On Dec. 10, 2014 I had a Dr. appointment in the morning. My Dr asked if I wanted her to strip my membranes and I said sure (this little man was running out of space!). Once she got in there she realized that she couldn't do it without risking breaking my water bag because it was very thin and we were in a carpeted room (she didn't want to get in trouble with the office manager ha ha ha). So that didn't happen but she did tell me I was progressing! 4+ cm dilated and 70% effaced- but with Michelle I was at a 3 for 3 weeks so I wasn't expecting anything from it. The other thing my Dr suggested was to go buy some Sudafed D because Sunday I had woken up with a cold and it wasn't getting any better. Breathing is an important part of labor believe it or not.
After my Dr appointment I had to go pick up Michelle who was at my friend Sally's house. Her daughter also happens to be Michelle's best friend which works out nicely ;) Not being able to breath from being sick and being 9 months pregnant was kinda kicking my fanny and she could tell I was ready to have this baby (although I really wish I hadn't been sick when he was born). Sally joked that he still might be born today, I laughed at her and then went home to get Michelle some lunch and lay down for a while. When I got home I started having contractions but they weren't anything intense or worth timing (in my book anyways). The night before I had had braxton hicks for about 2 hrs that were fairly consistent so I wasn't taking much stock in them. Once I laid down while Michelle took a nap they stopped.
Somewhere around 2 or 2:30 they started back up again only they drinking water and laying down did nothing. I for some reason continued in denial and made a double batch of homemade mac n' cheese (so that we could have one to freeze and one for dinner)... even though I had to occasionally stop what I was doing in order to breath... I'm really good at this denial thing. By this time I was getting antsy for Joe to be home even though I wasn't sure it was the real deal. Finally 3 pm rolled around (school gets out) and I texted Joe asking when he was planning on coming home. He said he would leave around 4 meaning he would get home around 4:30. I reluctantly said OK... then about 5 min later I texted him again and said that I lied and that was not going to be ok. But he still had to make a couple stops on the way home- one of which being to buy me the aforementioned Sudafed D.
By the time Joe got home I had been timing my contractions for about an hour and they were being fairly consistent lasting about 30 sec. every 4-5 min. And yet I still wasn't 100% convinced (sound familiar to Michelle's birth story?). I still told Joe that we should start grabbing our last minute things for our bags just in case.
Then the contractions quickly became every 2-3 minutes and I was able to think coherently enough this time to realize that we should probably go to the hospital... and Joe was telling me the same thing. At that point I just kinda stopped timing the contractions because there wasn't much point, I was clearly in labor. We dropped Michelle off at Joe's cousin's house with his wonderful wife Laura and went to the hospital. On the drive to the hospital I was joking with Joe what a different experience it was being able to see this time since when we went to the hospital with Michelle I was in transition and couldn't open my eyes because I was so focused on dealing with contractions.
We got to the hospital about 5 pm and got checked in. Triage wasn't so torturous this time because well, I wasn't in transition yet. Amazing the difference that makes. When they checked me I was at a 5.5 cm so I was obviously progressing since that morning. They decided to admit me but still had to get their 20 ish minutes of monitoring the baby in before I could move to a labor and delivery room. The contractions started getting more and more intense (duh) and laying there for monitoring was not my favorite. During that time another nurse popped her head in and said that the doctor on call from my Dr. office wanted me to try walking for an hour or so. At this point I turned to Joe and made it very clear that that would NOT be happening. The triage nurse said she would go update the doctor on my progress. When she came back in the only walking I had to do was to the delivery room- which felt like plenty.
Pretty soon they had me hooked up to the IV (in my hand because I like to be difficult) and I got the mandatory fluids before an epidural. At about 6:30 I got my epidural from a lovely man named Bob. When in labor I tend to think that anesthesiologists are lovely people... The process of getting it was pretty much the same as the spinal I got with Michelle but of course the effects were different. Although I of course didn't get the total numbing I got with the spinal it was still lovely. The funny part was that when I was about to get my epidural done my friend Sally texted and asked if he was staying in today- nope! she had predicted correctly after all!
A little after 7 (we think... the time wasn't really on my mind at the moment) the doctor broke my water (which I had thought might actually break on it's own this time but didn't) and after 10- 15 ish minutes of pushing he was here. His face was a little bruised but still adorable :)
This little man weighed 8lbs 3.4 oz (for reference Michelle was 8 lbs 2.5 oz, I grow big babies and then I feed them cream) and was 20 in long
For some reason his ear was all squished. We found it quite funny. It stayed that way for several days and is still kind of pointy. Since he is our December baby we decided it is his little elf ear (although I'm sure it won't stay)
Behold the cuteness
I love how his hair looks red here- when it is freshly washed you can really see the red to it but mostly it just looks brown
Michelle was so excited to get to meet baby brother (she was ready to just play a few minutes later but that was to be expected ;)
Some of you may remember that Michelle had pretty bad jaundice that kept us in the hospital for 6 days and then we still went home with a billi blanket. It was no fun and stressful- not being able to hold your baby is NO fun! We were concerned that this little man was going to get it too and really he was a perfect candidate, different blood type than Mama AND he got bruised during delivery but we were blessed and his levels stayed low enough that his body was able to handle it without intervention. You better believe I was ready to break out of there! (and very relieved when his levels were still ok range at his checkup a few days later)
Oh right his name ;)
We decided to name him
Levi Alexander Bidwell
Maybe I will write about it one day, or maybe I will sleep......
