Maddux Lynn Roos was born at 12:06 AM on Saturday, April 14, 2012. He weighed in at 7 pounds, 2 ounces and 21 inches tall (if he could stand).
Here is how everything played out...
Tuesday: Trina visited the doctor and they checked her for the first time. We found out that she was measuring 2-3 cm dilated and about 60% effaced. The doctor also partially stripped her membranes. Dr. Sterling told us that it would be okay to have our baby this week. We were so excited. Trina more than me. She was clearly ready for this pregnancy to be over and start being a mother of two.
Thursday: This was an exciting day for us. Trina thought she was feeling contractions, but wasn't quite sure. With Grayson her water broke before she felt her first contraction. That doesn't mean she didn't have them, she just didn't feel them. As we sat in our basement we couldn't help but think that we were going to make a midnight trip to the Mercy Birthplace. Rather than using a stop watch to time the contractions, Trina found an iPod app. Yes, there's an app for that. It gave here all of the details she could ever want. By the time we were ready to jump into bed she was averaging contractions between 9 and 12 minutes apart.
Friday: Trina slept through the night and at no point considered going to the hospital. When she woke up I asked her a lot about her contractions and how regular they were. I could tell she was getting annoyed at me. She didn't seem to have answers to my questions. She was having a hard time figuring out when she was having contractions. The amount of time and the intensity varied with each contraction.
Trina had decided that I would still take Grayson to Katie's house for daycare and I would go to work. At some point during that morning, Trina was planning on going to the hospital and finding out what her body was doing. While at work, I couldn't help but check my phone for messages about every five minutes. Even when I texted her and asked for an update, she responded with "none." As much as it annoyed me to get that response, I'm sure it annoyed her more that she didn't have an update to give me.
After a very confusing morning, Trina finally decided to go to the hospital. Her contractions continued to be inconsistent. Sometimes Trina felt them 2 minutes apart and other times they were ten minutes apart. As she arrived at the hospital at 10:45, she tells the nurses that she's not even sure if she should be there. After being hooked up to monitors, Trina found out that she she was 3.5 cm and 70%. She was told that she could walk the halls for a while and see if she progressed. At this point, Trina called me and told me she was staying. I left work and was soon walking the halls with her at about noon. At 1:00 PM Trina was checked again and we found out that nothing was changing. We were told that we could go home. We decided we were staying.
It wasn't until 4:00 PM that they told us this was going to happen. They soon proceeded to put an IV into Trina's arm. Her veins were good, her nurses were good, her arms were full of holes. It took four nurses and an EMT to get the thing to stay. It took eight attempts. Her arms are still purple in four locations. I heard her say "I never thought that having a baby would make me bleed this much out of my arm."
The next thing they did was give her an epidural. She loved it! Besides laying on her side and not being able to move, you wouldn't have been able to tell she was in labor. I was stress free. She was asked if she wanted to take a nap. Everything was going really well.
Around 11:00 PM Trina started feeling a lot of pressure. We knew that Maddux was on his way out. Dr. Sterling was called and we were waiting for her to show up. We knew that if Maddux was born on Friday night we would have to be out of the hospital by Sunday. We also knew that if we waited until midnight, we would get to stay an additional 24 hours. That's what we attempted to do. More Trina than me. The only thing I could do was tell Trina what time it was and that she was doing good holding back.
Saturday: At midnight our doctor walked into the room. She proceeds to tell us that she had been there for 30 minutes. She too was waiting until Saturday. After all, who wants a Friday the 13th baby? As soon the doctor was there, Trina was told that during the next contraction she was going to have a baby. We were pumped. We also had to wait a while. Just like the rest of the contractions, they were inconsistent. It took about five minutes before she started contracting again. At 12:06 AM Maddux Lynn Roos made me a very happy father, Trina a very proud mother and Grayson a very big brother.