Welcome to the world ROMAN JOEL!!!!

Wow!  It has been exactly one month since I last blogged.  A LOT has happened since then!  I will have to update later on Easter and Mother's Day and some other events, but most importantly I want to take this blog to announce (this is almost a month overdue!) the birth of our son!

Roman Joel Cline was born at 3:00 PM on Friday, April 29th. He weighed 8 lbs 6 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long.

Here is how it all went down:

My last post was on Baby Boy Cline's due date (April 25th). 

The next day (Tuesday) I had an appointment.  At that point I had made a small bit of progress (4+ cm and 75 % effaced).  As I talked with the doctor about how things had been going and how many false labors I had, he explained that he felt it would be best if we induced toward the end of the week.  He said that he was worried that I would go really fast when it was the real thing and that I wouldn't know when to come in to the hospital since I had already had many episodes of having contractions 2 min apart for multiple hours.  So, we scheduled an induction for Thursday, April 28th. 

At about 4:45 on Wednesday night I got a call from the hospital saying I had been "bumped" to Friday.  What?  They "bump" people???  Anyway, I guess there were too many scheduled inductions and c-sections and since mine wasn't urgent, I got bumped. 

So, finally, on Friday we arrived at Mercy West Lakes (I also had to go to West Lakes b/c Downtown was too full) at 6:30 AM.  I asked if they could just break my water and wait as long as possible to see if I could progress on my own before being put on pitocin.  My doctor said she would give me until noon.  She broke my water at 7:30 AM.  By 9:30 I was dilated to 5 or so and by noon I was dilated to 6 or 7.  The doctor said I was doing great on my own and shouldn't need pitocin!  I was so happy!  At this point I was still contemplating whether or not to get an epidural.  I did get one with Haven after 39 hours of labor and she still took 5 more hours to be born!  I was thankful that I did get one in those circumstances but in my heart of hearts I really wanted to do it naturally.  Not that I have anything to prove, I just have heard many friends that have had it both ways prefer not having an epidural and say the recovery is way better.  So anyway, I kept wrestling with myself on what I wanted to do.  Around 2 PM I was dilated to 8 and the nurse suggested that I just try some fentenol (sp?) to take the edge off.  Then maybe I could think more clearly and make a decision.  The drug did help me to calm down and stop panicking between contractions.  I wouldn't say it helped the pain, just helped my nerves and helped me to relax.  Well, at least for about 20 minutes!  At about 2:45 things started feeling different and the nurse decided to check me.  She was surprised that I was at a 10.  The doctor was on her way and the room became crazy with a ton of people.  It was seriously such a blur and all I could do was focus on Adam to not completely lose my mind!  Once the doctor got there I pushed three times for a total of 6 minutes and Baby Boy Cline made his arrival! 

We had such a great experience at West Lakes.  We were the only family on the entire floor so the entire staff was at our service!  The nurses were amazing!  We had the same nurse every night we were there and she even cried when we had to say good bye the last day. 

The Lord was so faithful in answering so many prayers! First, I didn't have to have Pitocin. Second, I was able to deliver without an epidural. Third, our baby was so healthy and beautiful! Fourth, my recovery has been tremendously better than it was with Haven.  Fifth, my favorite doctor out of 7 doctors was the doctor on call that day and she was so awesome!

Roman and Mommy in the hospital.  Isn't he perfect?!?!?!??!



More pictures and information to come!