It’s been a crazy week! It’s hard to believe that week ago today (Sunday, July 20), we were packing up and going to the hospital. I had gotten up early that morning and noticed what I thought was my water starting to break. We called the doctor and she said to get packed up and head the hospital in the next couple hours. By 7:00 a.m., I went in to tell Tj that we should probably get going soon. I crawled up on the bed to talk to him and when I stepped off the bed — GUSH! No question about it, it was time to have a baby.

So off we go — with one minor stop for Tj to get some McD’s breakfast. The drive over was surreal and there really weren’t any contractions to speak of. We got to Labor and Delivery about 9:00 a.m. and after being checked out they said that we were being admitted. The Johnsons were very excited and showed up as they were getting ready to transfer us. They brought us up to our room and made me walk the halls for a while to get the labor moving along. Back and forth. Forth and back. Everyone took their turn keeping me company and talking and walking.

Things progressed pretty slowly. Both Johnson and Tava families were keeping me company coming in and out of the room so the time passed quickly. Everyone thought it was really fun to watch the monitors and tape and compare the perceived size of the contraction with the tension and grimace on my face. “Oh that’s a big one!” they’d say. And I’d have to glare at them thinking “No shit!” I was a little on edge and really sensitive to noise. I did get a little snippy with everyone and threatened to kick them all out if they were getting on my nerves. So I instituted a check-mark system like elementary school. It got pretty funny when I “put your name on the board” as they tested my nerves. I think at one point I gave everyone in the room a check-mark at once.

By early afternoon I was only dilated to 3cm and Dr. Woodland wanted me to start with the Oxytocin about 3:00 p.m. Things kicked up a notch at that point and the once tolerable contractions got more intense and closer together. At that point I needed everyone out of the room except Alicia and Tj. Things were getting rough and I needed to focus, so everyone went and had some dinner and waited in the family room.

I was determined to avoid narcotics and elected to just tough it out. I’m very sensitive to pain meds and I didn’t want to start throwing up — not to mention that narcotics are passed on to the baby. By 5:00 p.m. I was dilated to 5cm and ready for the epidural. And thus started my relationship with the North Memorial anesthesiologist.

The epidural was immediately effective, but I still had some sensation and could even feel my catheter. They say sometimes the epidural isn’t 100% effective and that’s what happened to me. I labored for another couple hours and the pain killer started to wear off. I think at this point I was dialated between 7cm – 8cm.

Sometime around 9:00 p.m. I needed another kick of epidural juice and they called him back to give me a bolus (extra shot of medicine into the IV). Waiting for him was torture. I guess there’s only one guy on the night shift and he also has to work the ER and trauma units. So he could get to me for about 20 minutes and it takes another 20 for the juice to kick in. Once I got the extra dose I felt better for the most part, but then I started vomiting — exactly what I didn’t want to do.

At the peak of the epidural’s effectiveness, I didn’t feel much besides some pressure. Unfortunately, an hour later it was wearing off again. I asked for another bolus around 10:45 p.m. God bless him, but the anesthesiologist was tied up and couldn’t get back to me until nearly 11:20. (Don’t forget it takes 20 minutes to kick in!) So I labored at 9.5cm for nearly an hour without a full epidural and really not much relief. It was absolutely the worst hour of my life. My nurse Lisa was amazing and kept telling me how great I was doing and that he was on his way. At one point I remember crying to her that “he really needs to come now!”

By 11:40, the nurses said Dr. Woodland was on her way and that we needed to get started pushing. Since I had recently got the kick of the bolus I was having a hard time feeling the contractions and when to push. But the urge was amazing and I could feel the pressure. We pushed a couple times and Dr. Woodland came in for the delivery. The pushing part went quickly and Miles was out in about 30-40 minutes. I probably only pushed five or six series of pushes. Dr. Woodland did have to give me an episiotomy to give him a little room to come out. But at that point, you just do what you have to!

Seventeen minutes into July 21, his Auntie Mandi’s birthday, Miles Luca Johnson was born. All I remember is looking up and seeing Alicia and Tj cheering me on saying they could see the head and just a couple more pushes. Alicia was crying and Tj’s eyes were filled with tears. Even the nurse Lisa was getting teary, I think it was one of her first deliveries as she had just transfered from the NICU. He same out and Alicia announced it was a boy! They put him up on my chest and all I could say repeatedly was “Holy crap!” over and over. The resident doctor cut the cord and Alicia and Tj watched as the nurses took care of him, cleaned him up, weighed and measured him. I still had to deliver the placenta and get stitched up.

Alicia had the pleasure of going out to the family room and telling everyone that he was here. From what I hear she stormed into the room bawling here eyes out saying “We have a baby!” Back in the delivery room Tj and I took some time to bond with Miles before everyone came in to meet him. Tj just looked at him and said “He’s pretty great.” And we sat there exhausted and elated, together as our new family. The grandparents and aunts came in to meet him and everyone quickly went home as it had been a long day.

We were escorted to our recovery room and spent some time feeding and taking care of Miles before we sent him off to the nursery so everyone could get some sleep.

What an amazing day — welcome to the world Miles!

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