The weight was wrong in first post, he's 9-13, not 9-3
I want credit for those 10 ounces!!!
Birth went great...at about 8 pm I wanted my husband outside with me, contractions were 3 mins apart but I could talk through them.
At 9 pm we headed towards the birth center. This is where it got a little frazzled...the birth center was full!! They initially said they would try to make room for us so for a while I freaked out the admissions clerk by laboring in the lobby! Then we went upstairs and I labored in the outside waiting area while the L&D staff tried to convince us to go into triage (I never did!)
At 11pm I was starting to really be in pain, so I went into a room intending to try the shower (oh how I wanted a tub at the birth center!!) But I got "stuck" laboring standing leaning against the bed. I had HORRIBLE back labor at this point, a specific spot on my back was in AGONY!!! I started losing it a little, saying I didn't care anymore, I wanted drugs or I wanted the baby out THEN!! My two doulas and husband got me through it somehow, I really don't know how!! The pain never fully went away between contractions.
I got on all fours on the bed to try different positions and almost immediately got pushy. The nurse checked me, I was complete!! Pushing was horrible at first, my back still was killing me, and my body wasn't fully into the pushing yet. But soon enough that overwhelming urge took over and most of the pain was gone. I'm not sure how long I pushed for, but he was born at 12:17am, only an hour or so after finally going into L&D!!! He was out to his ears for what felt like the longest time, I just couldn't get him past that for several contractions, which was odd, but then he all came out at once.
He had some trouble breathing, very wet sounding, struggling a lot, and the stupid NICU team came in and started freaking out. I kept saying "just give him to me, he needs mommy's chest" but they wouldn't listen. He was taken to the transition nursery for a while, but I made SURE that they knew all my demands before they left, and my husband went with them. In fact, I even said "No circ, if you touch my son's penis, I touch your's, and it'll hurt just as bad!!" Gotta love hormones!!
I did have a 2nd degree tear, but I didn't feel it tearing. I didn't feel a ring of fire at all,, really, intense pressure yes, but no searing pain with him crowning, even with him "stuck" there for a while. Stitching it up wasn't fun, and the lidocaine has not lasted long at all
I had some issues with severe shaking and dizziness for a while after birth, very nearly passed out my first trip to the bathroom. That's odd, Im not sure why either. And my pelvis feels like it's in a million pieces right now, and of course I have jelly abs
I forgot how skinny I get right after having a baby, though.
Delivering the placenta stunk, it was HUGE! Even the dr commented on how big it was. It was perfect, beautiful, didn't look post dates at all. My body contracted again almost as bad as labor and went into involuntary push mode to get that thing out! Ugh.
He's huge, at just shy of 10 pounds, and looks a LOT like Connor did! He appears perfectly healthy, no signs of any birth defects, but with our history we will do the full newborn screen and additional genetic testing specific to the syndrome Connor has. He has his hands by his face constantly, pretty sure they were up there in utero!!
He's nursing GREAT, both sides, latches easily and stays on. They're monitoring his blood sugars since he's LGA, but I really doubt we'll have any problems since he's nursing well and I'm still nursing Connor so my milk will likely come in quickly.
He has so much hair!! It's black and kind of curly! My mom made it down about two hours after birth, and she says he looks a lot like I did at birth, except I was a 6 pounder
I really don't know why my body makes such big babies, but my body can also push them out, so I guess that's what matters
The regular L&D isn't used to seeing a mom go all natural, and I got a great nurse who did a wonderful job of treating me as if I was at the birth center, with manual doppler instead of the belts, being completely okay with me not being checked until I was pushing, letting me in whatever position I wanted, etc. I had two doulas with me who did a great job of calming me down, giving me drinks, talking to the nurse and dr for me, cheering me on! One of them it was her first birth ever, I think she's on cloud 999999
We met 8 months ago when her daughter was born with some similar birth defects that Connor has and she needed help breastfeeding, and we've gotten close through my pregnancy. When I invited her to the birth, she was just giddy with excitement, and I'm so glad I did invite her, she was wonderful!! She homebirthed her daughter, so she had some good advice for me.
Well, it's 6am, I'm sure this has rambled all over the place! I just heard Gavin fill his pants, so I'm going to wake my hubby and make him change them
I'll write up a more organized birth story with other little details, like how wonderful it was to labor outside in the cool of the night under the almost full moon...amazing!!!!
