My last week of pregnancy was filled with a lot of anxiety and a bit of frustration, and of course I was starting to feel pretty miserable and uncomfortable (understandable since I was carrying a 9lb baby in my belly!). My entire pregnancy we had planned to induce early (as long as my body was ready) so that we would have a smaller baby in order to avoid the tearing and surgery I had after Lucy's birth. At my 39 week appointment I was 3cm and 50% effaced, but the doctor said my cervix was not low enough so he wanted to wait on the induction. That meant, because of Thanksgiving week, the only day to induce would be Tuesday (two days before my due date). Unfortunately because of Thanksgiving, the timing was not ideal for our families (to help with Lucy) so I opted (out of stress and anxiety) to not do the induction on Tuesday - I just didn't feel comfortable with our plans for Lucy. And so, again unfortunately because of Thanksgiving, my only other option to induce was the Tuesday after Thanksgiving (5 days after my due date) - not early at all (as I had planned)!
This left me feeling worried about having a baby that would be too big, let down that we wouldn't have the baby when I had thought we would, stressed about the baby's movements and his health (suddenly I felt like he was still all day long) and anxious about what our plan would be for Lucy and Ruthie once the baby came (every day was a different plan depending on grandparents work schedule and what family was in town taking up bedrooms because of the holidays). So on top of feeling absolutely miserable physically, emotionally I was starting to lose it too.
Needless to say, every day felt like an eternity as we waited. As if all of the above wasn't bad enough, my body started contracting almost a week before Hank came. Every day my braxton hicks contractions would get stronger and stronger (to the point of waking me out of sleep), and closer together - but just when we thought it was time to pack our bags, they would go away. Even Thanksgiving morning, we were timing contractions 5 minutes apart for a 30 minute period, and then they just suddenly stopped. Talk about frustrating! With Lucy I felt nothing before the actual labor, so I was really confused about what my body was doing this time around.
Finally on Friday night (November 25th), Ben and I were getting settled in, watching a movie, after having spent the night cleaning up Lucy and our home because Lucy had thrown up 3 times that evening, my contractions picked up! Of course, the night Lucy is puking all night is the night Hank would decide to enter this world! The contractions came on pretty fast and strong and because I'd been contracting all week we had a feeling we would need to get to the hospital fast. Ben's dad came to stay with Lucy and fortunately she had stopped puking for the night.
When we got to the hospital I was 6 cm and my water had broken. I wasn't really sure if my water had broken, but I had a feeling it was, and sure enough when they checked it was broken. I think they said I must have had a small tear that led to a slow trickle which is why I wasn't totally sure if it had broken. We did paperwork for what seemed like hours and I made sure the nurse knew that I wanted an epidural as soon as they could get it to me - I was starting to get extremely uncomfortable!
Once the epidural came, things were much better - I was still at 6cm and thought I'd have some time to rest before pushing. I think I slept for about 15 or 30 minutes, but the nurse kept coming in to check on Hank because his heartbeat was dropping when I was contracting. After making me change positions a lot she decided to check me again and announced "you're complete, I'll go call the doctor" (which is why Hank's heart rate was dropping)... I was shocked! I think I'd had the epidural for 30 minutes and it was already time to push!
The next part happened so fast, it was surreal... we did a practice push and the nurses said I was pushing great (even though I couldn't feel anything because I'd just gotten the epidural). The doctor came in, I pushed during one contraction, then during my next contraction she had me start to push, then stop, pulled the baby out and put him on my chest! What?!?! I was not expecting Hank to come after 4 pushes when Lucy had taken 2 hours of pushing.
What an awesome experience- they laid Hank on my chest and Ben cut the umbilical cord (neither of which we got to do with Lucy because NICU had to check her right away since she had taken her first poop in my uterus). Of course I fell in love with Hank right away and any fears I had about loving him as much as I love Lucy were gone as soon as I held him in my arms. Nothing can compare to the feeling of holding your own baby for the first time after thinking about him and praying for him for over 9 months.
The doctor stitched me up, and left - I think she was at the hospital a total of 30 minutes! All in all I think I was in labor about 5 hours (including an hour of labor at home)- we were admitted to the hospital at 12:30am and Hank arrived at 4:47am. Talk about a fast entrance into the world!
Because Hank came down the birth canal so fast he did have some bruising on his face - I felt so bad for him, his little body was pink but his face was black and blue from slamming into my pelvic bone as he shot down the birth canal. Fortunately the bruising began to clear right away and was almost not even noticeable within the next couple days. And the nurses said it didn't bother him at all. Other than the bruising, Hank was a perfectly healthy baby boy. I was so relieved, thankful, and in awe all at once!
Waiting for the doctor (you can tell my nurse was kind of spunky!)
Holding Hank for the first time...
Getting cleaned up...
Much happier with mom! (you can see some of the bruising here)
Proud dad!
Warming up before his bath... you can see the bruising here as well...
