He's Here!

We're in love with our new baby boy!! We got to the hospital at 6:30 Tuesday morning and the doctor broke my water at 7:00. That hurt like hell. I started having contractions the night before, but they were never consistent. By 8:30 the contractions were around 3 minutes apart and getting more and more painful. I thought that an epidural wore off, so that's why they wanted you to wait to get one. That's not the case. It's on a drip, so once I realized that, we called the doctor to hook me up. The epidural is very uncomfortable, but I didn't think it was painful. It was a welcomed relief. After that, it was a waiting game. I knew going in that getting induced was going to call for a long day and I may end up having a c-section.

We did have one scare during labor where Trip's heartbeat dropped down below 70, so they had to put me on oxygen. I absolutely loved my first nurse, but the only complaint is that she didn't walk us through what was going on when the scare did happen.

I was only progressing about 1/2 cm at a time and was showing some effacement throughout the day, but he never dropped. The actual labor part was a lot of sitting and waiting around and chewing on ice chips. The not eating part kinda sucks. Once I hit 5 cm, I stayed there for well over three hours and then the pressure started. Apparently there is nothing the epidural can do about pressure, so it was constant pain. I thought for sure that meant he had dropped and I was going to progress significantly. That was not the case. The second nurse was not helpful at all and just kinda shrugged and told me that he was doing okay. I could have punched her in the face.

By about an hour and a half of constant pain and pressure, the doctor came down to check me again. She said I was still at 5cm. Poor Michael. That hour and a half he was great, but I knew he was freaking out. I just had tears running down my face and couldn't get any relief. The doctor said we had two options. The first was a c-section because there was a good chance we might be trying "to fit a square peg in a round hole" and so he might not drop and he might not fit in the canal. The second was waiting it out another hour or so to see if he did progress. I couldn't do it anymore. I'm glad we went ahead with the c-section, because once they got in there, he hadn't even turned to the right position to drop and he was stuck.

Once they prepped me for surgery, it was a welcomed relief. I was just ready to get this show on the road. Michael, on the other hand, was a nervous wreck. They wheeled me in, drugged me up, and I was ready to go. They actually began the c-section before they brought Michael back there. It was very quick and Trip was born not 5 minutes later. I was so weak, so hungry, and so loopy from the pain meds, I was very nervous I might drop him once they handed him over. Once I heard that first cry, I was so relieved and so happy. I could see him on the monitor and he looked perfect! He was born at 7:46 (yes, 13.5 hours of labor), weighed 7 lbs 8 oz, and was 19 inches long.

I don't respond well to pain medication, so I threw up a few times during labor and a few times in recovery since I was on a morphine pump. I was on a liquid diet in recovery until the following day around lunch. That was awful! Trip slept in the room with us and pretty much slept the entire night. We were both pooped :) Breast feeding started out slow and could be very frustrating at times, but I think we've gotten the hang of it. We are home now, in love with Trip, and as happy as ever. He sleeps most of the day and has a lot of "activity" at night. Everyone is healthy, so life is good!!

Here are a few pics...

Trip and his momma

Proud papa

Hello world!

Beautiful baby boy

One happy family :)