Lindsey and Andrew Pollock: Mason Andrew Pollock

I could just sum up this post by saying that 12 babies were born on July 15 at St. Marks hospital. I was the first mom to arrive at the hospital and the very last one to deliver. But since you asked, this is how it went. On Sunday night July 14 I was induced. I was given three rounds of cytotec to get things going. It was a very long night! I burned through 3 movies as I lied in a hospital bed in pain. I laughed every time the nurse would come in and tell me to try and get some sleep. Not possible when you are 8 days past your due date, having to pee every five minutes, feeling cramps and contractions, starving because you're only allowed to eat popsicles, jello, and water all while lying in a hospital bed with a thousand gadgets hooked to your body and an annoying blood pressure cuff that must go off every 15 minutes! Sleep? I don't even know what that means.
Finally 8 am Monday morning rolled around and my water broke. I was so shocked that my body decided to do something on its own. I was pretty sure of two things: 1) I lost about ten pounds right there and 2) Mason was always meant to be born on July 15. However, I still had a long way to go because I was only dialated at a 2.
At 10 am they put me on pitocin and this really got the contractions going. Boy did I have strong ones. By 1 pm I was only at a 4 but got the very well deserved epidural. I had gone through nearly 18 hours of pain. The instant relief was amazing until my blood pressure dropped extremely low. I was having a hard time breathing so they put me on oxygen and I just remember feeling so weak I could barely keep my eyes open. Mason was not handling the drug well either so a few minutes later they injected me with something that boosted my blood pressure back to normal. The next 4 hours of my life I got to love pain free, but Mason was still not doing so well so about every 20 minutes the nurse would come in and help me switch positions to see if we could get him feeling better.
At 5 pm I was only dialated to a 5 and my dr came in and let me know that we would have to do a c-section. A lot of time had passed and the baby and I were both in distress so it was the best thing to do. A part of me always knew that I would have to have a c-section, but I still wasn't prepared for it.
Once again the anesthesiologist came in and gave me even more powerful drugs. This time my entire body was numb. I don't think I have ever been more scared in my life. It was all very surreal watching Andrew dress in the blue surgical gown, being wheeled into the operating room and staring up at the huge blinding lights as they strapped my arms down out to the side of me. It was the first major surgery I've ever had and there is nothing pleasant at the thought of having your stomach ripped open, but all I really cared about was that Mason was healthy.
It only took a few minutes until I heard Mason's cry. I was bawling and said to Andrew, "Is he cute? Does he have hair?" Both to which he replied yes with tears streaming down his face. In the 7 years I've known Andrew I have never seen him shed a tear until that moment. I'll never forget the image of our baby (aka mini Andrew) that had just come from heaven in Andrew's arms as he brought him over to me so I could see him. It was incredible!
I was dying to hold my baby but it took another 30-40 minutes for the doctors to finish up the surgery. During this process I started to feel a lot of undescribable pain so they had to give me more numbing medicine. Even though I was completely loopy and puking, I have never been happier! I don't think I stopped crying for the next hour haha. I was so incredibly happy to finally have a healthy baby boy in my arms and to have an amazing husband who didn't leave my side once. All 7 lbs 6 oz and 20 inches of him were absolutely perfect. He immediately brought so much joy to our lives. We just kept looking at him and saying, "we made this!" "He is ours forever!" He may have been stubborn every second in the womb, but he is seriously the sweetest baby in the world that will steal your heart with one look into his eyes.