Showing posts with label AJ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AJ. Show all posts
Anthony's Birth Story
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Labels:
AJ,
Baby #2,
Pregnancy
This post should be subtitled "Sometimes you just need your mom"
So, all last week I had non-painful, semi-regular contractions from about 5pm to 8pm each night. My appointment on Wednesday came, and even though I had planned not to have an internal exam, I caved since I'd been having the contractions. I found out that I was 3cm dilated, 50% effaced, -2 station, and soft.
Thursday night I started having contractions every 5 minutes lasting 1 minute. They stayed consistent like that for about an hour and a half. They started spacing out a bit, and so I decided to go to bed. I woke up Friday morning still pregnant.
On Friday, I woke up with a headache. I hadn't had any headaches all pregnancy, so I was wondering if maybe my blood pressure was starting to go up again like it had with Caleb. Still, I got up and went to work. By halfway through the day I had wrapped things up at work, and I just didn't feel well. Since I work right across the street from the hospital where I go for my appointments, I decided to just head over for a blood pressure check. The bp check showed that everything was normal, but since I still wasn't feeling well I headed home for the afternoon to get some rest. Some rest that never happened because Caleb's daycare called and I ended up in the ER with him getting 9 stitches.
Now, all week long I had been on the phone with my mom trying to figure out when she was going to come out to stay with us so she could take care of Caleb when I went into labor. We'd changed things up a bunch of times. Originally she was coming Friday, then it was Sunday, then it was "sometime next week." She didn't want to be annoying staying with us for a long time since it could have been weeks before the baby came, and I didn't want her to have to be here all alone all day while we worked and Caleb went to daycare. After the incident with Caleb, she just called and said I'm coming tomorrow. Saturday morning, my mom went to the train station and bought a ticket to come out. The train was scheduled to arrive at 8pm Saturday night.
Saturday morning, Andrew, Caleb, and I got up and took Caleb to the zoo like we had promised. The weather was supposed to be gorgeous and I figured that little walking could be just what I needed to get things going. After the zoo, we came home and I was exhausted! I pretty much spent the rest of the afternoon on the couch.
Caleb was already in bed, so I decided to head to the train station to pick up my mom while Andrew stayed home with Caleb. On the way there, I started having cramping. I called my sister and Andrew to tell them about it. But by the time I picked up mom, I convinced myself it was just gas. We stopped at Wendy's on the way home and picked up some delicious Frosty's.
::Here's where the actual birth part starts::
Around 10pm, we all headed to bed, except I never went to bed.
Per Saturday night tradition the last few months, Caleb was sleeping in our bed with Andrew, and I was sleeping in Caleb's bed. This worked out well because as soon as I laid down I started having contractions that felt different. They were only on the bottom half of my belly, but I could also feel a lot of pain in my upper legs. I started timing them and they were about 8.5-9.5 minutes apart. I decided to let Andrew sleep, but told my mom what was going on. At 11:15pm, I called to the midwife on call at the hospital. Tina called back at 11:30pm and suggested that I take a shower and drink some water and call back in an hour. I hopped in the shower, and even though I didn't have my handy dandy contraction timer on my phone available while I was in there, I could tell that they were getting closer together.
By midnight, I was getting scared that things would progress quickly. Contractions were now 6 minutes apart and getting pretty intense. I had intended to wait to call Tina back, but I ended up just bursting into our room to wake Andrew up. He jumped out of bed and his feet hit the floor before I could finish saying, "we're going to the hospital." By 12:30 we were in the car, and I decided to just call Tina on our way so as not to waste any time.
We got to the hospital and checked in at triage by about 1:15. I was hooked up to monitors...beep, beep, beep...yep, my bp was elevated. Around 1:30 Tina checked me and I was still 3cm just like on Wednesday, but I had thinned to 90%. She thought that this was probably it, but wanted to see some progress before admitting me. The plan was for her to come back in an hour.
