Joey's birth story

Hard to believe my little man turned one week old today!  Where has the time gone?


Last Tuesday afternoon, I started having contractions.  This was nothing new considering I'd been in pre-term labor for oh...nearly 6 weeks?  In fact, I'd had them Saturday night, Sunday night AND Monday night - and begun timing them each night.  They always seemed to ease up - but not completely disappear - with a little rest and water.  But on Tuesday night, the contractions didn't subside after rest and drinking water.  In fact, they stayed pretty regular for 5 hours and progressively got closer together.

My doctor said to call if they were 5 minutes apart for over an hour.  They were 5-6 minutes apart for a couple of hours.  (I wanted to be sure, and even then, I still wasn't sure- was this it?)  I called him at 10pm and he said "You better go in.  When did you last eat something?  Because we might be taking care of you later tonight."

Both the hubs and I were excited - but skeptical.  I just didn't want to be sent home again.  But on the other hand, I didn't want my uterus rupturing either.

So I gathered up all my stuff that had been packed for weeks now - and purposely left it all at home.  I didn't want to be the girl hauling in a load that looked like I was moving in, only to have to haul it all right out again a few hours later.

I drove myself to the hospital.  My dear Hubs was on call for work that night and getting paged non-stop.  Plus he needed to stay home with Morgan.  I rationalized that even IF the baby were coming that night or the next morning, they would have to wait at least another 4-6 hours for my stomach to empty before giving me anesthesia.  So I told him he might as well get some rest.

I got to the hospital, got all checked in and hooked up to the monitors.  We waited a few hours.  And what do ya know?  The contractions slowed down.  *$#@*(!!!!!! 

Of course.

I was still having them, but they became irregular and spaced anywhere from 5-8 minutes apart.  After 2 cervical exams revealed NO progress, the nurse told me I would probably be headed home, but she would go call my doctor and see what he wanted to do.  At this point it was 2am.

Just as I'm about to start getting dressed, the nurse comes back in my room and says "Change of plans...he wants to deliver you at 6:30am".

I was surprised and asked "As in 4 and a half hours from now?" with a gigantic smile on my face, I might add.

"Yep" she replied. 

She said he was concerned that I would be right back in within a few hours and that I definitely wouldn't hold out til Friday, my scheduled date.

I was so excited!  I called the Hubs and told him the news.  It dawned on me we needed to line up childcare for Morgan at 2:00 in the morning.  We both tried to reach his mom, who was tentatively set to come stay with Morgan, but she didn't answer.  I decided to wait until about 5am to try her again, thinking she'd be up for work by then.  In the meantime, I knew I'd need to try to get some sleep.

Um, fat chance.  Once they decide to go ahead with surgery, your hospital room becomes Grand Central Station.  The IV needs to be started, consent forms need to be signed, you have to be prepped, everyone and their brother needs to come talk to you (anesthesia, nurse, etc.)  They are pumping fluids and antibiotics into you like no tomorrow -- and let me tell ya -- that doesn't help the whole 9 months pregnant have to pee every 5 minutes aspect of things.  And when you do get up the energy to use the restroom?  You spend 5 minutes unhooking yourself from the monitors, detangling the IV line and making it to the potty.  So....no sleep was had that night.

We finally reached my Mother-In-Law around 5am and she was able to get to our house in time so the Hubs could come be by my side as we brought our sweet son into this world.

Just when I thought I couldn't take the anticipation any longer, at 6:05am, the nurse comes in and tells me we've been delayed; they had to take an emergency c-section before me.  It was then I thanked God that the emergency wasn't me this time; that I was having a HEALTHY baby and this whole ride should be textbook from here on out.  What was another hour to wait?  So I did what any other sensible and vain woman would do....I went into the bathroom with my makeup bag to kill some time, ha!

And then.....FINALLY, the time had come. 

It was a lighthearted environment in the OR.  Music playing.  We were all joking around.  When they did the final timeout, they asked me one last time my name, date of birth, and what I was having done.  Like a contestant on a gameshow, I gave my info and hollered out "I'm here so you can liberate this baby!" with way too much enthusiasm ; )

And so here are the pics my Hubs captured.  He apologized, saying he wasn't sure he got any good ones (he's not one to hit the "review" button and critique them like I am)....but I tell him every day what a great job he did.

Just waiting to hear that first scream....and to find out if I have another daughter?  Or a son??

Within minutes, they pulled out our screaming son. And boy, was he angry at being disturbed from his cozy womb!! He screamed and cried - all good things. My sweet Hubs took some great photos. They cleaned Baby Boy up and let Hubs hold him for a while while they put me back together.

It's a BOY!

Meeting Mommy for the first time

I went to a recovery area - with my new baby on my chest and my husband by my side for a couple of hours. It was supposed to be 2 hours, but they kept me 4 because of my blood pressure. I finally got transferred to a post-partum room where we stayed the next 4 days.

Skin to skin time as we headed back to the recovery area

We noticed early on that from the beginning, Joey was grunting.  Not in a respiratory distress kind of way -- he seemed very comfortable.  It was more like a whining grunt or a coo...at any rate, the doctors just wanted to be safe and keep an eye on him, so they kept him in the special care nursery for the first 24 hours.  But they brought him to me for breastfeeding and this allowed me to get a little rest in between.  After 24 hours, the grunting disappeared.  They said it's common in c-section babies because their chests don't get squeezed coming through the birth canal like v-birthed babies do.  I was just happy he was healthy and able to stay the rest of the time with me.

And that is the story of how our sweet little Joey came into this world.  I couldn't have asked for a better delivery experience!