Baby A Is Here

I am finally able to take a few stolen moments to report that baby A is here and healthy and we are all doing great.  He is 15 days old today and growing so big already.

I'll try and go into a brief labor and delivery story...the story of my baby boy's birth.  Hoping I can get into as much details as possible without making this post too long, so here goes.

On Wednesday, August 28, I went to my routine prenatal appointment.  I told my doctor that I'd been having contractions... Monday night I had contractions steadily all night starting from 12 until 4 am in the morning.  I wanted to know if I had dilated at all.  I thought for sure I was going into labor that Monday night.  Doc checked me out and told me my cervix was still closed, which kind of relieved and bummed me out at the same time.  How could I be having so many contractions and still not be dilated at all??  My doctor was a little concerned too and so wrote up a reference for me to take to the hospital.  She wanted me to go to the hospital right away and get checked out... she wanted them to monitor the baby and make sure all the contractions I was having was not putting stress on him.

I was sort of like, whatever,  I'll go.  But I thought I'd go in and then be released quickly since I wasn't dilated.  I knew baby was OK... he was moving and so far I had not had the "bloody show" nor had my water broken.  I went home and ate and just to be on the safe side, decided to put my hospital bag and baby's diaper bag in the car.... just in case!  I was in no hurry to go the hospital but my mother in law seemed to be, so we headed off.

I was checked in immediately and went through all the routine 'stuff'.  After a pelvic exam, I was told I was 2 cm dilated.  TWO CENTIMETERS dilated!  Shows how much my doctor knew.  I was dilated.  I was then hooked up to the monitor and after a few minutes, I was given the news.  Not only was I 2 cm dilated, I was contacting every 2 minutes.  They had to check me in... I was considered to be in early labor.  It was the last thing I wanted.  I did not want to spend the majority of my labor in the hospital.  I wanted to labor at home then show up at the hospital just in time to give birth.  But I had to stay in the hospital.  Luckily my mother in law would stay with me until Hubby could show up.

Hubby was excited and thought I was in active labor when I called but my mother in law and I assured him I had a LONG way to go.  At just 2 cm and my contractions slowing down, it looked like it would be a LONG night.  I was stuck at 2 cm for a while.  Since I checked in around 2:30 until just before 10 pm, I was at 2 cm.  I wanted to just go home and labor on my own, maybe even go for a walk but they had to keep me at the hospital because the baby's heart rate was all over the place and they needed to make sure he was OK.  I was told by the nurse that they would give me pitocin to help speed up my contractions (or better yet, kick them into gear again).  If the pitocin didn't work, they would have to do a cesarean section because the baby's heart rate was not steady enough for me to go home and labor on my own, even though I was just 39 weeks and a day.  The word C-section is scary but I was calm and hoped for the best.

I didn't want pitocin.  I heard bad things about that drug and just wanted to go naturally on my own but the doctor assured me that if while on pitocin, the baby was put under too much stress, he would take me off the drug.  So I went along and agreed to the pitocon.  Good thing I did and thank God it worked. In about 3 hours I went from 2 cm to 10 cm and in no time I was ready to push.  The first push was hard... I wasn't expecting to have to push since I didn't have to really push with Princess or JC.  But after the 1st push, the other ones were pretty much automatic.  Baby was coming.  Hubby went to put on scrubs and when he came back, baby was almost crowning.  He told the doctor and I was rushed to the delivery room.  I was told to not push but at that point I couldn't help it.  Baby A came out soon after that, surprising the doctor just a little bit.   Being so slippery, the doctor had a hard time at first grabbing a good hold on the baby and seemed to almost drop him.

I was so relieved.  I had just gone through the most horrible pain.  I had just pushed a small human being out of my very private part and I was so glad it was over.  I NEVER want to go through that again.  Hubby was amazed at how well I did but it was so hard for me to not scream and cry out in pain.  All the pain of labor made me nauseous that I eventually threw up a few times on 2 separate occasions, causing me to wet myself and the entire bed.  The second time I threw up was actually a good thing because my bladder was so full but I couldn't pee... the heaving I had to do while throwing up caused me to empty my bladder, which helped the baby drop significantly.  And that was when I was able to start pushing.

Baby A was born Thursday morning, August 29 at 1:28 am.  He was 49 centimeters (around 19 inches long) and 2970 kilos (6lbs and a few ounces).  He was smaller than I thought he would be and whiter too.  He looks just like his big brother and I could not be happier with my little baby boy, the newest addition to our family and my miracle baby.  I love him so much and am happy to be a mother of 4.  Yes, I am exhausted.  Yes, I am still fat.  And yes, I could use a break.  But I am trying to live in the moment and enjoy every minute of it because soon Baby A will be a big boy running around with his siblings and I might just miss out on him being a baby.