The birth story of baby Bobo

I woke up 4:30am on Wed, Nov 16^th with some slight contractions (a bit different than the Braxton Hicks ones I had felt on and off in the previous couple of weeks). My back was in a bit of pain. I wasn't sure if I was really in labor as I couldn't really time contractions, I just felt pain and an achiness in my back. Turns out, I had back labor the whole time. I hardly felt any contractions on my front side all of labor. I took a bath three times throughout Wednesday night and gained a lot of relief from the warm water.

We weren't sure if this was "IT", so my love decided to keep his normal schedule and flew to Anchorage for his weekly car auction on Wednesday. If I needed him, he could get home in 3 hours.  

This is me looking quite "whale-like" on my last office visit to the doctor!

I labored at home from Wednesday early morning until Thursday around 11am. We didn't want to go to the hospital too early, so I called my doctor's office and spoke to the nurse midwife, Alexandria. She said to come in and she'd check me. I was 80% effaced and 5 cm dilated when we got to the office at noon. She said I was definitely in labor and to come back in 3 hours when she would strip my membranes. My love and I did errands to pick up items for our new house, got some lunch and I walked around a lot. I called my family and close friends and told them we were going to have a baby that night! When I got back to the doctor's office at 3pm, I was dilated to about 6cm and about 90% effaced. Alexandria said the baby's head was very low. She gently stripped my membranes as she didn't want to break my water. My dear friend was flying up that evening at 7pm from Anchorage and we wanted to wait until she arrived to have the baby. Alexandria estimated we'd have the baby by 9pm that evening. I walked over to the hospital from the doctor's office (across the parking lot) in -37 degree weather, I didn't feel like sitting in the car! We checked into the hospital at 3:30pm on Thursday, 11/17/11, expecting to have the baby that evening.

All smiles as we got checked into our room

My love was an AMAZING support to me all through the crazy long labor!

I got to use the labor hot tub as soon as I was all registered at the hospital around 4pm. The warm water gave much relief to my painful back labor. I spent 4 hours in the tub with my love and was well relaxed and feeling good afterward. My mother-in-law came to the hospital at 4:30pm and went and picked up my friend from the airport around 7pm. When I got out of the tub at 8pm, I was 90% effaced, 7 cm dilated and the baby's head was still very low. They thought my water had broken in the tub but it turns out it hadn't.

Feeling pretty good and relaxed in the warm tub

My dear friend came to help be part of my labor support team with 

my love and mother-in-law.

I needed all three of them as it was such a long process!

My love with his mom (Bobo's Gramma) and me

(Funny side note: a friend of mine works at the hospital and I saw her on my way in. I told her we were going to have the baby that night and that she could stop by later if she wanted. When she came up to see me, she asked my doctor where I was and he replied “Oh, she's frolicking in the hot tub with her husband!” My friend was hesitant to stop by, but eventually she did!)

I labored all of Thursday night and kept steady at 7cm dilated. My love, mother-in-law, and friend all took turns napping and massaging me and getting me into various positions for relief. All of my natural pain measures were working so far but I was getting anxious to get the baby out. The best position I found was laying on my side with a birth ball between my legs, a heating pad on my back and someone using my “ET” massager all up and down my back. I listened to lots of relaxing music during this time too (I had made a playlist I wanted to listen to for labor and it was great). I rested off and on but never really slept much.

My favorite laboring position

My friend and I took a walk around 5am and discussed Pitocin with Alexandria but I was very hesitant as I knew it causes hard contractions and I didn't want to start the process that could lead me to a C-section.  Around 10am on Friday, November 18^th, Alexandria broke my water and we started Pitocin around 10:30/11am. I immediately felt stronger back pain that increased significantly. At one point, I started doing jumping jacks and running around the hospital room saying “baby, COME OUT!”... it actually felt good to be active and move around more. I started having 5 minute long contractions that were completely unbearable (not to mention I was completely exhausted ).

Crazy long and intense contraction!

