Oh man.
I'm warning you, this may quickly turn into a very long post!
What is included:
PICTURES! I was supposed to be napping today (my mom got mad at me when she came in and found out I wasn't) but instead I snuggled my baby and took about a zillion pictures of him...I CAN'T HELP MYSELF!!
Birth story!
How I feel about becoming a mom!
And I think that's it, but we'll see how it goes.
So, we'll start with the story of how our little one was born.
Monday December 23rd I had a doctor appointment but my regular doctor was out so I saw someone else in the office. It turned out that my blood pressure was a little high and there was some cause for concern so the doctor decided to send me over to the hospital so they could run some tests and make sure everything was ok.
Seeing as this was my third time going to the hospital to "get checked" (I'd been having pretty much ongoing, regular contractions for about a week and a half at that point) I figured third time was a charm and maybe, just MAYBE, I'd be walking out of the hospital with a baby!
So they took my blood, ran some other tests on me and the baby, and we had a quick ultrasound. The last time we had an ultrasound, the tech was pretty surprised about the amount of amniotic fluid I had. I had about as much fluid as I did baby which is fairly unusual for that stage of pregnancy. But no one said anything and we figured everything was fine.
During the ultrasound on Monday, the tech mentioned the amniotic fluid again but no one told us anything or mentioned anything and we were sent home AGAIN. When we voiced our frustration to the nurse, she understood and was very kind in validating our concerns.
I am so grateful for what she did next.
She told us that there was some need to be careful about when my water broke because of the amount of amniotic fluid I had. When we asked her what she meant she just told us that when it broke it would be best to either drive to the hospital with me laying down or, really, to call 911 and get an ambulance to pick me up since we live so far away from the hospital.
So when I got home, I looked up what she was talking about.
Apparently I had what is called polyhydramnios. It's when you have an excessive amount of amniotic fluid and it can cause a number of complications should your water break, especially if it breaks at home.
The two largest complications are a prolapsed cord where the umbilical cord comes out with the fluid and the baby's head descends on top of the cord, cutting off the blood supply to the baby, and placental abruption where the placenta detaches from the wall of the uterus depriving the baby of oxygen.
Pretty scary stuff!
And the most concerning part of it was that NO ONE had said a word to us about any of it. Thank heavens that nurse did because if she hadn't, we never would have known we needed to be concerned and (I learned after some research) had my water broken at home we most likely would have lost the baby since we live an hour and a half away from the hospital.
So when we left the hospital on Monday they said they wanted me to come back in to recheck my blood pressure in a few days.
I found all of the information Christmas Eve so Christmas wasn't exactly the most relaxing this year!
We decided that I'd go back to the hospital to get my blood pressure checked and that we'd insist on talking to the doctor about our concerns.
When we got to the hospital, I ended up with a fun nurse...sarcasm implied...who was very confident in her 33 years of experience. When we talked to her about the due date confusion she put up a pretty big fight that I was only 39 weeks and absolutely NOT 42. I believe my favorite part was when she said something about she'd been nursing for 33 years and this was only my first baby. Oh and that there was NO WAY that I could be 42 weeks because my body would have already naturally had the baby because NO ONE goes to 42 weeks.
After the baby was born the doctor told us that my body would never have gone into labor on its own because the baby couldn't get into position to put pressure on the cervix to get everything dilating and moving, it took everything I had not to go back to triage and rub that in her face...
Anyway, we put up enough of a stink that they finally called the doctor on call and brought her in to talk to us. And she completely agreed that it wasn't safe for me to go home and wait for my water to break. She said the only way I was driving another hour and a half was with a baby when I was taking him home.
So they admitted me!
Then we waited for a long time. We waited for them to bring in another ultrasound technician to check the amount of amniotic fluid I had. On Monday, my amniotic fluid was at about 27. On Thursday, it was 37. The doctor came in and told me the game plan was to give me an epidural (AMAZING btw), break my water slowly, start me on pitocin, and have a baby!
So that's what happened.
And around 9 AM Friday morning they had me begin pushing.
So I pushed.
