Reid was born Saturday, Nov. 12 at 9:06 a.m. I woke up at about 3 a.m. for a normal potty break and realized that "real" labor was starting. I woke up Steve and we timed a couple of contractions at 3 minutes apart. We decided to get our stuff together and get to the hospital.
Luckily, Jack was great about being woken up so early in the morning. I don't think he quite realized what was going on until we got to the hospital. The three of us pretty much had the highway to ourselves, so Steve had to set the cruise control to make sure he didn't speed too much. We got to the hospital by 4 a.m. Since we were so early, we got to valet the car and go through the Emergency Room entrance. After just a short wait in the ER waiting room, we were taken upstairs to the labor and delivery room. There, we waited.
My mom and dad (Grandma Sue and Pepere) arrived shortly thereafter, and Pepere took over care for Jack. I think that involved pudding and some adventuring around the hospital, but I was busy so I could be wrong. Steve's mom (Nama) and my sister Cathy and her husband Mike made it in pretty early too. And even my sister Connie and her friend Kim made it before Reid did!
So between 4 a.m. and 9 a.m., I progressed through labor, although sometimes seemingly slowly. Our first major decision was if and when to get the epidural. After a nice discussion with my doctor (who was fantastic about explaining all of my options and what the likely effects would be), Steve and I decided to get the epidural going before the doctor broke my water. As great as the numbing effects of an epidural are, the process of inserting the catheter is still a bit unnerving. Again, I am very grateful for a fantastic and calm anesthesiologist. She explained everything before she did it, and she was very kind and soothing in her bedside manner.
With the epidural flowing, Dr. Stone came in and broke the water. I can't remember what time that was, but I remember it happening and then hanging out and watching contractions on the monitor. It's interesting to be able to sense the pressure of a contraction but not feel the pain. At about 8:30, the nurse came in and checked my progress and said it probably would be within the hour or so that I would be ready to push. She told me to call her if I felt the pressure to push before that. About 20 minutes later, I was feeling it, so we called the nurse back, and she said we were ready. In fact, she said the baby would probably be out in just a couple of pushes! We were very excited.
In the delivery room for the actual delivery were me, Steve, my mom, Steve's mom, Dr. Stone, Joanne (the nurse) and a patient care tech (I don't remember her name, but she was very nice too!). Just like Jack's birth, it was very calm and quiet during delivery (just the way I like it!). I started pushing at about 8:55. After a couple of pushes, Reid's heart started to skip beats. Dr. Stone didn't really let on to the seriousness of the situation, she just had me push again, and that seemed to get him out of distress. On the next push (or maybe it was two) his head came out, and with one final push, Reid had arrived! I could hardly believe it only took 10 minutes of pushing. His cord was wrapped around his neck, which is what caused the distress. But what a great baby! Steve got to cut the cord again, and then they immediately placed him on my chest to say hello.
One of the best parts of Reid's birth was what happened next. Instead of rushing through introducing him to me and Steve and our family and then taking him to the nursery, the staff weighed him and cleaned him up a bit, and then gave him back to me and Steve to hold and begin breastfeeding. I think we stayed together for about an hour before the nurses took him to bathe him and evaluate him. It was a wonderful time. Our family, even Jack, got to come to the L&D room to meet Reid.
Here's a couple of pictures.
1 comment:
The pictures turned out great! I love how it looks like you and Steve planned to wear gray together. However, I doubt that was the case :)
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