Welcome Baby Toh-Toh!

As many of you know I had some “false” labor on Sunday night/Monday morning, and we spent most of the night at the hospital. I was really frustrated that the contractions stopped on Monday. (My mom & Courtney had driven the 4 hours in the middle of the night to be here to watch Big Brother). Contractions picked up again Monday night, but this time my water broke at about 11: 15 p.m. (PST), so we got ready and headed to the hospital. They checked me and I was still only 3 c.m. and 80% effaced. I continued to have contractions through the night, but I guess they (the nurses & doctor) weren’t too impressed with them because I “didn’t seem too uncomfortable.”

At 7:30 a.m., after Allen arrived (my mom was with me b/c I wanted Allen to get some sleep at home), they told me to go walk around for 45 minutes. I was fine with that because I didn’t want to be strapped to the bed. But I was also upset because they were already talking about giving me pitocin without even checking me to see if I had made any progress! I know this was partly due to the fact that I was GBS+ and my water was broken, but sheesh—at least wait until I’m showing some signs of infection or something! (And my water had only been broken for about 8 hours at that point). I was adamant against having pitocin because of it being a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean), so I was ready to put up a fight after my walk.

After walking around for a while, we got back to our room (8:30 a.m.), and my contractions immediately started hurting A LOT more. I was at 5 c.m. at this point. After two or three of these “new” contractions, I was ready to give up my goal of an unmedicated birth, and asked for the epidural—Bawling at the same time because I was convinced this is why I ended up with a c-section with Mooch Man (pushed for 3 hours w/no progress). I was given some Nubain to take the edge off, but all it really did was make me feel extremely tired & like the room was spinning. Then the nurse informed me that the anesthesiologist had to go to an emergency c-section, so I would have to wait. (I wasn’t too happy about this). She gave me some Stadol (I think) to help until they could give me the epidural, and turned me on my side b/c the baby’s heart was dropping. The Stadol didn't do much either.

Literally, on the next contraction my body started to involuntarily push. I told the nurse I was pushing, and that I couldn’t stop. She checked me, and I was at 8-9 c.m. On the next contraction, I told them that the baby was coming. I was at 10 c.m.! The nurse yelled down the hall for the doctor, and she came running over from the clinic across the street. Little Brother was born at 9:49 a.m. after 4 minutes of “active” pushing! (7 minutes total pushing time). He weighed 6 lbs 13 oz, and is 19 ¼ inches long. He had the cord wrapped around his neck once, but had apgars of 8 & 9. The doctor did end up doing an episiotomy (I think b/c they were concerned about his heartrate and wanted him to out quickly), but it's still a lot better healing than my c-section.

The whole thing felt like a dream (mostly because I was extremely tired & dizzy from the drugs). I remember hearing everything and feeling everything, but I felt like I was apart from my body. I still can’t believe I went from 5 c.m. to complete in about an hour, and that I only pushed for 4-7 minutes (especially after pushing for 3 hours with Mooch)! I also can’t believe I had one of those labors where they were yelling down the hall for the doctor. LOL I thought that only happened on TV. ;)

We are just thrilled to have our little man. He looks just like my dad & grandpa, which is fitting because he and my dad share a middle name. Mooch likes to look at the baby and say “bibi” and get’s very concerned when he cries. No jealousy issues yet, but I’m sure they’ll show up soon.