He’s Here

I’ve been MIA from blog land the past two weeks or so. I actually have a VERY good reason this time!  Baby Boy arrived on the 6th weighing in at 9lbs 4oz. and 21.5 inches long.

  

I had been having contractions on the the 4th and 5th off and on by Tuesday evening It seemed like they were beginning to become more regular and as soon as I laid down for the night my contractions picked up.

I spent the night awake timing contractions. At 7 on Wednesday morning I finally called the doctor’s office and we were packing up headed to the hospital an hour later. The on-call doctor told me to come in to get checked out.

I was doing OK timing all night until Reed woke up and asked if I was OK. I just started crying.

Once at the hospital, Nurse number 1 checked me. She told me I wasn’t dilated yet and said they were going to send me home. She got called to the OR a while later a second nurse came in with the doctor.  The Doctor checked me said I’m going to admit you and induce your labor. You are dilated to a 2 and you are 3 days late.

I was pretty adamant about not inducing unless medically necessary but at that point, my body was already in the process of laboring and my contractions were 3-5 minutes apart. There really was no sense in heading home just to return later.

While they were getting the labor/delivery room ready R. and I began calling and texting family.

 

I was also pretty adamant about laboring as long as I could without drugs including an epidural. I think the Doctor came in to check me and break my water around 3pm. I had progressed to a 4. After my water broke the intensity of the contractions picked up big time.  I ended up caving about 5:30-6pm. and had the nurse give me some pain meds via IV. She said I was still about a 4 or 5.

I was so mad at myself for caving into the drugs. When she walked in I was just sobbing. The medication made me pretty dizzy and of course groggy. It was just enough that I could sleep between contractions. This must have helped my body relax enough to progress because when the doctor came in 45 minutes later to check me I was a 9 and was pushing about 15 minutes after that. In the long run I was glad I went ahead and took something.

During the delivery process, I ended up with a second degree tear. The doctor gave me a local before stitching me up. I think the stitches were almost as bad as pushing out baby if not worse. I didn’t scream or yell until he started the stitches.

I had the best Labor and Delivery nurse! She was telling us stories about some of her crazy high maintenance patients; she completely had us cracking up. I started pushing right around shift change. She stayed until I delivered baby boy and things calmed down a bit. (She had said something about already being late to leave work twice that week and she STILL stayed till Baby boy was here.)

 

Baby Boy had a bit of breathing issues when he was born so they held him in his area for a bit longer than normal. On Thursday afternoon, we noticed he was having some labored breathing while attempting to nurse. They took him into the nursery for observation and later admitted him.

    

 

I’m figuring out how to multitask with a newborn as well as make sure Miko gets some attention too. I have lots more about our first 2 weeks with Baby Boy. I hope to find time to blog about it all soon.