Baby UMich! (Super long, w/PIP)

UMichGirl

Let me introduce to you all baby UMich (aka Carter):

 

This was taken right after he was born.  I will give you two versions of my L&D experience...if you're a little apprehensive about L&D, I recommend version 1.

Version 1:  I went into labor around midnight on Monday...lost my mucus plug and started having cramps.  Woke DH up, got our bags, and headed to the hospital.  Got there around 2:30am Tuesday morning and I was checked at 3cm and 90% effaced.  As soon as my check was over, my water broke so there was for sure no going home!  I chose to get the epidural right away and that was a piece of cake.  I was feeling goooooood for quite awhile.  Our parents came in to visit and talk with us around 4 or 5am when they got there and I was super relaxed.  My pain level fluctuated throughout the day and anesthesia had to visit me several times to make some adjustments.  Unfortunately by the time I had to push I was VERY aware of every feeling.  It took about 3 hours of hard core pushing, but little Carter made his appearance at 8:47pm on June 26, 21 inches long, and 9 pounds 1 oz.  

Version 2:  Holy Hell.  Let me start by saying I am not taking any day of this for granted, and I remember every painful thing about going through IF.  I am SUPER thankful that we have a healthy baby boy...but even with that being said...Holy Hell.  All of the above in "Version 1" is true, obviously, but here are some of the details I left out.  My epidural got adjusted a few hours after original placement because I was feeling every contraction from start to finish on my lower right side.  It started getting to the point where even though the contraction was over (DH was watching the monitors) the pain never went away, and it was a 10/10 on the pain scale.  I was in tears clutching on to the side of the bed...so the anesthesiologist also added some other medication to my catheter and again I felt GREAT...for about an hour or two.  Then the right side started to fade out again (even with me flipping sides I was laying on) and I started having HORRRRRRRRIBLE lower back pain.  I was pretty much inconsolable, screw "breathing" through anything or doing any sort of "visualization" like they teach you in childbirth class, and I was just in tears thinking there was NO WAY I could keep going through this.  Not to mention I was only very SLOWLY making progress.  I was at a 3 for most of the day...very defeating.  The anesthesetist was back again and gave me another dose of whatever they had given me before...except this time there was zero relief.  I was HYSTERICAL in pain.  The c-section forms came out, we were signing them "just in case"...they couldn't understand why my pain was so excruciating since they had given me enough drugs to where they could already have done surgery on me if needed.  The doctor said baby was sunny side up and tried twisting him inside me twice (not something I ever want to have done again...OMG...especially since he ended up coming out the right way anyway) with no success.  I eventually got to a 9.5 but was stuck there...however they said when I pushed, that "lip" would go away.  My choices at this point, after being in active labor for 18 hours were that I could either get a new epidural (which would prolong everything but hopefully help my pain--no guarantees though since I was already on so much and feeling everything), get a c-section, or push.  So everyone decided let's just go ahead and push.

I was in pushing mode for about 3 hours...I will skip all the other details here because honestly if I ever want to have another child I need myself to forget about them.  All I'll say is I have never experienced pain like that before in my life...if any newly-laboring moms were going by my birthing room at this time they probably would have gotten up and walked out of the hospital on their own thinking, "I am NOT doing that!" 

Finally baby came out (DH watched the whole thing, although he didn't have much choice with where he was positioned to help me push--he was AMAZING to me throughout the entire day) and to be honest I don't remember much at this point.  I don't even remember if he was placed on my chest or not.  I lost a LOT of blood and eventually needed to get a blood transfusion in the hospital a few days later because I became so anemic.  It took the doctor a very long time to put me back together...I have stitches, my placenta didn't fully deliver so they basically had to scrape out my uterus, etc.  I remember being told baby looked perfect, and no one could believe how big he was when he came out.  I spiked a fever pretty quickly after delivery although you'd never know it because I was shaking uncontrollably--to the point I couldn't talk--and felt freezing cold.  I scared our parents half to death when they came back to see us later on and to meet the baby because of how awful I looked.  I only got to hold Carter for maybe a minute that night total and that was with DH helping hold him because I literally COULDN'T hold him I was shaking so bad.  I felt awful--Here's my brand new baby and I can't hold him and didn't even have the energy to look at him and kiss him and everything like you'd expect to when you meet your baby for the first time.  I was completely incoherent, not making any sense, and we had to send LO to the nursery that night (actually they recommended it)...There was NO WAY either one of us could have taken care of him. 

----Version 1 people, welcome back!  

Anyway, since Tuesday night things have slowly gotten better.  We were released from the hospital Friday afternoon and have our first pediatrician appointment tomorrow morning. Today is his actual due date and I just can't believe he is already five days old!  He is so so so so cute (I know I'm biased) and we love him to pieces!    It's hard to believe I'm sitting here typing this staring at my BABY!  And my amazingly awesome DH, who had zero experience with babies before and was so nervous about all of this, has seriously turned into Mr. Mom.  With me being on so many restrictions with what I can/can't do, he has had to assume pretty much all of the baby-duties up to this point.  (I'm starting to feel better and be more useful.)  It is so awesome to see him with his son!

So yeah, that's it!  If you've made it this far, congratulations! Here's a picture from the in-room photographer that came around: