Benjamin is here!
Tuesday I had a midwife appt and was pronounced 3 cm dilated at 3 days post-due date. The midwife said things were "favorable" and it could be any moment. I had some cramping that afternoon and did a lot of housecleaning. At 8 pm the contractions started but were sporadic. By 10pm they were 8 minuets apart and pretty regular. By midnight they were still regular. Matthew went to sleep but I was too excited. At 3 am, they were 5 minutes apart so we called the midwife. She told me to take a warm bath and tylenol and see if they remained steady. They progressed to 3 1/2 minutes apart in the bathtub and were pretty intense. At 6 we called the midwife and she said to come in.
We got DD up and drove to daycare to drop her off. At the hospital the midwife checked and I was just 4 cm. The contractions became less patterened too. My blood pressure was extremely high so they took blood. . At that point it had been 12 hours of labor and I was not progressing so I was very upset and tired. With my blood pressure they wanted me to stay and to try to break my water and get things moving.
They broke my water and the contractions got more intense. My blood pressure stayed high. So about noon they wanted to do pitocin since contractions were still not regular. So I "gave in" (okay I begged ) for an epidural and got that and the pitocin. At that point, baby's heartrate dropped really low with each contraction and my blood pressure plummeted. So I got ephinephrin (sp?) and they had me turning every which way to get the heart rate steady. It was just with contractions so midwife thought it was a cord issue.
I started pushing at 3:30. After about 2 pushes the midwife got a funny look on her face. I was her 350th (ish) birth but the first face presentation she'd seen. Most babies come with the upper part of their head presenting - their head is tucked to their chest and the narrow top of their head slides through. Benjamin was facing the ceiling with his nose and lips coming out first. So his forehead was riding my pubic bone. Plus his heart rate was still dropping. The midwife talked C-section for a minute and called the doctor - who was a doctor I saw a lot with DD and loved. So Dr. came in and said she thought we could do it and it would be better to go vaginally - quicker. So they had me again push in LOTS of different positions. It hurt and I tore a bit (second degree) but he was born at 4:38 after 1 hour of pushing.
He is 19 3/4 inches; 6 lbs 11 oz. He was really bruised and swollen. I got to hold him briefly. Then they were having problems getting his breathing to slow down. His nose was bruised and swollen and since babies only breathe through noses, he was gasping. So they whisked him off to the NICU. Matthew went with him. I stayed to be stitched. My nurse was awesome. She sat down with me and held my hand and talked me through everything. Then she pushed for some favors so I could get in a wheelchair and go to NICU and nurse - even though NICU was closed to visitors for staff switch-over. As soon as I got there, they announced his x-ray was clear, test results were great. The bruising was staring to fade too.
Benjamin stayed in NICU that night. I had them buzz me every feeding. I nursed and we bottle supplemented with the little bit I could pump and formula. His respiration slowed and we got his blood sugars back up. He came out of NICU Thurs morning.
We are home now. His swelling is almost all gone and he is beautiful. My milk is in and DD is being "overly" helpful but good.
Tuesday I had a midwife appt and was pronounced 3 cm dilated at 3 days post-due date. The midwife said things were "favorable" and it could be any moment. I had some cramping that afternoon and did a lot of housecleaning. At 8 pm the contractions started but were sporadic. By 10pm they were 8 minuets apart and pretty regular. By midnight they were still regular. Matthew went to sleep but I was too excited. At 3 am, they were 5 minutes apart so we called the midwife. She told me to take a warm bath and tylenol and see if they remained steady. They progressed to 3 1/2 minutes apart in the bathtub and were pretty intense. At 6 we called the midwife and she said to come in.
We got DD up and drove to daycare to drop her off. At the hospital the midwife checked and I was just 4 cm. The contractions became less patterened too. My blood pressure was extremely high so they took blood. . At that point it had been 12 hours of labor and I was not progressing so I was very upset and tired. With my blood pressure they wanted me to stay and to try to break my water and get things moving.
They broke my water and the contractions got more intense. My blood pressure stayed high. So about noon they wanted to do pitocin since contractions were still not regular. So I "gave in" (okay I begged ) for an epidural and got that and the pitocin. At that point, baby's heartrate dropped really low with each contraction and my blood pressure plummeted. So I got ephinephrin (sp?) and they had me turning every which way to get the heart rate steady. It was just with contractions so midwife thought it was a cord issue.
I started pushing at 3:30. After about 2 pushes the midwife got a funny look on her face. I was her 350th (ish) birth but the first face presentation she'd seen. Most babies come with the upper part of their head presenting - their head is tucked to their chest and the narrow top of their head slides through. Benjamin was facing the ceiling with his nose and lips coming out first. So his forehead was riding my pubic bone. Plus his heart rate was still dropping. The midwife talked C-section for a minute and called the doctor - who was a doctor I saw a lot with DD and loved. So Dr. came in and said she thought we could do it and it would be better to go vaginally - quicker. So they had me again push in LOTS of different positions. It hurt and I tore a bit (second degree) but he was born at 4:38 after 1 hour of pushing.
He is 19 3/4 inches; 6 lbs 11 oz. He was really bruised and swollen. I got to hold him briefly. Then they were having problems getting his breathing to slow down. His nose was bruised and swollen and since babies only breathe through noses, he was gasping. So they whisked him off to the NICU. Matthew went with him. I stayed to be stitched. My nurse was awesome. She sat down with me and held my hand and talked me through everything. Then she pushed for some favors so I could get in a wheelchair and go to NICU and nurse - even though NICU was closed to visitors for staff switch-over. As soon as I got there, they announced his x-ray was clear, test results were great. The bruising was staring to fade too.
Benjamin stayed in NICU that night. I had them buzz me every feeding. I nursed and we bottle supplemented with the little bit I could pump and formula. His respiration slowed and we got his blood sugars back up. He came out of NICU Thurs morning.
We are home now. His swelling is almost all gone and he is beautiful. My milk is in and DD is being "overly" helpful but good.
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