Clayton's birth - long!

jnk062602

Tonight was crazy, I definitely breathed a sigh of relief once dd went to bed.  DH has basically assumed all care for dd - did her bath and everything without me even asking.  Abby is super crazy - so excited to see me again and smell and lick the new baby.  His hair looks hilarious after she licks it, kinda like all styled crazy.

 

It all started Sunday night - I had contractions all night, but they were 7-15 min apart and not really painful.  Like enough that they were waking me up, but more exciting then hurting.  But I tossed and turned alot so neither dh or i slept much.  They slowed down in the morning.

I went to my appt all excited that maybe I was making some progress - I was 1 cm and 0 station 2 weeks prior.  MY cervix was posterior.  He checked me and said I was 1.5 cm 0 station and my cervix was still really posterior.  The plan was to be induced wed morning and he said that unless my cervix lined up, breaking my water was going to be pretty uncomfortable (since just his exam was pretty uncomfortable).  So I was nervous about that and the pitocin since I didn't have that with dd's induction.

I was still getting contractions, and they were steadily getting more and more painful.  But the time was not getting better - still maybe 7-15 min apart, with most about 12 min apart.  My mom turned the temp down in her hot tub so I told dh he was on bedtime duty for dd and I went over there around 8pm.  Under the full moon haha.  The hot tub helped take some pressure off.

I got home and went to bed around 10pm.  THe contractions were way worse, but still never closer than 10 min apart.  DH finally made me call the on call dr at 11:30pm bc I was not handling them well.  She told me to come in even though I was all "But they aren't 5 min apart!".

We went right to l&d - I didn;t realize that we were supposed to go to triage.  So as we walked in I got a painful contraction, so they let me go to a room.  This is a big deal bc now - if they send me home I will be charged an admission ($250) instead of er visit ($50) which I didn't know about until later.

Resident came at 1am and checked and i was unchanged from the earlier appt.  Which was horrible bc I was like these are so painful, how are they doing nothing?  She said she would check me again in an hour and to walk.  She gave me 2 hours, and at 3am I was still unchanged.  But at that point I hadn't slept in 2 days and they were so painful, and I was going to be paying anyway - so she said she would give me morphine and let me get some rest and they would re-assess in the morning.

I slept on and off and then got in the tub and was handing the contractions a ton better.  Able to breathe thru them instead of crying and yelling.  I don't know how long I was in there, but I was on all 4s to try to make him turn (he was also posterior) and my feet fell asleep haha.

I got checked at 8am and was 7cm - yay!  So glad I stayed huh?   When the dr told me, I thought he was joking.  I was so shocked I started crying and said that I was just hoping for at least 2cm haha.

At that point I got an epi.  It slowed things down, but I was able to sleep a bit more.  At noon I was 10 cm and started pushing.  He was still posterior but turned as I pushed him.  My contractions were still far-ish apart, so I got some break in between.  At one point I felt like I was going to tear and was so upset because of my tears with dd.  The dr thought I was going to tear upwards again, so he gave me an episiotomy.  And along with it - Clayton got his first hair cut in-utero!  He was born at 12:27 - really quick pushing.

I had asked to have him on my chest first for a min before they cut the cord, but as they lifted him, he gripped the cord and it was too short and while they had him hanging there he peed all over haha - so I said I was ok to do whatever with the cord.  DH cut it and they put him on me.  As they were stitching me up he peed again on me.  FInally they weighed him in at 7 pounds 15 ounces and 21.5 inches.  Almost a pound bigger and 1/2 incher than dd was.

He is nursing sooo much better than dd.  I am using a shield on the left side bc it is pretty sore, but at least I am not having to latch him on a hundred times per session like I did with dd.  Once he is on, he is pretty much business.

He is pretty spitty and choking, but they said that is because he came out so fast and didn't have a chance to be squeezed well thru the birth canal.  And that should get better in a few days.

My recovery is so so much better.  Even with the episiotomy - it was first degree with a slight tear that extended to second degree.  But only straight down.  DH even commented tonight about how I couldn't even walk the stairs last time and how now I am going up almost regular speed.  The only thing worse this time is the cramping when nursing.  Holy cow.  I didn't have this with dd but omg it is painful.

DD is pretty good with clayton.  She is kissing him on the head and gentle.  Hasn't really had a chance to get jealous yet, but I'm sure the next week or so we will see that.  I'm hoping she isn't woken up by him tonight, and aren't sure if we will go in if she does wake up or just leave her and hope she gets used to it and goes back to sleep on her own.  I don't want to ignore her, but I don't want to create a bad habit with her either.