Dillan Robert Shope's Birth Story

My birth story starts on the 16th of January, around 4:30pm. Brandon, Tanner, my parents; Florence and Brent, Brandon's sister Bridgett, and I all headed out to Fox to eat dinner at the Silver Gulch Brewery.  On the way into Fairbanks, from North Pole, I started noticing a bit of pressure in my lower back/butt area.  Nothing too intense, just pressure.  While at the Silver Gulch I had Bridgett feel where baby was kicking out.  She asked me if my belly felt hard to me, I told her yes.  That's all the more we talked about it.  After getting home from dinner I got on my treadmill and walked for 30 minutes and then took a bath.  All during this time the lower back/butt pressure coming irregularly and still not very intense. 

Around 9:00pm I went to bed with Brandon and Tanner.  They both fell asleep rather quickly but I laid there and passed the time waiting for the coming and going of the "pressure".  Around 10:00pm I text Bridgett and told her I was pretty sure that I was having contractions, all in my back. They were now getting painful and I knew this was the real deal. Bridgett said that due to the fact that my belly felt so hard when she touched it earlier, she had to agree with me.  I got up and bounced on my exercise ball and walked around the house a bit.  I went and laid down with Tanner and Brandon and fell asleep for about 15 minutes then had to get up because of the pain in my back.

By 2:30am my contractions were averaging 10 minutes apart and lasting close to a minute. I went and woke Brandon and asked him if he could come rub my back for a bit.  We walked around the house together, I bounced more on my ball and I took a bath.  The contractions weren't progressing by 4:30am so I laid down on the couch for a bit because I was exhausted.  I was able to to sleep for a few minutes at a time, between contractions. I finally got up around 6:30am with the intentions of walking around to get contractions going.  I got up and the contractions rapidly picked up to 6-8 minutes apart.  I told Brandon it was time to go.  We gathered all of our stuff to bring to the hospital and paused by the kitchen table so that I could focus on another contraction.  Two minutes later another contraction was coming on.  The mad dash to the hospital began at this point. 

Brandon sped down Badger Road from North Pole towards Fort Wainwright.  He tried to pass cars in the fog and it was too stressful for me. I had to tell him to slow down a bit.  Once we got to post Brandon put his flashers on and passed everyone in front of us because we could not keep the speed limit due to the fact that I was having a hard time not baring down during my contractions.  Once arriving to Bassett Army Community Hospital we ran inside and there weren't any wheelchairs available in the foyer. I doubled over having another contraction.  There were people in the foyer staring at me.  A woman ran over and put her arm around me and called to someone at the front desk to call Labor and Delivery to let them know we were coming. With Brandon on the other side of me, we made our way to the elevator.  We were met at the top of the elevator with a wheelchair.  Brandon let the woman and the guy with the wheelchair take me to Labor and Delivery while he ran outside to park the Tahoe. 

Once in Labor and Delivery I was met by a bunch of staff who stared at me for what felt like eternity before an explosion of energy happened around me.  I was taken to the exam room.  I stood up out of the wheelchair and then bent over the bed to have another contraction.  I told the midwife and nurse next to me that I really felt like I needed to push. They asked if I could take my pants off, I said "NO!".  Brandon entered the room at this point. The midwife said to push if I felt the need, so I pushed through the contraction.  After the contraction I took my pants off and the midwife said "There's his head, he's got a lot of hair!" She asked if I could get into the bed, I said "NO!".  She said "OK, we'll do this standing up." I put my hands on the bed and pushed the baby out with the next contraction. Dillan was handed to me through my legs and I then crawled into the bed, all within 10 minutes of arriving to the Labor and Delivery ward.  He was born at 7:39am weighing in at 6 pounds 8 ounces and 20.5 inches long on January 17, 2012.