Welcome to the world, Fisher Scott Eby.  We are so excited that you’re here.  Our boy is 7 1/2 weeks old now, and we are getting the hang of parenting him a little more each day.  It has taken me a little while to be ready to tell this story.  I did not have the birth I planned or expected, and for some reason I needed to mourn the loss of that for a little while.  As my due date approached, everything was looking good.  I had been 3-4 cm dilated for weeks and almost completely effaced.  Because Fisher was measuring large, my doctor wanted to induce before my due date.  I wanted to wait until a few days after, and she respected that decision, but didn’t want me to wait very long.  We negotiated for 3 days after the due date.
On May 31st we went in for our induction at 8 am.  They told me not to eat, but I’ve never been a rules kid so we hit Chick-fil-a on the way.  I researched eating during labor and saw that the only reason they tell you not to is because of the slim chance of an emergency c-section, and if in case of c-section the slim chance you will have to put under general anethesia.  Jed made me confess to the nurse that I had eaten (he is such a rules kid), and the only consequence was that I had to wait until noon to be eligible for an epidural.  So glad I ate those chicken minis.
I wanted to try to birth without meds, but knew it would be difficult with pitocin contractions.  When we arrived I was 4 cm dilated and totally effaced.  I started progressing well and held off the epidural until around 1.  The reason I went for it was that I had my sister and brother-in-law in the room (who are a nurse and doctor) reading the monitor and telling me the strength of the contractions.  I could handle them ok where they were, but knew they would be getting worse.  Once back labor started I was ready for some meds.
My doctor offices 2 floors below labor and delivery, so she was in and out all day which was unexpected and awesome.  Fisher was flipped sunny side up which makes for a difficult delivery, so she tried to turn him twice.  This was not fun.  Seriously not fun.
After laboring from 10 until 5:30, I was at 10 cm and ready to push.  Fisher was still facing up so I knew I had a hard road ahead.  My doctor, our awesome nurse, my mom, sister, and Jed were all in the room.  I pushed with everything I had for 2 hours without much progress.  Fisher moved only from a -2 to a -1.  My doctor was concerned but knew I wanted to avoid a c-section so she let me push a further 30 minutes.  I have never worked so hard in my whole life.  My epidural wore off for the most part after 1.5 hours of pushing, and the back labor was like no pain I’ve ever experienced.  My sweet sister was my doula and massaged my back throughout the pushing while Jed and our nurse held my legs.  My doctor allowed me to try several different positions (all fours, on my side, etc) but nothing worked.  After 2.5 hours of pushing and no movement, my doctor broke the news that I would have to have a c-section.  She didn’t want to attempt to use forceps or a vacuum because he was stuck behind my pelvis and his shoulder would almost certainly break.  I agreed to a c-section and the wheels went into motion.  I was calm and had a peace about it, but it was pretty scary for Jed.
Because my epidural had stopped working a new had to be put in, but it didn’t work either.  Finally after 45 minutes of trying to get me numb the doctor had to use local and light general anesthesia.  This freaked Jed out because I had eaten a few Luna bars throughout the day (so not a rules kid).  Thankfully Fisher was not in distress so they were able to wait for me to be numb.  The c-section went well and Jed was handed our beautiful baby boy at 8:56 pm, just 13 hours after arriving at the hospital.  He weighed 8 lbs 10 oz, and was 19 in long.

This is our first family photo.  I am totally out of it, but so relieved to have a healthy baby.  I just knew he was a boy the whole pregnancy.  🙂

Our sweet friends and family were in the waiting room for hours so they could meet our boy.  They are awesome.