Labor & Delivery plus whatever else I can fit!

I have a few moments here, but I'm not sure how long it will last so hopefully as my fingers fly this sleeping baby can squeeze in a few more dreams.

Speaking of dreams, this morning I was napping with Reed and when I woke up I realized that in my dream I was at a beach party and I was tucking potato chips into my flip flops to save for later. This isn't even the weirdest part! What's especially funny is that the other party goers were really glad that I had chips to share when everyone else was all out! LOL

I digress.

Many of you have heard my labor and delivery story and many of you have not. Part of me wants to delve into every detail and another part of me wonders who the heck would ever want to read that.

So I'll just start at the beginning and see how it goes! Sometimes its best to just let it flow.

LABOR

We begin on Friday morning, August 27th. My official due date was moved from the 27th to the 26th, I don't know why but doctors will be doctors. I woke up and hopped on my cruiser, and just like most mornings I rode around the neighborhood to clock in my 6 miles. I was feeling pretty crampy and achy on the inside and knew that I was making progress. The previous Monday at my doctor visit, she'd been asking me if I'd been feeling crampy yet. I'd been dilated to a 1 for two weeks and told her, "nope, no cramps". So now I was feeling the cramps that she was asking about and I hoped a little that this wasn't going to last for a week!

I went to work and tried to ignore the discomfort. There was a birthday party and the German Chocolate Cake took my mind off of it momentarily.

I decided to go home an hour early and just wanted to lay on the couch and eat some chocolate while watching a movie. During the movie I kept noticing that I'd get a little too uncomfortable and have to get up and pace for a minute. After about an hour it dawned on me that those were contractions! Mike got home around 6:30 and was timing them for me. We called the hospital and the doctor on call basically told me that since I could talk on the phone I wasn't ready to come to the hospital. She was really snippy with me and I wasn't looking forward to the possibility of her being the one delivering me.

So, I labored at home for a while. During this time I took a shower, dried my hair. Painted my toenails, and went outside and visited with our neighbors, the Loughridges. Later I ended up back in the bathtub because it was the most helpful with the pain. I was disappointed to find out that my contractions were not the only pain I was experiencing. It hurt the whole time! I'd been planning on a drug free/medical intervention free delivery. The only thing that made me sure I could do it was knowing I wouldn't have residual pain and I just had to get through the contractions. However, in reality it just didn't work out that way. I was literally kicking and well not so much screaming but moaning and whining the entire time. Mike and I finally decided at 10pm that it was time to go to the hospital. The car ride was excruciating! We got there and before he could even park I instructed him to stop the car and I threw myself out onto my knees in the grass and vomited. This was just the first of 8 times that I would throw up while in labor. Yes, it hurt that bad. I was examined only to find out that I was now dilated to a 2. The hospital would not admit me and put me into a room until I was at least a 4 and we had no way of knowing how long that would take. We walked/leaned/vomited/kicked/cried around the hospital for an hour and a half but when they checked me again I hadn't made any progress and we decided to go home where I could at least get back into the bathtub.

Hours went by with Mike telling me how proud he was of me, how great I was doing, this was all necessary, we were going to get our baby soon! He was an amazing coach but minute after minute I was crumbling and realizing that I wasn't going to be able to do this without drugs.

On our way back to the hospital I told Mike in the car that I was going to need an epidural. He nodded and said, "okay". He knew at that point it was the way to go.

At 4am we were admitted to the hospital because I was finally "barely a 4". Still 6cm to go... I told them I needed the epidural.

Mike messaged our photographer, the amazing Susanne Delong and our dear friend arrived at 5am and the anesthesiologist arrived at 5:30 with the answer to my prayers.

We spent the rest of the day chilling out in my birthing suite waiting for me to dilate. Susanne and Mike were very considerate and tried not to eat in front of me (since I couldn't) but I worried about them starving to death. We webcam'd with my mom for a while. My parentally friends Keith and Cassie came to visit for a while. Everyone was getting kick out of watching my contraction monitor spike and asking me if I felt anything. NOPE!

DELIVERY

At around 6pm I was finally dilated enough to start pushing and at 6:30 it began! I pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed. I was very lucky that I had the perfect epidural. I could move my legs and I could feel all my muscles "down there" but I could feel no pain from the contractions. In fact they had to tell me when to push because you're supposed to push during a contraction and I couldn't feel them! My doctor was not on call and they were unable to get a hold of her so I ended up with... a man doctor! Not my preference for these kinds of things but he was a nice guy. For some reason he reminded me of Jason Alexander - you know, George from Seinfeld. Hmmm.

