I'm Back
Some of you may have read the details of our son's birth on Steve's blog but for those of you who haven't I will tell you how it went down. I went into labor the evening of the 14th. Everything started our very slowly and irregularly. At about 10:00 I started to have regular contractions (about 5 minutes apart) but they weren't very intense. At about 11:00 I called my doctor and told him that I was in labor and also that my blood pressure was a little high. He told me to go ahead and go to the hospital. I think we got there a little before 11:30. By that point my contractions were very regular (every couple of minutes) and getting more intense. My doctor got there about 12:15 and checked to see how far dilated I was. I think I was dilated to 6 cm. at that point. Then he broke my water. That sent me into hard labor. Sometimes it felt like the contractions didn't end. I just went right into the next one. That's when it gets very hard to relax. Around 1:00 or so I asked for something to take the edge off because I couldn't relax. The nurse said she could give me Nubane (?). First, she wanted to check me to make sure I wasn't too far along to give me the I.V. It seemed like it took forever for her to get everything ready. I was still only at 6 cm, so she started the I.V. That was at 1:20. After a few more contractions I started to relax and she checked me again. Now I was dilated to 8 cm. Just a few minutes after that I felt like I needed to push. The nurse told me I couldn't push yet and she went and got my doctor. He got there and they let me start pushing with the next contraction. By that point I was wishing I had gotten the epidural, but I know there wouldn't have been enough time. I pushed for maybe 10 minutes and our son was born. They handed him to me right away and Steve cut the umbilical cord but he was purple and not breathing so they took him away to get him to start breathing. After a minute or so we heard his first little cry. Then we breathed a sigh of relief. They brought him back to me after a little while and we got to look him over for the first time. He was so precious and I was just relieved to be done with labor. Three and a half hours is not too bad though.
After an hour or so the nurse took him to weigh him and bathe him. He weighed in at 6 lbs. 7 oz. and was 21 in. long. Tall and skinny. Later they took me to my post partum room. I had a semi-private room (2 beds) because they were completely out of private rooms but luckily I never had to share with anyone else. I think I got about 1 hour of sleep that night. That afternoon the visitors started to roll in. My in-laws brought our daughters to visit. They were amazed by the new baby. Steve left that evening so that he could go home with the girls. The next morning my doctor came to check on us and said that we could go home that day. I couldn't wait.
Two weeks later we are doing well. Our youngest daughter has finally accepted the new baby. I am still recovering. It is harder to recover when you have a 4 year old and a 22 month old at home. It is very hard to take naps. The baby sleeps well most nights. Sometimes he only gets me up once for about and hour and other times maybe for a short second feeding. So far he is a good natured baby. We got him circumcised last week and that hardly affected him. Not much bothers him. I hope that is a sign that he will be an easy going child. I don't know what it is like to have one of those.
Well, I better go. It is almost time for another feeding.