November 11th, 2005

The excerpt from Parker's Scrapbook...

November 7th is the day that started it all. I thought I was leaking amniotic fluid but just wasn’t sure. Barrett did some research online and figured that I was, but my water certainly hadn’t “broke”. Tuesday we headed out to the shack so Bear could hunt. We hit a deer on the way-that didn’t even send me into labor! While Barrett hunted I stayed back at the shack with Papa Don and Norm. We had walkie talkies to communicate-or so we thought, they ended up not working too well! Norm made his signature dish for lunch-sauerkraut with potatoes. Maybe that’ll get things going?! Nope not yet.

Wednesday, I was convinced that I was still leaking amniotic fluid so I put a call into Dr. Stone’s nurse, she had us go to the clinic for some tests. Is this the beginning or a false alarm? One test said I was the other said I wasn’t. Back home we go, they said to keep our appointment for Thursday (November 10th) and have the non-stress test done on the baby.

Thursday, November 10th around 1 pm. I was watching Days of our Lives and felt a few contractions. Nothing big though. We had our appointment at 3 o’clock so I figured we would wait until then. We get to the clinic and get all hooked up to the non-stress test. Dr. Stone runs some more tests and tells me that my water had definitely broke and that I was dilated to 3 centimeters. Wow! This is it…so he tells us to go home, eat something, grab our bags, and head to the hospital. I still wasn’t feeling much so I was convinced I was going to be sent home until things started to progress more. Nope, we get to the hospital at 5:30 and they admit me. Here we go…we made a few phone calls to let our families know what is going on. I managed to watch Survivor and part of ER. I was too excited to sleep so they gave me a Benadryl. Well that didn’t start working until after midnight and by then I was dilated to 5 cm and feeling the contractions more!

It is now November 11th. Barrett started to get really tired so he slept a little. I rested and labored until 2 am when I reached 6 cm. Then I asked for some pain relief. I was given an injection into my IV to help “take the edge off”. Well it did but it also slowed down the labor. At 4 am I was dilated to 7 cm and begging for the anesthesiologist to give me the Intrathecal. They gave me another IV injection to tide me over until he arrived. I joked with the staff about him having lots of money and living up at the lake and that was what took him so long to get there! Come to find out he did live up at the lake. We decided to call family to tell them to come to the hospitals waiting room. Grandma Audrey arrives just before 6 am along with Dr. Stone. The anesthesiologist finally arrives and gets the spinal in place at 6 am. I was finally able to relax and let my body go the rest of the way. I dilated from 7 cm to 10 cm in one hour. 7 am we had a shift change and Lisa was my nurse. She gave me some pointers on how to push and we begin the delivery. I had my mom and Barrett on each side of me. They took turns counting to ten and helping me breathe. This is it…

After 2 ½ hours of pushing our little Parker Anthony arrived at 9:26 am. They put him on my chest and we all started crying. It was a very emotional time. We couldn’t believe how beautiful he was!

Daddy wheeled you down in the bassinet to see everyone in the waiting room. Then they took you to be weighed and measured. You were 7# 11oz and 20 ½ inches long. You have light brown hair with a little red in it and big eyes! Will they be brown like mommy’s? You have daddy’s nose...