The birth mother’s due date came and went as all of us were nervously waiting. We got an update saying that if she did not go into labor within a few days that she would be induced. The induction date was set for November 3rd, so we decided to head up there a day early to get settled into our hotel and be able to be at the hospital bright and early the next day.
My mother-in-law made the first part of the trip with us so she could watch Will when we were in the hospital. The agency recommends that you spend as much time as possible in the hospital. They also suggest that other children come to visit, but not spend a ton of time there, so we are able to fully bond with the new baby.
We arrived at the hospital at about 7am on November 3rd. The doctor told us that they were going to first scrape her membranes to see if that would trigger labor. After a few hours, nothing was happening so they gave her a low dose of medicine (not pitocin) that would help with labor. Contractions began but were very slow and irregular. After a full day of trying that, not much was happening, so the doctor decided to let her rest for the night and start pitocin the next day.
The next morning the doctor gave her pitocin. She began having pretty strong contractions, but nothing consistent right away. My husband and I were given a room to stay in where we could get updates and try to relax ourselves. Every hour or so, one of her friends would come in and let us know what was happening. As the contractions got stronger, we began to prepare ourselves for the delivery. The birth mother had told us on a phone conversation weeks earlier that she would like us to be in the room for the birth. We were very excited, but unbelievably nervous too.
At around 10pm the contractions were really strong and more consistent. As we were told it was “go time” her friend came out of the room and asked us if we could go back to our room instead of the delivery room. I panicked. Once again, I was convinced that she had changed her mind. I tried putting myself in her place and could only think of the emotional rollercoaster she was on, and after experiencing pregnancy and about to give birth, I could see how she might change her mind. I prayed that she do what is truly best for her and the baby, and that is all I could do. Putting this in God’s hands was the only way to make it through this situation.
We didn’t hear from anyone for a few hours. It was absolute torture. Then, her friend came in and said that the baby’s vitals were starting to fall because of the extremely long labor. The birth mother was being prepared for a C-section, and NO, she did not change her mind. Praise the Lord! We went to wait outside the surgery room, as no one other than the birth mother and doctors were allowed in. The doctor did, however, ask for a camera and said she would take a lot of pictures for us.
A few minutes later, we heard a baby cry (an extremely loud cry!). The nurses brought him out and announced that the baby was totally healthy! We were so excited, but had no clue if we had another son or a daughter. The nurse turned again, smiled, and said, “it’s a boy!”
We went to the area where they cleaned him up, weighed and measured him, and we saw our son for the first time. We still hadn’t settled on a name, but once I saw that he had a ton of blonde hair, I knew we would name him Casey. (For some reason, I had it in my head that ‘Casey’s’ only had blonde hair).
