I had my 36.4 week appointment on Monday and my doctor checked me and told me I was 3cm dilated and 50% effaced, on my way to labor but she didn't think it would happen any time soon. I went on with life, worked both Monday and Tuesday nights with no problems. Tuesday night's sleep was coming and going and I was up and down to the bathroom. Finally around 5am I had noticed that something was unusual about the shear amount of times I was going to the bathroom. I eventually woke Brad up around 6 and told him what was going on. I got up from being in bed and I felt like I pee'd my pants. Brad got in the shower and I paced in the bathroom while he showered. Then the contractions started coming. They were bareable at first but then they got more intense. We decided, after texting my sister in law kaley and my friend debbie, that it was time to pack a quick bag and drive into town to go to the hospital.
I had suggested to Brad before we left for the hospital, to grab the base and car seat just incase we have our 3rd family member join us today. He said, that he didn’t think we would be at the hospital for too long or he could always come back to the house and get it.
The ride to the hospital was the longest ride into town I’ve ever had. The contractions kept coming and I tried my best to breath through them. We made it to the family birth center, got checked in and went to triage to get all set up. It was then that I was checked again to see how dilated I was and much to our surprise, I was 7 cm dilated and they told us we were having a baby today!! Ready. Set. We are parents! My contractions kept coming and with even more intensity so I was eager to get an epidural as soon as I could. Brad shared with me later that it was a good thing I didn’t see how big the needle was because it would have really freaked me out. He also shared with me that watching me get the epidural was one of the hardest parts of Wednesday for him. It was difficult to work through the contractions and stay still so the anesthesiologist could properly stick me and not screw things up.
Once I had the epidural and it took effect, I was feeling much better and didn’t have to concentrate so much on breathing through the pain. We waited for a birth suite to be available for a few hours while we also waited for further dilation. Once we moved into the birth suite, we got settled and I got checked again and we discovered that I was 8cm dilated. Well on our way to meeting our son. About an hour later I was checked again and I was 9 1/2 but I needed to be 10 to start pushing. The doctor came in and said good job, you can start pushing and then the doctor left again. I pushed with our nurse, Mina, and Brad for about a half hour when the doctor came in again to check my progress. I pushed with the doctor for about 10 minutes and she thought that I might need a C-section. Owen’s head was turned in the birth canal and I was running a fever, which caused his blood pressure to drop significantly. At that point, the epidural was turned off so I could start feeling the contractions and push through them. I pushed him into the birth canal where he was facing towards my right, slightly stuck and the doctor didn’t think I could give birth naturally and when she said “If we don’t make any sort of progress and we can’t get him, you will need a C-section!” I made up my mind real quick that I wasn’t going to have a C-section so she got the vacuum out and we tried that several times. I pushed really good. We tried with two really good contractions to get him out with the vacuum and on the 3rd attempt, she pulled Owen out and he was stuck. At that point, I was awarded with an episiotomy to help get him out and one push later, we had a son!! Owen was born with a slight cone head because of the vacuum, which also caused some red blood cells to hemorrhage in the back of his head. This will come into play later in his already short life.
They cleaned Owen off a little and handed him to me to put on my chest. After a quick minute of looking at how perfect he is, Brad cut the cord and helped the staff clean him off. Owen was weighed and measured and he was a perfect 8 pounds, 6 ounces and 18 ½ inches long. The NICU staff was in the room as well because technically he was a premature birth. The next day I would have been considered full term at 37 weeks. We had the biggest premie ever!
Brad and I were ecstatic to tell family and friends that our son had entered the world and was perfect!
Over the next few hours Brad’s parents showed up, as they were still planning to come out and spend a few days with us before Owen decided to make his debut 3 weeks early. My mother was on her way and showed up late Wednesday night.
We didn’t get much sleep on Wednesday night between feedings and the night nurse coming to check on us. Brad got a few solid hours and I was only able to get maybe 45 minutes that night. Thursday morning was a whirlwind of visitors and doctors coming in. A newborn photographer came in and got some great shots of Owen. At 24 hours of age Owen went through a series of blood tests to make sure everything was okay with him. The results told us that his bilirubin levels were elevated and they thought that because he had to be suctioned out, that didn’t help the cause. Everyone has levels of Bilirubin, but newborns can’t properly break down the red blood cells and it often causes Jaundice. Thursday night, after 24 hours of life, Owen had to sleep under some ultraviolet lights to help get rid of his high bilirubin levels. Friday morning they took a blood test to see where his levels were and they were low enough for us to take him home!
We were able to spend one night at home and get a routine started. We had a follow up appointment the next morning to make sure his levels didn’t go up over night and to check his weight as well. We received bad news that afternoon that Owen’s levels had sky rocketed and we needed to get back to the family birth center so he could spend another night having phototherapy. So back to the hospital we went to spend the night under ultraviolet lights.
Owen spent his Saturday night under the lights and had a blood test in the morning to check his levels. We didn’t receive good news on Sunday morning, as his levels had only decreased from 17 to 14 and the doctors wanted his levels to be below 11 to go home. So we had earned ourselves another night in the hospital, and owen under the lights. I had a hard time dealing with this news, as I just wanted to take my baby boy home and start a good routine with him. We had no other choice so we just had to think positive and make sure he stayed under the lights. On top of having to lay under the lights, Owen had also lost a significant amount of weight since he was born on Wednesday. Owen’s birth weight was eight pounds, six ounces and at his appointment on Saturday he weighed seven pounds, two ounces. Every newborn loses weight, but he had lost too much for comfort. With that said, Sunday was spent dedicated to plumping up our little boy with breast milk and supplementing with formula, much to our dismay. We were discharged from the hospital a second time on Monday afternoon and were able to come home! Oh what a relief. We had a follow up appointment with our pediatrician on Wednesday to check his weight and his bilirubin level again, to make sure he didn’t rebound. Wednesday he had only gained an ounce, which is still a gain but we need him to gain more!
I think it will be a constant struggle, at least for the next few weeks, for Owen to gain weight and get a good handle on life!
In the mean time, we are enjoying our little boy, even through the sleepless nights and poopy diapers. Seeing him smile (or have a gas pain) has made it all worth it.
It’s hard to believe how much we love this little person . . . .
