Rowan Edward Wickstrum
Born on 5.29.10 at 2:01pm
7lb 12oz and 19 3/4 in long
We are pleased to announce the arrival of our son, Rowan Edward Wickstrum. Rowan's birth was quite an adventure, but worth every second. We had a scheduled induction on Friday morning at 6:30am due to hypertension. And so the waiting began...
I was progressing pretty quickly and made it to 4cm by 12pm. At 1pm, the doctor broke my water. The fast progression then slowed way down. By dinner time, I was 7cm and holding. I was checked again at 10pm and still 7cm. At this point I was getting pretty anxious and frustrated. I wanted to meet our baby boy so badly. To make matters worse, 3 other women in Labor & Delivery were either fairly close to delivering or were in the process of birthing their child.
Midnight came and went with little to no progress. So, the nurse took me off of pitocin to trick my body into contracting more once placed back on. With a room full of sleepy visitors, I began to cry. Not the "I'm really sad about the situation" cry, but the "I'm exhausted and uncomfortable and frustrated" cry! I managed to get about an hour total of sleep that night between my blood pressure cuff going off and the constant beeping of my medication pumps.
During shift change, Norma, my new assigned nurse was bound and determined to deliver this baby by 10am. Thank goodness!!! She increased the pitocin to beyond the normal limit in hopes that my body would respond. And it did! By 10am I had progressed to 9 1/2 cm. Rowan's head was descending quickly, so the nurse thought that pushing would force his head down and we would finally be able to deliver this baby.
4 hours of pushing later, the doctor gave me two options: rest for an hour to see if he descends more and try to push again OR go ahead and do a c-section. I immediately responded, "please do the c-section."
I began crying again. I really did not want a c-section in the first place and I was so hungry that I thought that meant another day of ice chips! The anesthesiologist came in and pushed more epidural medication, which unfortunately did not take. I began to cry even more because I could feel my contractions.
I was wheeled into the operating room. I ended up receiving a spinal because my body was rejecting the epidural medication. Erik joined me and a few short minutes later, we were introduced to our beautiful son! Poor little Rowan's head was too big and became lodged in my pelvis, so it was inevitable that we would end up with a c-section. Words could not explain the feelings that overwhelmed us as we touched his cute little face. Although, I underwent 28 hours of labor, I would do it all over again for this little guy!
Well, Rowan is now 19 days old! Who knew time could fly by when you have a newborn around. I have been recovering well from the c-section and probably doing a lot more than I should. But, who can stand to just sit around all day when you have moving boxes staring you in the face and luring you to unpack them! 
