Thursday night (9/5/13), I started getting what I thought were Braxton Hicks contractions {AGAIN!}, but they felt a bit more painful this time. I just had this feeling, "this could be it", so I called my mom and told her to maybe be prepared for a call in the middle of the night, shaved my legs, and went to bed. I woke back up around 1am and felt like I was having strong period cramps every several minutes. I started timing them on my phone and they were infrequent - every 7 minutes, every 5 minutes, every 9 minutes... but definitely kept getting stronger and always about 1 minute long. I tried to sleep through them knowing the next 24 hours could be extremely tiring, but couldn't sleep!
I showered around 6am and made sure everything was packed then called the on-call doctor. She said since the contractions were infrequent and not yet close to 3-4 minutes apart, to try and wait things out a bit longer. I woke Matt up and he got showered and ready and we waited around a few more hours. The contractions started to get pretty painful and a lot closer to 4-5 minutes apart so I called the doctor again and they told me to go into the hospital.
We got to the hospital around 11:15am, checked in and got into the triage room to be checked out. The attending doctor found me at only 1 cm dilated but 80% effaced. I was very surprised I was only 1 cm, because at this point I thought I was in a good amount of pain. The doctor instructed us that we would wait in the room an hour and she would check me again. If my cervix had progress we would be admitted, if not, sent home :(. The doctor checked again and wouldn't you know it, still 1 cm dilated! I was disappointed and ready to leave, but she made a call to my doctor who told her since I was almost a week past my due date to go ahead and induce me with pitocin. I was a bit scared of being induced, but the contractions were getting more and more painful and I didn't want to go home to suffer through the pain. It took foreeeever for them to get us a delivery room, but we were finally admitted and in our room around 3:30pm. The labor nurse checked my cervix and I was closer to 3 cm at this point - much better! She started the pitocin and gave me a pain reliever through an IV. My mom came in at this point, which was good, because the contractions were so strong I needed to hold her hand and Matt's to get through them. At this point I was trying to hold off from getting the epidural, but the pain was INTENSE so around 4 cm I ordered the epidural. It felt like it took an eternity for the anesthesiologist to get in the room. The contractions at this point were taking over my whole body and I didn't know whether to scream or cry or punch Matt in the face! The epidural took about 15 mintues to go into effect but after it did I was SOOO happy. I didn't feel a thing! It was close to 6:30pm and I was about 6 cm dilated. The nurse told me it might be a good idea for me to take a nap, as I probably had another 4 hours to go. Matt's parents and my sister in law Lynette got to the hospital at this point, and they all decided to go down to the cafeteria for some food while I napped. The nurse woke me up around 7:40pm and checked my cervix - I was 10cm plus two! Her and the doctor told me it was time to push so I called Matt and had everyone except for him leave the room. This was getting more and more surreal!
Right around 8:00pm I started pushing. For some reason I had this idea in my head that I would push 3-4 times and he'd just pop out. Boy was I wrong! I pushed for almost an hour and a half. I thought he was never coming out! Matt was so wonderful - he was super encouraging and watched the whole thing, so told me what he was seeing - lots of hair! :) The last push, the doctor said "stop!" and pulled him out. I wish I could remember this moment more clearly, and I am even starting to cry thinking about it {thank you hormones}... the doctor had Gavin in her hands and I looked at him in disbelief... that is my son! I made him! He is finally here! She placed him on my belly and I just couldn't stop smiling and crying. Matt was in tears too (and wouldn't like that I told you this!)... Gavin was beautiful and just absolutely perfect. All the pain I went through disappeared from my mind... he is here and I am so in love with him! They cleaned him off and Matt cut the umbilical cord. They weighed him at 8 lbs 6 oz, 20.5 inches long and he was born at 9:42pm on Friday, September 6th, 2013. I wanted to try and breastfeed him right away, but little man was just not hungry. Matt called in our families, and they all got to meet and hold Gavin. We spent some time in the room while the rest of delivery was finished and everyone was cleaned up (I won't share these details - you are welcome :) ). Our families said goodbye around 11:30pm and we were transferred to our recovery room.
We stayed in the hospital until Sunday at 2:00pm. During our stay, we bonded with Gavin and I got the hang of breastfeeding with the help of the amazing nurses at OSU. We even facetimed with uncle Brian!
Gavin came down with jaundice, (as all babies do) and they wanted to "nib it in the bud" so to say, so Saturday night he spent in the nursery under the lights. Sunday morning he was doing great and they had no problem releasing us all from the hospital.
OSU has a newborn photography service by Bella Baby and we had some photos taken of him Sunday morning before we left. They are sooooo cute and I can't wait to order his birth announcement!
