Easton's Birth Story

Thursday, March 7, 2013, I was 41 weeks exactly. I was scheduled to be induced that morning. The hospital called around 6:20 and told us to be there by about 7:15. We got to the hospital around 7:20 and they had me hooked up to pitocin and water broken at around 8. There was meconium in the water. My doctor wasn't too worried or surprised. She said they would just have the NICU team there and waiting when i had him. Things started progressing pretty fast. I was 2cm dilated when i got there and when i was a three they had to slow down the pitocin and give me oxygen because Easton's heart rate kept dropping with the contractions. I made sure to breathe really deep during the contractions and that seemed to help a lot. After his heart rate steadied, they upped the pitocin again. Things started to get painful and so when I was at 4cm dilated, i told them I was ready for an epidural. The anesthesiologist rushed in and said he only had 3 minutes to do the epidural because there was an emergency with twins waiting. That made me nervous, but he did the epidural, and everything seemed fine. It was soon apparent that the epidural was not working correctly. My legs went numb, but my belly and back (where all the pain was) still felt everything. My nurse told the anesthesiologist, and he was so cocky saying that it had to be working because he had done everything perfectly. It definitely was not. Anyways, he tried several things over the next hour or two and it still wasn't working. I was in so much pain. The contractions were strong and fast, about 30 seconds apart. I was shaking and almost in tears. He finally decided to just do a whole new epidural. That one started to work really fast. The nurse checked me then and said I was at a 7. She had me lay in an funny position that she swore would make me dilate to a 10 within the hour. She was right! Next time she checked me, I was at a ten and he was ready to come out! The bad part about the two epidurals was that my hips on down got a double dose and were so numb i couldn't feel them and everything was flopping around ha ha. The nurse had me do a couple of practice pushes and it was hard to feel where to "direct" the push. I must have been doing it right though because on the third practice push, she hurried and stopped me because she didn't want things to go to far without my doctor there. Soon my doctor arrived and i pushed for about 20 min and he was here! They hurried him over to the NICU team in the room to suction him out and make sure the meconium wasn't a problem. His color was pale at first but soon improved. He also had a slight temperature but it immediately dropped. They watched him for about 5 minutes and then finally weighed and measured him. I was so shocked when they said he was 8lbs 1oz and 20.5 inches and 36cm head! I am so used to my little Ryder who was only 5lbs 6oz and 18 inches, I would not have ever guess this baby would be close to 8lbs, let alone over it! I was so happy though. I had a second degree tear, so not too bad. I finally got to hold him and nursed him immediately. He is an awesome nurser, which is also a big difference between him and Ryder. We decided that the name Easton fit him and so then he had a name! After we'd held him for a little while, we had Ryder come in and meet him. He ran in with a big smile saying, "There's my baby brother!" It was so adorable! It's so nice to finally have Easton here to join our family. It was love at first sight and he is so sweet! There is absolutely no way i could love him more, he is amazing!

Overdue!

Well, here it is March 2nd, and I'm still pregnant. This little guy is pretty comfortable in there. After you go past your due date, my doctor has you go in twice a week for Non-Stress Tests on the baby. I had my firs one on Friday. They did and ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid levels, which mine were fine. Then they strap a fetal monitor onto my belly and watch him for 20-40 minutes. They watch his heart rate to see if he has at least two accelerations above his baseline rate in the 20 minute period. Our little bud was probably having his nap time right then because he was pretty even on his heart rate. So they took this little noise machine that emits a loud buzz and vibration on my belly just for a second. It doesn't hurt him, just is supposed to startle him and get his heart rate up and down a bit more. It worked a little bit, but they still wanted to see more accelerations, so they buzzed him again. I could really feel him jump when they did it, poor little guy! I hope he wasn't too scared! After the second time, we saw a few good jumps and so they let us go home. I was hoping a little bit they they would say something looked a little off, let's induce you right now! Oh well, it's better that everything is looking healthy! I have another NST on Tuesday, along with my regular OB appointment. Then, if he hasn't come by Thursday, the 7th, I have an induction scheduled that day. I'm really hoping he will come on his own so I wont have to be induced, but it's very nice to at least have a countdown.

I'm feeling huge! Everywhere I go, people are asking me when I'm due and telling me I look like I'm about to  pop! I definitely feel like it! I have gained 47 lbs so far, as of my appointment last Tuesday. I'm so curious how big this little guy will be! I know one thing, he will for sure be bigger than Ryder was at 5lbs 6oz! I'm having a really hard time getting around because I've been having a ton of bad pelvis pain. It's really horrible in the morning! My feet having been swelling like CRAZY! At my last two appointments, I gained a total of 7 lbs in two weeks, while my normal gain has been 1 pound a week. My doctor said it's all water weight which I'll pee out after I have the baby. Yay! I sure hope that's the case. I don't have a single pair of shoes or boots that will fit me right now. Even my flip flops and slippers dig into my feet! I have been borrowing a pair of boots from Kevin's mom because she wears a size or two bigger than me. Other than the pelvis pain and swelling, my other biggest complaint is heartburn. It's SO bad! It woke me up the other night and I had to hurry and sit up in bed because I was going to throw up! Oh  I can't wait for that to be gone!

At this point, I'm just trying to be patient. My doctor offered to induce me starting at 39 weeks, but I've been holding out because I want to avoid some of the problems that induction gave me and Ryder last time. However, I know it becomes less of a healthy environment in the womb as you get closer to 42 weeks, so I don't want to go that far past my due date. If I end up being induced on the 7th, I will be exactly 41 weeks. I'm OK with that! 

This shows how bad the swelling has been getting on my bad days... Elephant feet!!