8 lb. 6oz.
21 3/4 in. long
So, here is the story of his birth, and the first week and a half or so with him. I warn you -- I am quite sleep-deprived, and am struggling with recovery, so I make no guarantees that this will be my most lucid, well-spelled, grammatically correct, etc... post. I will just share the story as best as I can.
I was at the 41 1/2 week mark of my pregnancy, and scheduled to be induced on Thursday, March 24. I hadn't wanted to be induced, but knew it was for the best. So, we went out to dinner on Wednesday night, and took our dog to the friends who would be watching him during our hospital stay. Shortly after arriving home, I realized my water had broken, and we headed to the hospital. We got checked in there, but true "labor" hadn't really set in yet. I wasn't having any more contractions than I had been having previously anyway, and I still wasn't very far along. Wanting to avoid pitocin if at all possible, my doctor allowed me to give it a couple of hours, walk around for a while, and just see if things appeared to be progressing on their own. I did that. Nothing changed. Pitocin, it was. So, they got me all hooked up to an IV and Pit., and once the pitocin started, contractions did start to come more frequently, and very gradually got a little more painful as they increased the dosages regularly. They didn't "check me" very often, since my water had broken, as they didn't want to risk introducing any sort of infection. So, it was really just a long game of cranking up the pitocin gradually, and waiting to see what happened. After several hours, they did check me, and I was still only at 2cm. Hmm...this was progressing rather slowly. They kept increasing pitocin. Checked me a few hours later, and I was only at 3 cm. It was a small amount of change for the amount of time and pitocin that had been given. I had been on the maximum dosage of pitocin that they would normally give for a couple of hours at this point, so it was a bit surprising that things weren't moving along more. The contractions were definitely getting stronger, and were coming right on top of each other for that last hour or two before being checked. We were using breathing techniques to get through them, but I was incredibly discouraged when they told me that after 10 hours or so on pitocin, and at least a few hours of relatively strong contractions, I was still only at 3 cm. So, the doctor came into talk with us, and she decided to insert an internal monitor to keep track of the contractions to see more accurately what was going on. With this device in place, they could also increase the pitocin levels even more. Given the length of time that had already elapsed, the fact that I was working with no sleep throughout the entire night and day (we had checked into the hospital in the evening, and it was now mid-afternoon the next day), and the fact that no end was in sight anytime soon, I went ahead and asked for an epidural so that I could, hopefully, get some rest, as it appeared this labor was going to be long. A crazy anesthesiologist came in to give me that (I won't elaborate on him here, but it was interesting...), and I was surprised by how painful it was. Granted, I was getting it while having fairly strong contractions right on top of each other. I went numb pretty quickly, but immediately got "the shakes". I couldn't figure it out -- was I cold, and shivering? What was going on? The nurse said this was common with epidurals. I prayed that they would pass, because I knew I would not be able to rest while shaking so much. Thankfully, they did eventually stop. I still wasn't able to rest well, though. I was so uncomfortable, and wanting for things to progress so badly, that I just couldn't sleep. I was grateful to have a rest from the pain, though. After several more hours of increased pitocin levels, they checked me again -- I was at 4 cm. Oh, my -- at this rate, it would be a week before we made it to 10 cm. The doctor talked with us again. She said that after you cross the 4 cm hurdle, things can tend to pick up and progress much more quickly, but if they didn't, we would have to go ahead and get the baby out, since he was no longer protected by the amniotic fluid. We knew that was coming -- I had heard that 24 hours was sort of the max amount of time most doctors will give a baby to come on his or her own once the water has broken. So, we increased pitocin once more, and gave it a couple more hours to see what happened. No change. And, I had begun to spike a fever, was vomiting quite a bit (sorry...there's no making this part a "pretty" story), and my pulse was rising quite a bit. C-section it was. Doctor came in to talk with us and answer any questions we might have. Our final question was, "how soon do you think we will get started?" "OR is open, she said, so we'll get you in there in the next 15 minutes." Alright. After that, it was a whirlwind. Really, I think I was being operated on about 20 minutes after we finished that conversation. They wasted no time. Baby was out after about 5 minutes. They gave us a few minutes, while they were still working on me, to see the baby and hold him before taking him to get cleaned up. I told Drew to go with the baby, and document that first hour or two for me. Maybe it was a good thing that Drew wasn't there, because shortly after he and baby left, I hemhorraged and lost quite a bit of blood. I guess they got everything under control (C-sections are strange because you are awake, and you can detect when things aren't going quite right, but you're not sure how much you want to ask/know), and ran into a couple of other complications before finally getting me stitched up and into recovery. The rest of that night is also quite a blur (this was about 11;30 PM, and I was on about 36 hours of no sleep, had pain meds in me still, and had lost a lot of blood), so I was not really "with it". I do remember meeting our baby. I do remember getting to really hold him for the first time once they got me up to my room. It was an amazing feeling. I do remember my mom and dad coming in to say hi briefly. That's about it. I have a vague recollection of a guy coming in to insert and IV or something. I fell asleep while he was doing it.
It certainly wasn't the birth experience I had anticipated or envisioned. But, I did have a beautiful baby boy to show for it, so that was quite exciting.
Recovery has been another unexpected experience. It is recovering from a major abdominal surgery, while also having a baby. So, it is just quite overwhelming at times. Emotionally, it has been difficult, as I want to care for my little boy and do things for him that my body simply can't/shouldn't do right now. But, I love the moments we do get. I love being his mom -- getting to snuggle with him as much as I can, feed him, etc...
I need to wrap this up, but we do need continued prayer and encouragement from our friends. My incision started bleeding yesterday, and I had it checked today. They are putting me on antibiotics for a week, as they are worried there may be an infection creeping in. We are praying that the antibiotics are able to take care of it, because if they don't, the incision will have to be opened and drained. I haven't even processed that yet, and am praying that we just won't have to deal with it, as my body already feels so exhausted from everything that has been done, and all of the recovery it is trying to do, while also caring for a newborn. I am not going to lie -- it has been a harder road than we imagined so far, but having this sweet little boy is such a great joy that it is worth it.
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