13 Weeks Old on Friday the 13th

That just amuses me somehow. And to mark a milestone—Little Man turns 3 months old tomorrow—I'm going to post my birth story that I wrote on my old blog. I wrote this in the hospital when my son was 1 day old.

Our son was born on Friday August 14th at 2:31 PM.  We are completely in love.



Here's how it all happened:

On Thursday night I checked in at the hospital at 8 PM for my induction. I was there for a few hours, dealing with paperwork and getting settled (blood draws, pick line, etc.) before the nurse inserted the Cervidil. In case you don't know, Cervidil is something like a suppository that makes the cervix thin out and become receptive for labor. That was an overnight deal, so I was also given an Ambien so I could sleep. I honestly didn't get much sleep—kept waking up to pee—but I did a little.

Then it was Friday morning around 7 AM. The nurse checked my cervix and while it hadn't dilated past the 1 cm I was the night before (and at my prior office visits), I was 100% effaced and the baby was at -1 station.

The OB on call (and one I really like) came by at 8 or 8:30 AM and checked me, and started me on the lowest dose of Pitocin (oxytocin, to cause contractions) possible. She also broke my water—that was weird! I was doing OK through them until around 10 AM, when they were beginning to make me nauseous. I was checked and was dilated to 3 and I got my epidural. It was AWESOME! And I progressed quickly after that. I rested, half-slept, and my husband played around on my laptop. When I was next checked—close to noon?—I was dilated to 7 CM!

My husband called my mom (and his mom) to let them know it was moving MUCH faster than we thought. It ended up moving even faster when, at 12:45 PM I was fully dilated to 10 cm and felt urges to push (even with the epidural, but it wasn't too painful). Hubby called the parents again and said COME NOW!!! Then the doctor came in, the nurse had me "practice push" for about an hour. My OB had another induction patient was also close but I apparently won the "race" and was to deliver first.

About 2 PM or so, I was READY. Honestly, I only pushed for about a half hour with brief breaks of Oxygen (baby's heartrate dipped a bit, as did mine, but we both perked up with the oxygen mask). It was tough, I felt like I couldn't get enough air in at a few times, but overall not too terrible. Little Man was born at 2:31 PM to comments from my OB of "Whoa that's a HUGE head" and "That's a BIG baby!!!"

He weighed 9 lb even and was 20.5 inches long.

The one BAD part of it all... he was so big that he didn't quite fit and I tore VERY badly. Basically as bad as one CAN tear. I have 4th degree tears to my perineum and rectum. My OB basically had to completely repair my anus. It's pretty painful and will be a tough recovery. I'm on major stool softeners and pain meds. I hope that I won't have any complications from this. But the doctors and nurses are all, apparently, amazed by my pain tolerance and my attitude and how such a "small person" (thanks for saying I'm small, at 5'4") had such a LARGE baby.

I guess that explains the 40 lbs I gained! Nine of it was baby, and about nine or so was blood volume, amniotic fluid, uterus, placenta, etc. I'm not weighing myself for a while—I don't need to know—and I can't exercise or do any heavy lifting for six weeks. So I'm just going to take it easy and get well. And learn to breastfeed. My son and I are learning together but we'll get there.  [Note: We didn't... I gave up when he was 3 days old. Oh well...]

So there you go... he's here. Little Man. We feel so blessed to have him.