As I had mentioned in my last post, I had an anterior placenta. Apparently this can make movement more difficult to feel, which it did (but then again, it didn't- more on that). This made an already anxious pregnant lady even more anxious! However, since I had hypothyroid, my doctors had wanted extra monitoring for little man since it can cause growth restrictions and other issues. My little man, definitely didn't have any growth restrictions, but I was really happy with the extra monitoring. For the last four weeks I had biweekly nonstress tests and weekly biophysical profiles. In all the nonstress tests, they asked me to drink juice (sometimes I would have to drink extra) to get the amount of movements they wanted... and all of our ultrasounds he just laid there, completely content... I think we only got our required movements once out. However, this lack of feeling movement and lack of movement seen on ultrasounds/nonstress tests were not concerning for the doctors. His heart rate accelerations with movement looked perfect, his practice breaths were perfect, everything else looked great.... Still freaked me out, so my doppler was my best friend that last few months!
The weekend before my due date, my hubby and I were (still) doing projects around the house. There were a lot of last minute things that we needed to do. I had been feeling good, but still anxious (still working at the hospital- but had just dropped to 8hr shifts instead of 12), but just HUGE! At my ultrasound about a week or so earlier, they were guestimating his weight to be around 8lb 11oz. Now, this didn't surprise me at all. My husband was almost ten pounds, and my brother was almost ten pounds (and my mom is smaller than me!), and all the girls in my family were over eight pounds). Hubby and I were out running some errands and our last stop was Home Depot. While there I just started to feel "bad." I couldn't really explain it, but didn't feel good and felt nauseated. When we went home, I went to the bathroom and noticed I had a lot of brown mucus discharge stuff. I let the doctor on call know, and he said come in if I start to get consistent contractions. By that evening I had been having contractions about 5 minutes apart. I called him back and he said to come in when they get to three minutes apart. I tried to go to sleep, but laying down just made them so much more painful, so neither me or husband got any sleep that night (night one of no sleep). By morning my contractions were three minutes apart, so we went on it to the hospital. They put me on the monitor and I was having strong contractions three minutes apart... unfortunately I was only 1cm dilated. They took me off the monitor and I walked around and did all I good to get this labor "going."
By the afternoon, my contractions had spread out to about every 10-15 minutes so they sent me home and told me to come back if they were three minutes apart again. That night while trying to sleep contractions came back full force so no sleep for me or hubby again (night two of no sleep), but they were never consistently 3 minutes apart for longer than an hour or two so we didn't go in. I had an appointment that morning anyways for a nonstress test and biophysical. They could see how strong my contractions were on the nonstress test so they ended up checking me again, and I was still just 1 cm. C'MON!!! SERIOUSLY!? I told the nurse midwife that I was having trouble sleeping and stuff at night, and her suggestion was a bath and a glass of wine or to take some tylenol PM. I didn't want to do either (I was really afraid of the Tylenol PM because of the lack of movement we were having already), but I was so desperate by Monday night that I took it. Monday night was absolutely horrible. (Night three of no sleep!) Not only was I having frequent painful contractions, I was exhausted from the lack of sleep and the Tylenol PM wasn't helping at all! Tuesday morning I called begging to talk to one of the nurse midwives. I was miserable. I was having contractions about every 7-10 minutes apart and they had been that way through the night- and at times more frequent. I met with the nurse midwife and I was FINALLY up to 3cm dilated!! She said go to the hospital when my contractions were three minutes apart for over 2-3hrs. Luckily for me my favorite doctor was on that night. By afternoon they were three minutes apart, so I called my husband to let him know, but not to rush. I kept putting it off because I was worried if we got to the hospital they were just going to send me home. Around 8pm we decided to go in.
Well, the doctor checked me and I was 4cm! She put me on the monitor- contractions 2-3min apart. I was officially in active labor! She told me to walk and other things to get stuff going, and then she wanted me to sleep for a few hours overnight since I hadn't slept in days. She said the exhaustion could actually stall my labor. I walked the halls, bounced on my ball, etc until about 1am. She checked me I was 4.5cm and she said she wanted to give me a little something to let me sleep for a few hours. So I slept, and woke up around 4-5ish.... and my contractions were about 10-20min apart. WTF!?! Seriously? I walked the halls, took a warm shower. Nothing. I basically told the doctor I couldn't do this anymore so plllleeeeaaaaseee start pitocin! Apparently, my body wanted little man out, but he didn't want to come out AT ALL. He was perfectly content. So content that even the nurses were making me drink juice, because they weren't seeing enough movement/accelerations from him! Silly boy. Another reason why I wanted him out. I just couldn't take the anxiety anymore. Looking back, I feel like if I wasn't so anxious, I probably wouldn't have cared so much about such an extended early labor.... but whatever. The doctor agreed to start pitocin. He was going to be born that day! YAY!!!!! I couldn't wait.
Dang. Pitocin was started sometime between 6-7ish. My contractions increased in intensity super super fast. The hardest part for me was needing to go pee every five minutes. Around eight-nine I got an epidural and I was like 8-9cm already. The doctor decided to break my water and then by 10am I was 9.5. I had my epidural, my pitocin, my water broke... I was feeling GREEAAT! Bring on the baby... Well, Jonathan had other ideas. He just didn't want to come out... at all. In fact- he never once moved down in station from where he started. So, by 1pm we decided that our little man was going to have to be taken out by c-section. At that point I didn't care. I was so ready to meet him. Soooo... Jonathan David was born at 2:10pm on Wednesday, March 21, his Pop's (my dad's) birthday. He weight 8lb 7oz and was 21 1/2 inches long. He was sooo little (to us) which made all the doctors and nurses laugh, because in actuality he was a BIG baby... but from everything that I had imagined- he was so little and so perfect!
Here is a bunch of pictures....
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| Daddy got to sleep... Mommy.. not so much :) |
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| Brand new baby.... |
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First time seeing baby... I said "Hi Jonathan" and he turned his head to look at me...
Knew his Momma already- best feeling ever! |
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| Daddy- still getting teared up looking at this miracle! |
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Couldn't wait to get his Tennessee hat on! He actually came out with super long nails
and had a bunch of scratch marks over his face at birth... |
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| Daddy's First Dirty diaper... I don't know who is more traumatized |
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| Jonathan's first lacrosse sticks..... from daddy of course! |
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| Mimi and Pop |
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| Little man ready to go home! |
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| Daddy makes carrying the carseat look so easy! |
By the time we had left the hospital, Jonathan had lost over that 10% mark and was weighing in under 7.5lbs. They didn't seem concerned since he was breastfeeding, making plenty of wet and poopy diapers and my milk hadn't completely come in yet. By his one week appointment he had already gained almost all of it back.... and hasn't stopped since!
I will try to be better updating... this little one is what the pediatrician calls "high maitenance" in that he needs your attention constantly and LOVES to be held. Lack of sleep, lack of time, babies change everything... but I am loving every single minute!
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