(Caution: here starts the labor story, if that's not your thing, feel free to skip the next little bit).
The doctor was a little surprised to see me. He'd been fairly certain that I would have gone into labor already. The previous week I was a at a 2, and this day I was at a 4 1/2. And suddenly my belly was measuring 2 weeks behind. He asked if I still wanted to go through with an induction on Friday. He said if I didn't then I'd need an ultrasound to make sure baby was still healthy and growing. I said, yes, please, how about now? He said he could strip my membranes and see if that would start things up. I agreed to that, as long as if my contractions got down to three minutes apart he would come to the hospital in a timely manner and break my water. He agreed, promised that if my contractions started back up that they wouldn't send me home from the hospital if I went in, and so he stripped my membranes and sent me on my way. I went to WalMart to pick up a few things for dinner, and decided we needed a cake. A birthday cake for baby. I figured that would entice him to come, since my kids love cake so much. While at WalMart my contractions started up again. 5 minutes apart and strong. I called Ben and told him it was time to start thinking about coming home and not to start any labs he couldn't just drop. By the time I got home at 5:30, I figured I should probably pack a bag. Then I ate some dinner. By this time the contractions were 3 minutes apart and strong enough, I called Ben and told him to hurry. He got home, grabbed a sandwich and we headed out the door.
We got there around 7:45 and got checked in. Nurses always seem skeptical that I'll be staying. I was still at a 4 1/2, but having consistent contractions 1 1/2- 2 minutes apart. We went walking. They were rather impressed with my lap times. Around 9:45 I was pretty tired and the contractions were stronger. But we had no nurse. Apparently the third week of September is a popular time to have a baby. I got frustrated, because I was really tired, in quite a bit of pain, but as we were sitting there waiting for a nurse to come in, the contractions were dying down. By the time we got a nurse, around 10:30, the contractions were back to 5 minutes apart, and not as strong as before. The nurse went ahead and checked and we were all surprised that I was at 6. She indicated that I could go home and wait for labor to start. I told her that my dr said he'd come in and break my water. She somewhat reluctantly agreed to actually call my dr (instead of the on call dr), and he said to admit me and he was headed there. We walked some more, the contractions picked up, but I was getting tired, and decided maybe we'd just take it easy until the dr got in and save my energy. The dr got in around 11 and spent awhile waiting on a nurse and trying to figure out how to use the computer (got to love new hospitals). He looked at everything and then was a little surprised that my contractions were dying down, instead of picking up. I guess you're not in active labor yet, he said. At a 6. I reminded him of my suspicion that it was impossible for me to go into labor unless my water would break. He seemed to agree. At 11:30 he broke my water. Immediately I went into transition, with contractions 1- 1/2 minutes apart, lasting for over a minute. The dying kind of contractions. And this time, instead of transition lasting 15-20 minutes, like with my other two, it lasted an hour. An hour. I nearly died. Ok, I doubt my health was really in jeopardy during any of this, but it felt like I was dying. Did I mention I didn't have any drugs. Not even Tylenol. At some point I asked for something, and the nurse all but laughed at me. Too late. I was hoping for a pain killer. But apparently the hospital didn't even carry the kind I got with Kennady? And then the pushing. So when I started pushing, baby was still at a -2, which is where he's been since week 24. Basically he was in no hurry to come out. So instead of pushing for 10-15 minutes, like with my other two, I pushed for 30 minutes (which I realize is still pretty quick). And then he was born. And we figured out why labor keeps getting longer with each kid. They keep getting bigger. AND to top it all off, this kid's head was in the 60th percentile, instead of less than 20th, like my other two. I picked the best one to go all natural on.
Why no drugs? Because I thought I'd see how awesome I am and earn my "real woman" badge. HA! No. Because after Korban's delivery I suffered through 2 weeks of full body hives. It was awful. At least what I remember, because I was semi-delirious from all the Benadryl I was taking. The only thing I could think of that would have caused that was the epidural. My last dr was convinced it was either the hydrocodone or the ibuprofen, that I had suddenly become allergic to, and didn't want to do anything for me other than tell me to take more Benadryl. I finally went into an urgent care clinic and begged (seriously) the dr to put me on prednisone. He did and they cleared up within 24 hours. That's one of the many reasons I had a new OB this time around. And that is the reason I decided on no epidural, well and hey, might as well save some money. I am happy to report that I had no hives this time around.
(Ok, you can read again)
So, you remember how I put in that request for a good baby this time? Well, we got him! Noah is super chill and likes to sleep. A lot. I hadn't really seen his eyes until a couple days ago. The longest the kid has been awake (not eating or having his diaper changed) is around 20 minutes. He sleeps through his brother and sister being crazy loud, a vacuum cleaner starting up 5 inches from where he's sleeping, and now a belt sander (our landlord thought now would be a good time to refinish the deck, said it shouldn't affect us at all...). Don't worry, he passed his hearing screen in both ears. He's slept for an almost 6 hour stretch already (it was during the day, so we need to rotate that a little). He had his first check up at 5 days old, and was already up to 7 lbs 15 oz. The nurse was pretty impressed. He eats a lot. And if you are wondering what all those spots all over him are, they aren't chicken pox or baby acne. Some weird skin condition called neonatal pustulosis. Our dr was pretty fascinated. It's already mostly cleared up.
Oh, and those other kids. They are no longer sick. After 2 rounds of different antibiotics. The first dr we saw at Ben's free work clinic told us they had allergies and to give them Zyrtec. No joke. The second dr gave them amoxicilin, and we thought that was working until we brought home a new baby and they were way worse. So we took them into our pediatrician, which clearly we should have done in the first place, and she was concerned they had whooping cough. So they got as quarantined as possible from the new baby for a day, until the test came back that it was not whooping cough, and they got put on more antibiotics. Now we are all better. They were both super excited to meet Noah and they've loved having grandma here. Korban has far exceeded our expectations. We were pretty much expecting the world's largest nuclear meltdown as he figured out he was not the baby anymore. Instead, he's loving that he's the big brother and has been more helpful. He's even been putting himself back to bed at night, and sleeping a little better. We think maybe it's because now that Noah is waking HIM up, he's realized that waking up other people is not nice.
Also, there will be more pictures coming. And they will be cute.
1 comment:
I love your blog! I just started reading it again, and still love it :) I was happy to hear that you didn't break out in hives after going sans epidural with Noah. I had the same exact experience--doctor said it was the ibuprofen, and I laughed in his face. Second delivery --no eipdural, no hives. Even though I thought I was nearing death, I think it was worth it.
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