Hanson Adventures: Finn Samuel Hanson: The Story

The advantage of having a scheduled c-section is that everyone is ready for the day and everyone knows exactly when to to be praying for you.

I was thankful to know that many of you were praying for me, as Wednesday turned out to be quite the eventful day. My water broke at 1:30AM early that morning. Just a few short hours after we had gone to bed, since we were too excited to go to sleep early. It "just so happened" (love how God works) that we had dropped Cole off at the in-laws to spend the night. Up until the last minute we had contemplated keeping him with us and dropping him off in the morning. Finally, Nick just decided to take him over that night. Our bags were packed, since we were headed into the hospital that morning for the c-section. And, my doctor was on call--hence the planned c-section date.

When my water broke with Cole, I was not in labor nor did I go into labor on my own. I assumed it would be the same this time. Although, I did wake up with some contractions prior to my water breaking. By the time we made it to the hospital (an hour or so later), I was contracting every 5 minutes. This time they didn't check to confirm that my water broke (apparently they believe you when its your second time.) I was only at 2 cm, but I was contracting every 5 min or so. I decided to just wait and see what happened. My doctor had no problems with letting me try a vbac, in fact his only comment was "hey this is exactly what you were hoping for when we spoke in the office. You were hoping to go into labor before the 8th and here we are." Which is what I'd been praying for all along. The 8th was simply my stop date. When I told Nick about the 8th, he booked himself at work through the 7th. He told me to not go into labor until after the 7th. Well, let's just say God had a small window to work with:-)

By 6 AM, I decided to take the epidural. I wanted to sleep and I didn't want to be worn out like last time. Plus, I knew that a c-section was still a very real possibility. I was able to sleep and relax and Nick was thankful he didn't have to rub my feet with every contraction! By 10 AM, I progressed to contractions 3-5 min apart and was dilated to 4 cm. We discussed my progress with the doctor and agreed that I needed to be at about 6 cm by noon if this was going to happen on its own. At noon, I was still only 4 cm even though I was contracting ever 2 min or so. Making the decision to proceed with a c-section wasn't a difficult one because that's what we had planned for that day anyway. I was just thankful that I had had the opportunity to go into labor on my own, plus I liked knowing that the 8th was the day Finn was to be born and not just a date I had picked out on the calendar. (weird, I know, but sometimes we mamas have our own little wishes)

It took 2 hours to get everyone lined up. This surgery experience was very different from my last one. Don't know if it was because I was more aware of what was going on, or if it was just less rushed then last time. The drugs were a little different. For some reason it gave me the terrible shakes and I cried through most of it. Nick was a huge support and he kept reassuring me that everything was going to be just fine. This time I couldn't see the baby from where I was at. When they held him up for us to see, I couldn't see a thing. When they told us it was a boy, I think both of our jaws dropped. For whatever reason, we both thought it would be a girl. When I heard them talking about 7lb 12 oz, I though surely they have the wrong baby. All in all, this made for a very confusing time for me. Finn cried the whole time which made my mommy's heart cry as well. At one point, I even though Nick had said he had 7 fingers and 10 toes! Let's just say I was a little confused!

They finally put him on my chest so I could see him. Ahh, sigh of relief. In the recovery room, they still had so much poking and prodding to do with me that I couldn't feed him, but I did hold him for a little. Then they bathed him in the room. I could see him from my bed and Nick got to help with the whole process, which I thought was very special.

Still amazed that everything went so smoothly and amazed at how perfect and precious he is.

On our way to the hospital