baby brother's birth story: part four

part four:
ok, here we go

4:30a doctor wise comes in
doctor wise came in around 4:30am to ask again how my contractions were. after hearing that they were still the same, she said that she wanted to check for a forebag.  i said, "oh, the nurse midwife already checked for that."  but she said she wanted to check again and as she was examining me, she thought she felt some membranes, then ... YUP.  it was like my water broke again! 

what the heck!? 

why couldn't the nurse midwife have found that when she checked FOUR hours earlier?  dr. wise explained that since amniotic fluid continues to produce, there might just not have been much of a forebag earlier.  fine.  but for the record, this sounds more like it should be called a hindbag rather than a forebag, but whatever.

still at 3cm, but encouraged by the breaking of forebag

4:45 huge change in contractions
just fifteen minutes later, there was a HUGE change in my contractions.  this is what i was scared would happen when my water originally broke.  thank goodness i didn't get these contractions at that point, or i would have FREAKED OUT.

5:15a called anesthesiology

5:30a epidural power on
and with that, the pain faded away

6:00a fell asleep
i was finally able to take a nap once the epidural had been placed

6:30a woke up to pain
i awoke to pain, but felt refreshed even though i only got 30 minutes of sleep. and i immediately pressed the "magic button" to dispense more pain meds.

7:00a pain focused on outter side and back side of left hip, and transitioning
i was feeling pressure really low on my front side and really low in my back.  but the pain from the contractions was mostly in my left hip and left buttock area. what a weird place to feel so much pain!  that was rather surprising! i did have some pain in my upper back, like last time with piper, but it was completely overshadowed by what what happening on the side and backside of my left hip.

i needed patrick to hold my hand, so that i could squeeze his. 
i believe this must have been when i was transitioning.  i couldn't pinpoint this stage in my first labor, but i very clearly felt that things were changing here, and patrick reminded me to breathe.

8:00a ready!
i was feeling constant strong pressure, even between contractions ... and was pretty sure I'd just made all the necessary progress. so i told patrick that the next time a nurse came in, i needed to tell her.

baby brother's birth story, part three

part three

this section is a story about 10 hours of nothing.

so you can actually skip it altogether.

the first six or so hours had flown by. the next 10 or so hours, not so much.

check it out, they use QR codes at prentice now.

6:00p birthing ball
my contractions were still about 5 minutes apart.  not really painful, more just annoying and uncomfortable.

patrick was really nervous about the fact i wasn't requesting an epidural yet.  but the contractions were really not bad at all. and then we tried having me sit on a birthing ball and it FELT GREAT.  it really alleviated some of the lower back pain and discomfort i'd been having, and the contractions didn't bother me anymore.  aaaaaahh, the birthing ball.

i basically sat on this puppy all night long.

7:00p pitocin

so now after several hours of steady contractions, at about 4 min apart, but without an increase in intensity, the doc wanted to move things along. the longer it takes until the baby comes, the more time there is for an infection to occur if the water has already broken. if i weren't GBS positive, i probably would held off the pitocin a little longer.  in fact, i probably wouldn't even be at the hospital yet!

anyway, they hooked me up to the pit.  and pretty quickly, contractions got closer together.  probably between two and three mintues apart. patrick asked me if i wanted to request an epidural now that things should get moving.  he was really concerned about this, even though i told him that like last time, i was going to wait until contractions were strong so that i could experience the feeling.

back at home, ryan and wendy were heading over to our house to relieve meg, and watch piper over night. thank goodness.

.

8:00p watched 'its complicated' on my ball, but no change in contractions

9:30p tried some new positions on a chair, walked around, but no change in contractions

10:30p i think i tried taking a nap in bed, no luck, and no change in contractions

while catching up on my twitter feed, the first tweet that popped up was from the pie shop i follow (i know, shocker that i follow a pie shop). they were already baking for mothers' day.

"fresh graham crackers for mom"

do you think the universe was trying to tell me that i, too, was going to get a fresh graham on mothers' day?

