Wednesday August 17th, 2011 started off without much sleep and with a great deal of excitement. The alarm clock went off nice and early at about 4am. I wanted some time to get some coffee and breakfast before we headed to Mercy Hospital. We arrived at the hospital around 530am and made our way to the Labor and Delivery Suites within the hospital. We checked in at the front desk and made our way to room 5006.
Our check-in time was 6am, we got to the room and began the long process of a million (relevant) medical questions, blood pressure checks, blood draws, and baby monitoring devices being hooked up. Christine and I were both excited and a bit nervous. I feel the nerves came because we had no idea what it would be like during the birth process. After all the paperwork and questions the nurse started Christine on an IV of lactated ringers (basic fluids so she wouldn't dehydrate) because she could no longer eat or drink anything during the delivery day. Soon after the IV was started the nurse came back and hung a bag of Pitocin and started the drip. The plan at 7:45am was to start the drip VERY low, and get her contractions to continue at a steady pace and with some consistency. Christine was 4cm dilated when we left our appointment on Monday morning and the decision had been made with the recommendation of the doctor to induce labor if she naturally did not start labor on her own. As luck would have it on our walk into the hospital that morning Christine had her first really distinguishable contraction. The nurse would also inform us once the monitors were hooked up that Christine was indeed having contractions on her own. The pitocin would help to speed this process along and bring on the birth of our son.
The doctor came in to check on everything and check on Christine and determined that she had not additionally dilated more than the office visit on Monday so our starting point was 4cm. Not too shabby in the eyes of our physician, almost half way there in his mind. We continued on the process of gradually raising the levels of pitocin in her IV drip on the hour for the next few hours. Around noon the doctor came back in to check on Christine and determined that she was now 5cm. After nearly 4 hours on the pitocin she had dilated 1cm, at this rate the baby wouldn't be born until Christmas. The physician recommended that we break her water to get things to progress a little quicker, but complete understood if we wanted to wait and only use pitocin. Christine made the decision to "break the bag" and get this party started. But, first things first she wanted to get the epidural started so that she wouldn't have to wait for pain relief when the contractions started getting tough.
We had our consultation with the anesthesiologist and made the decision to put in the epidural, test it for correct placement, and then leave it idle until Christine needed it. This way she wouldn't be having pain and contractions while trying to get a catheter inserted into her spine. The test worked but she was getting more numbness on the left side than on her right so the anesthesiologist said she would need to spend some time laying on her right side to let gravity work the medication to the proper areas. Once he was comfortable with her level of numbness on that side, he turned the medication back off and Christine was able to resume the waiting game. Our Dr. came back in shortly thereafter and broke her water around 12:30pm. We decided to see if we could nap, after an hour of napping the contractions were beginning to get more uncomfortable. Christine called the nurse and she came in with the anesthesiologist and restarted the epidural meds. Christine was very comfortable at this point so she was able to sleep for a few hours. The most comfortable position for her was to be on her left side, she fell asleep and so did I for about an hour. At approximately 3:30pm Christine was awoken by some pain on her right side and we called in the nurse. Since she had been laying on her left side, the medication was not working at 100% effectiveness on the right side. She still had substantial numbing but not enough to dull all her pain. The nurse did an exam and determined that Christine was about 9cm, this baby was coming soon!!
A half an hour went by and the contractions were coming very rapidly, Christine began to feel some of the tell tale signs that labor was imminent. Not to get too graphic but the feeling was described to us by the nurse like a large poop or a firm pressure in bowel region. When Christine began to feel those sensations we called the nurse in. She had Christine roll onto her back and determined that it was time to get this ball rolling. She called the Dr. and he prepped himself for the delivery. He informed us that the babies head was positioned at a slightly unusual angle and that may prolong delivery, but would not put the baby in any risk. He was very honest and straightforward with us, and said that first time mothers may have to push for up to 3 hours with a baby in this position. I could see the look of absolute terror on Christine's with the thought of pushing for 3 hours. After the Doctor left the room, the nurse reassured us that yes this could take 3 hours, but if Christine did what she needed to do, and listened and followed her instructions that most deliveries of this nature take about an hour or a little more. Christine was determined to push for less than an hour because she was nearing the point of exhaustion after a day in bed without food or much else to drink.
Our nurse then instructed me that I would be needed to help Christine and hold one of her legs so that I could aid her in pushing since she couldn't lift her numbed legs up on her own. I happily obliged. Christine began her sequences of taking a deep breath, contracting her stomach muscles, and pushing while holding her breath, then another deep breath followed by a push, and repeated 1 additional time for a total of 3 sequences during each 1 minute contraction. After one or two cycles of pushing, then rolling to her side (she was getting nausea laying on her back) the nurse called out to me and said, daddy look at all the hair on your babies head. I wasn't originally sure that I wanted to see much going on down there in fear of being completely traumatized seeing my wife like that. But I took a look and was immediately shocked, amazed, and astounded. That was top of my little boys head and boy did he have alot of hair! Christine was progressing along at an amazingly quick rate. Our nurse told her not to push because the baby was nearly crowning after only 10 or 15 minutes of pushing. She immediately called for the physician to come in to the room.
