Being a mom is turning out to be the most amazing thing I've ever done. I still can't believe that God blessed me with such a perfect little baby boy.
I have to be honest, some of the details are a little blurred, I lost all track of time while in labor.
It all started on Tuesday morning (8/24). I arrived at L&D at 8:00 a.m. They gave me a gown took down a bunch of information and sent me off to my room.
After checking to see how far dialated I was (I was only 1 cm and 45% effaced), the doctor proceeded to strip my membranes (not fun) and gave me cervidal (sp?) to ripen my cervix. I started having regular contractions soon after. They were pretty mild. After a couple of hours, they checked me again and I was not quite 2 cm so they placed a folly bulb (sp?) and started the Pitocin. Then the contractions started to get painful.
I would say at about 5 pm I got up to go to the bathroom and the bulb fell out. They checked me again and I was dialated to 3 cm. Then they broke my water. I was still getting regular contractions, but after the bulb fell out, they were much less painful.
They had a hard time keeping Andrew on the moniter and the nurse couldn't find the right place to put the monitor for my contractions, so they couldn't tell how Andrew was responding to them. I remember the nurse constantly pushing on my belly when I was having the contractions. It was driving me crazy!
About 11 p.m. the contractions were about 1-3 min apart and the pain was increasing. I asked for IV meds and they helped with the pain for a couple of hours and I was able to get some sleep. As soon as the pain meds wore off, I was begging for more. I really wanted to avoid an epidural. It took them a long time to get the second dose of pain meds and they had to check to see how far along I was. At around 4 am they checked me again and I was only dialated to 4 cm and 75% effaced. They went ahead and gave me some pain meds, but they didn't do any good. My contractions were getting so bad that I was shivering uncontrolably. My poor DH didn't know what to do.
I don't remember a lot about the next stage because I was in so much pain. My contractions were right on top of each other and so painful. I was having a hard time breathing through them and the baby was not handling them well at all. They placed and internal monitor and I had to be put on oxygen.
I finally decided at about 6 am that I wanted the epidural. I just couldn't take it anymore. They checked me again and in a matter of just 2 hours I went from 4 cm to 7 cm and 100%. It took them over an hour to get me the epidural. DH had to keep asking them when they would be doing it. I finally got the epidural at about 7:30 a.m. About an hour later I felt like I needed to push. I told the nurse and they checked and I was 10 cm.
I pushed for 30 min and Andrew was born at 8:57 a.m. on 8/25! What a relief. It was amazing that once he was born, the pain stopped. All the nurses and the midwife were so surprised that I pushed him out so quickly.
His Apgar scores were 9 at 1 min and 9 at 5 min. He was 7 lbs 3 oz and 20 1/4 inches.
Now I have a beautiful baby boy. Here are some pics.
My only problem is that my milk hasn't come in, not even colostrum, so I have to suppliment with formula until it does. The lactation consultant has me on Reglan to see if that helps. I sure hope it does. I really wanted to breastfeed.
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Baby Andrew's Arrival...
He is adorable, sooo handsome!
How sweet!
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