Connor's Birth

Well here it is. The nitty gritty of Connor's birth. Even though this is more for my own benefit-I'm happy to share the experience. 

At the appointment the week before Connor was born (my 38 week appt) my doctor announced I was 3cm, 50% effaced and at a station -2. Everything was pointing toward a happy and healthy delivery and since this wasn't my first baby, he would be happy to induce me if I was feeling ready. He advised that just waiting for him to come on his own was probably best, but if I couldn't handle it anymore it would be ok to go ahead. That day I had decided that I would just wait patiently...but even later that day I was thinking, "Man, it would be nice to just have this little guy here." I felt like a donkey with a carrot just out of reach...and now all I wanted was that carrot! Why did you have to dangle it in front of me! So as not to jump to a rash decision we decided to wait over the weekend and see how we felt about it then. 

Monday Morning as I pulled Olivia out of bed I felt a tearing sensation deep in my abdomen. I had to put her down immediately and have Adam get her out. I took it easy for the rest of the morning and informed my doctor. I watched for any movement changes or bleeding-neither of which occurred, so it was likely just a pulled ligament-but that was it. The straw that broke this camel's back. I decided it was time to schedule an induction and called back later that day to do so. 

Our induction was set for Thursday June 6th at 7:30 AM. I was worried. Was Pitocin going to kill? What if I don't progress on the pitocin? What if I move to C-Section? What if he's not ready and has to be on oxygen? I was a mess, going back and forth on my decision right up until the day before when I decided to pray for peace on this decision and it finally came.

Wednesday night Adam and I went out for a "final date", for a while at least.  Since June is a busy month of celebrations and we would likely have to be pretty low key for them all, I thought it would be nice to take Adam out for his Father's Day/Birthday/Anniversary coming up in the next couple weeks. My parents had kindly offered to take Olivia, as we would be in the hospital the next day. This would be her first night away from home without Mom or Dad with her. It would also be her first night in a big girl bed. What a trooper! She did well with both! (She has seriously grown up so fast in the little time we have been separated as Connor came into our lives. Now I get why grandparents always say, "YOU GOT SO BIG!" When you, as a parent think they have remained unchanged.) I digress...

So we went to dinner up at the Cheese Cake Factory, I had the Chicken Bellagio-super yummy and super fattening and a serving for a small army, Adam had his staple of Cajun Pasta. As we left the restaurant we took a few pregnancy photos, as I don't plan on being in that state of largeness for some time. :) We then headed to Nordstrom where they were having a shoe sale (and I only bought 1 pair). We then shuffled over to the Apple Store. I announced "Happy Anni-birth-father-versary!" Adam wanted an ipad mini. He was quite excited when he was able to get a 15% discount off of it as well.

We got home a little later than we would have liked, went through the hospital bags and got everything ready to go up to the hospital in the morning. It was a very sleepless night-the kind of sleep kids get on Christmas Eve. I woke up really early and then called L&D at 6:30 as instructed to see if they would be ready for us at 7:30. Well, it happened to be a very busy night that night and they didn't have any room for elective inductions at that time. We were to call back every 2 hours and see where things were. We decided since we didn't have Olivia and couldn't sleep in we would go out to breakfast at Kneaders. Yum! We ran into two old friends, Derek Matsommori and Tom LaBaron. After breakfast I called my doctor to see if we could get in for a visit just in case I wasn't induced today. They were able to get us in at 10:30 and I had dilated another cm and my cervix was very ripe. He apologized that I wasn't able to get in that morning-but he was also able to tell me that I could get my epidural at the same time as the pitocin. YAY! That is was I was worried about the most, as I had heard they had to wait until the pitocin was starting to cause pain before they could place the epidural. The one thing that had held me back from the whole induction idea was solved! But that made me want to get up in to L&D and have this baby more than ever!

We headed to the Zoo and continued to call every 2 hours, only to be told to call again 2 hours later. We came home and attempted to take a nap...to no avail. We went to Color Me Mine, which did help take my mind off the fact that we didn't have a baby in our arms yet. Adam made this awesome bowl of the galaxy and I made an owl plate. (They both turned out cute). We came home and ate our Cheese Cake Factory leftovers and pittled in the yard pulling weeds and mowing the lawn. 

At 7:30 Adam called up to L&D to see where things were. He had called the last few times as I was just getting discouraged with each call. When the charge nurse picked up it was our friend Adrianne! She was working her one night in L&D for the week. She told us to call back in 2 hours, and my heart sank. I was trying to stay positive, but I had thought I would have a baby by this time for sure. I was a pregnant wreck. 

At 9:00 we called back and were invited to come up at 11pm. WHAT?!?! I didn't believe my ears! Adrianne said just come in and they would have a room ready for us. I started to cry and we put everything in the car. We tried to rest for a little bit, but I couldn't in fear that I would wake up and find out that the phone call was a part of some dream.  So I stayed up watching the news.

At 10:30 we headed out the door and up to the hospital. We checked in to room 2401 and it was about the weirdest thing just walking down the hall into a delivery room, gowning up and climbing up on to the bed. The first time I had barely made it across the hall before doubling over from another contraction and throwing up. 

