Wow - he's a week old! We can hardly believe it. We are adjusting to our new little guy and trying to learn him and his quirks as fast as we can. He is adjusting to life outside the womb and we *hope* we made a turn for the better last night. Wednesday and Thursday were two of the hardest days I have ever had since being married to Jeremy! Ollie was fussing every hour, on the hour, and nothing we were doing was helping. He would fall asleep and then we'd lay him down and he'd be up 10 minutes later. This repeated itself all night on Wednesday. He ate every hour on the hour from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. I have never felt exhaustion like this before in my life! After calling about three different friends and my sister, we started to make some changes late yesterday afternoon. He is being kept up after feedings (he likes to fall asleep on me) so he can start learning what is 'awake time' and what is 'asleep time.' He also finally passed his first breastfed poop - it had been over 36 hours since he had had a bowel movement. So now we get to last night and I'm dreading the worst. At this point I have had a total of 2 hours sleep in 2 days and here we go again with the night. Boy did he surprise us! He fed at 11:15, slept until 3:30 and fed then, and then slept again until 7:45 and fed then. And he then had his 'awake time' this morning - we sang Father Abraham and had some tummy time and now he's sleeping again! It's 10 a.m.! So we finally may have a system going here. And I cannot tell you how great sleeping for 3 solid hours was. SO GOOD.
Below is the birth story. It's long so skim over it if you want to or just ignore it all together! The online board I post on has a spot for birth stories so I just copied and pasted from there.
Went in Friday morning to be induced with Cytotec at 6 a.m. I was given the first 1/4 pill vaginally at 6:50 a.m. Contractions started right away, but were definitely manageable, but were different from the ones I was always having at home. Got another pill at 9:30 a.m. and contractions became stronger. I started using the lamaze breathing and was making it through them okay. 11:30 came the third and final dose. The contractions were pretty strong at this point but still quite manageable. Took a shower with Jeremy at this point, which helped so much! I loved the warm water - that really felt great and made the contractions easier to get through. After the shower (1:30) I laid down in bed for the doctor to check me. I was 3 cm and 100% effaced so he broke my water. I didn't feel that at all but wow did the contractions start coming then. We did different positions, sat on the birthing ball for a long time, tried everything. I wanted to try to get on all fours on the bed and try that, but in the process of doing that I got hit with the worst contraction yet and this sudden urge to push. And I HAD to push. Then came the sudden urge to vomit - and I did...more than once? I don't remember. Both of these were signs we were nearing the end...transition phase. The nurse freaked out, told me to lie down so she could check me. She said she thought I was complete and started running around the room to get it set up. She checks me one more time before getting the doctor only to realize that my cervix is paper thin, and she missed the lip between my cervix and Oliver's head. (He was right there). I was actually only 5 cm but baby was at +1, making me feel as though I had to push. OH MY. I had to push NOW. Well you can't she said. I breathed through those contractions for about an hour and a half. I started to hyperventilate and my legs and arms went completely numb. I begged the nurse to check me because I HAD to push. The doctor came to check and I was STILL 5 cm. I was stalling at 5 cm! So I asked for Nubane. She gave it right away and it took the edge off, but the urge to push never stopped. (It also made me dream of men's suit coats inbetween contractions - very weird stuff.) I made it through another hour of not pushing, and asked to be checked again because at this point I was pushing involuntarily. STILL 5 cm. I broke down and said I CAN'T DO THIS!! After 9 hours of trying to go natural, I got the epidural. HEAVEN. That's all I will say about that. About an hour and a half later, I started feeling a contraction in my bottom, so she checked and I was complete! FINALLY! (I am beyond exhaustion at this point because I couldn't sleep the night before - got 2 hours total). So I started pushing at 6:30 - couldn't feel a thing and resulted, in my opinion, in an hour of ineffective pushing that resulted in only mere exhaustion. The epi has its advantages and this was not one of them. Epi was turned off at 7:15 and made for another hour of decent pushing. By 8:30 the epi has worn off completely and I am feeling everything, pushing effectively, but beyond exhaustion and no longer talking, eyes rolling in the back of my head, oxygen on, and baby's heart decelerating with every contraction (towards the end sometimes down into the 20s or lower ... not good.) The doctor finally made the decision to do an episiotomy and vacuum assistance. I said "YES! PLEASE!!" Two more pushes and he was out at 9:27 p.m. after 3 hours of pushing. I have never had such relief in my life! My body was shaking so bad and I literally couldn't see straight! He was blue, had the cord around his neck, but pinked up nicely and quick. His apgars were 8 and 9. It took about an hour to stitch me up with the episiotomy and 2nd degree tear. I finally got to hold Oliver about an hour after he was born and he began nursing soon after that. He came out rooting and has been a sucking machine ever since!
I'm feeling really good now a week later. There's still some minor pain, but nothing a little Advil doesn't take care of.
Thanks for all the emails and phone calls. Jeremy and I are so excited and can't wait for you all to meet Ollie in person!!
Have a great weekend. TTFN. :)
