As to be expected blogging has fallen to the wayside and baby snuggles have quickly become my only priority. But, while HJT is sleeping I'll try to give one big update on the last 2 weeks.
Fyi- If you're not into reading novels don't continue. Or if you're not into birth stories definitely don't keep reading!
Birth Story:
So for all 4 of you that read my last blog before he was born knew that I was scheduled to be induced on 9/26 which was the day before my actual due date. As much as I wanted him out of my belly I really struggled as the 26th got closer and closer and he still hadn't come on his own. I can't really explain why I felt so strongly about being induced but second to a c-section it was the last thing I wanted. But, I had come to terms with the fact that this stubborn little person wasn't budging on his own and an induction really wasn't a bad thing. I went to work on Monday feeling absolutely no contractions or signs of labor. And for those that had to be around me in the last few weeks of my pregnancy I'll go ahead and apologize for my insane moodiness! I think everyone at work was just as ready for me to have him as I was.
At 1:48 am on Tuesday (i'm weird about remembering exact times) I woke up and while sparing you all the details I thought that possibly my water was slowly breaking although still no contractions. So, I went back to sleep until my alarm went off for work. At that point I was 90% sure that's what was happening but I still didn't know for sure. I wanted it to be like the movies with one giant water breaking moment so I would know for sure. I got up, ate breakfast, got ready for work and finally decided maybe I should mention this to Cliff. We talked it over and I had finally decided just to go to work and if anything else happened I'd just walk to the hospital, the perk of working next door. However, I had a last minute change of heart and after vacuuming and cleaning the floors Cliff and I went on to the hospital. We arrived there at 8:30am.
After the nurse determined that indeed my water had broken they took me to a delivery room. By this point we had let all of our family and close friends know HJT was on his way but not to rush as I was still only dilated to a 2 but contractions had started. My mom and dad were both there within 30 minutes and Cliff's parents weren't far behind! Once I got labor and delivery they started me on a pitocin drip. I labored for about 3 hours with no epidural and sill no progression. I had really wanted to wait until I was much further dilated to get an epidural but with each contraction I was having my body was tensing up immensely which the nurse said could be why I wasn't progressing at all. So, anesthesia came in and after 4 attempts were finally able to get the epidural in. Best. decision. Ever. I really admire those who choose to do everything all naturally but I just am not that person! For the next several hours my contractions picked up and I finally started to progress. But, unfortunately they progressed too much too quickly. I had a series of contractions that lasted for about 3 minutes which left Hudson no time to recover in between contractions. I had just dozed off when my nurse came in to check me. The next thing I knew 7 more nurses were in the room, my doctor was being paged and I had an oxygen mask on my face. I didn't really know what was going on but I knew when I had looked at the monitor Hudson's heartbeat was down to 79 and wasn't going back up. My doctor was in the room in no time and after what felt like an eternity his heartbeat finally started to go back up. Needless to say Cliff and I were extremely shaken up afterward. They turned my pitocin off and let me labor on my own from that point on. Side note: I can't say enough good things about the nurses we had or my doctor. She was watching the monitors on her computer in her office (same building I work in) and came before they even paged her then sat outside my room until I was ready to start pushing. At about 7pm I was at a 6 so we were able to talk our parents in to going to get something to eat. Well, not mine. Mom and dad did not leave my side unless the nurses or doctor came in to check me which was actually fine with me.
I went from a 6 to an 8 within the hour. We then kicked everyone out to where it was just the two of us. At that point my pain level was getting increasingly worse. I thought maybe just because I was getting so close but turned out my epidural had worn off. I wanted to hug the anesthesiologist who came and gave me a 'delivery dose' after that. It took another hour or so to finally make it to a 10. Once I started pushing the nurse told me most first time moms push for about an hour - 2 hours but that and I quote 'you won't take that long'....2 hours later I'm still pushing and wanting to kick that woman. I finally found some extra energy from within and at 10:54pm my sweet boy was born.
Fyi- If you're not into reading novels don't continue. Or if you're not into birth stories definitely don't keep reading!
Birth Story:
So for all 4 of you that read my last blog before he was born knew that I was scheduled to be induced on 9/26 which was the day before my actual due date. As much as I wanted him out of my belly I really struggled as the 26th got closer and closer and he still hadn't come on his own. I can't really explain why I felt so strongly about being induced but second to a c-section it was the last thing I wanted. But, I had come to terms with the fact that this stubborn little person wasn't budging on his own and an induction really wasn't a bad thing. I went to work on Monday feeling absolutely no contractions or signs of labor. And for those that had to be around me in the last few weeks of my pregnancy I'll go ahead and apologize for my insane moodiness! I think everyone at work was just as ready for me to have him as I was.