It was then that I reached my breaking point. The pain was so intense that I became hysterical and cried and cried. I just wanted the baby out of me, I was done! I had increased to around 8cm but now there was swelling of the cervix from the pressure of the baby's head. They wanted to tilt the bed back to take the pressure off my cervix and the baby. I felt like this was never going to end! I hesitated briefly but succumbed to an epidural around 2:30pm (3 hrs or so after Pitocin was started). I knew I had done all I could naturally and needed the pain relief to relax. The epidural was the first pain medication I used in all of labor. The epidural was inserted perfectly and worked quickly and immediately allowed my body to relax. The Pitocin was turned up and I took a nap for almost 2 hours. I woke up around 5:30pm Fri 11/18/11 and was 100% effaced and 10 cm dilated. In all the time I was in labor, the baby's heartbeat was perfect and never in distress.

I'm so thankful for such an amazing, caring, and supportive husband!

I am known to be “stubborn” (I prefer to call it determination), and this was the perfect time to demonstrate that trait! When I knew it was time to start pushing, I put on my game face and said “let's do this thing”.

Ready to start pushing!

"Go team!" My mother-in-law would cool me off with a wash cloth and my love would have plenty of water available for me to drink when I stopped for a rest in between pushing.

After all I had been through, there was no way I was going to have a C-section, so I pushed with all my might. (A nurse mistakenly told me I had 4^th degree tears, but it turns out I had 10% of 3^rd degree tears, painful but not horrible). I started pushing at 6pm. Bobo crowned around 8pm and was FINALLY born at 9:11pm, about 65 hours from when labor began on Wednesday morning. He weighed in at an even 8 lbs and was 21 inches long. He had a pretty bad cone head from all the pushing, but was absolutely perfect in every way. We were so thrilled to have him on the outside and loved holding and cuddling him.

First family photo

Such a sweet baby! 

(he had a line on his head from where the internal monitor was)

Now that's a proud papa!

Bobo had a kaput (bad bruise) from the 3 hours of pushing which the doctor thinks caused a migraine-like headache the next day which caused his jaw to hurt which made him not want to open his mouth very wide or nurse well. We discovered Saturday afternoon (before he was 24 hours old) that he was tongue tied. The pediatrician on call at the hospital clipped his tongue right then. Bobo has a high roof of his mouth probably due to the tongue tie so he doesn't pull the breast (or my finger) in very far. I worked hard with a lactation nurse at the hospital on Sat night to figure out how to feed him. He got all my colostrum by mostly spoon-feeding. We figured out a system with pumping and finger feeding so I had a way to feed him when we went home. We stayed in the hospital Fri and Sat night and were planning to leave Sun evening when they discovered Bobo's bilirubin levels were too high (jaundice). They gave us a bili blanket in our room and he stayed on that for about 9-10 hours. His levels were much better Monday morning and we were finally released from the hospital. Thankfully, when the pediatrician saw Bobo later that week, his coloring looked great and he didn't even need to have a blood test to check the jaundice. 

My cute little glo-worm!

Ouchy bruise from all the pushing he endured in the birth canal

Close enough to call him an even 8 pounder!

(and he came a week early!)

Getting to really inspect and love on my little guy for the first time

Bobo is an easy going, content baby for which we are so thankful for! I can usually anticipate his needs before he starts crying. We did a lot of skin to skin contact in the beginning which helped facilitate our bonding. My love and I have worked hard to create a peaceful, homey environment at our new house for us all to feel comfortable in.

Bobo's first outfit

All ready to go home!

We had a really rough first month with nursing issues due to Bobo's tongue tie and jaw issues. We had to have his tongue clipped THREE times as it kept re-attaching! We're hoping the third time's a charm and it will stay disconnected now! I had to pump breastmilk and "finger feed" him for the first month, and we had to supplement with formula a bit. After the 2nd tongue clipping in December, he became a nursing pro and is doing well breast-feeding exclusively now. 

Our finger-feeding system

We love our little boy and are so thankful God has entrusted him to us!

Our first outing as a family when Bobo was 1 week old!