BIRTH DAY, well not quite

I was due to have a baby one year ago today. I have never actually gotten around to writing the story of Dane's birth. I thought about doing it a few months ago but decided at that point I might as well wait until that special day came up again. So here it is one year later.
My due date was October 27th. My final scheduled OB appointment was Wednesday October 29th. Surely I wouldn't make it that long. I really wanted to go into labor naturally. I thought it would be easiest on my body and I thought that was just they way it should go. Back up a few weeks and the OB actually offered to let me choose a day to be induced if I so desired. Really? I am done lets get this over with just like that? I chose to wait hoping I my body and baby would decide it was time. Along rolled my appointment on the 29th. I was really wrestling with the decision of waiting or inducing. I finally decided on inducing though I wasn't real comfortable with the idea. As the nurse was checking the calendar it came down to either Friday October 31st or Wednesday November 5 since they don't induce on weekends, and the other days were full. And there was one particular day I was hoping to avoid. Well the rest is history. Boy oh boy am I glad I didn't wait another week. He would have been a 10 or 11 pounder like his daddy.
We didn't tell anyone except my mom that we were inducing, I really wasn't interested in having an audience at the hospital. We got up early friday morning and headed for the hospital I was so nervous wondering if I made the right decision to be induced on reformation day nonetheless. We got there got all checked in in a huge room with an awesome view. All I really remember was being incredibly nervous.
I knew I wanted to do things as naturally as possible but I didn't have a birth plan or anything. I figured I would go as long as possible with out drugs and if things seemed like they were going fast then I would hang in there, but if it was still going to take hours and hours I would probably end up with an epidural. Maybe I should of researched it more and mentally prepared but maybe ignorance is bliss. Most of the natural idea got thrown out the window with being induced.
Once they hooked me up to the monitors they could tell my body was already starting to labor on it's own. Off to a good start I thought. Then they started the pitocin drop, it increased every half hour. It wasn't too bad at first. I made it about 4 hours with out any pain meds. After they broke my water it was a different story. I felt like I could hardly breathe through the contractions and was getting really light headed, faint and nauseous. I asked how much longer they thought it would be based on dilation and the pitocin and the nurse figured several (like 4-5) more hours. I knew I would not last that long with out any pain relief. They started something in my IV to get me by until the epidural guy got there. It worked pretty well and I was able to relax and talk with the nurse and Andy and also got in some much needed rest. It was really a very peaceful experience. I couldn't even feel my my contractions at all.
Time to push. I couldn't feel anything. It seemed at first like things were moving right along. The nurse was so excited and encouraging. She said I was doing a good job. After awhile I knew nothing much was happening despite her encouragement. It wasn't really that bad because I couldn't feel anything, not a thing, couldn't even move my legs an inch. It was all a mental game and I was doing fine with that. They gave me an option after pushing for 2 hours to either keep trying, use the forceps or do a c-section. Of course I would keep trying. I ended up pushing for 3 hours. The Dr. came and I had the option of forceps or c-section. Since baby's head seemed to be having a hard time coming out. I decided to go for the forceps since I felt I was so close and didn't want my guts cut open.
I have to admit I was so nervous I just kept my eyes closed a lot of the time. I didn't really want to know what forceps looked like and I really didn't want to see them yank my baby out. I felt if I saw it then I would be better able to imagine the pain that I could barely feel. So I just kept trying to picture our new baby girl or baby boy wondering what he/she would look like. The moment arrived and they laid the newest Fogle face down on my chest and the Dr said "oh we should have done a c-section that's a big baby". We looked down at our baby and started to say "he...she...is...hey is it a girl or a boy?" With all the commotion the Dr forgot to take a peak and reveal the long awaited answer. The Dr. picked him back up and said it's a boy! So the "It's a ____ !" moment was a little bit anti climatic, but it didn't matter our baby was here!
The Doctor took a moment to explain what she was going to do next, something to do with a needle and blood, I asked her to maybe fill me in later, I really didn't want to know what was going on below, I thought it would make it hurt worse to know. I think it was pretty rough on me, 4th degree tearing, I got a catheter for an entire day which ended up being nice that I didn't have to get up to use the bathroom and they were watching me close to see if I needed a blood transfusion. I never needed the blood transfusion fortunately, though I was tired and felt faint every time I stood up for at least 2 weeks afterwards. Well the rest is history. We brought the adorable little guy home, though looking at the pictures now he looked pretty red and squished. We loved him anyway and thought he was perfect!