The Travis Crossroads: Owen Carter Travis

Owen was born on June 18, 2010 at 4:38pm. He weighed 8lbs and was 20.5 inches long. To try and make a long story short...Charlie and I went to the hospital at about 6AM on June 18. I had been having contractions all night and they finally started coming about 5 minutes apart. I was so excited when I got to the hospital and saw that MY doctor was on the floor stillf rom the evening before. They put me on monitors and quickly realized it was time and got me a room/admitted me. My contractions started to speed up significantly after Dr. Blair broke my water (fyi pretty gross). Anyway, I was as calm as a cucumber! I was so excited and relaxed (Charlie was too). I could not wait to meet Owen. Once my contractions got to where I couldn't catch a break I finally asked for an epidural. I didn't want to take one too soon...I knew I was stronger than that. They got to where they were every one minute and lasting about one minute! I never knew I could stand that, but I did...now I couldn't have stood it for very long. By the time the anesthesiologist got in I had already had enough! (fyi epidural not bad at all...I thought it was going to be the scariest part...boy was I wrong). Finally around 3:00 Dr. Blair came in and said i could start pushing (after laying there for hours waiting to fully dilate - Owen was ready - babies are supposed to be in position 0 when about to push - he was lower - sometimes he was so low it was hard for the nurses to tell how much I was dilated). Anwyay, the moment was finally here! It was time for me to push...no turning back now! Charlie was WONDERFUL! I would not have been able to push as much/long if it weren't for him! AFter about an hour and a half Dr. Blair came in and tried to use the vacuum. By this time I was SOOOO TIRED! The vacuum wasn't working! I fianlly looked at Charlie and said I can't and just kind of went limp for a minute! Everything got sort of echoey (i know thats not a word) and I started to feel sick. I heard Dr. Blair throw everything down and call the OR and said our heart rates were dropping and not coming back up. I was on oxygen the whole time but apparently that wasn't helping...my body was wore out! As she was rolling me to the OR I was throwing up everywhere...I felt horrible and I knew where they were carrying me...I was so sad for that! I wanted to have Owen the other way and I sort of wanted to yell out "I can try again...I can try again". But I knew it wasn't going to work! Once they got me on "the table" they strapped my arms down (b/c my body was shaking so bad from the epidural) and they put the screen up. I just kept thinking...where's Charlie...we can't start without Charlie. (side note: all of this was stuff I was thinking - I was so out of it I couldn't even talk - I just kept looking around kind of in a daze). Then Charlie got there and stayed at my head the whole time! He was very concerned about me and knew I was freaking out. I could hear the razor and I could hear everyone talking but I couldn't tell you what they were saying because it was all just kind of mumbling. They gave me some nasty drink/medicine. Before I knew it I felt some pretty extreme pressure and then felt empty (it was weird). Then I just looked at Charlie and we made eye contact until we heard him cry for the first time! I started crying and I am certain Charlie's eyes started watering but he never cried! From what I hear and the pictures I have seen he was a pretty HAPPY DADDY though...so PROUD! They brought him over to me and I wish I would have been able to hold him but I started getting sick and just looked away. Something just didn't feel quite right about seeing him for the first time and feeling sick so I kind of talked to him for a second and looked away. They took him away and Dr. Blair made Charlie go to the nursary. I was just laying there helpless. For whatever reason they had unstrapped my arms (I think they were going to let me try and hold my baby...but I started throwing up again. Before I knew it my arms were out of control and were trying to pull down the blue screen in front of me. Next thing I know I wake up in the OR and they put me on the bed that rolls to my room and they rolled me to the recovery room. I am pretty sure they had to knock me out to calm me down because I don't remember anything! I saw my mom first...then my dad. I just kept saying I was sorry I tried to have him (like they cared...I was OUT OF IT). Once I got back to the room I got to hold Owen. I have pictures but I vaguely remember this. If I could do anything over again it would have been to hold him in the OR sick or not. I would have remembered that! Well...it all worked out fine. We finally came home 3 days later...spent the first night in the ER. Mom and Charlie had their hands full with a screaming baby and a histerical Jessica. My nerves...pardon my language...were to hell and back. Ended up...we probably weren't feeding him enough. After that we had some rough night until just about 2 weeks ago. He is finally trying to sleep through the night. Some nights he does! He really is a precious angel...I think I just expect too much from him sometimes. All in all we are doing great and I can't wait to watch our baby grow!

Here are A LOT of pictures since it has taken me so long to post anything!

JUNE 18,2010