XP: Birth Story

[rbp]

Now that M is eight days old, I thought it was time to sit down and write out my birth story.

I woke up on Saturday 8/2 (my due date) with moderate menstrual-like cramps and lower back pain. I thought, "ohh, this is how labor starts for a lot of people!" An hour later, I was having cramp-like contractions at nine-minute intervals. I told H about it but swore him to secrecy. My MIL was coming over to pick up my mom at 10 am for shopping and lunch, and I didn't want to get either of them excited if it wasn't actually labor. So I stayed in bed when MIL came over and just pretended like I was really tired. LOL. The contractions completely stopped within two hours, so I'm glad I didn't tell the world that I was in labor!

We went to Scalini's, home of the world-famous eggplant parmesan, for dinner with some friends on Saturday night. When a pregnant woman eats eggplant parmesan, they take down your name and the time you ate. If your baby is born within 48 hours of finishing the meal, you can bring the birth certificate to the restaurant and redeem a Scalini's onesie and $25 GC. They also hang your baby's picture on the wall.

We slept in on Sunday. H spent all day working on built-in shelves that he and BIL are installing in the nursery. [Side note: they look great, but why is he still working on this??] Seriously, he was working from noon until 10 pm. I ate dinner and started noticing those same cramp-like contractions around 8:30. I told H but again swore him to secrecy. He was texting me from the nursery, "should I shower and pack a bag??" My mom and I were in the living room watching "Manhattan" (great show BTW). Every time I had a contraction, I tried to silently breathe through it so as to not arouse suspicion. It helped that they weren't super intense yet. After about two hours of contractions and advice from MMM, I was convinced that it was time to go to the hospital. Around 11 pm, I told my mom "I think I'm in labor. We're going to go to the hospital, but you should stay here and get some sleep." She insisted on coming with us, which was annoying, but I stood my ground on not letting her stay in the delivery room, so she sat in the waiting room all night. (We had previously discussed this plan.) I paged the OB on call and told her my symptoms, and she said to go ahead and come to the hospital.

I asked H what we should do with Biscuit. The plan was for him to stay with my ILs while we were in the hospital, and FIL is retired so he could have come down and gotten B. But I really hated to pack our bags and leave in the middle of the night. B would have lost his mind with anxiety! H said "do we have time to drop him off at my parents' house on the way to the hospital?" It's about a 20-minute detour. I didn't love this idea, but I also didn't think the baby was coming within the hour, so I said OK. He called his parents and said "we're dropping the dog off in 20 minutes. Please be outside." Holy abruptness!

After shoving the dog into the ILs' arms in their driveway, we made our way to the hospital around 12:20 am. I was taken to a L&D room and filled out admission paperwork. I was sort of surprised at what a hassle it all was. H said "I helped with a heart transplant once and there wasn't this much paperwork." LOL. Finally the nurse checked my cervix. I was 3.5 cm dilated. (Had been 2.5 cm at my OB appointment 3.5 days earlier, so some progress.) She said that was enough progress for an epidural, but first they had to draw some blood. I had had some trouble with my platelets during pregnancy--they had hovered in the low 100s, and 100 is the lower limit for getting an epi at this hospital. The blood work came back, and lo and behold my platelets were exactly 100, so I just slipped by the limit. THANK YOU BABY JESUS.

The anesthesiologist showed up around 2:15 am. He cleaned me up and said "I'm going to give you a shot of lidocaine. You'll feel some burning then a warm sensation in the area." I felt that, then H and the anesthesiologist got wrapped up in some doctor talk that distracted me. I felt a contraction starting, so I said "can you wait just a minute, I'm having a contraction." When it was over I said "ok, you can give me the shot now." He said "I already gave it to you. You should feel relief within 15 minutes." WTF, I didn't notice him sticking a needle in my spine?? The epi was wonderful. I didn't feel a thing until 7 am.

I tried to sleep but only got an hour or so. I was excited but also really uncomfortable with the IV line and BP cuff. My BP dropped at some point and the nurse had to put an oxygen mask on my face. It seemed really scary, but she acted like it was pretty routine, and I was fine within 10 min.

