Mason's Birth Story

I've been meaning to document Mason's birth story for some time now. Well, almost 22 months to be exact. It was such a special day for us and I dont want to ever forget a single second of it, but as time passes, the details start to fade. I figured I better get on it while I can still remember most everything. Here goes:

My earliest memory is from Friday May 8, 2009. My friend had her baby that day and I was so irritated because her due date was 2 days after mine. How dare she have her baby before me! I was truly happy for her but couldnt help feeling a little jealous that her baby had come and mine was still snug in my belly. I really wanted to have him before Mothers Day and thought I might when I woke up Sunday morning, on Mothers Day. Back up to Saturday though. I spent hours cleaning. Literally, was on my hands and knees scrubbing the bath for a good hour Saturday morning. The hot water had long run out by the time I was done but I didnt care. I just kept cleaning. After I took it out on the bathroom, I proceeded to attack the linen closet and wipe down every shelf and reorganize every item it contained. I talked to my dad during my cleaning frenzy and he said that he was sure the baby was coming soon because I had turned into a crazy cleaning woman. I wanted to believe him but didnt get my hopes up. Later on that day I went to visit a friends new twin girls that were 5 weeks old. I remember not even being able to hold them comfortably because my stomach was so big. I was holding them up to my collar bone and must have looked so awkward. Their mom thought coming over may be a good luck charm in hopes of getting labor started. Well, it may have worked...

