So, We Had A Baby

Back in April, that is. My due date was April 22, and my OB scheduled an induction for the 29th since I am a VBAC-er. There must be something psychological about being induced, because the last two times I have gone into labor on my induction days.

This time I woke up around 1:30 with contractions, and as soon as I woke up I knew I was in labor. But I was all set on getting induced and having an epidural and NOT being in pain (with Noelle I was crying at 4 cm), so I kept trying to sleep through the contractions. It doesn't make sense, I know, but I thought it did and I was determined. Finally around 5 a.m. the contractions were about 5 minutes apart so we headed in to the hospital.

We got there an hour before shift change, so I guess there was a lot of feet dragging and stuff. The nurse coming on was all worried about getting the baby warmer set up and organized and wasn't taking care of things that needed to happen before I got an epidural, but it wasn't that big of a deal yet. I wasn't in any pain.

My doctor checked me at 8:15 and I was almost at 6 cm. He told the nurse to order the epidural and that he would see me at noon. I wish I had said something like, "Um...it takes me less than 45 minutes to get from a 6 to a 10", but I didn't want to look dumb when I was in labor for another 5 hours. So they ordered the epidural. The anesthesiologist came pretty fast, but couldn't get started until they had two IV lines in and they knew my blood type. So we waited for the lab to come and take a blood sample, and we waited for the nurse to try to get a second IV line in. For some reason they were having a hard time getting my lines in, so this took a while. At this point, I had whimpered through 6 or 7 contractions and was sitting up on the edge of the bed.

Right when the second line was in place, I had to push. I have never felt that urge (I guess because I have always had an epidural?). It was like when you have to throw up--you know, all your muscles are going crazy, and you can't stop it if you wanted to. So I was sort of yelling my head off about having to push, and Jesse is trying hard not to laugh, because he thinks I'm insane, and NOBODY is ready for anything yet. All of a sudden our room is swarming with people, and it was all I could do just to lie back down on the bed. Those contractions were pretty intense, but it was good because only a small corner of my mind noticed the uncomfortable things happening. The other 99% of my brain was concentrating on the crazy contractions and wondering why I didn't get more than a second between each one. And concentrating on getting a good breath in that second. I guess the contractions were pretty distracting, though, because I didn't know I wasn't pushing until my doctor leaned forward and said that I had to push so we could get the shoulders un-stuck. I'm glad the anesthesiologist was there though, even if she didn't give me the epidural because she was telling people what to do. This sort of thing must happen a lot to her.

After the baby was born I had pretty bad shock. I didn't even wonder about the gender for about 5 minutes. They asked me if I wanted to hold the baby and I was just like, "Um...no."

But after about 10 minutes I thought I could hold him without dropping him. We named him Myles Bern Horrocks. He was 9 pounds 5 ounces and supposedly 19 inches long. I don't think that was right, though, because he doesn't look as fat as he should for being short and that heavy.

He looks just like Jesse. He has red hair...unfortunately...but maybe he'll like it. Or grow out of it.

Here he is:

At three months he is 16 pounds 8 ounces. He's smiley and patient and fat. Pretty much perfect.