So it's been two weeks since C baby was born and I have to say, I am exhausted. The past couple days, I have had a time trying to get him to go to sleep. He eats and starts to fall asleep but as soon as you put him down, you have about 15 minutes before he's back up again. During the night, he sleeps just fine for hours at a time, but during the day, he doesn't seem to want to go to sleep. I know he's tired...he gets fussy for what seems like no reason and you can tell he needs to sleep but he tries his hardest not to. *sigh*...
To start at the beginning, C baby was born Sunday, February 21st at 10:28 pm. I went into early labor Saturday at 5 am and would be woken up with each contraction so I didn't sleep very well the rest of the night. The next day my parents came to visit and I didn't get a chance to take a nap, which is hell when you are 4 days away from being full term. I was woken up at 1 am Sunday morning with some very serious contractions. I got up and started walking around the house counting how far apart they were and I noticed that they were a consistent 5 minutes apart, not lasting quite a minute but still qualifying as real contractions. We called the hospital to get their opinion on whether I should come in or not and they said that I should so we got our bags together, grabbed the car seat and left for the hospital! I didn't realize that morning that it would be my last day being pregnant!!
We got checked in and taken into a room where I received my lovely hospital gown, which I had to get help getting into. Those things are very confusing if you have never put one on before! I had a horrible time with the IV needle...bless that nurse, but she could not find a vein in my hand. Those needles are HUGE and I have tiny veins so I ended up throwing up a few times. It wasn't the needle itself that made me sick, it was the nauseating feeling of that evil thing trying to find my vein. It felt like it was scraping against bone. It was horrible having them do it 4 times before they finally got it right. After that, I was taken into the labor and delivery room where we settled down to wait!
Little did I know, that I would be in labor, with horrible back pain, for 21 hours!! TWENTY ONE HOURS! When you have back labor and can NOT get comfortable to save your life, it seems like you are there for days. I do have to brag: I did NOT get an epidural :-D I said I wouldn't and by God, I did not!! The labor was not as bad as I thought it would be. Yes it hurts, but its a squeezing pain that is tolerable. I did end up getting some pain meds through the IV which let me sleep (finally) in-between contractions. I do believe if I had not gotten the meds, I would have passed out from exhaustion. I was that tired. I do have to complain about the God forsaken blood pressure monitor. It would crank up and squeeeeeeeze my arm so hard, it hurt worse then the contractions. And sometimes it would just attack me over and over when it couldn't get a good reading. I wanted to throw it out the window but they wouldn't let me. Stupid thing.
Finally, what seemed like days, I felt the urge to push and they brought the doctor in. I did not know how hard it would be to figure out what muscles to use when pushing!! Some women push a couple times and out pops a baby, but I just could not focus on the right muscles and ended up pushing for an hour and a half. At that point, I was SO tired and SO frustrated that I wasn't making any progress. It had taken me 21 hours to dilate to 9 and 3/4 centimeters. I wasn't even fully dilated when I started pushing! I was getting really agitated, I started crying, feeling like it was never going to end. I felt that I was going to be in labor forEVER. I just felt like I couldn't do it anymore. My doctor looked at me and asked if I wanted to keep pushing, which might take another hour, or if I wanted to go ahead and have a C-section. At that point I did not care how that baby came out, just that he did! So we went ahead with the C-section. In-between urges to push coupled with contractions, I slept. I don't remember the ride to the operating room. When I got there, it took 6 times for him to find the right spot in my back for my spinal. I kept falling asleep sitting on the table and they had to keep reminding me to slouch my shoulders and arch my back. Here is my lovely bruise from that ordeal.
It was lovely when the medication sank in and numbed my insides to where I couldn't feel the contractions anymore. It was strange because you can feel pressure, but nothing else. So I could feel them pushing and tugging my stomach but not the pain. The procedure went great, the doctors were joking around and making me laugh. I wasn't worried at all. Hubby was there watching them cut me open and pull out the baby. The baby gave one little cry and that was it! When Dr.P pulled him out, she said "My God, look at the shoulders on him! There's no way he would have come out vaginally." So there you go...I pushed that whole time for nothing. Go figure..lol. After they cleaned him off and I got to see him, I started crying. He was just so pretty I couldn't get enough of him. At that point I was out. I don't remember anything between that and waking up in the recovery room feeling very sore.
Baby C was born at 10:28 pm, Sunday the 21st of February. 9 lbs, 4 oz, 20.75 inches long. A full head of brownish blonde hair and dark blue eyes. He was lovely :-D
The next day I got a lot of visitors. Too many really, I would have liked more time for just us three. But it was nice to see how many people care enough to come over and see how we were doing. I got lovely flowers and it was great to be waited on by the nurses. Three meals a day and all the help I could ask for. We felt bad sending the baby off to the nursery at night, but it was also nice to get a full nights sleep. They would wake me up around 4 to feed the baby but other then that, it was good to sleep. Here is a picture of Baby C that morning. He is huge!
The grandparents couldn't be happier :-D
Proud daddy and his baby
I think Baby C looks like Hubby, but with my nose :-P
He's got dark blue eyes right now with blondish brown hair. We'll see if it changes!
After it all, I don't think about the horrible IV needle, or the back labor. I just can not get enough of this gorgeous little man I carried for 9 months. I love him so much, I had no idea how much it would affect me after he arrived. I get anxious when I'm away from him for too long and I worry if Hubby is doing the right things to take care of him. I love that little boy with all my heart and would not change a thing. How can you not fall in love with the big blue eyes.
Coming home was fun! I was terrified on the ride home, it felt like Hubby was driving like a bat outta hell when in fact he was driving like he normally does. I kept imagining every car ramming into us and all these horrible things. But we made it home just fine and started our new life with a baby. Trying to figure out why he won't stop screaming and whether or not those gas drops are helping. Which bottle should we use and where did we put all the blankets?! Two weeks later, we have most things figured out. He gets bad gas and yes, the drops help. He likes to be on his back when he's gassy and loves to fall asleep on your chest. He likes breast milk better but in a bottle please and thank you. Formula is okay, but please warm it up or he won't drink it. He likes his belly rubbed and loves his bouncer. He looks different already and is growing like a weed. I just wish he would stay little forever. I love the cuddle time and the cute squeaky noises he makes when he's eating. <3 I'm totally in love with this little boy.