And I pushed.
And I pushed some more.
And then I felt the baby move.
And when they checked the baby to see if he was still descending, they found that he hadn't budged since they checked him the last time. The doctor came in again and, come to find out, the little bugger had rotated so his body was facing up and to the right and he couldn't go down any more.
So they decided that it would be best if I kept pushing and see if he would move again and be able to descend again.
So we kept going.
Till I had been pushing for three hours.
The doctor came in again, said that she felt the best decision would be to take him C-Section. She said that I had been pushing for so long my body was tired and she didn't want to put it through trying to turn the baby, and pushing more.
I've had this attitude about the whole birth thing, that it's birth. I can't control it, so I might as well roll with the punches. I educated myself the best I could about the process and had an idea of how I would like for it to go, but my heart wasn't set on it. I knew things could potentially come up that would prevent me from having the most ideal delivery. So when the doctor suggested a C-Section, I didn't worry too much about it. I mean it made me a little nervous, I've never had real surgery and there's a lot that's kinda scary about it. But I trusted the doctor and I felt that was what needed to happen, so I had no problems with that outcome.
So they took me in to the operating room to get me prepped.
I must say I was so grateful for the anesthesiologist. I could tell the nurses didn't really love him, but he really became an advocate for me while Larry was waiting to be allowed in the room. He noticed when I wasn't comfortable and took measures to make me more comfortable. I ended up still being able to feel so they had to completely knock me out, honestly I was grateful for that.
It was a little strange to go to sleep pregnant and wake up not pregnant and have my baby wheeled in the room.
I don't remember a ton from when I first woke up, I remember asking if the baby was ok and being told that he and my husband would be coming in shortly. I also remember seeing James for the first time and my thoughts.
My first thought was "He's so little!"
The doctors had been telling me for weeks that we were going to be having a big baby. But he was so little! I wasn't expecting it! He was 8 lbs and 2 oz when he was born, but he still looked so so tiny! He ended up losing a lot of that and at his smallest in the hospital was 7 lbs flat.
My second thought was "He's so perfect."
And he is.
He is so incredibly perfect.
(That's one of my favorite pictures of Larry and James so far)
We were in the hospital for longer than normal due to two things, the doctor told me that I had basically done both - I had almost had a vaginal birth and I had a cesarean so my body is going to take longer to recover since it was so tired by the time they decided to just go in and take him. The second was he was a little jaundiced so he spent a night under the uv lamp and was better by the morning when they finally let us leave.
So we brought our baby home on New Year's Eve.
And I got to have the best start to my 2014, just hanging out with my baby and Larry.
Larry is loving being a dad. He gets nap times with the baby sleeping on his chest and I swear I have NEVER seen anyone so excited to change a poopy diaper. He's an amazing dad!
A lot has happened in the month since he has been born (well, a month on Monday but close enough)
He is finally fitting into his newborn clothes (we didn't buy many since we were going to be having such a "big baby")
From the day he was born he has been lifting his head like a pro. He can basically lift half his body up...it just depends which end he wants to lift up during tummy time and it's hilarious to see him sticking his butt and legs in the air!
He has already figured out rolling over!
It has certainly been the most difficult thing I've ever done, and we're still getting used to it. But I have the most beautiful baby boy and I wouldn't trade that for the world.
My favorite picture thus far!
It's so strange to think that James is a little person who will walk and talk one day. That he'll grow up. I'm trying to enjoy the fact that he's just little right now, and I'm trying to appreciate these first few days and weeks because he won't be a baby forever.
This stage of our lives together is fleeting and it will be over before I know it.
I'm also cataloging the things I can give him heck about for the rest of his life and all the ways I look forward to making him feel awkward. (Because, as we've all learned, I excel at awkward)
So that's all for now. Keep watch for some new announcements coming soon about some changes we are hoping to make this year! I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and New Year and that your January has been excellent so far!
Here's to an incredible 2014!
Less Than Three,
Sarah, Larry, and James
And now for a few extra pictures
(Hope you don't mind me putting this picture up mom! Love you!)
