Our Little Man

Garth Maxwell McClellan was born Oct. 19th at 10:21 am. He was 7 lbs 2 oz and 20 inches long.

On Monday Oct. 28th I went to the doctor for a 40 1/2 week check up. My doctor said I was still dilated 3 cm (I had been for over 3 weeks at that point) and said we could try to strip my membranes (for the second time) but if that didn't help that he most likely wouldn't come till my induction date on Nov 1st. I could already tell that stripping my membranes that time seemed more effective but I wasn't sure if it was just cause I was so far along at that point. I continued my day by striping wall paper at my sister-in-law's house for 3 hours. I could feel contractions throughout it but was skeptical because I usually got contractions when I would do exercise. But after I went home and showered I noticed that I could time my contractions. So starting around 4 pm I started timing my contractions. They were about 15 minutes apart and pretty subtle. Mitch and I decided to keep busy so I wouldn't go crazy and we went out to dinner, went on a walk, etc. Around 10 that night they were still 15 minutes apart though noticeably more painful. I figured we should try and get some rest so we went to bed. But that lasted a whole 30 minutes because my contractions were speeding up (now about 8-10 min apart) and way painful.
By 11 I was crying with each contraction. They still weren't 3-5 min apart though so we were nervous about going to the hospital and being turned away. Since the pain was so bad we decided just to go. And by the time we got to the hospital at midnight, they were 3 min apart. The nurse checked me and I was dilated to a 4 so the doctor gave the okay for me to go get my epidural. At 1:30 my epidural was placed, and holy cow it made all the difference for me. I was finally able to relax for a little while. My mom and Mitch's mom stayed the whole night with Mitch and I. At about 2:30 the doctor broke my water and gave me some pitocin to speed up the labor. Well, it sped it up really really fast so they took me off it and let me continue dilating on my own. At 8:00 am on the 29th we started pushing. Mitch was my rock through pushing. He did the counting and held one leg while my mom held the other.
After 2 1/2 hours of pushing the doctor came in and saw that while I was really close, I just needed some more room and I was losing strength really fast. He gave me an episiotomy and sure enough, two pushes later our son was out. He just needed a little extra room to get out. I was so relieved because I didn't know how I was going to get him out. I thought for sure they would have to do a c-section.
The first thing he did when he got out was pee, which was really funny, and then they put him onto my chest to get skin to skin contact. He was so wide eyed and calm, it was the most surreal experience.

But then they had to whisk him away because he was really pale and having a hard time breathing. 

Mitch left with him and I had to recover. When we met them in the recovery room baby was doing great, he pinked up and his breathing was just fine. 

Sometimes I think back and can't believe I did that. It is amazing what our bodies can do. Recovery has been the pits but I wouldn't trade baby Max for anything. Mitch and I are so in love and feel so blessed that we have the privilege to raise this precious spirit.