I woke up Sunday morning very early, probably around 6am and told Josh we needed to go for a walk. I was feeling a little bit of contractions, nothing big, but something told me to just start walking. So that's what we did. We walked until close to 8am and must have seen every house within 3 square miles of ours. When we got back to the house Josh suggested we go to breakfast and I said, "okay, let's walk." Well, he vetoed that idea and I agreed, so we drove to Biscuits, only about a half mile away. While there, I had some minor contractions but didnt really think too much of it. Every year Josh plays in an alumni baseball game for Canby High School. I love to go and watch him play since we never knew each other in high school or college, therefore didnt ever get to see him play. Of course, this happened to be the weekend he was playing in the game. It was about 10am and I told him to go and I'd catch up with him at the field. I still had to shower and get ready and my plan was to walk to the high school. Of course I was going to walk! I would have walked to Lake Oswego if someone had suggested it! I was getting progressively more uncomfortable and had this dull back ache that would come and go. At that point I think I realized that I may actually be in early labor. I called a couple of friends and mentioned it to them and they said it sounded like back labor and said have fun with that! Back labor is horrible! Boy did I learn that... So I plugged on and finished getting ready and started to walk to the baseball field when I had the biggest contraction I had ever experienced (at that point) at the end of the driveway. I decided to drive rather than walk so I drove to the field and found my star athlete back on his home turf playing baseball. While I was at the baseball field my contractions became more intense and my back started to hurt more and more. Luckily I made it through the game, but not without several people noticing I was in labor. It was nice to be with people I knew at least and not by myself and be in labor! After the game, I drove back to the house and the contractions really picked up at that point and were coming every 2-3 minutes but only lasting 15-20 seconds. We knew those wouldnt really help me progress so we didnt think to rush off to the hospital. Those contractions were really painful, or so I thought, and prevented me from talking or even standing up straight. After about 30 minutes of these they slowed down a bit and we were able to go out for a walk again. Because it was Mothers Day, we had planned a BBQ at our house in honor of our moms and my grandma. Josh and I were doing all the cooking too. While on our walk, Josh calls my dad to tell him what's going on and I can hear him in the background saying "Alright! The baby's coming!!" He thought we were calling to cancel the BBQ, but I said no way and that we were doing it still and if we had to go have a baby during the bbq that's just what would happen. During our walk I had lots of contractions that required me to stop and be doubled over in pain but I wanted to keep walking. I was determined to walk this baby right out of me! When we got back to the house our parents were there and the contractions continued all through dinner. I remember getting up from the table to go outside to have a contraction and come back afterwards like nothing had happened. I also remember Josh saying that he didnt really think I was in labor and my Grandma looked at him like he was crazy and just said "you'll see". I knew I was in labor and was somewhat irritated that he said I wasnt! How would he know! Sheesh! So the BBQ ended and I thought I should try and get some sleep because we most likely had a long night ahead of us. That was a nice idea and all but I learned it's almost impossible to sleep when you are having big contractions like I was having. At this point they were sporatic and happening every 10-30 minutes so I still wasnt at a point to go to the hospital, unfortunately. I called L&D and the nurse told me to go to sleep and call when they got worse. Being irritated at people seemed to be the theme for the day because I was super irritated with her because she thought I wasnt really in labor either. I told her that she should try sleeping with these contractions! Then I hung up on her. I'm sure that showed her. Ha! I figured a bath would maybe help ease the pain that I was experiencing so I drew a bath and tried to relax. During my "relaxing" bath I received calls from the emergency on-call service for work. I was the on-call manager for the weekend so of course they would call when I was in labor! Being the trooper that I am, I took the call and dealt with the problem them polietly asked them not to call again because I was working on having a baby. At that moment. I think I freaked out the guy on the other end. Now that I think about it I should have let him hear me have a contraction, just to make sure I really freaked him out. I dont think I had too much humor running through my blood at this point though. I managed to call my boss and let her know what was going on and talk business for about 10 minutes, while in the tub, in between contractions. What can I say? I was a dedicated employee! My contractions are really intensifying so Josh goes and takes a shower in order to get ready for the hospital. At this point they are about 6 minutes apart so I know its time to go. We get dressed and hop in the car and start making our way to Kaiser Sunnyside. When we got in the car a song came on right away by Gavin DeGraw called "This is the start of something good". Wasnt that the truth. We both looked at each other and smiled knowing what lied ahead of us. I couldnt believe the contractions I was having and was in so much pain then after they were over it was like I was totally normal. How crazy! I was singing and dancing up a storm in the car then would stop for a minute to contract then start up singing again and felt good. I never expected that. On the way to the hospital the freeway was closed for construction. Of course it was closed! I literally had a freak out moment and felt like I was going to be the lady on FOX 12 News that had a baby on the side of the road. Luckily, they let us through and we made it to the hospital. They checked me into Triage right away and said that I was dilated to a 5 which I was pleased with. They also said that the baby would probably be born within the next few hours so we figured it was a good time to call our parents and let them know we were there. I got admitted to my room and the drug god showed up almost immediately with my "cocktail". The epidural was amazing and I could finally relax after such a long day and night. After throwing up immediately after it was put in I felt teriffic and we both went to sleep. All of our parents showed up and found us asleep in our room and were surprised. What were they expecting? A party?! We were exhausted. The nurse came in at 5am and checked me and said I hadnt progressed any and was going to break my water and start pitocin. At 7 she checked me again and said I was at 10 cm and could start pushing. I declined. I was so tired and just wanted to sleep more. They kept coming in asking if I had the urge to push and I told them I didnt. At some point I thought that I may want to just lie and tell them I did. After all, I didnt know what they would make me do if I never got the urge. C-section? Vacuum? Who knows. So I lied and told them I was ready and I started pushing. They said I was a great pusher and that the baby was only 20 or so mitutes away. That sounded great! I couldnt feel a thing because I was so numb and that was exactly the way I'd hoped it would be. About an hour and a half into pushing, still no baby and I'm starting to feel everything. It was the worst pain I've ever felt in my life. I told them about it and they said I needed to feel something and that it wouldnt even be close to what I was feeling last night. Well, I gladly would've traded what I was feeling at this moment for what Iwas feeling the night before. Who were they kidding? Then the big shocker came. My epidural had somehow come unhooked and nobody had noticed. I never imagined this would happen. By that time they said the baby was too close to being born for them to administer another epidural so I would just have to push through the pain. I pushed for another hour and a half and FINALLY, at 1:53 pm, Mason Randall Gregory arrived. When he came out he didnt cry like I had expected. He wasnt moving and he was grey. They said the cord was wrapped around his neck and they put him on my stomach for Josh to cut the cord. Apparently the cord isnt that easy to cut and Josh was having problems getting through it and the midwife started yelling at him to hurry up. I'm still not sure to this day if he actually cut it or if she did. She obviously knew there was a problem with the baby and had to focus her attention on him. Immediately a whole swarm of people came running into our room and took Mason to the warmer and started working on him. I could hear them call for the crash cart. I was so terrified that something had gone terribly wrong. So many thoughts had gone through my head and my worst fear what that he was still born. They gave him chest compressions and I could hear them encouraging him trying to get him to respond but all I could do was cry in disbelief and fear of the unknown. After what seemed like forever, they finally got him breathing and brought him over to me. In actuality, I think he probably didnt breathe for about 2 minutes but that was the longest 2 minutes of our lives. Even after they brought him to me I was still skeptical that he was truely okay. Once things calmed down a bit I really got to look at him and see what a beautiful baby he was. We were thrilled that he was a boy because I had wanted a boy first so badly. I'm glad I got my wish :) We ended up staying in the hospital until Wednesday night before going home. During our stay we had many visitors so Mason could meet his new family and friends that had been so anxious for his arrival.

