Thank you so much, guys! We are so happy with him, I had forgotten how you can fall in love with your own child in a matter of seconds.
Birth story:
I went into the hospital at 1.30 and they hooked me up to the monitor for a bit. After about 30 minutes they decided to admit me (well duh, I was leaking amniotic fluid! It took a visit from the on-call OB, who took one look at the fluid leaking down my leg and said in his thick Scottish accent:"Alright, let's stop pretending we don't know she's in labor and get her admitted." I laughed all the way to the L&D room. I was at 4 centimeters at that point, but hardly effaced at all. Things got rather painful rather quick, and after a few hours I was checked again and was hopeful that there had been some progress. There hadn't. Still at 4, still nowhere near effaced. The doctor had given orders for Pitocin if I was still the same at 6 pm. By then I had been on antibiotics for a while too, due to having walked around with broken water for a few hours. I thought it was over the top, but I had decided to check my attitude at the door and not immediately condemn everything they came up with, so I had consented. The pit scared me, I had a bad experience with it with my oldest. The nurse hooked me up, she was a mean old battleaxe that didn't listen to anything I said and at some point pushed down hard on my belly to find the baby's heartbeat again with the monitor right in the middle of a contraction. Let me tell you, that hurts! I said through clenched teeth:"YOU'RE NOT HELPING!" and she said:"Sorry, hon, I have to find the baby." Bitch.
She upped the pit without giving me any warning and even though it was only at 4, it set off a labor storm that had me in a complete panic. I had this major fight-or-flight reaction and was about to rip out the IV and walk out the door. At that point I was clever enough to ask about my options for pain management and she told me basically my only options were an epidural, which would render me bound to the bed, and morphine or gravol, which would leave me groggy and out-of-it, while still able to feel the pain. I opted for the epidural and felt like a total failure. I had to say though, for me it was the right call. The anesthesiologist did an outstanding job, I had full use of my legs, could feel the tightening of the contractions and the pressure of the urge to push, but not the actual pain. It took about three hours to get the last 6 centimeters and when nurse Ratchett checked me again around 10.30, I was fully dilated and effaced. She had me do two practice pushes while we waited for the OB, and then once he got there, the real deal started. OB brought a med student, an absolutely lovely girl, and she was the one who delivered Théoden. It was the first time she delivered a baby all by herself, and she was proud as a peacock! He was born in two contractions, three pushes, and came out so fast that he was a little stunned at first. He had a lot of fluid in his system and had to be suctioned pretty aggressively, as well as a couple of puffs of oxygen to get him to pink up. It was scary, but I could tell the whole time that he was moving, and he was making sounds, so neither DH nor I panicked. His apgars were 5 and 9, so within a few minutes he was back on top.
And we are so in love. He is such a cute little guy, with his perfect little round noggin. He has a very soft cry, takes an incredibly long time to get going, and I don't think I have heard him at full tilt yet.
We do have some pretty tough latching issues. He has a really hard time grabbing the areola as well instead of just the nipple, so both my boobs are pretty sore. My milk came in last night, (and oh my goodness, is there a lot of it) and since his latch is not very good, he doesn't effectively drain the breast. I look like I am carrying two bowling balls in my bra and they hurt rather a lot.
This week we are going to go to our doc for Théoden's first check up, and I'm going to ask for a referral to a lactation consultant. He loves to nurse but getting him going is frustrating for him and painful for me. Better to get some help in the beginning than slog through for months and years, like I did with my oldest.
So there it is... the arrival and first days of Théoden William! I am so in love with my little guy, and I will be uploading more pictures as soon as I get them from the camera on the hard drive.
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