My energy was dwindling, I was getting exhausted and I didn't feel like we were making progress. Mike and Susanne continued to cheer for me. Mike was trying to comfort me between pushes and telling me he could see his head. It was so hard to hold the push for a 10 count but Susanne was cheering, "Finish strong, Connie! You're doing so great! You look beautiful!" My secret is that I would close my eyes and picture myself on my road bike climbing a really steep hill. Pedaling up a hill you have to consistently give effort because if you ease up you will lose momentum and that's the worst thing to do. I pictured every little detail of my bike- the gaps in my bar tape, the spot where the paint is chipped, my chain in the lowest gear ... even pebbles in the road.

There was meconium in my water when it broke which means that Reed had poo'd in there so two pediatricians were waiting for him to be born to make sure there weren't going to be any problems from that. It was a very good thing they were there, too, because it turned out that we really needed them. Reed was finally emerging but came out square shouldered instead of one shoulder at a time and got stuck! This caused the umbilical cord to become clamped inside the birth canal and was not providing any life to him for 3 minutes. It became extremely urgent to get him out- I was pushing like mad and the doctor was pulling and finally he was born! Mike quickly cut the cord and they immediately rushed him to the table across the room. He wouldn't breath and they had to stick a tube down his throat to aspirate him. When I heard my little boy cry my heart grew wings. I searched Mike's face to reassure myself that everything was okay- I couldn't see Reed, with all the doctors and nurses around him and Mike's emotions were a roller coaster so I knew it wasn't 100% okay.

Dr. Wagner was still working with me- all the afterness, but I couldn't really concentrate on anything going on with myself. I wanted my baby! Susanne was zipping around taking pictures and she kept looking at me and saying, "Connie! His CHEEKS! He's all CHEEKS!" or "Connie! His hair!! He has so much HAIR!!" She even offered to show me a picture from her camera because she knew I was just dying over there and wanted to see him so badly! At first I said yes, but as she got closer with the camera I put my hand out to stop her- "no, no! I have to wait!"

His little hands and feet were grey from no circulation, caused by the clamped umbilical cord. They talked of taking him up to the NICU, but finally (thankfully) decided to "give him to mom and see if he pinks up"

I finally got to hold my baby boy!! I looked into his face- straight into his eyes that were looking right back at me and I had this feeling. I KNEW him.

Smiling, I said to him through teary eyes, “Remember me? Remember me, Reed? I’m Mommy!” His eyes were so big! He just kept staring at me and making all these adorable little grunts and noises. Mike and I were both stunned at the overwhelming rush of emotions we felt. We were completely dialed in and nothing else existed but our little family.

It was 8:50 when he was born, 28 hours of labor including 2 and a half hours of pushing. Keith and Cassie had returned and were waiting in the hall where they could hear everything and when they came in I was so excited to see my Braum’s MILKSHAKE! We waited another couple hours for them to weigh and measure him and found out that he was 8lbs 10.7 oz and was 20.75” long. His chest was 14 inches! Well, that explained the whole getting stuck coming out thing!

AFTER

The rest of the hospital stay was an emotional roller coaster as well. Reed was labeled an LGA baby. Large for Gestational Age, which required more tests (diabetes and whatnot). His jaundice levels were high and kept going up so he was stuck in his heel and had blood drawn every 6 hours to check it again and again. We were so happy to have him and so in love with our little man, but it was exhausting to have all the hospital interruptions over and over. We desperately needed to rest. Reed was having much difficulty latching on so breastfeeding was another battle; in fact we still fight about it sometimes because he won’t eat without a shield, despite my efforts.

But he really is the sweetest little thing. Hairy… but sweet! He’s got hair on his ears, hair on his back, even this cute little tuft of hair in his butt crack that only his mommy knows about! It’s manly. His most unique feature is his second and third toes grew together. They may turn out to be webbed (faster swimmer than his daddy??) but if it continues to grow together and affects his balance we’ll have to correct it surgically.

So we had to stay 3 days in the hospital instead of the normal 2 and we were discharged only on the condition that we see our pediatrician the very next morning at 8:30am. His jaundiced levels were tested that morning and the next until they were finally low enough that we were in the clear! Yay!!

Now he’s our healthy little boy, strong as an ox! He has a lot of strength and control of his neck and head- kicks and pushes his feet like he thinks he can stand on his own, but really ends up just scooting himself away. He amazes me every day!