Robert Deane Marshall was born via C-section at 5:01PM on July 18th, 2008. He weighed 6 lbs. 11 oz. and was 21 1/2 in. long.It took a LOT to get him here, though. My doctor decided to induce me at 6:30 PM on Thursday, July 17th because of my high blood pressure, as I posted before. He gave me Cervidil, which started some contractions, until 3 AM, but I only dilated to 1 CM. He then started Pitocin, which completely stopped my contractions. He maxed my dose of Pitocin at about noon and then decided to break my water (which hurt like no other!) and unfortunately, there was some meconium in my fluid, but they weren't too worried about it. Stronger contractions started and went on for a couple hours and I decided to have an epidural. My doctor then came in and checked me and I had only dilated to 2 CM, so they started prepping me for a C-section. As they were putting in my catheter, the baby's heart rate dropped and stayed at 50 BPM. The room was all of a sudden swarming with doctors and nurses and I was rushed to the O.R., leaving poor Matt in tow, clueless. As soon as they got me ready for surgery, the baby's heart rate stabilized, so they slowed things down a bit. When Robby was born, he wasn't breathing, so they had to resuscitate him. I've never been so terrified in my life! At that point, Matt was allowed into the room, donning scrubs. We sat and prayed and waited and finally Robby started screaming. Matt got to follow him to the nursery and hold him as I was being stitched up. Finally, they finished up and rolled me into my recovery room where I got to hold my precious baby boy for the first time. Luckily, the whole harrowing experience didn't effect him any and he was perfectly healthy after.
I must say that I never thought another man could steal my heart until I met my son. I am completely in love with the little guy! I'd like to say a huge thank you to our family friends for all your support and prayers through all this. I'd also like to say a special thank you, even though it will never be big enough, to Matt, who was the most awesome support coach in the world and was a huge source of strength in my moments of pain and weakness.
