The Phemister Family 4: Happy Birthday, Oakley!

He's here! Oakley Bradford Phemister was born on 7/20 (The date that I predicted and wanted to be his birthday. Harlen's birthday is 9/20 and our anniversary is 6/20. Thanks for listening to mom, Oakley!) at 11:03pm. He weighed 8 pounds 11 ounces and was 22 1/2 inches long. He really does complete our little family and though it's only been 2 weeks with him, I can't imagine him not being a part of our family.

His birth story...
My last OB appointment was on 7/17 (Wednesday). Everything went well. I was dilated to a 1. My OB scheduled me for a sonogram the next week along with my routine appointment and I told her I was hoping to miss that appointment and that I thought he was coming on Saturday. She said Saturday worked for her and we both laughed and said good bye.
Friday comes and Harlen and I did our usual routine. Played, painted, read some books and I put her down for an early nap, like every Friday, since daddy gets off at noon and we always do a family thing in the afternoon/evening. We headed out to the mall that afternoon because I had been trying to walk, walk, walk to prepare my body for labor. With it being July in Texas an air conditioned mall is a great place to do some laps. Harlen and Garrett went off to play and I walked around alone for a little while. I had quite the bump at this point and remember the stares I would get. lol. I only walked a short while before I remember texting Garrett that I was coming to meet back up with them because I was having uncomfortable back pain and didn't want to keep walking. I sat while Garrett and Harlen finished playing and I kept having this weird back pain every few minutes.
We decided to leave and head to Target because I had a list of things I wanted to get, most of which were for Harlen while she stayed with grandma and grandpa while we were in the hospital (I guess I was nesting). All through Target and the whole way home I continued to have this lower back pain and now it was wrapping around my hips and felt like squeezing. I text my sweet friend who is training to be a midwife (and had been giving me tons of advice throughout my pregnancy and eventually, labor) told her about my back pain and she said "That, my love, is contractions." lol. When we got home (around 7) I went on a walk because I figured surely they would disappear and slow down. Garrett gave Harlen a bath and I started to time the contractions. They were every 3-4 minutes. I was getting more uncomfortable, but not really in too much pain yet. We put Harlen to sleep and I finished organizing and cleaning a few things. Now they were beginning to hurt. We waited a little while longer and they were coming every 2-3 minutes and it had been about 2-3 hours. Now I couldn't talk through them so Garrett called the OB and she said to head to the hospital.
Off we went. That car ride was so so uncomfortable. Once we got there and got checked in. They checked me and I was at a 2. I asked for a birthing ball and to walk around the hallways so I could keep progressing. Because I was a VBAC patient they had to get a few good "strips" of Oakley's heartbeat before I was allowed to be off the monitors. Once everything looked good we walked. I would stop every 2-3 minutes and hang myself off Garrett's shoulders and rock my hips back and forth. Then after 20 minutes or so the nurse would come get us and tell us I had to get back on the monitors for awhile. We did this for hours. Finally around 4am, I was still at a 2-3. My contractions were steadily coming every 2-3 minutes, but because they weren't lasting longer or getting stronger the nurse said either I stay and get pain meds or I could labor at home. We decided to head home.
THAT car ride was even worse. Pretty sure I cursed Garrett out and told him he was never getting me back in a car again. I labored at home and was in a good amount of pain at this point. I tried every position to get comfortable and tried my best to lay in bed and get some rest. Garrett said we got about 20-30 minutes of sleep. Around 9am we called the hospital and decided my contractions had gotten longer and stronger and it was time to head back.
Worst car ride EVER. Once we got there and checked in, yet again I was still only dilated to a 3. That was so disappointing to me. We tried our best to rest and I squeezed Garrett's hand raw through each contraction. He was so so good and patient and did everything he could. Rubbed my back, got me ice chips, and kept telling me that I could do it. We then figured out that my doctor was no longer on call and that one of her partners would be there the rest of the day. Not cool!
I was checked again around 1pm and was at a 4. Right after that my water broke. I was officially admitted at this point and was so happy that meant baby boy was on his way! I stayed at a 4 for hours. The doctor came in and told me that I was "Trying to fit a square peg through a round hole." and that we were "Delaying the inevitable." He pushed to go ahead and do a c-section. I had developed a low fever at this point and I was exhausted in so many ways. I was ready to be done and hold our boy. Garrett talked me out of that exhausted state and told me that I could do it and this isn't what I wanted and worked so hard for. After having a talk with the doctor in the hallway, he told the doctor we were waiting and did not want the c-section. The doctor agreed since niether I or Oakley were in any harm. He said he would be back in 2 hours to see how I had progressed. And I might need to be started on pitocin, which never happened, thankfully!
After that the nurses and Garrett told me it was a good time to get an epidural to let my body relax and rest. Maybe all the stress and tensing was not helping my body progress and my fever kept going up so I needed to rest.
After the epidural I was able to take a couple short naps and rest and each time they checked me I kept progressing. They gave me antibiotics for my fever and kept watching Oakley's heartbeat closely since it was getting higher from my fever.
By 8pm I was at an 8 and they noticed his head was coming down a little funny so they tried to turn him in a better position. By 10pm I was at a 10. We were SO happy. I was getting my chance at a VBAC! This is what I spent the last 9 months researching and preparing for. It was time to push, but not before being reminded how "big" baby was, how big he measured on his last sonogram and he stil might not fit. My main nurse, who I loved, told me it could be 1-3 hours and that it was going to be a lot of work, but I could do it. After a couple of practice pushes I heard her run out into the hallway and yell at another nurse, get doctor in here this baby will be here in 15 minutes. This made me so happy and a few minutes later her was born!
He swallowed some meconium in the womb so the NICU team came in the room to help get the "junk" out of his chest and airways. His heart rate was really high and after being in the room for 40 minutes they decided to take him up to the NICU. I was so sad, but Garrett went with him and assured me that he was ok and was breathing room air. 10 minutes later Garrett and Oakley came back in the room and I was the happiest mom ever! Grandma got to see him for a minute and then we were taken to our postpartum room.
The next few days were spent resting and getting to know our new son. It was so nice to have that special time with him that we didn't get to have with Harlen since she was in the NICU. We missed Harlen so so much even though she did get to come visit, it was our first time for us to be away from her overnight. It was nice for Oakley to have his own time with us for those first special few days because now he will always be sharing his time with his big sister.
We are so thankful that everything worked out the way it did and he is so perfect. :)