Remington's Birth Story | Whitney Beth Photography
 

We did it. We had another baby. Remington Lords Robbins was born July 8th at 3:12 pm after only four pushes and weighed in at 8 lbs 11 oz and 20 inches long. 

Just like his big brothers, Remmy decided that the only way out would be induction. Which was surprising with the amount of false alarms and "time worthy" contractions I had after 37 weeks. Rem was born on a Thursday. Wednesday night we packed up the boys and dogs and left them at grandma and grandpa's house for a sleepover. Danny and I made a late night treats run, and in the drive thru of the Swig we (finally) decided on a name for little man. Up until this point, the contenders were, Wells, Grey or Fife, and while we still love those names and may use them in the future, they didn't feel like they belonged to whomever I was carrying. 

Thursday morning we checked into labor and delivery around 8 am. Remmy had always been a very active baby and decided to show off all his tricks to the nurses. That little stinker was moving around so much that they couldn't get a good baseline to monitor him. Even after waiting for him to settle down it was still a no go. They ended up having to put on an internal monitor to watch little boy - which broke my water in the process and got things going! After they had a good stream of data on Remmy they started me on Pitocin. (I also had to have a Covid test to confirm that I was negative.) Since baby had had a wild ride in there they started me off at 1 on the Pitocin scale. The contractions started coming and getting stronger. I planned on an epidural for this birth. Since the anesthesiologist had a surgery to get to around noon my nurse told me that I could either get the epidural around 11:30 or after the surgery around 3. Knowing how fast I dilate once things get moving I decided that 11:30 was great, and my pitocin was turned up. Things started to pick up and by 10:45/11 I was feeling it. I buzzed my nurse to tell her I was ready for my epidural. The anesthesiologist was just getting ready to help the lady in the room next to me, and I’d be next! So great! Until 11:30 came and went. My contractions were super painful and right on top of each other. We hit the noon mark and I had Danny call in to see if they had an ETA for my epidural. At this point I was thinking I was going to have this baby unmediated! (Apparently they had a hard time placing the epidural in the other mama) They turned off my pitocin to slow things down and about 5 minutes later in runs in the anesthesiologist! I don’t even remember the epidural hurting at all as I was numbed up and it went in. (Which is funny that when I was birthing Jones, I was more nervous for the epidural than the actual birth!) I have never been so happy to see a giant needle in my life! 

They hadn’t checked my cervix since I was admitted (which was like a 2) and since my contractions were getting stronger they had decided to wait until I got my epidural - they had decided that before we knew it was going to take over an hour for me to get it. So by the time I had my epidural and things had become more comfortable they were able to check me and I was dilated to a 5 1/2. (We probably would’ve had Remmy sooner had I not had my pitocin turned down and my epidural taken so long!) They started me back on the pitocin. At this point it was around 1 pm. Around this time was when Hannah, my beautifully talented friend and birth photographer arrived. She hung out in the waiting room and popped in every now and then to check on us. Sometime during this my nurse came back in very upset as she had to tell me that the lab had messed up and my Covid test hadn’t been processed and was thrown away due to contamination (they are only good for 4 hours.) and that I had two options; take the test again, or be in isolation and everyone would have to act as if I did have it... so I took the text again. This time my nurse said she’d personally make sure it got to the right place! Danny and I watched Pawn Wars or something along those lines while we waited. Soon I started to feel pressure - this was probably around 2:30/45 pm. I called my nurse in to see if they could come check me. When she got in I could tell she didn’t anticipate me being “ready” but as soon as she looked she said, “Oh you have no cervix and you’re fully dilated! It’s time to have a baby!” And then I was told not to do anything while they paged Dr. Larsen. The labor delivery team started filing in and getting set up. Hannah got in position and we waited for Dr. Larsen. Dr. Larsen was with a patient in his office across the parking lot. He told the nurse to “have me start pushing and he’d be there soon.” To which my nurse replied, “If she starts pushing, I’m going to be delivering this baby!” That put the urgency on and he said he’d be over as fast as he could. Danny had literally just got a text from our sis in law, Mindi that she was here with his lunch. Since Mindi works at Altaview she didn’t count as “guests” for me and asked if she could stay and watch the birth. I told her that was fine with me! We were still waiting for Dr. Larsen and I could feel Remington right there. The nurses were all getting anxious. They decided to call him again when someone from the hall ran in to say they say him running across the parking lot! he hustled in and started to get in position. He had hardly gotten his smock all the way on and done up when he told me to push! Four fast pushes later and I felt Remington be born! They placed his chubby body on my chest and my instant thought was, “yep! He’s one of mine!” He looked just like his brothers! We were able to do some skin to skin before they needed to suction out some fluid he swallowed right before he was born that was bothering him. And then back to mom he went! Also just like his brothers, he came out hungry, latched right away and started nursing. After about 30 minutes I practically had to pry him off so that Danny could hold him. 

We got all cleaned up and were moved to the recovery room. I was starving and ordered lunch and then an hour later ordered dinner. Ha! Family started to cycle through to visit the newest addition. Thanks to Covid protocols, we could only have two people in the room at a time, so Danny would have to step out from time to time. Kids under 12 were also not allowed in, so Jones and Fields had to wait until we were discharged to go home. While I was eating my dinner, my nurse came back in to tell me that I was Covid negative. Haha! A little late to the party, but I’ll take it. 

We love our little Remington and are so happy he has joined our family! In the (super) long days leading up to his birth I was feeling discouraged that I’d be pregnant forever, especially after my brother and his wife had had my nephew early on the Fourth of July. My cousin in law, Heidi, told me that maybe baby was taking his sweet time in being born because he was soaking up all the time he could with Banks and his other siblings. After hearing that, my whole attitude changed and I wasn’t annoyed that I was still pregnant. Instead I was sending love and wishing I could be present to those brothers saying their goodbyes. 

I am forever thankful that Hannah was free to photograph another of my births. Her eye for telling the story is so beautiful and I’m so happy I get to relive the moments through her images. Thank you, Hannah.