Back on the saddle...

Well even with having good intentions of keeping a blog updated for friends and family, it failed miserably. We're back and ready to try again and hopefully this time be successful at keeping you all informed! How do you recap the last year and a half?? So much has happened and so much is on the horizon for the Gregory Family that it's hard to know where to start. I guess I'll pick up from where I left off last entry. Just to list a few things that have happened in the last year of so:

I quit my job
We moved to a new house
We took trips
We became landlords
I ran my first half marathon
I started my own company
Josh's beloved car finally blew up (so sad, he loved that car)
Mason took his first round of swim lessons
Mason turned 1!

To start, I left my job as a property manager after being with the same company for 6 years in order to stay home with Mason. I've loved every minute of it and have made some great friends during my time as a stay at home mom. We've enjoyed countless playdates, birthday parties, trips, dinners, family nights and so much more fun with our new found friends. Mason loves his buddies so much and it's so fun to watch them all together. I've spent the past year and a half at home caring for him but things have recently changed. I've started a new property management company called Southlake Property Management. That's right, I'm in business for myself and am having a great time being back in "the game". The amount of business that I have keeps me just busy enough to make a little extra money while still keeping myself marketable. Two mornings a week Mason goes to daycare and learns lots of new things and has an opportunity to spend time with other kids his age. His daycare teacher is one of his old Gymboree teachers that started her own daycare and once we heard that, it was obvious to us that was the best daycare for him if he was going to go to one. He is so excited each time he goes there and sometimes even surprises me with a sweet little art project that he put all his creative energy into. On Valentines Day he made me a special valentine, and I must say, it was the best Valentine I had ever received. There were big smiles on that boy's face when he gave it to me. He was so proud and I was so happy to receive it. Okay, well more later. Hopefully some exciting posts to come...

Time at home....

Last week marks my first full week of being "retired". To my surprise, the week went by so quickly despite being "at home". Mason and I found many ways to keep ourselves occupied while Dad was at work. It's amazing how busy you can make yourself in such a short amount of time. What a wonderful week we had! Our week was full of long walks, Gymboree classes, mom's group and meeting up with other baby friends for lunch. So fun! I think Mason is really enjoying having so much one on one time with me, and I'm cherishing every moment of it. He's such a different person than he was just one month ago. He's evolving into such a little man! We are very lucky to have such an easy going, sweet-natured baby. He's loving his Gymboree classes and is by far the loudest baby in the group. A couple of times that teacher has said that he is going to be one of those kids who tries to talk over the teacher in class! For now, we'll just chalk it up to him exploring the world around him and developing his vocabulary! It sure is funny to hear him but very distracting, I'm sure, at the same time!

This past weekend was full of fun events too. Friday night Josh and I were lucky enough to have a date night at our favorite Italian restaurant in the pearl followed by a mediocre movie at Bridgeport. Saturday Mason had Gymboree class again then the three , well four of us including Maggie, watched the Beaver game. It was an unfortunate ending game but we are still Beaver Believers and are looking forward to this weekends game where we will actually be at Reser Stadium.

Sunday morning was Mason's first Race for the Cure, outside of my belly , of course. He slept most of the way but seemed to enjoy the walk and looking at all the balloons overhead when he was awake. There were approximately 50,000 participants this year; the biggest so far. Portland's race is the biggest on the west coast and Josh and I have participated for the past 5 years and will continue to do so for many years to come. It's quite a moving experience to see the thousands of people and the energy you feel on race day. There is such great support for this foundation and we are happy to be a part of it.

After the race we had a wonderful champagne brunch at Shenanigan's on the Columbia River. This was the most impressive spread we have ever seen! Thanks to a past client of mine who owns the restaurant, we dined for free! The brunch had everything you could imagine, and we mean everything! Including sushi. Sushi? I didnt try it, but everything else was wonderful! Josh somehow missed the entire room filled with seafood and desserts... I didn't :)

Welcome

We've been thinking a lot about starting a blog lately and it seems that more and more people we know have them. We want this to be a good way to keep in touch with family and friends both locally and out of state. We'll make sure to update this as much as possible and post pictures of our latest adventures. Keep in mind that most of our posts will most likely have to do with the love of our life-Mason. He's growing up so fast and we've got lots to share with everyone. So stay tuned!