And I introduce to you...Nathan's clone.

Peter's Birth from Nathan's Point of View:

We got the phone call at 6:22 pm on Wednesday December 28^th.  We had just sat down at Buffalo Wild Wings with Tyson and Amber Manning to celebrate Tyson’s birthday and eat some spicy food to help get Alyson into labor.  The RN from Kadlec told us we were at the top of the induction list and to come on down.  We had been put on the “medical induction” list due to Alyson’s high blood pressure. 

We arrived at the hospital at around 7:30.  Alyson had hastily scarfed down her wings on the drive home.  They got us situated into suite 12 at the birth center. Alyson got an IV (which took several attempts), they gave her a cervical ripening agent, and we went to bed.  At around 2 am they came in and started Pitocin.  Alyson didn’t really sleep because little Peter kept moving around and moving away from the fetal heart rate sensor.  I on the other hand slept great (Sorry Alyson, somebody had to sleep for us).

Contractions started suddenly at 6 am, and they were hard and very frequent.  We’re talking two to three minutes apart.  After almost 12 hours from the phone call we were finally on our way.  The day nurse came in just after they started.  Her name was Jody, and she was amazing. 

We were able to follow our birth plan to a T for the first few hours.  Alyson would endure the contractions, I massaged and put pressure on her back, and we were cruising.  I’m not sure if Alyson felt that way, but I sure did.  Alyson kept switching positions to try to get comfortable.  From kneeling on the bed, to standing over the bed, to side lying, to even sitting on the porcelain throne.  She was absolutely amazing and so strong.  Back labor is no joke, and she handled it like a champ.  Sometime after 11am her water broke, and she started to feel the urge to push.  She would push with each contraction, but each time they checked her the baby was still up high.  She was dilating, but little Peter wasn’t dropping down.  He was facing backwards, and was basically hitting the back of his head into Alyson’s spine and not dropping down through the pelvis. 

After over two hours of pushing, Alyson was exhausted, I didn’t think I could massage or put pressure on her hips any longer (best forearm workout of my life), and the baby hadn’t dropped.  Lisa Garcia, the amazing midwife who was working with us presented us with two options.  We could try to continue like this, and it would likely end in a C-section due to Alyson’s physical exhaustion (chicken broth, Jello, and one Italian ice since 8:00 pm the night before isn’t a whole lot), or we (I wish I could have had one as well J) could get an epidural in the hope that Alyson would relax, get some rest, and baby would drop down naturally.  They had tried placing Alyson in awkward side positions to rotate the baby, but contractions were too strong for her to stay in them.  We opted for the epidural.  The anesthesia provider was excellent.  When he came in she was already completed dilated, and they usually don’t do them that late, but he did anyways.  It was fast and effective.  Alyson was able to lay down, and she passed out for around two hours. To showcase how exhausted she was, in between contractions she would fall asleep, even while sitting on the toilet. 

When she woke up we got her into a side position and helped get that boy rotated.  Jody coached Alyson through some contractions to help get her pushing.  We were sad that Jody wasn’t able to be there when he came, but shift change came and we got a new nurse.  Lexi was our night nurse.  She immediately got Alyson into an even more extreme position (side lying with one leg in a stirrup, pulling her top hip across the from of her.  After switching from side to side, Lisa checked Alyson and we had progressed!  Peter was closer to coming. 

Alyson started pushing again at 7:15 pm.  She kept pushing and pushing and pushing.  As we got closer, I got gowned up with Lisa, and she also called in a couple other nurses and two NICU nurses.  I still remember the surreal feeling as Alyson had one of her last contractions.  Peter’s heart rate monitor started slowing, his heart rate was dipping with the contraction.  On the next contraction she started pushing, I remember hearing what seemed like an agonizingly slow heartbeat, all the nurses in the room instinctively looked at the monitor, which showed a fetal heart rate of 60.  All nurses then turned to Alyson and screamed in unison “PUSH!!!”  It worked!  Peter’s head come out, but then it looked like his shoulder was stuck.  Lexi put some external uterine pressure (fancy way of saying she did a CPR like compression on Alyson’s stomach) and his shoulders came free, but he still was so slow to come out!  As he came out I got to catch him, and Lisa took the cord off from around his neck.  I held him up in front of Alyson, and he just sort of laid there limply in my hands.  Lisa immediately said “he needs help.”  I handed Peter to her while she gave me the scissors to cut to cord.  I cut it and he was taken over to the bassinet and two waiting NICU nurses.  As they did their assessment he perked up, and started crying.  He was so perfect.  I stood over him and cried and cried for a solid 15 minutes until they were done working on Alyson.  Peter was born at 10:15 pm, and our lives have been changed ever since.