11:00p realized that i'm probably not having a baby today

sunday, may 13th
12:00 midnight: there were actually two proms

did you know that when your water breaks before labor starts, it's called PROM? Pre-Mature Rupture of Membrames?

coincidentally, christine and nikolai were chaperoning the lake forest high school prom (christine works at LFHS), at the mariott hotel down the street from prentice this same evening. when i texted christine earlier in the day, we figured i might have a baby by the time prom was over. so we even talked about them stopping by the hospital after prom (nikolai would be in his tux!), which would be ending at midnight.

as midnight rolled around, i realized that we actually both had prom today! 
yikes, pregnancy humor.  not really funny. 

12:30a nurse midwife finds nothing to explain the delay

the nurse midwife came in to check for a forebag.

a forewhat? yup, a forebag.
this can be a couple of things.  in this scenario, what could have happened is that when my water ruptured, the baby moved and sealed off the opening, thereby actually sealing off the amniotic sac.  and since the body will replenish the amniotic fluid, a new bag could have essentially formed. 

so, the nurse was going to do an internal exam (my first internal since i was admitted) to try to figure out what was going on and if there was more water building up.  i asked if she was going to check for progress as well, and she said she would. 

turns out this was kind of an agressive little procedure (it kind of feels like stripping membranes, for those of you who have had that done). and when she came away, she said she could not find any sacs of amniotic fluid building up.

she also said i was 3cm.

ugh. my heart sank. 

my water broke 12 hours ago, and i hadn't made any progress since a week ago? 

i had a mild melt down. 

this was when patrick told christine and nikolai it might be best to skip the visit. 

and i started wondering how long the doc would let me go while GBS positive, having now had an internal exam, and yet not progressing, before they would suggest a c-section.

1:30a the doctor came in

the doctor came in and i was sure she was coming to tell me bad news, recommend a c-section, blah blah.  but she just came to see if my contractions were any stronger, which they weren't, and then to tell me we'd keep waiting and that there was not much else we could do.

patrick rubbed my back then he went and took a nap.

4:00am so i have no idea what i did from 1:30 to 4:30
all i know is that i couldn't sleep.  i walked. i sat on the damn ball.  and i wished i had my laptop so that i could organize my unorganized photos.

here i am with the TV listings on the ipad, and my bucket of 'popcorn.'

apparently what i did between 2 and 4am was become delirious.

(ok, the time on the ipad only says 9pm, so i guess i went delirious much earlier than i thought)

and still, no change in my contractions...

baby brother's birth story, part two

part two: settling in

the first hours after my water broke went by really quickly as we settled into

our labor + deliver room and i started feeling contractions

12:30p - water broke
so my water broke while we were out with our realtor (feel free to cue images of a puddle in the middle of an 'open house' living room and exclamations of "sold!" or "we'll take it!!" - which would be cooler than how it really went down).

1:30p - triage
we arrived at the hospital with a nice and soggy crotch. awesome. of course i was wearing a pair of light grey pregnancy cargos (uh, fashionable), that happen to turn super DARK grey where wet. we arrived at valet and i chose to have patrick push me in with a wheel chair, rain jacket placed strategically across my lap, so i didn't have to walk around lookin' like i peed myself. i'm sure they see everything around there, but still.

i had been keeping a spare pair of yoga pants in my desk at work to change into for long nights at the office, and also just in case my water happened to break at work. but i hadn't thought to pack myself a change of clothes when we left the house that morning. that's like the equivalent of an adult diaper bag! i never thought my water would actually rupture early!! supposedly this only happens in 10% of pregnancies.

once i was checked in, i still wasn't having contractions. so we made the decision to have patrick go home and get my bag and grab a few things (e.g., kindle, ipad, you know, important things). again, i was convinced that things could possibly change quite rapidly. i started to worry i might have the baby while he was gone and got a little panicky and called him, but obviously that didn't happen, as i'd barely started even contracting by the time he got back.

2:30pm - on monitors, confirming amniotic fluid, P went home to get bag, kindle, ipad
meanwhile, i had to be tested to verify that it was amniotic fluid that soaked me, and that i did not, in fact, pee my pants. if i had been sent home for peeing myself, i would have cried.

i knew my doctor was in philadelphia for his daughter's college graduation this weekend (during my weekly appointment he jokingly told me not to have the baby on saturday or sunday), so i talked to the doctor who would be taking care of me. doctor wise. i'd met her before, but actually not since i was pregnant with piper. patients rotate through all the doctors in the practice during routine check-ups, and this doctor happened to be my least favorite of the bunch. but oh well.