Immediately after she checked me, my contractions went to 3 minutes apart. And baby's heart rate started to decel during each contraction. So Tina came back only 30 minutes later and I had dilated to 5/6cm. Andrew called my mom to tell her we were being admitted, and the nurses pushed me down the hall to a L&D room probably 15 minutes later. Unfortunately, because of the blood pressure and the baby's heart rate decels, I had to stay hooked up to the monitors. Not being able to move around was driving me nuts! Tina got me a birthing ball (giant yoga ball) to sit on and that helped a lot.
What seemed like just a few contractions later, I was feeling a lot of pressure in my bum with each contraction. I didn't say anything at first because I figured that this couldn't be it. I didn't want to get checked only to find out that nothing new had happened over the last short period of time. But soon I knew that I had to push. Tina got me back on the bed and I was complete. She tried to break my water, but apparently that had already happened at some point (Looking back, I think probably earlier in the day before I went to pick mom up at the train station).
At that point, Tina said, "Let's just see what your body does on this next contraction." And, my body could not help but to push through the intense pain. I asked if the baby's head was "right there" and the whole room immediately said, "yes!" One more contraction with pushing, and our little guy was here. Kind of amazing how my body knew exactly what to do with those contractions without anyone coaching for counting. I ended up with just a very small tear that didn't even require a stitch. Of course this makes it sound like all was calm in the room during those two little pushes. I was screaming bloody murder saying things like, "I quit," "I can't do this," "I don't want to do this anymore." I feel bad for anyone who was in the hospital at 3:00 that morning. I was freaked out because I never had the urge to push like that with Caleb. It was certainly intense, but absolutely amazing!
So Anthony was born just about 5 hours after I felt my first real contraction, two hours after we arrived at the hospital, and about an hour and a half of active labor. If we have another I'm checking into the hospital at 37 weeks.
We were released from the hospital on Monday afternoon, a little less than 36 hours after his birth.
So, all last week I had non-painful, semi-regular contractions from about 5pm to 8pm each night. My appointment on Wednesday came, and even though I had planned not to have an internal exam, I caved since I'd been having the contractions. I found out that I was 3cm dilated, 50% effaced, -2 station, and soft.
Thursday night I started having contractions every 5 minutes lasting 1 minute. They stayed consistent like that for about an hour and a half. They started spacing out a bit, and so I decided to go to bed. I woke up Friday morning still pregnant.
On Friday, I woke up with a headache. I hadn't had any headaches all pregnancy, so I was wondering if maybe my blood pressure was starting to go up again like it had with Caleb. Still, I got up and went to work. By halfway through the day I had wrapped things up at work, and I just didn't feel well. Since I work right across the street from the hospital where I go for my appointments, I decided to just head over for a blood pressure check. The bp check showed that everything was normal, but since I still wasn't feeling well I headed home for the afternoon to get some rest. Some rest that never happened because Caleb's daycare called and I ended up in the ER with him getting 9 stitches.
Now, all week long I had been on the phone with my mom trying to figure out when she was going to come out to stay with us so she could take care of Caleb when I went into labor. We'd changed things up a bunch of times. Originally she was coming Friday, then it was Sunday, then it was "sometime next week." She didn't want to be annoying staying with us for a long time since it could have been weeks before the baby came, and I didn't want her to have to be here all alone all day while we worked and Caleb went to daycare. After the incident with Caleb, she just called and said I'm coming tomorrow. Saturday morning, my mom went to the train station and bought a ticket to come out. The train was scheduled to arrive at 8pm Saturday night.
Saturday morning, Andrew, Caleb, and I got up and took Caleb to the zoo like we had promised. The weather was supposed to be gorgeous and I figured that little walking could be just what I needed to get things going. After the zoo, we came home and I was exhausted! I pretty much spent the rest of the afternoon on the couch.
Caleb was already in bed, so I decided to head to the train station to pick up my mom while Andrew stayed home with Caleb. On the way there, I started having cramping. I called my sister and Andrew to tell them about it. But by the time I picked up mom, I convinced myself it was just gas. We stopped at Wendy's on the way home and picked up some delicious Frosty's.
