Our new son, Greyson is finally here. He was born at 40 weeks and 5 days on July 3rd, at 11:12pm. He weighed 7lbs, 15oz and was 20 inches long.
I started having contractions at 2:45am on July 1st and were about 10-15 minutes apart and a minute long. Everyone told me they'd be unmistakable, and they were right. It was kind of like cramping right in between my hips from bone to bone, and my tummy would tighten up harder than it ever did with the Braxton Hicks. It was like all of a sudden there was a huge boulder in my stomach. Though these first contractions were tolerable, I still couldn't sleep through because I was so excited that I was finally having them! So I stayed awake timing them. I didn't tell Zack right away (who was sleeping blissfully unaware) because I wanted him to get some sleep because I was going to need him. But about an hour or two after timing them he woke up by chance and I told him, and then his nerves kicked in and he couldn't sleep either. So we turned on a movie to pass the rest of the night.
Needless to say I didn't go to work, and Zack stayed home until about 9am, and when my contractions were still only about 10-15min apart (the hospital wants them to be 3-5 minutes apart), he went to work. My mom and sister came over and kept me company all day, and my mom took me on a walk which got my contractions to speed up while walking but as soon as we got back home they slowed back down to 10 minutes. They were getting stronger and more painful, but still technically too slow for us to go to the birth center. Finally they sped up to 7 min apart and we went to the hospital around 9pm and they hooked me all up and timed them and checked me. I was only 1cm which was no change from a my doctor's visit a few days before, and my contractions weren't getting any closer together. They called the on call doctor (mine was still out of town) and he told them to tell us to go home since he thought we'd be more comfortable there. I was so frustrated! I hadn't had any sleep since early that morning, and I knew I wouldn't get any sleep tonight, PLUS they were really starting to hurt! And I think that if my own doctor was there he would've come in and induced me since we were going on 24hrs with constant painful contractions. I think the on call doc just didn't want to step on any toes by inducing his partner's patient. So we go home and wait out the night. Zack slept but not me. I tried to sleep in between contractions, but it's really hard to do when you wake up every 7-15 minutes!
So Saturday the 3rd rolls around, I'm cranky, hurting, tired and discouraged. Zack's home with me and we're both trying to catch up on sleep, but really no go for me. These damn contractions were really starting to hurt but since they were still so "far" apart, I put off going to the Birth Center. Finally, at 3pm when I couldn't stand another one without some relief, we went to the hospital. I was so sure they were going to send us back home. No way was I going to be lucky enough to have my baby today, let alone ever (seriously that's how I felt. Like it would never happen). So they hook me up, check me, and I'm at least dilated to 2 1/2cm AND we find out OUR doctor is home! They called him and he told us to take a walk for about an hour and a half and see if that speeds up the contractions or makes me progress any further. An hour and a half later we come back, get hooked back up, and my doctor comes in and I'm at 5 1/2 cm and if he really wanted to he could probably stretch me to 7cm!! He then tells me that we're just going to break my water and get things moving. "But wait!" I say, "Can I get the epidural?" So I get the epidural before he breaks my water and y'all, it was seriously the most awesome thing ever. After 36 hours of contractions, it was bliss not to feel them any more. And it was also the oddest thing too. I thought my whole lower half would be numb to the touch and everything, but I could still move my legs deliberately, feel when someone was touching me, but the only thing I couldn't feel was the pain! I literally had to touch my belly to feel it harden under my hands to know that I had a contraction. The staff was all, "Did you feel that? That was a big one!" Nope, didn't feel it. One minor, minor complication I had was the epidural lowered my blood pressure to about 80/40 or something crazy like that, so they had to give me a shot of ephedrine or epinephrine (I don't know, guess I don't know my drugs) which brought it back to normal. Oh and they gave me a horrible tasting antacid that made me throw up. Anyway.... I tried to sleep, and honestly now I can't remember if I did. But my doctor came back about 2 hours later and checks me again, and I'm a 7, then again a couple hours later and I'm a 9. My mom still laughs at me that I'm on the phone with my grandma talking to her like nothing's happening. She says she'll never recommend a natural med-free birth again. She was amazed by the epidural. So was I!
So about and hour later (or something), Doc comes back and says I'm 9 1/2cm and lets have a baby. He suits up, manually slips the remaining cervix over the baby's head, and we start pushing with each contraction. The first half hour or 45 min were still relatively pain free, then once the baby started getting closer to exiting I could feel it, though it wasn't unbearable. And about that time I got that Urge to Push that so many moms talk about. I just couldn't help it! Sort of like a gag reflex but in reverse? And that's when the baby moved towards us the most. In total I pushed for about an hour and 15 minutes. He was born healthy, a good size and totally adorable. Once he was out they placed him immediately on my tummy and I remember just sort of petting him, vernix-covered and bloody and all. I also remember I didn't say much. I was just so tired, relieved, and happy that I didn't have to say anything. They took him away when I was ready and gave him to Zack for a few minutes. I hope he doesn't mind me sharing that he got emotional the second he was born and he was so in love too. I've got some great first pictures of him and Greyson that the nurse took. Then they weighed him, measured him, gave him a once over and gave him back to me. He was awesome.
My mom and sister came in (during delivery it was me, Doc, the nurse, and Zack. Perfect.) and visited. I think I tried to breastfeed then (again, some of this is foggy, I'm sure partly because the epidural, and partly because I was running on about 6 hours total sleep for the last 48 hours). And let me tell you, it hurt! The kid's got some pull! lol... but it was still great, and great to know that we wouldn't have a problem there.
They kept us the whole next day and night for monitoring, and even though I was there in hospital pain-free, I still didn't sleep much. I just wanted to hold him. And the staff kept having to come in and monitor our vitals, etc.
We got to come home on Monday the 5th, and spent our first day together as a family.
This whole time I never cried except in frustration from the pain. But I think it was Tuesday night when I was looking at my new son and just broke down. I just couldn't believe how much I love him. And it's a completely different kind of love that I've never felt before. He's perfect, he's sweet, he's soft, he's adorable. I cry thinking about him. All of a sudden I'm scared for him to grow! It almost makes me sad that he's already 5 days old. I want to keep him how he is forever, and yet I'm so excited for his future. I know that regardless of his choices he'll be a good soul. I can see it in him. Today he locked eyes with me for a few minutes and that was amazing. It might be silly to think it, but I think he's started to recognize me as family. And I think he recognizes the smell or feel of my skin because when I hold him to it he immediately starts rooting around for a boob, lol... Zack and I pulled out our own infant pictures to compare him to and I think he has Zack head and body, but my eyes, nose, and lips. At the moment his eyes are dark blue, and I'm excited to see if they'll stay blue like Zack's or turn hazel like mine. My ego wants them to turn hazel but I think they'd be so beautiful being the same blue as Zack's. His temperament so far is great, and he's a good sleeper. The first night home was rough, the 2nd was better, and last night was awesome. We went to sleep around 10:30pm, he woke up for boob and a change at 1:30am, and again at 3:30am. And then this morning I actually woke him up at 8am because I knew he needed to be changed and we were going on 5 hours without eating. I probably would've left him asleep if he didn't have a dirty diaper, but I desperately was to avoid diaper rash, especially now while his circumcision is healing. We're going to try a little sponge bath tomorrow, and I'm nervous for it! It'll be fine, but I know he won't like it.
Anyway, I could talk all day about our last few days, but I won't. In short, we're all in love (even the dogs.)
