(warning! This may be way more information than most people want but I wanted it written down for my own memory as well.)
This is the story of his arrival:
Dr Adam called at 1:30 on Wednesday and said "I think we should have a baby today". I wasn't expecting that so I was a little taken off guard. The results of my protein test had tripled from Saturday and was half-way to the severe pre-eclampsia range so she thought it best to induce me that day. She told me that there were several people delivering right then so she'd call around 3 or 4 to let me know what time to come in. The 4 hours until she called back was weird. What do you do when you know you're a few hours from having a baby? I kind of just wandered around the house trying to figure out what I should be doing. I did some laundry, took a shower and made sure I had everything packed that I thought I needed. I probably should have tried to take a nap but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to sleep anyway.
Dr Adam called back at 4:30 and told us to come in at 5:30 and we'd get started. She told me not to eat anything so looking back I should have eaten something after my 12:30 lunch in that timeframe of wondering what I should be doing. Little did I know how long it would be until I got another meal!
The drive to the hospital was a little surreal. I always assumed I'd be in the middle of contractions while on my way to the hospital so it was difficult to get in the mind set of having a baby when you aren't feeling any different physically.
Dr Adam broke my water shortly after arriving and started me on pitocin around 6:00-6:30. I started having regular contractions around 9:00 so they started me on magnesium sulfate so that I wouldn't have a seizure during labor. Because of the pitocin I had to be hooked up to internal monitors so they could keep track of my contractions and how Owen was doing and because of the magnesium I had to have a catheter put in which meant no getting out of bed. The nurses told me I would probably feel really lousy after they started the magnesium since that's what they use for women in pre-term labor to stop contractions. I didn't really notice anything though so I must be one of the rare ones to escape unscathed. One of the nurses when we first got there kept trying to push me to have an epidural because it would lower my blood pressure but when we asked Dr Adam she said I could do what I wanted and it was fine. I had really wanted to try giving birth without an epidural but once I realized that I was confined to bed I knew that wasn't going to happen and I was having terrible back labor so I gave up that idea since nothing else was going as planned anyway. Turned out to be the best decision of the night. (I heard a woman shortly before I started pushing going drug free and that sound confirmed that decision!) Pat was happy I got it as well since he was getting worn out from pushing on my back during every contraction. I worried a little bit that I was wussing out so soon since I hadn't been having contractions for very long but turns out I was progressing very quickly. As soon as the anesthesiologist started the epidural it was instant relief. She said it would take 2-3 minutes to start working but I think it was 30 seconds. I thought I'd be able to get a nap in but the epidural made me itchy and by the time that side affect wore off he had moved down into my pelvis so I was feeling a lot of pressure during every contraction so no nap. The nurse told me to try and hold off on pushing for as long as possible so that my uterus would do more work and I could conserve energy. My uterus was a rockstar this time because I ended up only pushing for 16 minutes. 3-4 contractions with the nurse and about the same with the doctor there. I don't think they were quite ready because the nurse was still opening the sheet on my chest when he came out. No words can describe what you feel the first time you see your baby. It's so incredible. I had to keep asking Pat if we had a boy or a girl. I think he was in a little bit of shock. He had said before that he didn't want to cut the cord but Dr Adam just handed him the scissors and he did it and said it wasn't as bad as he thought it was going to be. I remember at some point Dr Adam saying that he didn't have much hair and my response was "all that heartburn for nothing?!?!" Turns out he has quite a bit of blond hair so he just needed to get cleaned up for it to be visible.
After they cleaned him up and got him measured and weighed they brought him over to me to nurse. He's been a rockstar eater from the beginning. He seemed to know what he was doing better than I did. It amazed me how alert he was right at first and we just sat there taking him all in.
The next 18 hours or so are a total blur and I really don't remember much. Our parents were there so I know they came in to see him and they moved me to another room. Typically you get moved to the OB side a couple of hours after but they had to keep me on the L&D side due to the medication I was on so we were in this tiny little room until they took my IV and catheter out around 8:00pm. I was so groggy that whole day due to the meds and the fact that I'd been awake since 8am the day before. I don't know that I slept that much though which was probably a mistake. It seemed like there was constantly someone coming to check my blood pressure and reflexes or taking blood. Pat and I kept saying "is it still the 9th? How is it still the 9th?" I will say that Owen's birthday was probably the longest day we have ever had. They ended up taking my IV out at 8 instead of 3 so I got to drink 7 hours sooner than originally planned. All I wanted was ice chips which the nurse laughed at. She said "really? that's all you want??" Well, when you haven't had anything to drink for 24 hours you are REALLY thirsty.
Pat ordered me Jimmy John's which I'd been wanting since I was 4 months pregnant and it was everything I hoped for!
I was still in quite a bit of pain and pretty much any type of movement was extremely slow and difficult. They had me sit in a tub for a while and getting in and out of that almost put me in tears. Going to the bathroom was terrifying for me which meant that I almost had to have the catheter put back in because I hadn't peed in 8+ hours. The nurse brought this little ultrasound type machine in to see how full my bladder was and told me "you either need to pee now or the catheter is going back in". That was enough motivation for me to get over that fear!
One of the nights Owen was really twitchy and I thought he was shivering and asked the nurse what she thought and she ended up taking him to the nursery to make sure he was fine. They checked his blood sugar and pulse ox and both were fine then put him under the warmer for a while and he just slept there. She said that babies have an immature nervous system and that's probably what it was. It was nice of her to have him checked out though and not just brush it off. She was one of my favorite nurses after I moved to the OB side.
Everyone at the hospital was so good to us. My doctor is great; Owen's doctor is great and we loved all of the nurses that took care of us.
We were in the hospital until Saturday afternoon and then it was time to bring Owen home!
he is so sweet! good to hear things are going well! let us know when you are up for visitors :)
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