The first words out of the doctors mouth when he came in was, there is no way you are ready yet...REALLY? He did a quick exam, and told Christine that for a first time mother she was the best pusher he had seen. He told her that his mentioning a 3 hour push session must have really motivated her. A few more good pushes from Christine and the babies head crowned. The doctor told us to get ready because one more sequence of pushing and this baby was going to be born. On the first push his head started to come out, second push the whole head came out, that was my baby boy and he was beautiful!!! Third push and the shoulders came free and then the rest of the baby just slid out. What an amazing and beautiful little boy...and then came the quote of the day from Dr. Rapkin, "This is the shortest umbilical cord I have ever seen, not a problem, but I can't toss this baby up onto your belly mom!" There were definitely smiles of joy and tears in the room from both of us as I cut the cord and the doctor was able to place the baby onto Christine's chest for their first eye to eye contact as mom and baby. The entire experience was just so surreal, so organic, and so beautiful that I just can't begin to describe the feeling.
After a minute or two on her chest the baby needed to be taken to be cleaned, weighed, measured and tested. So our second nurse called me into the next room to take pictures and spend some dad time with my newborn baby boy! He was weighed in at 7lbs, 9oz., measured in at 22 inches, and was given an official birth time of 4:49pm. After a quick cleanup and some more tests he was ready to be swaddled up and taken back over to see mom. I was given the important task of delivering him to mom. I placed him down onto her arms and she smiled and said "hello Noah" and she smiled. We almost immediately tried to breastfeed him and he tried to latch but our technique was poor at best. It felt like a struggle but Christine was determined to try to breastfeed him. Soon after he was taken to the nursery for more tests and to get cleaned up. We spend another hour or so in recovery so that Christine could get the feeling back in her legs. The hospital family side was actually full while we were there so we would continue our stay for the next two days in the labor and delivery suites. They moved us to the back corner of the hospital for some peace and quiet to room 5012. My mom and Christine's dad were arriving just as we were moved to the new room. Mom came bearing subway subs for us because we were starving, I guess I didn't realize how much I didn't eat while we were in the hospital all day.
The rest of the evening was spent with immediate family and constant nurses in and out of the room checking Christine and the baby. About 10pm they took Noah to the nursery for the night so that we could get some sleep after a long day. His first few feedings in the nursery would be by bottle and we hoped that it would not affect his ability to latch with Christine. He came back to us the next morning around 6am after we had about 8 hours of heavy but somewhat uncomfortable sleep. We tried to feed him again the next morning and still struggled with the breastfeeding technique. We had a lactaction nurse come in around 9am, her name was Sarah, she was able to get Noah to latch in a matter of seconds. I was amazed at the technique and stood by listening, watching and taking mental notes so that I could assist Christine after Sarah left. We practiced feeding again on our own that morning, and then had Sarah come back for a feeding just before she was scheduled to leave for the day. Of course the latch and feedings were just so much better when she was there. I was beginning to think that we were going to have a substantial amount of frustration and anxiety with breastfeeding on our own.
The second night in the hospital was probably going to be a little more difficult though because we were going to have to be up every 3 hours to try to nurse the baby. We definitely struggled and the frustration level with Christine was beginning to grow. I knew that part of it was anxiety, part was hormones, and part was genuine fear that Noah wasn't going to be able to breastfeed. We brought in the nurses at night and they were able to help some but our little guy seemed a little frustrated as well. Sarah came back for one last consultation in the morning on Friday and suddenly everything CLICKED! We were able to get him to feed much better and we felt so much more comfortable with our feeding technique. Sarah then informed us that she wasn't worried about us, or our baby. She told us that most babies lose about 5% of their weight the first 2 days in the hospital and that babies who lose 10% or more don't get to go home with mom and dad. Noah lost 0.3lb his first two days which means he had only lost 3.79% of his body weight. He was definitely feeding well and we were ready to go home much more confident in our ability to provide for our son! The first car ride home was uneventful and he slept the whole time.
Our first few days at home have been surprisingly good and we are confident that this little guy is going to be a great baby! Boy he is cute too! But I guess I am a little biased! I will definitely be following up soon with a blog of the first few (uneventful) days.
I can say for certain that the first time I saw him I knew that this was my son, I love him more than anything, and I have an incredible task of raising him to be the best man he can be, it was definitely love at first sight!
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