The next day, meeting his big sister for the first time! She couldn't come on Saturday because she had thrown up again at her grandma and grandpa's house... I was really sad, but knew that it would be better for her to stay home and get better.
Handsome boy! Bruising almost all cleared up!
A shot of Lucy for comparison... twins I think! Looks like we'll have another Ben clone :)
Snuggle time with mom...
All dressed ready to go home!
And another shot of Lucy to compare...
Looks like they both loved their pacis!
This left me feeling worried about having a baby that would be too big, let down that we wouldn't have the baby when I had thought we would, stressed about the baby's movements and his health (suddenly I felt like he was still all day long) and anxious about what our plan would be for Lucy and Ruthie once the baby came (every day was a different plan depending on grandparents work schedule and what family was in town taking up bedrooms because of the holidays). So on top of feeling absolutely miserable physically, emotionally I was starting to lose it too.
Needless to say, every day felt like an eternity as we waited. As if all of the above wasn't bad enough, my body started contracting almost a week before Hank came. Every day my braxton hicks contractions would get stronger and stronger (to the point of waking me out of sleep), and closer together - but just when we thought it was time to pack our bags, they would go away. Even Thanksgiving morning, we were timing contractions 5 minutes apart for a 30 minute period, and then they just suddenly stopped. Talk about frustrating! With Lucy I felt nothing before the actual labor, so I was really confused about what my body was doing this time around.
Finally on Friday night (November 25th), Ben and I were getting settled in, watching a movie, after having spent the night cleaning up Lucy and our home because Lucy had thrown up 3 times that evening, my contractions picked up! Of course, the night Lucy is puking all night is the night Hank would decide to enter this world! The contractions came on pretty fast and strong and because I'd been contracting all week we had a feeling we would need to get to the hospital fast. Ben's dad came to stay with Lucy and fortunately she had stopped puking for the night.
When we got to the hospital I was 6 cm and my water had broken. I wasn't really sure if my water had broken, but I had a feeling it was, and sure enough when they checked it was broken. I think they said I must have had a small tear that led to a slow trickle which is why I wasn't totally sure if it had broken. We did paperwork for what seemed like hours and I made sure the nurse knew that I wanted an epidural as soon as they could get it to me - I was starting to get extremely uncomfortable!
Once the epidural came, things were much better - I was still at 6cm and thought I'd have some time to rest before pushing. I think I slept for about 15 or 30 minutes, but the nurse kept coming in to check on Hank because his heartbeat was dropping when I was contracting. After making me change positions a lot she decided to check me again and announced "you're complete, I'll go call the doctor" (which is why Hank's heart rate was dropping)... I was shocked! I think I'd had the epidural for 30 minutes and it was already time to push!
The next part happened so fast, it was surreal... we did a practice push and the nurses said I was pushing great (even though I couldn't feel anything because I'd just gotten the epidural). The doctor came in, I pushed during one contraction, then during my next contraction she had me start to push, then stop, pulled the baby out and put him on my chest! What?!?! I was not expecting Hank to come after 4 pushes when Lucy had taken 2 hours of pushing.
What an awesome experience- they laid Hank on my chest and Ben cut the umbilical cord (neither of which we got to do with Lucy because NICU had to check her right away since she had taken her first poop in my uterus). Of course I fell in love with Hank right away and any fears I had about loving him as much as I love Lucy were gone as soon as I held him in my arms. Nothing can compare to the feeling of holding your own baby for the first time after thinking about him and praying for him for over 9 months.
The doctor stitched me up, and left - I think she was at the hospital a total of 30 minutes! All in all I think I was in labor about 5 hours (including an hour of labor at home)- we were admitted to the hospital at 12:30am and Hank arrived at 4:47am. Talk about a fast entrance into the world!
Because Hank came down the birth canal so fast he did have some bruising on his face - I felt so bad for him, his little body was pink but his face was black and blue from slamming into my pelvic bone as he shot down the birth canal. Fortunately the bruising began to clear right away and was almost not even noticeable within the next couple days. And the nurses said it didn't bother him at all. Other than the bruising, Hank was a perfectly healthy baby boy. I was so relieved, thankful, and in awe all at once!
Waiting for the doctor (you can tell my nurse was kind of spunky!)
Holding Hank for the first time...
Getting cleaned up...
Much happier with mom! (you can see some of the bruising here)
Proud dad!
Warming up before his bath... you can see the bruising here as well...
The next day, meeting his big sister for the first time! She couldn't come on Saturday because she had thrown up again at her grandma and grandpa's house... I was really sad, but knew that it would be better for her to stay home and get better.
Handsome boy! Bruising almost all cleared up!
A shot of Lucy for comparison... twins I think! Looks like we'll have another Ben clone :)
Snuggle time with mom...
All dressed ready to go home!
And another shot of Lucy to compare...
Looks like they both loved their pacis!
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