Wow, this mothering business is hard work! Between feedings, naps, doctor appointments, etc. there hasn't been much time (or energy) to blog. This post may take a few sittings to complete as Jack is particularly needy at the moment - so we'll see how it goes. I wanted to write about the day baby Jack decided to grace us with his presence. The main purpose of our blog is a journal for our family, so this post is mainly for me, but I know I benefited from reading others' stories about labor/delivery - so read on if you would like. But be forewarned there are lots of details in here! I'll throw in some pics to break up the monotony :)
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| Baby bump right before heading to the hospital: 39 weeks 3 days |
First, let me reflect on my pregnancy. I had a pretty picture-perfect pregnancy. I was blessed in avoiding a lot of the common woes that women deal with. I never got sick. I didn't have any swelling. I had very few Braxton Hicks contractions to speak of (the ones I did have were more annoying than painful). I did get a few charlie-horses in the second trimester, but I quickly learned how to recognize when one was coming and put a stop to it. I had heartburn pretty regularly in the last few weeks, but never bad enough that I had to take anything for it (plus it was probably my own fault because I'm such a pig and eat too much). I can only remember maybe two or three nights that I had a hard time sleeping, but again, nothing that significant. My biggest complaint about pregnancy was the belly. I gained about twenty pounds throughout the pregnancy and really my belly wasn't that big, but it was big enough. I didn't like having such a hard time putting on my socks and shoes, and rolling over in bed was a pain. But that's it. I figure if the big belly is my biggest complaint, then I did pretty well. I was grateful that I felt good enough to work up until the baby came, and I even went to the gym up until the week before he was born (don't be too impressed with that though - I didn't do anything too strenuous). But even though pregnancy seemed to suit me just fine, I was ready to be done with it. I wanted my old body back - the one that didn't have to lean up against a wall to put her shoes on. And I was ready to meet this little guy that I'd been carrying around for 9+ months.
I hit thirty-nine weeks on Wednesday, October 19 and was pretty sure I was destined to be pregnant forever. There were no signs that baby was on his way. Even though I really hoped he would come that weekend, I didn't think it would happen. I went to the doctor on Thursday and nothing had changed from the previous week; I was still 90% effaced and dilated to a one. Big whoop. He gave me the option of scheduling an induction, but we decided to wait and hope that baby would come on his own.
On Friday, I went to work and, again, no signs baby was on his way. But just in case, I got my unit cleaned and restocked with supplies so my fill-in gal wouldn't have to search for anything. That night, Brandt and I just hung out and did basically nothing. We were pretty much ready for baby to come. Brandt is amazing and had been working all week on odds and ends that we wanted to have done before the big day. The only thing left on our list was to go grocery shopping - but we were lazy and figured we had time to get that done the following week.
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| Holding dad's hand |
At 8:30 that night, my mom called to check on me. I told her it was a no-go and she was safe to take her sleeping pill for the night. She told me to call her if anything changed in the next couple of hours. I started having random, very mild contractions around 9:00 - they felt just like all the other Braxton Hicks contractions I'd had up to that point - so out of boredom I started timing them and writing them down. At 10:00 I got ready for bed and laid down for the night. Little did I know there would be no sleep.
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| Jack and Daddy |
The contractions got more uncomfortable, but I still didn't think it was the real deal. The books told me when it was the real thing, your contractions would become more intense and closer together - they said plan on going to the hospital when your contractions are 3-4 minutes apart and last for 40-60 seconds. Mine were completely random in their frequency and duration, hence why I was confused. I didn't want to go into the hospital in the middle of the night just for them to laugh at me and send me home with instructions to "come back when it REALLY hurts", so I planned on sticking it out at home as long as I could. It was not a fun night. Remember that towel rod (aka
Brandt's Nemesis) that gave us so much grief earlier this year? Well, it was put to the test that night as I leaned on it for support and it held up mighty fine! Kudos to Brandt for fixing it ;)
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| First Bath |
At around 3:00, Brandt gave me a blessing and I felt it was time to prepare to go to the hospital. I showered, did my hair and makeup (don't ask me why - but it was important at the time) and around 4:00 we headed to the hospital. I remember being really annoyed that I had to answer a bunch of questions (name, birthday, social security number, etc.) before they would even check me and order my epidural (couldn't they see I was in pain?!) Eventually I must have answered enough questions correctly to move on to being checked - I was dilated to a five! I was so proud of myself - I know that sounds dumb, but I was so nervous she was going to say I was still a one and send me home. The nurse told me I wasn't going anywhere, so Brandt called my mom and she jumped in the car. Thank the heavens the nurse finally ordered my epidural; it took an hour for him to come (some other girl beat me to the punch, so I had to wait my turn); I'd say that hour was probably the hardest part of the experience.
