Finally, he's here!!
All the fun started around 6:00 p.m., Wednesday March 7, when I started timing contractions. They were about 7-8 min apart but I could walk, talk and function during them, so not very painful but definitely more than Braxton Hicks. At 6:30 they were 5 minutes apart. I got ahold of Brent around 7:15 to head on home. Contractions were 4-5 min apart and getting stronger. I had to stop what I was doing during them, but could still talk. Once Brent gets home I decide I should probably take a shower so I'm ready to go. While in the shower the contractions completely stop. I was afraid it was a false alarm! I had time to get dressed and fix my hair before they picked up again. I laid down to see if there was anything coming for me to time/chart. Around 8:30 they picked up again and picked up good. Around 9:00 they were 3 min apart and I was having to concentrate and breathe through them. We left for the hospital around 9:45. During the car ride they were 2-3 min apart. We got to the hospital, checked in, clothes changed and checked around 10:30. I was only 3 cm. I was so disappointed. I thought I'd be a lot further along than that being the 3rd and all. Little did I know it'd be hurry up and wait all night long.
They called the doctor and she wanted me to stay. They got me to a room, IV and antibiotics in, blood drawn, checked again. Almost 6 cm. I was still unsure whether or not I wanted an epidural. I mean, it was going so fast, so far I could breathe through my contractions. The nurse broke it down for me though and basically said that it's either now or never. I'm progressing so fast that if I don't get it at soon as the bloodwork comes back I'm basically saying I won't need it at all. I'd had one dose of IV pain meds and those were pretty much doing the trick, but I knew these contractions were nothing like what I was about to experience once I was hit transition (the period between 8-10 cm). So I got the epidural.
The epidural was an event in itself. They use a numbing injection, like at the dentist, before they use the big needles and catheters. I didn't get numb from the medicine before he started using the big needles, which felt like he took a steak knife and stabbed me in the spine with it. It was horrible. He realized what was going on and stopped, took everything out, renumbed me and started over. I'm still sore from that bleeping epidural and wish I hadn't gotten it. Anyways....As soon as the epidural was in and working they asked if I wanted my water broken. It was not yet 1 a.m. I told them no, I didn't want to speed up my labor because I had to have my antibiotics for 4 hrs and the second dose in, in order to not mess up my 24 hr discharge and to make sure Graham was not at risk for the group b strep, which could cause meningitis. (Group B Strep is a normal bacteria that lives "down there" but can become increased, like a yeast infection. If it's increased when they test you around 35 weeks you have to have antibiotics during labor and delivery to prevent it being passed onto the baby, which could cause meningitis.)
I got really sleepy, assumed it was a combo of IV drugs/epidural/middle of the night/finally able to relax. A whole slew of people came rushing in, turning me in all directions, opening up my fluids, etc. Turns out that sleepy feeling was my BP bottoming out around 89/35 and Graham's heartrate got really low. In the 50's at times. They got us both stable and in a position Graham could tolerate, my BP back up to the 100/65. They checked me, I was 8 cm...it was 1:00 a.m.. They said the BP dropping was caused by a combination of him dropping and me progressing so fast and a side effect of the epidural. The midwife was there during all this, once she heard I was 8 cm and we were both stable, she told me she'd see me in a few minutes to deliver.
Those few minutes turned into almost 4 hours! Since my water was not broken, it was keeping me from dilating those last couple cm. They had me moving around, sitting up, pushing, etc, trying to break my water without having to wake up my midwife (This was her 3rd day on call and working in the office as well and she had gotten little sleep, I was ok with trying other ways and waiting since at this point I still hadn't made it to 4 hrs of antibiotics and we both were fine since the little BP episode). At 3:45, a little under 4 hrs, they give me my next dose of antibiotics. Now we can get this ball rolling!! Soon after, my midwife wakes in a panic thinking the nurses had delivered me. She comes in, breaks my water, immediately I'm 10 cm. I'm thinking great!! It's time!! Nope, got to wait some more. I'd told them I wanted to let the baby descend as much as possible on his own because I didn't want to be pushing for hours, the midwife and nurse agreed that's the way they like to do things as well and left telling me to call when I felt pressure. With Nate it was only a few contractions before he was about to fall out. Graham wanted to take him time. At 4:45 it was time. 3 contractions later, 5:05 a.m. Graham Joseph Price made his appearance!
They put him to my chest immediately, he cried instantly. They dried him off, did all the normal baby things with him on my chest. Brent cut the cord. He got to stay right there on my chest for the next hour. I cherish that hour of "skin to skin" so much with each baby. It was my favorite time during labor and delivery with each one. He nursed really well to be so new. About an hour after birth they did his foot prints and wrapped him up for Brent to hold. Brent and Graham went to the nursery to get a bath and get weighed. He was 19.5 inches, 13.5 head circumference, and 7 lbs 2.6 oz.
He is doing great! We both were discharged at 24 hours. He is nursing great (which means ALL.THE.TIME. Ugh.) He was more at risk for jaundice because we have different blood types, so the pediatrician had us go to the after hours clinic on Saturday to have him evaluated. He was fine, no jaundice, but was down to 6 lbs 8 oz. The Dr estimated that to be around 5-7%, no big deal to me....Logan and Nate had lost more than that....but she wanted us to come back the next day to weigh him again. Milk came in later that day so I decided to use my best mommy judgement and wait and see our regular pediatrician instead of the after hours doctor. I watched for signs of dehydration, sunken soft soft, not enough wet diapers...he had none of those signs. We went back to the doctor today and saw our regular pediatrician. He is back up to 6 lbs 13 oz. She said they only look for an oz a day increase when they are gaining back weight in the first week and since he'd more than exceeded that, we could wait til his 2 week well check to come back instead of coming back every day or two until he was back to birth weight.
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