At 1:48 am on Tuesday (i'm weird about remembering exact times) I woke up and while sparing you all the details I thought that possibly my water was slowly breaking although still no contractions. So, I went back to sleep until my alarm went off for work. At that point I was 90% sure that's what was happening but I still didn't know for sure. I wanted it to be like the movies with one giant water breaking moment so I would know for sure. I got up, ate breakfast, got ready for work and finally decided maybe I should mention this to Cliff. We talked it over and I had finally decided just to go to work and if anything else happened I'd just walk to the hospital, the perk of working next door. However, I had a last minute change of heart and after vacuuming and cleaning the floors Cliff and I went on to the hospital. We arrived there at 8:30am.
After the nurse determined that indeed my water had broken they took me to a delivery room. By this point we had let all of our family and close friends know HJT was on his way but not to rush as I was still only dilated to a 2 but contractions had started. My mom and dad were both there within 30 minutes and Cliff's parents weren't far behind! Once I got labor and delivery they started me on a pitocin drip. I labored for about 3 hours with no epidural and sill no progression. I had really wanted to wait until I was much further dilated to get an epidural but with each contraction I was having my body was tensing up immensely which the nurse said could be why I wasn't progressing at all. So, anesthesia came in and after 4 attempts were finally able to get the epidural in. Best. decision. Ever. I really admire those who choose to do everything all naturally but I just am not that person! For the next several hours my contractions picked up and I finally started to progress. But, unfortunately they progressed too much too quickly. I had a series of contractions that lasted for about 3 minutes which left Hudson no time to recover in between contractions. I had just dozed off when my nurse came in to check me. The next thing I knew 7 more nurses were in the room, my doctor was being paged and I had an oxygen mask on my face. I didn't really know what was going on but I knew when I had looked at the monitor Hudson's heartbeat was down to 79 and wasn't going back up. My doctor was in the room in no time and after what felt like an eternity his heartbeat finally started to go back up. Needless to say Cliff and I were extremely shaken up afterward. They turned my pitocin off and let me labor on my own from that point on. Side note: I can't say enough good things about the nurses we had or my doctor. She was watching the monitors on her computer in her office (same building I work in) and came before they even paged her then sat outside my room until I was ready to start pushing. At about 7pm I was at a 6 so we were able to talk our parents in to going to get something to eat. Well, not mine. Mom and dad did not leave my side unless the nurses or doctor came in to check me which was actually fine with me.
I went from a 6 to an 8 within the hour. We then kicked everyone out to where it was just the two of us. At that point my pain level was getting increasingly worse. I thought maybe just because I was getting so close but turned out my epidural had worn off. I wanted to hug the anesthesiologist who came and gave me a 'delivery dose' after that. It took another hour or so to finally make it to a 10. Once I started pushing the nurse told me most first time moms push for about an hour - 2 hours but that and I quote 'you won't take that long'....2 hours later I'm still pushing and wanting to kick that woman. I finally found some extra energy from within and at 10:54pm my sweet boy was born.
All the grandparents and their electronics!
Our first night home was pretty rough. I have a bassinet next to our bed that HJT just didn't seem to like being in. The next night I tried changing some things around and he slept through the night. I had to wake him up to feed him every 3 hours! Since then he's done great, we haven't been able to establish an exact routine but most days he's done really well about eating at scheduled times. The nurses in the hospital told me whenever he seems to want it, offer it to him so I did. We went to see the pediatrician the Monday after we got home and he was already back up to his birth weight! The doctor recommended I stretch his feedings out and stop letting him 'graze'...oops!
Cliff was home with us all last week which was so nice. He's done such an amazing job with Hudson and helped us be able to start getting into some sort of daily routine. I really did not want him to go back to work on Monday! I'm pretty sure HJT has Cliff wrapped around his tiny finger. Which, who am I kidding, so am I.
Ok, I'll wrap this novel up for now and I'll try to get better about updates (that aren't so long!)
Here's some pictures from the last week
Coming home
This is what said 'routine' consists of :)
For those that aren't on Instagram and have wondered about Missi and him. She LOVES him. Just a little too much. She does great if it's just Cliff and I here but she's used to being the center of everyone's our attention so she doesn't like when visitors are talking to him and not her. She's very worried about him though and doesn't like to let him out of her sight.
This little person has completely stolen my heart. It's really amazing to me how much you can love someone. Needless to say he has a lot of people in his life that love him. He's one lucky guy!
He's so adorable! Definitely a mini-Cliff
ReplyDelete