Our baby boy was born on 12/12/08 at 6:21 pm. He weighed 6lb 13 oz and is 20 inches long. Of course I'm probably biased, but I think he is a beautiful baby. He has lots of dark hair, an olive complexion, and dark blue eyes (for now).
My water broke-- in bed, of course-- on Thursday night at 11:45. I actually heard a "POP" and then felt a huge gush. That was probably the fastest I have ever jumped out of bed, and I ran to the bathroom to grab a towel, then ran to the guest bedroom to wake up Steve. We had been sleeping in separate rooms due to my pregnancy snoring. I called the OB on call and he told me to head to the hospital. We rushed around getting things together, and finally arrived at the hospital at close to 1 am.
There was meconium (and lots of it) in my amniotic fluid, which was really gross. Because of this, they wanted me hooked up to the monitors which was a bummer because part of my birth plan had been that I wanted to be able to move around. This was the first of many things that didn't go according to plan. I was also told that I could forget about holding the baby immediately after birth, because they needed to take him and suction out the meconium so he wouldn't breathe it in. I was a little disappointed, but of course I wanted to do what was best for him.
The bed was so uncomfortable, and I hated being tied to it. I tried shifting positions every once in a while, but I soon had to stop doing that because his heart rate kept dropping. I wasn't having contractions on my own, so I had to be induced with pitocin. Another thing to defy my birth plan. It turned out he didn't seem to like the pitocin either, so they kept having to adjust the dosage, because his heart rate would drop if it got above a certain point.
I was doing pretty well with the contractions, and the nurses kept saying they were so impressed with how I was handling them. You could see on the monitor that they were strong, but I didn't think they were that bad. It was looking like I was going to be able to do this without drugs. But my contractions were very irregular throughout the whole 17 hours of labor, and at one point they were going on for 5 minutes straight with no break. That was what was hard to handle. I thought for sure that I'd have made great progress by the next time they checked me. Nope, I hadn't progressed at all. At this point, I broke down. I really was dead set against an epidural, but now it looked like I almost needed one. I made the decision to get one because in the end I realized it would be better for me and the baby. I couldn't relax during those intense contractions that came back to back, and therefore couldn't dilate. Looking back, I don't know why I was so against getting an epidural. It doesn't hurt the baby at all, and it made the remainder of my labor so much easier. I was already bed-ridden as it was, so there really was no reason for me to keep refusing it.
After just a few more hours, I started feeling the strong urge to push, so they checked me again and I was 9.5 cm dilated! I was so happy at this point. I started pushing at around 6pm, and at 6:21 Jonathan was born! Hearing those first cries truly was amazing. Even though he was across the room, I could not take my eyes off of him. I was barely aware of the dr stitching me up (I had a minor tear) or the delivery of the placenta. By the way, I donated the cord blood which was really easy since my hospital was a participant with the Carolinas Cord Blood Bank. All I had to do was sign some paperwork and they took care of the rest.
Life with a baby is really different. I love him to death, but I definitely have my moments of frustration. I know that it'll get better soon though, and I know that it was all worth it. I love my little man!
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