THE BIRTH STORY

I'm soooo sorry that it's taken me so long to update. Things have been so non-stop crazy and hectic that it isn't even funny. I don't think I've had enough time to pee on my own, let alone get online. This is the first time that I've done so. Again, I appologize!

We got to the hospital around 7pm and they had a hell-of-a time trying to get the IV in my arm. The one girl tried twice, couldn't get it, so she went and got another lady who tried another 3 times. I had pricks and bruises and gauze and tape everywhere. They started the pitocin around 9:30 (yes - it took THAT long, just to finally get my IV in place.) They had me up and walking the halls until 1:30am and at that point my dr came in to check my status. I was 4cm, 75% and a -2(ish). She decided that since I was so exhausted and that I hadn't made much progress.. to shut the pitocin off, give me an ambien and re-start at 6am. Then once I had a good pattern of contractions going, she'd come in and break my water. Sounded good to me. She said that the bad part about it was that we'd have to wait that much longer but the good news was that having the pitocin the night before, helped to prime my uterus for the full thing the next morning. It ended up working well because I got into a patter VERY quickly and started dilating pretty quick. They started the pitocin around 6:30am, Thursday morning. I can't remember the time off the top of my head but they broke my water a little later that morning.. I'm thinking around 9 or 10 or something. I labored, on my own, till I made it to 7-8cm. Then his head was pushing so far down onto one of my hip nerves that i was crying with every contraction and shaking because it hurt so bad. The contraction itself wasn't bad.. that I could have delt with.. the nerve pain. OH.MY.GOODNESS!! It killed me. I litterally debated ripping my leg off.

Thankfully the nurse and my mom just decided to call the anesthesiologist in and give me the Epi. 10min later and I was on cloud 9!! I felt so much better. At noon i was feeling a bunch of cervical and anal pressure so I asked if I could be checked just to see if I had made any progress. I had.. I was fully effaced, fully dilated and he was at a +2, +3, station. Ready to go! The nurses called my dr to let her know and we all came to the conclusion, together, that they were going to let me "labor-down" to bring him down on his own, so I didn't exhaust myself with trying to push him out on my own. I wasn't having ANY desire to push so they just let me rest for an hour, to an hour and 15 minutes. Around 1:30pm I started pushing and around 3:30pm the nurses finally said, "okay..... we need you to stop pushing, now, to wait for Dr. K". Yeah.. that crap doesn't work. I tried breathing through the contractions but at that point, my body was pushing on it's own.

By the next contraction Dr. K walked in and we started pushing again. At some point during the day they had me try squatting to bring him down.. it worked but that sucked. I felt retarded. There was also a point in time, (weird that I can't pin-point when it happened) where Junior's heart started to drop. It wasn't coming back up so they decided that it was problably a pinched cord, so they decided to do an infusion. They inserted a internal monitor and add fluid to my uterus, to try coaxing him up and off his cord. It worked. His heart rate came up instantly and stayed up the rest of the time.

I delivered him at 3.51pm, after 7.5 hours of labor and 2.5 hours of pushing, totaling 10 hours. I was very suprised at how fast it went. I was only checked twice, once to tell me I was dilated to a 7-8 then the next I was fully dialated. It seemed to zoom by, thankfully.

As for Jeff delivering him, he did, indeed! He suited up and the dr put him at the foot of the table and told him what to do. He did an awesome job. My mom got the last few minutes on video so we're debating on whether or not we should post it. You can't see anything except for at the very end when he's sliding out, my mom moved down a bit and you can see him sliding out. But that's all you can see. I may have to make it private somewhere but then again I'm not sure where I'd be able to upload it with it being of a live birth. We'll see.

Anyway, his stats were 7 pounds 7 ounces, 20 inches long. His head was 13.25 inches around and his first and second apgar were 8-9's.

