The day Spencer was born.

Well, God is funny! I don't know how many times I said, "He can come any time, just not on Monday." It seems that everyone had something going on yesterday. Josh was going to Tyler, Mom was driving to Houston and Melissa had to work. That is just how my life seems to work, whatever I don't think is best, always is, which is fine, a continuous reminder that I am not in charge! This is what the day was like:

We all had a wonderful nights sleep last night (the first in a long time) and when Sam woke up at 6:30, she was in a GREAT mood. Daddy had to go out of town and left the house about 7am for Tyler. Starting about 7:30am I noticed contractions that were different than any I had been having. When I started watching the clock I realized they were coming about every 5 minutes. I had been washing the dishes when I realized that this was probably the beginning of labor so I went and jumped in the shower, making certain that was done, if in fact this was it!

After getting ready, I tried to get the house picked up a little and finish the dishes. I finally called my Mom and told her that she should probably hold off heading to Houston until she heard from me again. (She was supposed to pick up my nephew in Houston to stay the week with them. She ended up having to buy him a plane ticket to get him here….Spencer says “sorry”, Nini) I wasn’t quite sure what I should do because the contractions were painful but not so much that I couldn’t walk during them. That was supposedly what I was waiting for. I guess my motherly wisdom just led me to the decision to go ahead and go up there. I called my Mom back and told her to come get me and called Saundra to come get Samara. I still had to get the additional things for my hospital bag and pack Sam a bag and by the time I got that done, they were there.

Mom & I headed to the hospital about 9:30am. I hadn’t slowed down long enough in the past 30 minutes to even know if the contractions were still coming regularly. Once I got in the car I started timing again and they were still 5 minutes apart, some 3. So, Mom dropped me off at the Women’s Center and I went and checked myself in. Apparently everyone thought I was just jumping the gun. When Mom came down to my room after parking the car, she heard the nurse that checked me in say, “Well, she doesn’t look like she is in labor but this is her 2^nd or 3^rd pregnancy, so I guess she knows.” (actually I didn’t know and that just made me feel like I was dumb for coming up there) Anyway, got in the room, got settled, and my nurse Valerie got me all set up on the monitors and checked me. She said I was dilated to 4 ½ cm so, that wasn’t really very much progression from the last doctors visit and they weren’t sure they were going to be able to keep me. After about 30 minutes on the monitor she came back in and told me that I had to walk for 30 minutes and then come back because she wanted to get a good progression the next time she checked me. (can I just tell you how embarrassing it was walking around the hospital in a hospital gown and flip flops?) We got back to the room and she checked me again and I was a 5 ½. Apparently she was satisfied with that progression and they decided to admit me. Later she told me that they just didn’t think I was in true labor because I was talking and laughing and stuff and were really surprised that I wasn’t screaming through the contractions when I was so dilated and still didn’t have an epidural. I just don’t react to pain that way. In my mind, if I ignore the pain and continue to do whatever I was doing, it isn’t as intense. Also, I am just not vocal (yes, I know that is not normal for me)….instead, I get totally quiet, close my eyes and scrunch up my face! I guess this had the staff fooled.

Josh made it back in town and to the hospital around 12:30pm. Thankfully he hadn’t gone far! Around 1:30pm she checked me again and I was a 7 ½ and the anesthesiologist came and gave me the epidural! That was nice! I was actually extremely happy with the block because I could still feel quite a bit, but the pain was gone for the most part. I could still move my legs which was nice. With Samara, the block was so strong that I couldn’t even pick up my legs or feel anything. It was much better this way! About 2pm the doctor came and broke my water to get things going. By doing this, they found a little meconium in the fluids and were a little concerned. They had a few extra neo-natal people at the delivery to make sure they were ready for any problems that the meconium might have caused. Of course this made us both nervous, but especially Josh. He was close to passing out at one point.

Around 3pm she said I was a 10 and called the doctor to come over. She kicked everyone out of the room about 3:15 and started prepping me. By the time she got me all set up I really had the urge to push but she kept telling me to wait until the doc got there. Once the doc got there and prepped herself I gave one good push and there he was! It was CRAZY! I couldn’t believe it when she said, “Look down, here he is!” “WHAT?” He came out crying so we knew everything was ok. It was so amazing! He was beautiful and he looked so much like Samara when she was born. So, Spencer Nolan Martin was born at 3:42pm on June 23, 2008. I was right in my guesstimate about his weight. I knew he couldn’t be as big as the rest of the Martin babies….I just didn’t have that kind of room in my tummy! 7lbs, 3oz and 19” long. He is wonderful!

And so is He! I am so thankful and blessed to have two wonderful, healthy kiddos. Something else that I prayed feverishly about was that I would have a good nurse. Let me just tell you that this whole experience has been AWESOME and I was really worried after the bad experience I had during pre-term. God poured out his blessing upon us! The staff has been wonderful…..every one of them….I haven’t had a single nurse that I didn’t like! The anesthesiologist was fantastic and the doctor was GREAT. My doctor didn’t deliver him because she wasn’t on call but thankfully my favorite doctor out of the other 3, Dr. Taylor, was the one who delivered him.

Saundra brought Samara up after he was born. She was VERY curious. She wasn't sure why she wasn't the center of attention but she did pretty good. Here she is showing off her Big Sister shirt.

Here is a picture of all of his hair.