He is here!

So here is my labor story...

On 11/19 my midwife stripped my membranes and scheduled an induction for 11/21 at ten pm. That evening I had cramping at irregular intervals and tons of bloody show... Both of which my midwife had warned me i would get from her stripping my membranes. So I went to bed, figuring that if the cramping got worse or came at regular intervals then i would call L&D or go in. The next day i woke up without the cramping..gradually it came back, but it wasnt very painful at all.. ive had menstrual cramps that were worse... I had difficulty trying to time them and they felt nothing like when i was in labor with Aurora.. John was texting me while he was at work and eventually talked me into calling labor and delivery. They said to time them for an hour, see if they got worse and call them. So i went for a walk and tried to time them, but still had issues..though I had some that got more painful and moree contraction like. My friend nikki told me to just call them back and go in...because maybe if i do it that way then i will be in a labor room for more than just the pushing this time...

So John comes home from work early and I call Labor and Delivery.. They tell me to come in and get checked, see if my cervix has changed. It had been 4-5cm on the prior day. I go in..they get me into a triage room and hook me up to a machine.. I was having minor contractions occasionally that i couldnt even feel...And at that point the cramping i could feel had gone away again. The midwife on call was very busy and they couldnt check me right away. So the nurse went ahead and checked me and said she though i was 4... So i figured..we are gonna go home...So they had me walk around for an hour...and that just caused me to have back pain..lol.. and so we went back to our room after an hour..tired..and waited yet again to be seen by the midwife.. this time eager for them to come in and tell us we could go home. We were tired, we knew i wasnt in active labor, and we missed our daughter...

Well finally at a few minutes before seven the midwife on call came in. She checked me..and said..I was definitely a five..water bag poking out... i wasnt really contracting...but she said that his heart rate made some occasional dips, but he was doing fine..and then she checked my stomach to guesstimate his size..she said the size, coupled with the minor dips in heart rate, and that i was already five cm...was my "ticket in"..that she was off at seven, but the next midwife coming on would decide what we were going to do from there and whether or not she would pass me off to the Ob's due to the babys large size.

So we sat in our triage room, walked a bit..and waited to be moved to a labor and delivery room. The next midwife came in and me us...and told us that she would like to break my water once we got into the labor and delivery room. So we waited and waited and waited..took them forever to get us into a delivery room...and around ten pm I actually started contracting on my own...they werent too bad so i just breathed through them. They finally moved us and we me with our nurse..who was actually one of the people there at my daughters delivery! Sadly though she was off about half an hour later..

The labor room was nice..it was so nice to have a real labor experience...getting into a room when i can still get a chance to look around...last time i got wheeled into the room, pushed, and had a baby..that was it..no real laboring going on in there.. So then we waited about an hour and the midwife came from a delivery, she checked me and amazingly i was already 6-7cm, plus fully effaced, and then broke my water, at eight minutes past midnight. That was an odd sensation...I never got to feel my water break with Aurora... They cleaned me up and then I sat up again and I had another huge gush of warm clear amniotic fluid..so they cleaned me up again. I breathed through the first few contractions, but then just decided to get a shot of neubaine....That worked out well because the contractions immediately came on fast and strong..The neubaine took the edge off and gave me a chance to relax for a few moments in between the peak of each contraction and then i would breathe through the contraction..they were painful, but I knew delivery couldnt be very far off.

John fell asleep, my mom came and sat there..the nurse told me to call her when i felt the urge to push..So I was in between contractions and i felt this sharp pain..literally made me sit up in bed and i started to think..maybe i was ready to push..so on the next contraction i noticed that i was already pushing a little as it was. So my mom called the nurse for me and told her.. She came in with the midwife.. They checked me again..and yep.. head was plus 2 station, i was nine and a half cm dilated...and ready to go. So they got all their stuff ready.. woke john up..lol..who was very confused because he fell asleep right after they broke my water..and here..a little over an hour and a half later I was getting ready to deliver. This time i wanted to know for sure how long i pushed..so i glanced at the clock..it was right around one fifty...

