Our Little Man has arrived. What a journey it was... and it's still not quite over.
It started Wednesday afternoon as I rushed from work straight to my doctors appointment. I was delightfully surprised to hear I was 3cm dilated, 75% effaced, and favorable for an induction. Originally, I only wanted to be induced if I went past my due date. However, Jesse was leaving for hunting on the 26th and every extra day with him was like gold! Dr. Beller's only availability for induction was the next morning (two days before my due date). When someone says "Want to have your baby tomorrow?" the only answer is "Heck yes!"
My mom and sisters helped me get ready by grocery shopping and cleaning the house. I began having irregular contractions and lots of menstrual like cramps. My body was very close to going on it's own. Before going to bed Jesse and I talked about how surreal everything felt. We weren't very excited and were actually dreading the long day ahead of us. The next morning driving in to the hospital the excitement set in. We arrived at 8am, began monitoring the baby, and pitocin started shortly after. I was 4cm dilated.
Dr. Beller warned me he wouldn't be in to see me and break my water until after clinic. I had comfortable contractions every 3-4 minutes all day long with little progress. By 11:30 I was only 5cm. We hung out all day waiting for the man of the hour. He arrived at 5:30 and broke my water. I was really bummed when he told me I was still only 5cm. I was beginning to regret my decision to induce.
But it didn't take long for real labor to kick in! My wonderful support team helped me through 1.5 hrs of hard contractions. At 7pm I was ready for pain relief. The anesthesiologist placed the epidural and I thought relief was near... wrong! I had a window on my right hip that wouldn't get numb. It felt like all my pain moved to one small area and it was on fire. It didn't even feel like a contraction but more like my hip bone was breaking. We tried everything for 15 minutes to get the medication to move down to my hip with no avail. Before calling the anesthesiologist back the nurse checked me to make sure there was time to fix it. I was 7cm and 90% effaced. He came back in (longest wait of my life) and pulled the catheter back and cranked the meds up. About 15 minutes later I finally had relief... Just in time to push. If I would have known I was so close I might have gone natural.
I was hoping for a light epidural so I could feel pressure to push. Not so much. With all the extra he gave me trying to get my hip numb I was completely dead. I was bummed because I really wanted to break my record and get Easton out in less than 30 minutes :) I started pushing at 8:12, and 3 contractions later at 8:18 he was placed on my chest. Broke my record! He was a mild shoulder distocia and was only stuck long enough to realize he actually was stuck.
He was a little slow to start crying and scored 7 & 9 on his Apgars. Once he did perk up his respiratory rate was 60-80 (too fast). The nurses wanted to give him some time to adjust before worrying about him. He was bathed and weighed. We were all shocked when he weighed in at 9lbs 5oz. Elliott wasn't even 8lbs and he did not look that big! After his second feed (great nurser by the way) his rate was up to 80 again with nasal flaring and sternal retractions. I called the nurse to look at him and that bought him a trip to the nursery.
The nursery nurse was concerned enough to call the pediatrician in and they started a full work up. My left leg was still numb so Jesse pushed me in a wheelchair to be with Easton. (My left leg was numb for 8 hours! So numb in fact I tried to crawl over to the new bed and just about gave the nurse a heartattack when I almost fell on my face) Easton had a blood draw, capillary blood gas, IV for antibiotics (on the third poke), a chest X-ray, and an echocardiogram ordered for the morning. By 4am they were finally done poking and prodding him and we were dead tired! By this time Easton's respiratory rate was back to normal. Go figure.
Now that we'd started down the path with antibiotics we are stuck there for 48 hrs. It was killer to watch Elliott and Jesse go home without us. I missed my girl SO much! Although this was not what we had planned, we are overjoyed to finally have him here, happy, and healthy. He is an awesome baby just like Elliott was. He sleeps soundly, doesn't cry, and nurses like a champ. We finally got to go home on my birthday which was the best present ever!
It started Wednesday afternoon as I rushed from work straight to my doctors appointment. I was delightfully surprised to hear I was 3cm dilated, 75% effaced, and favorable for an induction. Originally, I only wanted to be induced if I went past my due date. However, Jesse was leaving for hunting on the 26th and every extra day with him was like gold! Dr. Beller's only availability for induction was the next morning (two days before my due date). When someone says "Want to have your baby tomorrow?" the only answer is "Heck yes!"
My mom and sisters helped me get ready by grocery shopping and cleaning the house. I began having irregular contractions and lots of menstrual like cramps. My body was very close to going on it's own. Before going to bed Jesse and I talked about how surreal everything felt. We weren't very excited and were actually dreading the long day ahead of us. The next morning driving in to the hospital the excitement set in. We arrived at 8am, began monitoring the baby, and pitocin started shortly after. I was 4cm dilated.
Dr. Beller warned me he wouldn't be in to see me and break my water until after clinic. I had comfortable contractions every 3-4 minutes all day long with little progress. By 11:30 I was only 5cm. We hung out all day waiting for the man of the hour. He arrived at 5:30 and broke my water. I was really bummed when he told me I was still only 5cm. I was beginning to regret my decision to induce.
But it didn't take long for real labor to kick in! My wonderful support team helped me through 1.5 hrs of hard contractions. At 7pm I was ready for pain relief. The anesthesiologist placed the epidural and I thought relief was near... wrong! I had a window on my right hip that wouldn't get numb. It felt like all my pain moved to one small area and it was on fire. It didn't even feel like a contraction but more like my hip bone was breaking. We tried everything for 15 minutes to get the medication to move down to my hip with no avail. Before calling the anesthesiologist back the nurse checked me to make sure there was time to fix it. I was 7cm and 90% effaced. He came back in (longest wait of my life) and pulled the catheter back and cranked the meds up. About 15 minutes later I finally had relief... Just in time to push. If I would have known I was so close I might have gone natural.
I was hoping for a light epidural so I could feel pressure to push. Not so much. With all the extra he gave me trying to get my hip numb I was completely dead. I was bummed because I really wanted to break my record and get Easton out in less than 30 minutes :) I started pushing at 8:12, and 3 contractions later at 8:18 he was placed on my chest. Broke my record! He was a mild shoulder distocia and was only stuck long enough to realize he actually was stuck.
He was a little slow to start crying and scored 7 & 9 on his Apgars. Once he did perk up his respiratory rate was 60-80 (too fast). The nurses wanted to give him some time to adjust before worrying about him. He was bathed and weighed. We were all shocked when he weighed in at 9lbs 5oz. Elliott wasn't even 8lbs and he did not look that big! After his second feed (great nurser by the way) his rate was up to 80 again with nasal flaring and sternal retractions. I called the nurse to look at him and that bought him a trip to the nursery.
The nursery nurse was concerned enough to call the pediatrician in and they started a full work up. My left leg was still numb so Jesse pushed me in a wheelchair to be with Easton. (My left leg was numb for 8 hours! So numb in fact I tried to crawl over to the new bed and just about gave the nurse a heartattack when I almost fell on my face) Easton had a blood draw, capillary blood gas, IV for antibiotics (on the third poke), a chest X-ray, and an echocardiogram ordered for the morning. By 4am they were finally done poking and prodding him and we were dead tired! By this time Easton's respiratory rate was back to normal. Go figure.
Now that we'd started down the path with antibiotics we are stuck there for 48 hrs. It was killer to watch Elliott and Jesse go home without us. I missed my girl SO much! Although this was not what we had planned, we are overjoyed to finally have him here, happy, and healthy. He is an awesome baby just like Elliott was. He sleeps soundly, doesn't cry, and nurses like a champ. We finally got to go home on my birthday which was the best present ever!
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