i was hooked up to the external monitors (for contractions and fetal heart rate), and a quick ultrasound was taken. doctor wise said, "oh look, those are his eyes!" i thought it was kind of a weird angle to be seeing his eyes. the doctor said everything looked good, including my contractions. which had started. i didn't even know i was having contractions, but they were small.

broken water = no internal exams
once the water breaks, the doctors are very careful not to move bacteria into the womb, regardless even of whether a mother is GBS positive or not. so no internal exams, i.e., measurements for progress, were taken. this definitely left me very curious about how dilated and effaced i was. at my last appointment, almost a week earlier, i was 3cm dilated and 50% effaced. i was so curious about where progress was now, but nope, they don't want to check.

after results showed i 'passed' the amniotic fluid test, confirming my water broke, i was put on antibiotics through an IV.

3:00p - on penicillin, moved to room on the L&D floor, patrick is back
a room opened up and i was moved to the labor & delivery floor. being back on that floor suddenly made it all very real! piper's labor was about 15 or 16 hours, and your second is usually less, so i was pretty darn sure i was having a baby that day.

4:00p - patrick goes to eat, nurse offers me popsicle
after i was all settled into our room, patrick declared he was starving, we'd eaten only a smidge around 10am that morning, some yogurt. so if he was hungry, imagine the lady in labor. patrick ventured out to find himself some food, and the nurses offered me a popsicle.

this was an improvement over the last time i had a baby, when the only thing this hospital allowed was ice. i was very happy to have my cherry popsicle!

why yes, i did call ahead to ask what color the hospital gowns were so that i could coordinate with my nail polish. no, but every nurse and doctor commented on my nail color.

i thought i'd have time to get a new neutral manicure before i had this baby, but nope, every picture has this crazy color in it.

even though the popsicle was great, i texted patrick and told him that he better sneak me some food or i might die. i wanted something simple, some bread or an oatmeal cookie. he brought me back a piece of banana bread. it was perfect. i didn't eat again for another 18 hours or so, so i really needed that!

5:00p - started feeling contractions
i had been having contractions for a couple hours, but irregularly and not strong. yet eventually the contractions worked themselves into a pattern, coming about every five mintues, and i started feeling them. even though they were pretty mild, i looked at the clock and definitely figured i'd have a baby very soon.

baby brother's first month

newborn baby brother

may 13 to june 12

you took our breath away the secnod you made your loving and peaceful entrance into this world at 9:51am on mother's day. you are a sweet, smooshy, cuddly baby.  your family sure does love you so!

you started at 8lbs 15oz, 20in. -- a big, healthy boy!

after coming home from the hospital you had a little bit of a rough start with fever, jaundice, and weight loss, but you bounced right back and by your one month appointment measured in at 10lbs 2oz (50th percentile), 22in. (75th percentile), and head circumference at 15.5in (98th percentile). my kids have big heads. so smart.

we didn't quite know what to call you at first, but we sure did call you lots of things. while we decided between callum or graham, we mostly took to calling you "baby brother."  your mama often called you "buddy" and when you gave us your little looks, i called you my little "angry bird."  you have a very serious look to you!!  how can you be so sweet and have such an angry face at the same time?  angry bird, we can't wait to see you smile. 

your sister piper really loves to help you.  at first she tried to bring you all sorts of things (toys, books), but soon realized you didn't know how to hold anything.  a few toys might have landed on your face, but you're a tough little guy.  she gives you your "fire" (pacifier) when it falls out of your mouth, and even helps feed you. sometimes she even holds you and that makes her so happy that she can't stop giggling. she's still learning how to be gentle with you, but you are so great and rarely cry when she's a little too rough. 

you are such a good baby.  you cry when you're hungry, need a new diaper, or want to be held. you love being held.  i mean, you are mr. cuddles. this is so different for us! 

you had a hard time latching during your first month, but we were able to feed you breastmilk exclusively.  you sleep in a bassinet in our bedroom. 

your little feet are the softest. i love how when we unswaddle you, you remain all curled up.  i love how when i pick you up, you arch your little back so far. i forgot what it is to have a newborn. i love to smell your head. you smell like a little baby and i have spent a lot of time taking it all in.

my little son, it is so special getting to know you.  how quickly i loved you so much!  how has our first month with you already sped past?  i can't believe how amazing such a little person can be!