You are really outnumbered now, MamaS. And I'm starting to get a complex about how good Hatrack moms look after giving birth.
Posts: 3037 | Registered: Jan 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Joshua Michael was born on February 23, 2006 at 5:18 PM. Here is the story of his birth:
We were set to see the doctor on the 23rd when I would be exactly 39 weeks. Tuesday night/Wednesday morning I had a lot of painful pre-labor contractions. When we saw the doctor the week before he said I had to be at least 2 cm dilated before he would induce. That week I was 1 ½ cm dilated and 50% effaced. I called the doctor’s office on Wednesday to see if I could come in a day early. The reason for this was because the doctor only induces on the days he is in the office next to the hospital. He is only there on Mondays and Thursdays. I wanted to get checked on Wednesday so he could possibly induce me the next day. If I waited until my appointment on Thursday I was afraid I would have to wait until Monday. With my history of fast labors (and a 20+ minute drive to the hospital) I was getting concerned about going into labor naturally. They let me come in on Wednesday. The doctor said there was no change, but he would go ahead and induce me the next day anyway. He called the hospital to set up the induction but was told that they had no spaces for inductions the next day. The doctor, not being above a little subterfuge (his words), told us to call the hospital the next morning, tell them I was contracting, that this is my 3rd pregnancy and how fast the last one was (less than 3 hours from beginning to end, for those who don’t know).
So, Thursday morning at 6:30 I called the hospital. Of course the contractions I had been having had stopped. Anyway, after talking to the nurse she said to go ahead and come in. We got there around 7:15 AM. I got all hooked up and the nurse checked me. She said I was 1 ½ cm. She said the doctor always says more than what the nurses say. When the doctor came in at 8:00 AM he said I was 3 cm. He then broke my water. Finally around 9:00 AM after being monitored for a while we started walking. We walked for an hour. The nurses wanted to monitor me again for a while.
Around 10:30 AM we started walking again. The contractions were closer together. By the time we stopped walking (around an hour again) I had had a few contractions that slowed me down a bit. The nurse came in. Apparently the doctor called and wondered why I wasn’t on Pitocin yet. My nurse started prepping me for an IV, but she was having trouble finding a vein. She got called away. A different nurse came in. She poked me three times before giving up. Apparently I have very small veins.
The doctor came back at 12:45 PM. He looked at me and held up his arms like “what, no baby yet?” I showed him the bandages on my hands where they had tried to put the IV in. He left the room. He came back a few minutes later to check me. He said I was still 3 cm. They put in the internal contraction monitor. The doctor then went back to his office. The nurses called the anesthesiologist to come and put in my IV. Unfortunately he had just been called into a c-section and it would be at least an hour before he could come by my room.
By then the contractions were actually about 3 ½ minutes apart. Every now and then one would be longer, but they were somewhat consistent. They were also becoming quite painful. I asked Michael to ask the nurse if there was something I could get that didn’t require an IV. She gave me a shot of Stadol at 1:30 PM. I honestly don’t think it did anything for me. The nurse that tried the IV 3 times before came back for one more shot. She actually got a vein, but after about 30 seconds (she didn’t even have it taped up yet) the vein blew (six days later it still hurts in that spot). She gave up.
The anesthesiologist came in sometime after 2:00 PM. He got the IV in on the first try. They put an amazing amount of tape on it to keep it in place. They did not want to lose it once they had it. I had to get 500 cc from the IV before the anesthesiologist would give me an epidural. I love my nurse. She decided not to start the Pitocin until after I had the epidural. He started putting in the epidural around 3:00 PM. The nurse started the Pitocin at 3:30 PM.
The nurse came in at 4:00 PM. She said the doctor called and wanted to come back at 5:00 PM to deliver. She checked me and I was 4 cm dilated (which the doctor would probably say is 6 cm). I told her it would be possible to deliver in an hour because I went from 5 to 10 cm dilated in less than two hours with #1. She put an internal monitor on the baby at that point.
A little before 5:00 PM she came back in and said the doctor would be coming in soon. She asked if I was feeling anything. I actually had been so she checked. The baby’s head was almost there. We just had to wait for the doctor to get there. He came soon after 5:00 PM. He got dressed. I pushed through two contractions and got his head out. One more push and the rest Joshua Michael was here.
I had a 2nd degree tear, but the recovery from that has been a lot easier than the tearing with #2. I was able to nurse him in L&D before they took him for his first bath. He weighed 7 lbs. 12 oz. His length was 19”. We spent two nights in the hospital before coming home. The doctor actually let me choose when to go home. I figured I would need the extra night of rest before coming home to the two rowdy boys at home.
Posts: 399 | Registered: Sep 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Hey Moose and Squirrel, it's Adam from Pweb (and the dinner after the signing, )
Congratulations! you guys put up a lot more pictures than my brother and his wife did, and all so awesome and cute too. Especially love the one of all four of the guys together. Posts: 622 | Registered: Oct 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
Yes -- got it yesterday, and we were gonna take a picture and post it, but haven't yet done so. It's adorable, and he didn't rip it off his head immediately the way our other two children liked to do with anything put on their heads, which I guess could be interpreted reasonably as his liking it. Thank you from all of us!
posted
That was cool that you got an extra night to rest in the hospital - you probably needed it. I remember with my first, they kicked me out of the hospital in 24 hours because of my insurance and I was not ready to come home yet.
Sounds like it went well. I know the frustration of the IV thing, I always need multiple tries before they get on established on me. And, I've had blown veins that were bruised and hurt for more than a week.
Good for you for knowing your body and getting in on Wednesday - with how fast your labor went, I would say you definitely made the right call!
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
--> Another IV baby. I used to say IV's were the worst part of having a baby. That was for the first 3, anyway. I'd say it's the worst totally unnecessary part.
I had Stadol with my first, and it didn't do anything for me either except make me fall asleep between contractions, and then wake up to horrible pain, and then fall asleep again as soon as it started to ease so I could never get out the words "I need an epidural!" I never let them give me that kind of drug with my other 3.
I'll just say, walking AFTER the water's been broken = yucky!!! I'm glad everything ... came out okay. Posts: 1522 | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Mama, those boys are ALL adorable. And you are absolutely GORGEOUS! I hope I have a family like yours someday. Congrats!
Posts: 1591 | Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
The Moose family should be on CuteOverload.com! Congratulations to the whole family and welcome to baby Squoose.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I have bad veins, too. I actually still have faint track marks from all the blood draws they had to do when I was on the mag.
You did a great job, MamaS, and what a beautiful result! How's he doing, btw? And how are the big brothers?
Posts: 3037 | Registered: Jan 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Squoose is doing great. As of yesterday he is up to 8 lbs. 3 oz. He still has blood around the color of his eye, but that if from coming out so fast. The bruising on his face is gone. His jaundice appears to be gone. He sleeps so much, more than I remember the other two sleeping. I actually wake him up every three hours during the day to eat. Otherwise he would just keep sleeping. I probably won't do it much longer now that he is over his birth weight.
His big brothers want to hold him all the time. Superstation will come over and poke him. When I then say "baby Joshua" he will say "yay" in a very cute way.
Posts: 399 | Registered: Sep 2002
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Wave]](graemlins/wave.gif)
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