Sometime in the early morning (6-7 am?) I felt something wet on my leg and called the nurse. It was the bloody show. A few minutes later, I sort of felt like something was bulging out of my vagina and pulsing, so I called the nurse again. She told me a story about a woman who came in to have her fourth baby and called her with the same story. When the nurse checked her, the baby's head was hanging out between her legs. :? Luckily mine was just my amniotic sac, still intact. This seemed sort of freaky to me, though, that there was this water balloon just hanging out there. LOL. The nurse said they'd break it when the OB arrived, but it broke on its own around 7 or 8 am.

Around 7:30 I started feeling a lot more pressure, like I had to poop, and I was convinced that it was time to push. I called the nurse again and she checked my cervix. I was completely dilated. She said, "ok, we'll just wait for your OB to arrive and then it'll be time to start pushing." My OB lives in my neighborhood, which is a hike from the hospital in rush hour! I was hoping I didn't have to wait too long.

He arrived a little after 8 and said, "let's have a baby!" A couple more nurses or techs showed up to help get everything set up. The OB coached me on how pushing would work. I asked him how hard I should be pushing, because I had heard about people bursting blood vessels in their face from pushing. He said, "on every push, give it all you've got." I was so tired that I didn't know how I was going to do this for the hours that I was sure it would be.

I remember the OB sitting down on the stool at the end of my bed at 8:30 am. On the first or second push, I felt like I had pooped on the table and started giggling. I don't know if I actually did poop, but H and OB were looking at each other like "WTF is wrong with her?" Then a couple minutes later the nurse said "I bet you didn't have any heartburn during pregnancy!" I was like :^) "You're right! How did you know that??" She said "I can see his head, and he's a cue ball!" (Apparently an old wives' tale that was accurate for me.) A few more pushes, and I was in the "ring of fire." The OB said "we're going to hang out like this for a minute and let him stretch you out a little bit. I was NOT PLEASED with this because it was seriously painful, epi notwithstanding. But a few more pushes and baby was out! He was born at 8:40 am.

H cut the cord, then they put M on me. (But not skin-to-skin like I thought; that came after they cleaned him.) We got lots of pictures (thank you H for keeping the camera in the bag until the baby was born!) I looked pretty out of it. They put M under the warmer to give him a sponge bath. He screamed his freaking head off--not that I can much blame him! They took some other measurements. He weighed 8 lb. 11 oz., was 21" long, and his head was 14.25" (I think). H went to get my mom from the waiting room, and ILs showed up a little bit later.

Since then we've been trying to get sleep and BF sorted out. I think he's eating ok now, though he lost 9% of his birth weight in the first four days. We have a weight check at the pedi this afternoon, and I am hopeful that his weight is rebounding. His sleeping has actually been ok after a few really awful nights. Yesterday he was awake a lot and really fussy, so we're still working on getting days and nights sorted out.

Gratuitous napping baby picture

[pennylane]

Congrats! He's adorable.

[ngdgtco]

He is so cute!

[nextbigthing]

He is so cute and snuggly! Love! Congratulations!

[rachelgreen]

He is so cute! Congrats!

[ewall]

I love that you went to Scalini's! Congrats, he's adorable!

[MrsDarcy]

He's adorable! Great story, love that you had the eggplant! Enjoy your sweet boy!

[mrspost08]

Wow what a great story!!!! Congratulations!

[FoxInFiji]

Love all of your pictures! He is a total cutie. Thanks for sharing your story.

[azurely]

Congratulations! He is adorable!

[mrssandro]

Congrats! Great story! He is handsome!

[thatgirl2478]

congrats! he's super cute!

[melsamoony]

Congratulations he is so adorable.

[vtdiamond]

He is so cute!! Congratulations!!

[Deleted]

Congrats! He is adorable.

[Deleted]

Congrats! He's an adorable little cue ball!

[Myrrhine]

Great story and he is so, so cute!

[Odonata]

Thanks for sharing your story!

It also further convinced me that I will be getting the epi - it sounds lovely

[cb]

Great story. Congrats!!

[Bonita]

Congratulations!!! What a great story He's so cute!

[flamingeaux]

What a great story. I'm a little jealous of your heartburnlessness. Some days I think my baby must look like chewbacca.

[pickel]

Congratulations!! He's a doll!

[miss.colorado]

How adorable! Congrats to you!

[cheeseandcrackers]

what a cutie!