::Here's where the actual birth part starts::
Around 10pm, we all headed to bed, except I never went to bed.
Per Saturday night tradition the last few months, Caleb was sleeping in our bed with Andrew, and I was sleeping in Caleb's bed. This worked out well because as soon as I laid down I started having contractions that felt different. They were only on the bottom half of my belly, but I could also feel a lot of pain in my upper legs. I started timing them and they were about 8.5-9.5 minutes apart. I decided to let Andrew sleep, but told my mom what was going on. At 11:15pm, I called to the midwife on call at the hospital. Tina called back at 11:30pm and suggested that I take a shower and drink some water and call back in an hour. I hopped in the shower, and even though I didn't have my handy dandy contraction timer on my phone available while I was in there, I could tell that they were getting closer together.
By midnight, I was getting scared that things would progress quickly. Contractions were now 6 minutes apart and getting pretty intense. I had intended to wait to call Tina back, but I ended up just bursting into our room to wake Andrew up. He jumped out of bed and his feet hit the floor before I could finish saying, "we're going to the hospital." By 12:30 we were in the car, and I decided to just call Tina on our way so as not to waste any time.
We got to the hospital and checked in at triage by about 1:15. I was hooked up to monitors...beep, beep, beep...yep, my bp was elevated. Around 1:30 Tina checked me and I was still 3cm just like on Wednesday, but I had thinned to 90%. She thought that this was probably it, but wanted to see some progress before admitting me. The plan was for her to come back in an hour.
Immediately after she checked me, my contractions went to 3 minutes apart. And baby's heart rate started to decel during each contraction. So Tina came back only 30 minutes later and I had dilated to 5/6cm. Andrew called my mom to tell her we were being admitted, and the nurses pushed me down the hall to a L&D room probably 15 minutes later. Unfortunately, because of the blood pressure and the baby's heart rate decels, I had to stay hooked up to the monitors. Not being able to move around was driving me nuts! Tina got me a birthing ball (giant yoga ball) to sit on and that helped a lot.
What seemed like just a few contractions later, I was feeling a lot of pressure in my bum with each contraction. I didn't say anything at first because I figured that this couldn't be it. I didn't want to get checked only to find out that nothing new had happened over the last short period of time. But soon I knew that I had to push. Tina got me back on the bed and I was complete. She tried to break my water, but apparently that had already happened at some point (Looking back, I think probably earlier in the day before I went to pick mom up at the train station).
At that point, Tina said, "Let's just see what your body does on this next contraction." And, my body could not help but to push through the intense pain. I asked if the baby's head was "right there" and the whole room immediately said, "yes!" One more contraction with pushing, and our little guy was here. Kind of amazing how my body knew exactly what to do with those contractions without anyone coaching for counting. I ended up with just a very small tear that didn't even require a stitch. Of course this makes it sound like all was calm in the room during those two little pushes. I was screaming bloody murder saying things like, "I quit," "I can't do this," "I don't want to do this anymore." I feel bad for anyone who was in the hospital at 3:00 that morning. I was freaked out because I never had the urge to push like that with Caleb. It was certainly intense, but absolutely amazing!
So Anthony was born just about 5 hours after I felt my first real contraction, two hours after we arrived at the hospital, and about an hour and a half of active labor. If we have another I'm checking into the hospital at 37 weeks.
We were released from the hospital on Monday afternoon, a little less than 36 hours after his birth.
Caleb is in LOVE with his baby brother. We have to keep reminding him not to touch Anthony's head and to be gentle with the hugs and kisses, but he really does love AJ.
Welcome Anthony
2
comments
Labels:
AJ,
Baby #2,
Pregnancy
Anthony Jacob
"AJ"
June 24, 20123:06am
5lbs, 14oz
20 inches
We came home from the hospital today, and are doing well as a new family of 4. Stay tuned for Anthony's lightening fast birth story.
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