Saturday, June 2, 2012

Labor and Delivery

So as most of you know, little Oliver finally made it into the world! It was a bit of a rough road but absolutely worth the wait!
Willy and I went to my doctor's appointment on the 23rd as scheduled. They had us monitor the baby for about a half hour. I was having pretty consistant contractions but they were still pretty mild. When the doctor checked me out she thought that I was probably leaking fluid so we ran some tests. She came back and asked if we were ready to have the baby. If you have been following my posts on facebook, you would all know the answer to that question! Of course we were ready! We had already packed our overnight bag and everything:) We went to the Family Birthing Center and got all checked in. The nurse started an IV of potocin, which is used to induce labor. My contractions became more regular and a little more intense. About 3 hours later ( we checked in about 10:30am) the doctor came in and completely broke my water. They warned me that the contractions were going to get worse, so to be prepared. At this point I was dialated to a 6. The contractions definately got worse. I have had people tell me that labor was hard and that the contractions hurt but it was seriously like no other pain I have ever felt! I asked for an epidural after about an hour of contractions. I know I am a weeny but whatever:) When they do an epidural they try and wait for in between contractions but the problem with that was, my contractions were only about a minute apart, which didn't really give him enough time to get it in. Something went wrong, he kept hitting a nerve and sending shooting pains down my right leg. Now that pain was comparable to labor pains. It was the only time during all of labor that I screamed and cursed at everyone in the room. He ended up having to do a spinal instead. Now this would have been ok except he put it too high in my back. My hands started to go numb but I could still feel the contractions. They were definately more tolerable but I was still in a lot of pain. Unfortunately there wasn't much else that they could do. This all happened in the early afternoon. They continued to monitor my progress and everything was going pretty well (other than the pain.) At about midnight we were finally dialated to a nine and we thought we were just about there. Then for some reason I stopped dialating. We were stuck at a nine for almost 2 full hours when the doctor came and said we could not wait any longer. Apparently once your water is broken you only have so much time to deliver otherwise there are too many risks to your health and to the baby. She told me we were going to have to do a C-section. I was a little nervous about it but honestly at that point I had been in pain for so many hours, it was kindof a relief to know I didn't have to do the pushing thing:) Plus since I already had the spinal in I was already ready to go. Willy got to go with me which was really nice. And also let me mention that he was the best husband through all of this. I couldn't have done it all without him. They got me all set up and within a few minutes we had our little baby boy! They pulled back the cover and let me see him as soon as he was out and then went to clean him up a bit. I got to hold him for a few minutes while they were stitching me back up, but then they took Oliver and Willy and left the room. I asked "Are you done yet because my son just walked out the door and I am pretty sure I need to go with him." They kindof laughed and said they were almost done. That was pretty hard for me. I didn't want to miss anything! If I could have felt my legs they might have been in trouble because I really wanted to follow them out of the room:) When I finally got back to the room they told me he was 7lbs 10oz and 21 inches long. He was so perfect!You cannot describe the joy you feel when you hold that baby for the first time. It removed all the negative things that had happened at least for the moment. It is AWESOME! The next few days were a little frusterating. because of the epidural/spinal incident, I had to stay flat for 12 hours afterward as to avoid getting what they call a spinal headache. It was hard to hold Oliver that way and really hard to breastfeed him. Not to mention I didn't get to participate in his baths or anything that involved him being away from my bed. Again, that was really hard for me. I wanted to be a part of all of that. I knew they couldn't wait but I still cried. It was nice when I was finally able to sit up. We had to stay for a few days to make sure everything with the C-section went ok as well as to make sure I didn't get the spinal headache (which I didn't) He was born on a Thursday and we got to go home on Saturday. We were pretty anxious to get the little one home. When we left the hospital I had a moment of panic. I knew we would be fine but that is when all these questions start coming up, like do we have everything we need for him? or is the house clean enough for a new baby? or what if something goes wrong, we don't have a call button for the nurse anymore? I got over most of it pretty quick but there was a good 15 minutes that I was really nervous about taking him home. Now that he is a week old and we have all survived, I think back to how silly that was:)
Willy and I are very happy that we FINALLY got our baby boy. We have been waiting since 2008 for the little guy and he is really here! We love him very much and are very excited to have started this new adventure!  We are very blessed and very happy! We are thankful to both sides of our family for all the support through everything as well as the continued support. Also really thankful for all of our friends who have been around to help us out. We love you all very much!
It just goes to show that the third time is the charm:)

1 comment:

  1. Erika I can't tell you happy I am for you! After all that heartbreak and work you have gone through to get him here he is finally here! I hope you post some more pictures soon!

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