Carly, our first nurse of the evening came in and got me all set up and started my IV for penicillin right at 11pm. I tried to rest as I was told it would likely be about 3 hours before we started the pitocin. They needed to get two rounds of antibiotics on board before inducing labor. We had a visit from a few other med students and residents. At 3:30am Adrianne came in and started my pitocin and paged the anesthesiologist. The pit was running at 1ml/hr and I couldn't feel anything-but I was anxious about something starting so I was so happy when Seresh, our anesthesiologist, came in. He placed my epidural without any problems at 4:15am. I know some people are super scared of the epidural and if I think about it too hard, I'm scared of it too...but that small little pinch right before they put it in is NOTHING compared to what it blocks. I am all for them. Though everyone's experience is different, with both epidurals I've had I have been able to feel what is going on BUT have no pain associated with it. I can feel that my stomach is contracting but it doesn't hurt. I can feel the baby moving, but again no pain. Whoever said, no pain, no gain, was totally mistaken.

I cozied down in bed, and rested for a bit. My right side, started to feel a little bit of pain with contractions so I shifted and the medication seemed to move across my body and it went away quickly. I watched some of “What to Expect When Expecting” and rested some more inbtween visits from nursing staff and residents.

My mom showed up at about 4:30am. She said that she couldn't sleep very well and thought she might as well come. After realizing that it wasn't going to be too exciting, she went back to our house and took a shower and rested for a bit and then headed back up at about 8:30am

At 5ish a man with a HUGE (seriously an understatement) handlebar mustache came in to check how I was progressing. Casey, or handlebars as Adam continued to refer to him as, said I was at a 6, and about 80% effaced, baby still at a -2 station.

At 5:40 am they came in and broke my water to help things progress.

At 7:00 Adam decided he would go home and shower. He met my mom at the house and she headed up. He took a quick shower, changed and headed back up quickly.

Each labor room has a monitor that shows the contractions of all the rooms. The rest of the floor were having these crazy huge peaks and I had these little blips on the screen. The nurses had to keep coming in and adjusting my monitors, and though they were not overly concerned, they just were not able to keep too consistent of a reading. Even with these semi poor contraction readings, the nurses said I was their easiest patient on the floor tonight. Out of all the rooms, that were almost completely full, I was the only one who opted for a medicated birth. When you went to the bathroom or opened the door you could hear moans and shouting down the hallway. It sounded like a haunted mansion! If not for the interruptions of checks I'm sure I could have just slept this baby out of me. 

At 9am, I was feeling a bit of pressure (no pain) down there. My nurse (Crystal) came in and suggested that since the monitor was still not really keeping a good reading they would place an internal monitor. They would need to check me first and then place it. The resident on the floor came in and explained what the monitor did and as she was doing so I said. "I am totally fine with placing whatever you need to, but I have a feeling that I'm about to have this baby." Sure enough, when she checked me she started to laugh. She said. "Your are fully dilated, and the baby is practically here!" Adam walked around and started to laugh. "Jess! I can see his hair!" Yep. I was right. He was coming. 

We called up Mom and Dad Clayton so they could be there as Connor was born. Lucky timing I guess as it was the typical time that we call them during the day-they didn’t have to wake up in the middle of the night to be a part of things.

Since the epidural was in place, I didn't have the "I HAVE TO PUSH" sensation, but could certainly feel something going on down there. Dr. Sharp was paged and arrived at about 9:30. He gowned up and we talked for a minute and then at 10:00 I pushed. They kept telling me to slow down, so I tried...but he was born a mere 6 minutes later. They placed him on my stomach, and gently wiped him off and then placed him on my chest. He cried immediately after being born but not for long. I thought I would cry, but I didn’t. I was just so completely happy. When Olivia was born there were so many people there in the room to make sure she was ok. This time it was just the nurse, doc, resident, Adam, my mom and of course Mom and Dad Clayton via FaceTime. His Apgar of 9 and 9, I passed him off to Adam and then to grandma and then we attempted some nursing. All the while I was being stitched up…I had just a few superficial tares (which have almost completely healed now 10 days later. YAY!)

My dad came in just a few minutes later and met Connor, and so did breakfast- scrambled eggs, sausage and breakfast potatoes. My favorite part was the juice-cranberry/orange. Can’t get enough of that stuff! We tried some more nursing and he latched with some help quite quickly. I had to stay in L&D a little longer than expected since I was bleeding a little more than they would have liked, however this quickly subsided and we were whisked over to Mother/Baby.

The first 24 hours of Connor’s life were probably the hardest since he didn’t eat much. I know that’s normal, but I was worried about my milk supply (I don’t know why I get so worried, probably because I help all these new mom’s that think they are struggling with milk supply too.) I ended up expressing some colostrum and spoon-feeding him a couple times just to make sure we were getting something started.

We are so happy for the miracle of modern technology that allowed Adam’s parents to participate in Connor’s birth. It’s hard to believe that by the time they see him in real life he will likely be walking.

Even though every mother has told me otherwise, I never thought I would be able to love another little soul as much as I do Olivia, but I do! It’s so hard to explain, I love them both completely and 100% purely. It’s like your heart just grows! I’m so glad our little guy is here. He is a calm and happy baby and makes falling in love with him all the more easy.

The night before Connor

 At the Zoo waiting to be admitted (hopefully) sometime that day 6/6/13

FINALLY admitted! 11pm 6/6/13

 "Daddy Epidural" Aka DP and Oreos :)

 Proof that Mom and Dad Clayton were there.

Holding my little man for the first time!

 Such a tender moment

 Our new little addition

 Love him so much!

 Daddy and Baby

 Less than 15 minutes old

 The happy grandparents

 My delivery team (notice handlebars.) :

 Dad and Dr. Sharp

 Lactation Consultant! (Too bad I can't count this as hours.)

 Happy Grandma

 Getting all cleaned up

 Weight

 Sweet little guy.

 First diaper

 Grandpa and newest Grandchild

 I think having two grandchildren makes them real grandparents this time.

Olivia meeting baby brother for the first time.