Hey all,
First time papa here, posting a birth story for my wife. I originally joined this board to get some information about some cramping and discharge that DW had somewhere around 20 weeks, if I recall correctly. So, here goes:
We saw her doctor on Fri Jan 12, and he said that he would schedule her for an induction on Monday morning, and that often times, the baby is just born by itself before the induction. As of that visit, she was 41 weeks into her first pregnancy. So, we scheduled the induction and went home.
Saturday was a good day, nothing odd to speak of just some minor cramping/contrax that could have been BH, but not sure.
Along comes Sunday morning (2:00AM to be specific) and oh boy, watch out. My DW woke me up at that time and told me she thought she might be going into labor. My first thought was, let's time the contrax and see how often they're coming. So we timed them for an hour or two. I can't remember exactly since it was the middle of the night. I told her that if the pain was still there in the morning we would go to the hospital.
Then, at 8:15, off we go. I already had the diaper bag and her bag loaded up in the car, because I knew it was going to be soon. We got there around 8:45 and the L&D unit is FULL. I was really flabbergasted. They put her on a gurney out in the hallway hooked up to one of those monitoring things that has the bands that go around her belly. They finally gave her a room and we just sat and waited for things to progress. They figured that since she was scheduled for the induction the following morning, they would just keep her in the hospital rather than sending her home since she was 10 days postdate.
She labored all day Sunday and into Sunday night, and had lots of contrax but guess what? No dilation of the cervix, AT ALL. Stuck at 1cm for the whole day. So, Monday morning they gave her a little bit of Pitocin to get the cervix to dilate. Worked like a charm. She was 2-3cm at first, then a couple hours later she was 4-5, and then 3 or so more hours and she was 5-6, then 45 minutes 7-8cm and FINALLY 10cm. Her water was broken right around 2:00 in the afternoon on Monday 1/15/07.
They wheeled her into the delivery roomat around 2:15 - 2:30 and then it began. Tremendous pressure! Her doc was awesome. He has his degree in osteopathic medicine, so he likes the lights to be turned down low, and have it very quiet (no machines beeping, no intrusive instruments, no vacuum or suction devices etc..). She pushed for about 45 minutes, and at 3:12pm our son Ethan came into this world. He is the most beautiful thing I have ever laid my eyes on. I cried like a baby (how appropriate) and told my wife I was very proud of her. The placenta all came out in one piece, so no problems there.
They placed him on her chest right afterwards and let him suckle on her breast for a while. It was truly a beautiful sight! Here's a few pics of our boy:
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/6682/ethan005lr5.jpg
http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/5972/ethan003cv0.jpg
http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/9638/ethan001uh4.jpg
Currently, he has developed some sort of "blood infection" so he's in the NICU at the best hospital in town with the best doctor money (or insurance in our case) can buy. Since her milk supply came in this morning, she's been pumping breast milk every 2-3 hours and freezing it. They FINALLY told me some details after I fired one pediatrician (at the hospital he was born at, not the one he is currently in). They found "cocci" in his blood which is some type of bacteria, so they are treating that. The little guy's not feeling too well, so he hasn't been eating much, just a lot of sleeping. They're going to run some more tests tomorrow and try to pinpoint the problem.
For now, keep us in your prayers. I am sure he will pull through this (he's a little trooper like his Daddy) and be fine.
Last little note, I HATE hospitals.
: I am pretty sure our next birth will be at HOME.
First time papa here, posting a birth story for my wife. I originally joined this board to get some information about some cramping and discharge that DW had somewhere around 20 weeks, if I recall correctly. So, here goes:
We saw her doctor on Fri Jan 12, and he said that he would schedule her for an induction on Monday morning, and that often times, the baby is just born by itself before the induction. As of that visit, she was 41 weeks into her first pregnancy. So, we scheduled the induction and went home.
Saturday was a good day, nothing odd to speak of just some minor cramping/contrax that could have been BH, but not sure.
Along comes Sunday morning (2:00AM to be specific) and oh boy, watch out. My DW woke me up at that time and told me she thought she might be going into labor. My first thought was, let's time the contrax and see how often they're coming. So we timed them for an hour or two. I can't remember exactly since it was the middle of the night. I told her that if the pain was still there in the morning we would go to the hospital.
Then, at 8:15, off we go. I already had the diaper bag and her bag loaded up in the car, because I knew it was going to be soon. We got there around 8:45 and the L&D unit is FULL. I was really flabbergasted. They put her on a gurney out in the hallway hooked up to one of those monitoring things that has the bands that go around her belly. They finally gave her a room and we just sat and waited for things to progress. They figured that since she was scheduled for the induction the following morning, they would just keep her in the hospital rather than sending her home since she was 10 days postdate.
She labored all day Sunday and into Sunday night, and had lots of contrax but guess what? No dilation of the cervix, AT ALL. Stuck at 1cm for the whole day. So, Monday morning they gave her a little bit of Pitocin to get the cervix to dilate. Worked like a charm. She was 2-3cm at first, then a couple hours later she was 4-5, and then 3 or so more hours and she was 5-6, then 45 minutes 7-8cm and FINALLY 10cm. Her water was broken right around 2:00 in the afternoon on Monday 1/15/07.
They wheeled her into the delivery roomat around 2:15 - 2:30 and then it began. Tremendous pressure! Her doc was awesome. He has his degree in osteopathic medicine, so he likes the lights to be turned down low, and have it very quiet (no machines beeping, no intrusive instruments, no vacuum or suction devices etc..). She pushed for about 45 minutes, and at 3:12pm our son Ethan came into this world. He is the most beautiful thing I have ever laid my eyes on. I cried like a baby (how appropriate) and told my wife I was very proud of her. The placenta all came out in one piece, so no problems there.
They placed him on her chest right afterwards and let him suckle on her breast for a while. It was truly a beautiful sight! Here's a few pics of our boy:
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/6682/ethan005lr5.jpg
http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/5972/ethan003cv0.jpg
http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/9638/ethan001uh4.jpg
Currently, he has developed some sort of "blood infection" so he's in the NICU at the best hospital in town with the best doctor money (or insurance in our case) can buy. Since her milk supply came in this morning, she's been pumping breast milk every 2-3 hours and freezing it. They FINALLY told me some details after I fired one pediatrician (at the hospital he was born at, not the one he is currently in). They found "cocci" in his blood which is some type of bacteria, so they are treating that. The little guy's not feeling too well, so he hasn't been eating much, just a lot of sleeping. They're going to run some more tests tomorrow and try to pinpoint the problem.
For now, keep us in your prayers. I am sure he will pull through this (he's a little trooper like his Daddy) and be fine.
Last little note, I HATE hospitals.