So... to recap the past week at home. We are definitely exhausted but so unbelievably happy. Gavin, as I said, is perfect :) Breastfeeding is going really well and he is sleeping better and better every night. We've had lots of visitors and his mood is different with every one - it depends on when he ate and how tired he is! We just love watching his expressions and staring at him when he is alert. He loves his swing and loves to be rocked to sleep. He's only peed on two of our visitors and Matt, so I guess that's pretty good for a week's time?? :) He had his pediatrician appt on Tuesday and is down to 8 lbs 1.5 oz but that's normal as babies lose 10% of their birthweight after they leave the hospital. His jaundice is getting even better and the doctor said he is perfectly healthy!
I'm waiting for everything to hit me and to have a meltdown at some point, but I can honestly say that Gavin is a very good baby and we haven't had any major issues yet (*knock on wood*). We can't wait to see him develop and grow! We've had a whirlwind of a week but are just so happy he's finally here!
We got to the hospital around 11:15am, checked in and got into the triage room to be checked out. The attending doctor found me at only 1 cm dilated but 80% effaced. I was very surprised I was only 1 cm, because at this point I thought I was in a good amount of pain. The doctor instructed us that we would wait in the room an hour and she would check me again. If my cervix had progress we would be admitted, if not, sent home :(. The doctor checked again and wouldn't you know it, still 1 cm dilated! I was disappointed and ready to leave, but she made a call to my doctor who told her since I was almost a week past my due date to go ahead and induce me with pitocin. I was a bit scared of being induced, but the contractions were getting more and more painful and I didn't want to go home to suffer through the pain. It took foreeeever for them to get us a delivery room, but we were finally admitted and in our room around 3:30pm. The labor nurse checked my cervix and I was closer to 3 cm at this point - much better! She started the pitocin and gave me a pain reliever through an IV. My mom came in at this point, which was good, because the contractions were so strong I needed to hold her hand and Matt's to get through them. At this point I was trying to hold off from getting the epidural, but the pain was INTENSE so around 4 cm I ordered the epidural. It felt like it took an eternity for the anesthesiologist to get in the room. The contractions at this point were taking over my whole body and I didn't know whether to scream or cry or punch Matt in the face! The epidural took about 15 mintues to go into effect but after it did I was SOOO happy. I didn't feel a thing! It was close to 6:30pm and I was about 6 cm dilated. The nurse told me it might be a good idea for me to take a nap, as I probably had another 4 hours to go. Matt's parents and my sister in law Lynette got to the hospital at this point, and they all decided to go down to the cafeteria for some food while I napped. The nurse woke me up around 7:40pm and checked my cervix - I was 10cm plus two! Her and the doctor told me it was time to push so I called Matt and had everyone except for him leave the room. This was getting more and more surreal!
Right around 8:00pm I started pushing. For some reason I had this idea in my head that I would push 3-4 times and he'd just pop out. Boy was I wrong! I pushed for almost an hour and a half. I thought he was never coming out! Matt was so wonderful - he was super encouraging and watched the whole thing, so told me what he was seeing - lots of hair! :) The last push, the doctor said "stop!" and pulled him out. I wish I could remember this moment more clearly, and I am even starting to cry thinking about it {thank you hormones}... the doctor had Gavin in her hands and I looked at him in disbelief... that is my son! I made him! He is finally here! She placed him on my belly and I just couldn't stop smiling and crying. Matt was in tears too (and wouldn't like that I told you this!)... Gavin was beautiful and just absolutely perfect. All the pain I went through disappeared from my mind... he is here and I am so in love with him! They cleaned him off and Matt cut the umbilical cord. They weighed him at 8 lbs 6 oz, 20.5 inches long and he was born at 9:42pm on Friday, September 6th, 2013. I wanted to try and breastfeed him right away, but little man was just not hungry. Matt called in our families, and they all got to meet and hold Gavin. We spent some time in the room while the rest of delivery was finished and everyone was cleaned up (I won't share these details - you are welcome :) ). Our families said goodbye around 11:30pm and we were transferred to our recovery room.
We stayed in the hospital until Sunday at 2:00pm. During our stay, we bonded with Gavin and I got the hang of breastfeeding with the help of the amazing nurses at OSU. We even facetimed with uncle Brian!
Gavin came down with jaundice, (as all babies do) and they wanted to "nib it in the bud" so to say, so Saturday night he spent in the nursery under the lights. Sunday morning he was doing great and they had no problem releasing us all from the hospital.
OSU has a newborn photography service by Bella Baby and we had some photos taken of him Sunday morning before we left. They are sooooo cute and I can't wait to order his birth announcement!
I'm waiting for everything to hit me and to have a meltdown at some point, but I can honestly say that Gavin is a very good baby and we haven't had any major issues yet (*knock on wood*). We can't wait to see him develop and grow! We've had a whirlwind of a week but are just so happy he's finally here!
