ROWAN PATRICK MCDONALD
July 7, 2007 at 10:07 PM
8 lbs, 8 oz, 21.5 inches long (and a 14.8 inch head)
After a hairy first week (little Rowan had an infection and was on antibiotics...
: ), we are home and doing well. He's feeding like a champ and sleeping all night except to eat every 3 hours. So Momma is well-rested (unlike during the last 6 weeks of pregnancy!!)
Daddy is a little obsessed and has set up a website for him-- www.rowanpatrickmcdonald.com
A quick birth story--as many of you may remember, my OB wanted to induce me due to a deteriorating placenta. I spoke with him again on Thursday (7/5) to get more details on why exactly this induction was a good idea. He convinced me that in order to avoid a c-section, that an asap induction was the way to go. So Friday I had cervadil at 7:30 and started (painlessly) contracting every 5 minutes. By noon I was 1 cm. Then they got a rush of laboring ladies, so they decided to not start pitocin until the following morning. Hindsight is 20/20, and I'm wishing we'd started it sooner. So my water broke at 8:30 pm and that started the c-section clock ticking (I'm GBS positive and I knew I'd only be able to convince them to hold off for so long!). They kept telling me to sleep. This is the laboring I wanted to be doing at home, by the way! There was no sleeping--the contractions were too strong and still 5 minutes apart.
Fast forward to 8 am--they started the pitocin because I wasn't progressing (still 1 cm after 12 hours of pretty intense contractions). I was doing OK until back labor set in at around 11 am. No amount of breathing, counterpressure, or lies by the nurses (and there was a lot of that!) was helping. But they checked me and said I was 8 cm, so I thought I could probably make it drug free like I wanted. Then at 1 pm the doc finally came back in (grr to her) and said "oops, you're only 6 cm". At that point I about came unglued and begged for the epidural. I was so disappointed that I didn't make it without one. Fast forward another few hours--at 6 pm the new OB came on and I was 10 cm. The new guy was AWESOME. He had me start doing a few 'practice' pushes and they turned the epidural way down. I started hard-core pushing at 8 pm. By then the epidural had worn off, the doc was in and out. The monitor kept showing a decreased heart rate, so they had me changing position frequently. I felt like if I could just get on my hands and knees then I could get him out, but every time I rolled over onto my belly his heartrate plummeted. So I did a lot of pushing on my side, which wasn't too bad. At about 9:30 the doc came in, took a look at things, and started bringing in his instruments of doom. I was pretty out of it by then, but I remember seeing a row of scissor handles and freaking out a little! At 9:45 I was given the option of emergency c-section with general anesthesia or a vacuum extraction. Neither sounded very good, but my husband, god bless him, said to go with the vacuum since I wanted no c-section if at all possible.
At 10:07 Rowan Patrick was born with the cord wrapped around his neck 3 times (wish we'd started that pitocin sooner, maybe that wouldn't have happened). With his 14.8-inch head, he's going to be a nuclear physicist or something!! So overall the birth didn't go how I had hoped, but we made it through and little Rowan is home and eating like a champ.
See you all on the baby forum, I hope!
July 7, 2007 at 10:07 PM
8 lbs, 8 oz, 21.5 inches long (and a 14.8 inch head)
After a hairy first week (little Rowan had an infection and was on antibiotics...
: ), we are home and doing well. He's feeding like a champ and sleeping all night except to eat every 3 hours. So Momma is well-rested (unlike during the last 6 weeks of pregnancy!!)Daddy is a little obsessed and has set up a website for him-- www.rowanpatrickmcdonald.com
A quick birth story--as many of you may remember, my OB wanted to induce me due to a deteriorating placenta. I spoke with him again on Thursday (7/5) to get more details on why exactly this induction was a good idea. He convinced me that in order to avoid a c-section, that an asap induction was the way to go. So Friday I had cervadil at 7:30 and started (painlessly) contracting every 5 minutes. By noon I was 1 cm. Then they got a rush of laboring ladies, so they decided to not start pitocin until the following morning. Hindsight is 20/20, and I'm wishing we'd started it sooner. So my water broke at 8:30 pm and that started the c-section clock ticking (I'm GBS positive and I knew I'd only be able to convince them to hold off for so long!). They kept telling me to sleep. This is the laboring I wanted to be doing at home, by the way! There was no sleeping--the contractions were too strong and still 5 minutes apart.
Fast forward to 8 am--they started the pitocin because I wasn't progressing (still 1 cm after 12 hours of pretty intense contractions). I was doing OK until back labor set in at around 11 am. No amount of breathing, counterpressure, or lies by the nurses (and there was a lot of that!) was helping. But they checked me and said I was 8 cm, so I thought I could probably make it drug free like I wanted. Then at 1 pm the doc finally came back in (grr to her) and said "oops, you're only 6 cm". At that point I about came unglued and begged for the epidural. I was so disappointed that I didn't make it without one. Fast forward another few hours--at 6 pm the new OB came on and I was 10 cm. The new guy was AWESOME. He had me start doing a few 'practice' pushes and they turned the epidural way down. I started hard-core pushing at 8 pm. By then the epidural had worn off, the doc was in and out. The monitor kept showing a decreased heart rate, so they had me changing position frequently. I felt like if I could just get on my hands and knees then I could get him out, but every time I rolled over onto my belly his heartrate plummeted. So I did a lot of pushing on my side, which wasn't too bad. At about 9:30 the doc came in, took a look at things, and started bringing in his instruments of doom. I was pretty out of it by then, but I remember seeing a row of scissor handles and freaking out a little! At 9:45 I was given the option of emergency c-section with general anesthesia or a vacuum extraction. Neither sounded very good, but my husband, god bless him, said to go with the vacuum since I wanted no c-section if at all possible.
At 10:07 Rowan Patrick was born with the cord wrapped around his neck 3 times (wish we'd started that pitocin sooner, maybe that wouldn't have happened). With his 14.8-inch head, he's going to be a nuclear physicist or something!! So overall the birth didn't go how I had hoped, but we made it through and little Rowan is home and eating like a champ.
See you all on the baby forum, I hope!
My birth didn't turn out like I expected (or wanted) either, so I know that feeling. 