Then we started the pushing.... I think all together i pushed around five times or so...ten seconds each..and OMG did it hurt.. I felt everything..which wasnt a bad thing..but he did hurt a heck of a lot more than aurora! She stopped me for a second to wiggle her fingers around his head..that hurt.. Out came his head..then his shoulders...which they were concerned about because Aurora had gotten caught on my pelvic bone.. Then the rest of him... He was born at 1:53pm..so it took about three to five minutes to push him out...He came straight to my stomach... They sucked his throat, cleaned him off..he was grasping my finger hard! Tried to breastfeed, but he was slippery and so were my hands. So i let them take him for measurements and to clean him off.. His apgars at birth and a few minutes later were nine and nine....He was crying a lot...

Then they weighed him..and to my amazement..he was ten pounds!!!! He didnt look it to me, but the scale doesnt lie... He was 20 1/2 inches long...While they did all the measurements the midwife did the afterbirth and stitches.. i had a minor first degree tear... two stitches..then they brought him in his diaper back over to me..we attempted to breastfeed again, he was having a tad bit of trouble but with the help of the midwife we got him on... He fed for like twenty minutes... Then they wrapped him up and handed him off to john... Then i got all cleaned up and we got ready to be moved to the postpartum floor. Baby John would cry and then be soothed and then cry a bit.. So we got all situated in the wheelchair and I was holding him and i started humming to him and he was just silent as could be, content to listen to me hum to him. The nurse wheeled us out to this picture frame on the wall with a doorbell in it...and then took a picture of me pressing it...and it played a lullaby throughout the entire hospital...we never got to do that with aurora..then she took another two pics of us as by the frame. Then off to the postpartum floor we went!

The postpartum floor was great..they did pretty much all of his testing in the room with us..His blood sugar was doing great...sixty at birth...fifty one a little later on..and then went up to seventy five even later..He has been breastfeeding like a champ..he cluster fed after he was born then went quite awhile without feeding again..and then i got in the shower came out and he was wide awake and ready to feed...he fed and then went awhile without feeding again and fed..The lactation consultant said not to worry about feeding him every three hours until he was at least 24hours old. He pooped and peed in the first day..so he was doing great..The second day he woke up pretty much on his own every three hours to feed. He has done great at latching and feeding... most of the time feeding for twenty minutes or more..Its a little painful at first and then after a few minutes the pain goes away..The only big thing is that the breastfeeding does bring on uterine cramps, as it should, and those are quite painful. They have me taking Motrin for it.

Aurora came by for a few moments on the first day to see him, but she was very out of sorts..She missed us horribly while we were gone and we missed her. John was really a mess without her..and we just couldnt wait to be home. My dad told us she was looking for me in the morning when she woke up, at night she would hold our wedding picture and point to us...and say ma ma ma ma ma ma.. and then i called that night and he let me talk to her..and she actually talked a bit with me on the phone, but once i said bye bye she started crying. :( It was really hard. My mom watched her the second night and kept her entertained for most of the second day... We came home around two pm..and my mom got pics of the happy reunion!

Aurora came running out of the hall baby gate and straight into my arms..huge smile.. She met baby john, took his little bulb and tried to suck his nose..lol..and then sucked her babys nose..she was being a good little mommy..Then she patted him and gave him a kiss..she seems to be quite taken with her baby brother! Mom watched baby john for a few minutes so we could take aurora outside and play and have a very minor walk in her push car.. Came back..Mom left..Got things in order...John and Aurora left to go grocery shopping. When they were leaving Aurora wanted me to come and said I had to stay with her brother..and she walked over to her baby dolls stroller and smiled and pointed in it..lol..she wanted me to put her baby brother in it and he could come with.

They left and I fed baby john and got comfortable in the house.. Aurora and John came back..and things have been pretty easy going...the house was a mess, but we have been slowly picking it up..Aurora likes try and pat her baby brother..and if you ask her where her baby brother is she will gladly show him off to you. I hope that she continues to be as happy with him. Although she does become quite upset when he cries..she does not like him crying... and we kinda knew this was going to happen. She has a baby doll that makes sounds and if it crys she will cry...So we are just trying to explain to her that he doesnt like nap time either or diaper changing time either..

But anyways..we are home..yay! And i hear a little someone waking up right now..getting close to time for him to feed again. Hopefully breastfeeding continues to work out. He did lose a few ounces in his first day at the hospital..went from ten pounds to nine pounds ten ounces..but they said that was normal..they checked his bilirubin before we left and that was fine. He has a check up on Monday, but it isnt with his normal pedi who will be out that day..which im kinda sad about, but oh well..

Ill post tons of pics later!