I
woke up 4:30am on Wed, Nov 16th
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 18th, 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 ).
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.
Crazy long and intense contraction!
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 4th degree tears, but it
turns out I had 10% of 3rd 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!
