Since it's a new year, I decided I am going to start a blog as a way to keep a journal. I haven't written much in my regular journal about our baby William. He is one month old today. He has grown SO much! The first picture is the day we left the hospital. The next is today at one month. I haven't written down his full birth story yet, so I'll do that now.
It started on Thursday, November 30th. I had an appointment earlier that day and I still wasn't dilated at all. Dr. Tutt did some tests to make sure it was ok for me to keep waiting since I was 41 weeks at this point. He said my placenta was looking pretty old, but the baby was doing well and everything looked fine. He said I could keep waiting. I would either be induced on Sunday, or I could wait until Monday and go into the hospital for more tests to see if I was fine to keep waiting. I opted to be induced on Sunday morning. But I hoped I'd go into labor before then.
Well I started having contractions at around 11:00 pm. I kept track of them because I had some false labor for two hours the Sunday morning before. Well, my contractions lasted all night until about 7:00 am. They had started getting closer and stronger. They were about 7 minutes apart and then suddenly they started getting further apart. And then they stopped and started happening every 45-60 minutes instead. I was so mad because the contractions were starting to be a little painful/uncomfortable and I was up all night and got no sleep! I had random contractions throughout the day randomly. My mom invited us over that night to help work on putting some Christmas lights on trees. We picked up some Rosa's Mexican food on our way. Right before we left to get the food, I started getting painful and consistent contractions again at about 5:30. They weren't too painful yet and were about 8 minutes apart. We got to my parents and ate. Then we worked on the trees. When we were doing the trees, my contractions started getting a little closer together and they were stronger. We played games after and I had to get up during my contractions because they were getting a lot stronger. They were about 5-6 minutes apart. Finally they started getting a lot more painful and I couldn't concentrate on a game any more.
We finally went home to get things ready to go to the hospital. They kept going and I had to pause every few minutes for contractions to pass while we gathered stuff. At this point, they were about every 4 minutes apart. We got everything ready and headed out to the hospital at around 10:00 pm. I started freaking out on the way to the hospital because the contractions starting getting further apart. I did NOT want this to be false labor again or I would probably cry because it was exhausting and painful. I only had two contractions during the 15 minutes drive to the hospital. When we got to the hospital, I got out of the car and immediately had another contraction. That helped ease my mind a little bit. We went to check in and I had a few contractions during that as well. The lady could tell I was in active labor so she sped things up a bit and got me into triage to get changed into a hospital gown and get checked. I was so nervous because I wanted it to be real labor so badly and I didn't want to be sent home! The nurse checked me and told me I was a tight 4! Yay! I was staying! She asked me some questions and monitored my contractions for a bit before they moved me into a labor and delivery room.
My nurse, Marnee, was great! She was super nice and wasn't pushy at all. I had taken a HypnoBirthing class, so I planned to go unmedicated for the birth. Austin was a champ and stayed calm and helped me try to stay calm during everything. I had some pretty bad back labor, which wasn't fun or comfortable. Austin helped me remember to breathe through my contractions. When I did that, it helped a lot with managing the pain. I was progressing pretty well. I was dilating about 1 cm or more each hour. At about 1:00 or 2:00 am I had reached an 8! I was so excited! The nurse called my doctor (Dr. Tutt) because she foresaw me having the baby pretty soon at the rate I was going. Before Dr. Tutt got there, I started having a lot more pain. I also started having some pressure down there. But. I wasn't progressing anymore. I kept having the nurse check me because I felt like I was needing to push, but I was stuck at an 8. When Dr. Tutt got there, I was still at an 8 and they said the baby's head was tilted at an angle that was making it stuck and my cervix was swelling. The baby's heart rate was also dropping as I had contractions. Dr. Tutt and the nurse had me try getting in different positions to try and have the baby move positions. I tried for an hour and nothing changed. Then they suggested giving me an epidural to try and relax my body to see if the baby would move positions. Even though I wanted to go unmedicated, I was ok with it at this point. The pain had gotten intense in my lower back, and I was stuck at an 8 for 3 hours. So I got the epidural and things still didn't change. The next step was a C-section. I was not anticipating this, but Dr. Tutt said the baby wasn't moving, his heart rate was dropping, and my cervix was swelling. So at 5:30, I went in for a C-section. The baby was born at 5:44 am, Saturday, December 2, 2017. He weighed 8 pounds and 6 ounces and was 21 inches long. He was perfect! So, from start to finish, I was in labor for about 12 hours. Austin said when Dr. Tutt cut me open, he said there's no way the baby would've come out on his own. The nurse said if the baby's head hadn't been in the wrong position and gotten stuck, I probably would've had that baby by 4:00 am. I was pretty bummed that I had to have a C-section since I had gotten so far unmedicated. But I felt at peace with everything. Dr. Tutt said I should be able to have a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) for my next baby, which is promising. All the nurses were telling me they heard I was a champ during labor and that I did so well. I've never seen anyone in labor, so I don't know what to compare it to, but I was pretty proud of myself for going 11.5 hours before having to get the epidural and C-section. I hope to deliver vaginally and unmedicated with my next baby.
Anyway, on to the baby. It took us a day to finally come up with a name. Before he was born, we both kind of liked the name Jackson. However, once he was born, we did not think he looked like a Jackson. We finally decided on the name William (Austin's middle name and a family name for both of us) Jefferson (Austin's great grandpa's middle name and a family name for me too) Hayden. He is definitely a William Jefferson. He is so sweet and so cute! We absolutely adore him, even when he is fussy and crying haha. It took a while for William and I to figure out breast feeding, and William ended up losing quite a bit of weight in the hospital. He left weighing 7 lbs 5 oz. It worried me quite a bit and I felt so guilty. The first night home from the hospital, Austin went to the store and picked up some formula. I felt like I wasn't producing enough milk because William was acting starving, even after sucking for a while. We went to the pediatrician the next day (Wednesday the 6th) and he weighed the same as when he left the hospital. I was glad he at least hadn't lost more weight.
William and I are getting a better hang of breastfeeding. And he is growing SO much! He had his one month appointment last Wednesday, November 27th, and he weighed 9 lbs 14 oz and was 22.75 inches long! He is starting to smile more and recognizes our voices. He is such a cutie and such a sweet boy.
Oh yeah, Austin had surgery on his meniscus on December 14th. He's healing well and had his first physical therapy appointment this morning. The physical therapist told him he should be able to start running in about 3-6 weeks, which is great news!
I'm still healing from my C-section, but it's going pretty well I think. Hopefully I can start running again before not too long.
