Living the Dream

So I titled this blog "Living the Dream" for a reason.  I was standing in Beckett's nursery a few weeks before he was born looking at what needed to be finished, when a thought hit me - I'm living what I've always dreamed.  I am a dreamer, I'll admit it, and I tend to dream away the days (something I'm working on).  My entire life I've dreamed about the next thing to happen, when I was going to be married, have kids, own my own home, etc...  Life hasn't always gone the way my dreams wanted it to go...  Life isn't perfect, we don't own our own home yet, we have tons of college loans to payback, we have to budget (shocker I know), and we don't go on exotic vacations (we visit family instead)....but as I stood in Beckett's nursery it hit me, I'm a wife to an amazing guy, a mom to an incredible daughter, about to have an awesome son, and we have a great house to live in!  I am blessed and I'm living the best of my dreams!

Beckett's Birth Story
On September 27th, I had a feeling about mid morning that I was going into early labor.  My parents were in town and the day went on like normal.  Kalen went to his graduate class that evening and was home after dinner.  Around dinnertime I started having regular contractions every 10 minutes or so apart.  At 10pm they were every 3-5 minutes apart and Kalen and I headed for the hospital at midnight. Kalen and I were pretty clueless this time around....McKinley was a scheduled induction and then a c-section....and this time we were going for all natural, no pain medicated VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section).  When we got to the hospital we were told they were glad we came because I had to get penicillin in an IV before the baby was born because I had tested positive for strep B (a common bacteria that lives in most people's body, can be harmful to the baby as he/she is being born).  Well, because the hospital was busy that night they decided to send me home because I was only dilated to a 4 and had been dilated to a 4 for 2 weeks.  My midwife had scheduled an induction for that morning if I didn't go into labor myself since I was 3 days overdue and attempting a VBAC.  So Kalen and I went home to "get some rest".  We got back to the house at  2am and Kalen slept, while I labored in the tub having contraction every 3 minutes until 5am.  At 5:30am we headed back to the hospital, contraction felt worse but still manageable.  They got us into a labor room and IV with penicillin in around 7:30am.   By this time I was dilated to a 6.  My midwife, not joking around, wanted (needed) me to keep him in for another 8 hours to get the full dose of penicillin I needed (2 doses and 4 hours after each dose to circulate).  Contractions had gotten pretty painful by 8:30am and I couldn't find a comfortable position to manage the pain in.  They checked me and I was and 8.  30 minutes later I was a 10 and my body was naturally starting to push - a whole hour and 1/2 after the first dose of penicillin.  My blood pressure was high - most likely because of the pain - so at 10cm and pushing my midwife recommended that I get an epidural so she could control my blood pressure.  So while continuing to push inadvertently they administered the epidural.  I didn't feel anymore pain from contractions, but could feel pressure and my body pushing.  I slept for 2 hours and they were able to give me my 2nd dose of penicillin. 30 minutes after the second dose my water broke and we started pushing.  Pushing was very calm and after 45 minutes of pushing, Beckett Michael Bruce was born at 1:03pm weighing  7 lbs. 12 oz., 20 3/4 inches.  I will say having a midwife was the best experience, I will not go to an OBGYN again unless I have a problem in the future.  My midwife was fabulous and it is such a different and more personal kind of care.  Kalen was also amazing through everything, he was calm, supportive, and the best cheerleader when I was pushing!  So without further ado here is the first day of Beckett's life....