His first 24 hours were great, he did awesome, I did awesome, I felt wonderful, no pain, etc. The second day is when we started experiencing some issues. The nurse came in to notice that he was breathing a little fast. His respirations were supposed to be anywhere between 40-60 breaths per minute and his were 75-80. He had a slight temperature (just on the high side of normal) but otherwise, he was acting fine. Eating like a champ, peeing and pooping like a champ, etc. They continued to monitor him and sent the PED in. Once she came in she noticed 2 more problems. Not only did he have fast breathing (TTN - Transient Tachypnea of the Newborn) and a slight temperature.. she also noticed a *slight* heart murmur. As well as a bit of a choking spell. He'd get a bit excited and choke on his spit, then he couldn't catch his breath enough to stop choking to get the spit out. She just said that watch to see when he does it and make sure we use the bulb syringe to clean his mouth and burp him to help him get the phlem up. As for the temperature, it went away after a few hours. As for the TTN, it's just something he has. They say that it's when babies have a harder time adjusting their own respiratory rates now that I'm not supplying his oxygen, so it's something that he'll 100% grow out of.

Now as for the heart murmur... he does, indeed, have a heart murmur. The bad news is.. it's a heart murmur. The good news is.. it's something that he'll 100% grow out of. I can't remember what exactly he called it but he said that it happens when a newborn is in utero, they have this little valve in the heart that makes the blood bypass the lungs, since they don't need to oxygenate them. Well 24-48 hours after birth, this duct closes and the blood gets sent to the lungs, etc, where it should. Well, in Junior's case, this duct hasn't closed, yet, so the heart murmur is just the sound of a little oxygenated blood being "backwashed" back into a previous valve of the heart. It's just taking him a little longer to close it, than normally planned.

He did say, however, that the EKG showed that it's less than 1mm and very very small. He said that it will cause NO problems in his future.. he's just a little delayed in closing some things, preparing some things that he needed to.

I asked if it was caused by us inducing and he said absolutely not. He said that you never know when or how it's going to happen until the baby is born. Whether it be at 36w or 42w, the baby may take a little longer to do some things.

We're relieved. We're home now and all is well. He's nursing like a freggin CHAMPION and is sleeping pretty well, too. He's gone 3-4 hours in between feedings since minute one and when he does nurse he latches on instantly and goes for a good 45 minutes before he starts to get sleepy. We did have a problem with latching on my left side due to it being "flatter" than the right side. We changed our hold and we're doing 100% better, now. The lactation consultant came in to help with our latch and she said that she's never seen a newborn be able to nurse so successfully and be such a natural at it. Not only that but she said that she is 100% amazed that he was able to pull my nipple out on his own on the left side. She said that I'd most definitely need to pump for 5min before or use a shield to get it to come out but I was determined. I got him latched on my own and we've been going good ever since.

Now... my problems. I had a 3rd degree tear from the mid-vagina all the way out the opening to my lip. It tore severly bad. Not only did I tear, there, but I also tore 100% of my perineal area. I asked how many stitches it took to sew me up but she said she couldn't answer. Due to not knowing.. she just said a bunch. It took her over an hour and 45min to sew me up. It sucked. I felt a good 90% of it, even after the lidocaine shots. It wasn't pleasant.

I got checked before being released yesterday and she said that she's VERY pleased with how it's healed so far. She said that the swelling is down dramatically and that it looks WONDERFUL.

I still think it looks like hamburger meat, but hey, that's me.

I feel GREAT! besides the fact that everytime I move my legs, I hurt. I'm vertually being held together with thread and I can feel it when I walk. Also, spending 4 days in the hospital bed has caused my tailbone to become VERY tender. It hurts to bend, sit, squat, etc. I find myself sitting in squishy chairs and that's it!

Oh well, otherwise I feel MUCH better than I did when I was pregnant, that's for sure!

Okay, I have to go. I need to go get the little man in the bath and ready for bed. His belly stump fell off, yesterday. He was 5 days old. Seems like time is zooming by way too fast. I can't believe he'll be a week old, tomorrow!!

And I'd like to introduce to you all, my son:

Stephanie M.
jrsmama2009@gmail.com