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| Chillin' with Mom |
By the time I got my epidural it was about 6 am and I was dilated to a six. I had some time to relax after that which was nice, although the epidural caused my blood pressure to drop, which in turn made me nauseous and I threw up some water (the last thing I'd eaten was a bowl of cereal at 6:00 the night before, so there wasn't much in me; this was my first time throwing up during the whole pregnancy - I was kind of looking forward to bragging about making it threw the whole pregnancy/labor/delivery without throwing up; oh well :)). But after that I felt much better and was able to rest. Details of the next few hours are a bit fuzzy in my brain, but I'll do my best. My doctor came and checked on me about every hour and broke my water at 7 or 8 (can't remember for sure). My mom got there around that time as well, so the three of us just hung out while waiting for things to move along.
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| First Family Photo |
I actually progressed a lot faster than I expected. By 9 am we were ready to go. The nurse had me do a practice push through a contraction just to see if we could get baby to move down. He moved quite a bit, so she called for my doctor and he had me start pushing. I pushed for two contractions and baby's heart rate dropped significantly. My doctor had me rest through the next contraction to see if we could bring the heart rate back up, but when that didn't help, he seemed to get concerned about getting baby out immediately. He gave me an episiotomy and used the vacuum to get baby out on the next contraction. I gave one more final push and before I knew it, baby Jack was placed on my stomach. The doctor then explained that the cord had gotten wrapped around baby's neck and shoulder, which was most likely why his heart rate dropped so suddenly and made getting him out more challenging. I am grateful for my doctor and his quick action to get baby out when he did. Even though it meant more wear and tear on my body, I think it was the best move in order to get baby here safely.
Jack Michael Hines
October 22, 2011
9:08 am
7 lbs 3 oz
21 inches long
I only got to hold Jack for a minute before they whisked him away. I remember the doctor and nurses being concerned about his breathing, so they took him over to the bathing station to examine him closer and clean him up. Meanwhile, I had lost a lot of blood and, in addition to the episiotomy, had a Stage 3 tear (recovery from that booger deserves an entire post all of its own - we'll see if I ever get around to writing about it). So the doctor sewed me back together and gave me a shot to help stop the bleeding (I also had to take pills throughout my stay in the hospital to help with the bleeding). About the time I was finished getting put back together, baby was over his scare with the breathing and daddy had helped the nurse give him his first bath. I was pretty shaky and lightheaded (I'm assuming from the loss of blood) so I don't remember holding him or feeling much at that point. Eventually, someone (I don't remember who) got me some crackers to snack on which helped me feel a ton better.
All things considered, I felt that labor/delivery went smoothly. Normally, they move you to a postpartum room about an hour after delivery, but right after I delivered, the hospital had two emergency C-sections to deal with and all of the nurses were slammed. So we sat tight until about noon before getting moved to our recovery room. I really didn't mind; I was just grateful that I wasn't the emergency and that Jack and I were both doing ok.
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| First diaper change by dad |
The next two days of our hospital stay are somewhat of a blur. We had lots of visitors come see us. It's amazing how much more popular you become once you have a baby :) We had awesome nurses during our stay; I was really impressed with the hospital and those that took care of us while we were there. They were great to keep up with my pain meds and bring me fresh ice packs every few hours. Jack was fabulous. He rarely cried - he mainly just slept all the time. He went to the nursery at nights so that we could get some sleep; I had debated on whether or not to send him there or have him sleep in our room, but I'm glad we sent him there because I know I would have ended up just watching him all night long to make sure he was still breathing. It was great to be able to sleep and then the nurse would just bring him to me during the night when it was time to feed him. Breastfeeding was definitely tricky; Jack was so sleepy it was hard to keep him awake long enough to eat. The hospital has an awesome lactation specialist, Nancy, and she helped us a ton with getting him latched on properly and keeping him awake.
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| Getting ready to go home |
By Monday afternoon we were ready to go home. Technically, we didn't have to leave until midnight, which, if I had my way, I would have stayed as long as I could. But Brandt and my mom were eager to get home. I wanted to stay and continue getting help from Nancy with breastfeeding (lucky for me, I found out she continues to help you as an outpatient, so since coming home I've called her a couple of times with questions and even gone in to see her in her office so she could help me some more. She's amazing.) We got all of our things packed up and got Jack dressed in his going home outfit. We had a couple of nurses come and go through paperwork and some patient education as part of their discharge - one nurse goes over care for the baby and the other goes over caring for myself. After that, we tucked baby Jack in his car seat (which took FOREVER; it still takes us a long time, but we're definitely faster at it now compared to that very first time), the nurse checked to make sure we did it right, and we were on our way home.
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| Apparently, it is a two-man job getting this kid in his car seat |
We had a great experience at EIRMC. There are two hospitals in Idaho Falls that we had to choose between; for some reason, I felt that EIRMC was where we should go. It was reassuring to know that if anything were to go wrong, the neo-natal unit was just right down the hall and baby wouldn't need to be transferred to another hospital. Lucky for us, everything went smoothly and we didn't have to worry about any of that.
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All tucked in, ready to go
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We have now been home for four weeks. Time sure does fly! As predicted, this post took me a lot longer to complete than posts prior to baby (I started this post on November 6th - it is now...I'm not sure what today is...but it's been awhile!) Life with a newborn has been crazy, but good. Hopefully I'll get some time to update on what we've been up to in the last four weeks (and hopefully it won't take me another four weeks to get it done!).
