delivery and hospital stay

Baby Rocky James Holmoe was born on Friday, March 6, 2015 at 3:58pm.

The Delivery:

My water broke at 6:40 in the morning on Friday. I was having a few contractions (much more painful than ones earlier on). All of a sudden I felt a warm rush of water and ran to the bathroom. Once I realized that I didn’t pee my pants- I woke danny up to tell him the news. He was kind of out of it and said “yayyy- congratulations!” haha then he got up and hopped in the shower. I made a couple phone calls to mom/dad, and sister and gathered up my hospital bags. The car ride over was exciting, painful, and so happy. We were just in shock that this was actually happening! Just two kids having a baby. We were so anxious. We got to the hospital at 7:30 (not knowing where to go) and checked in to labor and delivery. I received my epidural and met the nurse- Mikell. We really liked her.  I was only dilated to a one- so she said we could be there a long time. She encouraged me to take a nap- so I tried... but who can nap when they know they are about to have a baby. A BABY! Danny went to get breakfast and when he came back they checked me again. I was dilated to a 3. A few minutes later, baby’s heart started to slow down. I could sense a little bit of panic in the nurse’s voice as she asked for assistance. They wanted to put the internal monitors on his head to figure out what was going on. They realized I was dilated to a 6. In less than 10 minutes I jumped from a 3 to a 6! The doctors also determined that baby was flipped- he was posterior, meaning his eyes were looking up rather than down. Making the delivery a lot harder. They tried everything possible to flip him- but couldn’t do it. He wouldn’t budge and his heart kept dropping. They said c-section was a possibility. I was scared. Danny kept telling me everything was going to be ok. I could sense a little bit of nerves in the nurses and doctors, which made me especially nervous. I remember just praying over and over again that our baby would arrive safely. I was then dilated to a 9- almost time to push! I was scared/anxious/nervous/excited. My mom flew in and got there in time for the delivery. It was special to have her in the room. The doctors came in, with the newborn tray that they use to clean/measure the baby. It hit me. It was time. It was really happening. The nurse, the doctor, and danny were around me and the pushing began. It was HARD. Not too painful due to the epidural.. but the physical pushing was really tough. I pushed maybe 7-8 contractions, about 30 minutes. The doctor, Dr. Gurly had to do an episiotomy. He also had to use the forceps to get this little boy out. (and they had to pump me with fluids.. I was SO SWOLLEN). I remember pushing so hard- just anticipating hearing that first cry. I had oxygen on my face and was holding dannys hand so hard. We were about to have a baby! I then all of a sudden felt a huge release of pressure and saw the most amazing little human. Our baby. He had tonns of blonde hair (which I admit I thought it was red at first because of the blood- got a tiny nervous haha). He had a pretty big cone head too! Which went down pretty fast. The scary part was they said they would give me the baby and do skin to skin right away but the doctor called in for the nurse and said he had terminal meconium. Three nurses ran in and brought him to a table. I ad no idea if he was okay or not. I was asking the nurse but no one was telling me anything. I was freaking out. About 10 minutes later they brought him to me. They put him on my chest and it was one of the happiest moments of my life. Danny and I were in tears. Just this intense amount of love for this little guy and for my husband. It was heaven. We had skin to skin for about 2 hours. It was amazing. He latched on right away and breastfeeding has been so easy ever since. It all just felt so natural and so normal. The motherly instincts came so normal. The moment I first saw danny hold him will always melt my heart. It was so cool to see the love of my life as a dad. It was amazing. I fell in love all over again.

They then took the baby (who still had no name) to have a bath. They had to do some tests on me- and it was weird to not have the baby with me- first time in 9 months. When they brought him back all clean and put him in my arms- I was so happy. I have never felt that kind of happiness. The hospital stay was actually amazing. The nurses were great and I felt much more at peace having the nurses so close in case something happened. I was physically in pain, but the love and happiness I felt towards this baby overtook it all. Ran on pure adrenalin. Danny slept at the hospital and for most the time, our baby slept in the nursery. When they brought him back to me I felt like I was whole again. I missed him when he was gone. There was one super special moment for me in the hospital. I needed to go to the bathroom- which was a process after the episiotomy. I gave baby to Danny and when I came out, Danny had music playing on his phone (thinking out loud by ed sheeran), little man was laiyng on the couch in between his legs, danny was holding his little hands, and tears just rolling down his cheeks. I will never forget this moment. It was the sweetest thing I have ever seen.

Danny and I didn’t decide on the name until the day we left the hospital. We stayed up until 3am the night before discussing name options. We would talk over pros and cons of names and middle names. We would try calling the baby by that name and see if it felt natural. Danny would write the name on the white board to see how it looked. We decided on Rocky. From the moment we saw him, he looked like a Rocky. Maybe it was because of all the bruising on his face or the black eye.. but he looked like a fighter. And he was a champ for making it through that tough delivery with all of the issues. It seemed to fit. We both felt good about it. We chose James as a middle name- because we liked how it sounded. James was also my great grandpa’s name (my dad’s grandpa). He was a general authority. Also Danny’s friend CJ’s middle name was James. The name Rocky totally fits him. I am so happy about it. And I'm SOOO happy to be a mom.