Xander Week 1 – It’s A Boy!
September 28, 2006
First, I would like to apologize for my lack of posts in the past few weeks. As you may have guessed, I finally had my baby. So, for the squeemish, let me warn you that the rest of this post will have some details regarding the labor and delivery. The next post will be more warm and fuzzy about the joys of new parenthood.
I started having contractions on September 19th at 4:30 in the morning. They woke me up, and did indeed feel like I was going to have a very strong bowel movement. I spent the next hour examining this new discomfort, and realizing that I could feel it about every 7 minutes. Around 5:30 I woke Zach up and told him I didn’t think he’d be going to work that day. He and I timed the contractions for another few hours, and I eventually called the hospital to let them know I would likely be in to see them sometime that morning. Around 9:30 am Zach and I went to the hospital. They checked me and said that my cervix had thinned, but I was only about 1 centimeter dilated, so I should go home and make myself comfortable and come back when the contractions were closer together. (On a side note, when we had timed the contractions at home, they were about 3 minutes apart. When we got to the hospital, they had slowed to 6 minutes apart – very strange…) So, I spent the rest of Tuesday hanging out with my sister and having contractions. Zach went to work for a while, and came home around 4:00 pm. About 7:30 pm we went back to the hospital. They checked me again – I was at about 3 cm dilated. They gave me some Ambien to sleep and sent me home. I slept until about 4:00 am on Wednesday, the 20th, and then went back to the hospital – to stay this time.
So, on Wednesday, after laboring for about 24 hours, I was admitted to the hospital. Some time that morning the pain got strong enough for me to ask for an IV drug (Nubane – it came highly recommended from other mothers, and it worked quite well for me). As the labor progressed (slowly), I received more IV drugs, and eventually those wore off, and the contractions were getting worse, so I asked for an epidural. The epidural they gave me also worked wonderfully, and was supposed to last about 2 hours. Just as the 2 hours was running out, my doctor decided that I was not progressing along fast enough, and had been at about the same dilation (8-9 cm) for the past several hours. So, they decided to give me Pictocin to help speed up the contractions, which also makes them more intense. After about an hour of excruciating contractions (since the epidural had worn off and the Pictocin kicked in), I still had not made any progress, so we decided to go ahead with a ceserian section. The doctor was willing to wait another hour or so to see if I progressed at all, but I was too exhausted (we were at hour 35 of the labor by then) and didn’t want to wait any longer.
So, they called together the surgical team, unhooked me from the monitors, and wheeled me downstairs to the operating room. I received my second epidural – this one made me entirely numb from the waist down) and then Zach and I sat behind a curtain while they cut me open and removed the baby – a boy 
We named him Alexander Grady, and are calling him Xander. Apparently Xander had been facing the wrong way – “sunny side up” and had refused to move into the birth canal, hence the c-section. At 6:39 pm on Wednesday September 20th Xander was born, after approximately 38 hours of labor. It was a very long few days, and an emotional rollercoaster for both Zach and myself, but as every day passes, and the discomfort from the c-section gets less, I am more and more pleased with the results, and I have no doubt that in the next few years Xander will have a sibling.
Congratulations!
Congratulations — I am so excited for you. I have been following your pregnancy and enjoy your writing very much. I am pregnant also, but only 25 weeks along. I am so happy for you and your husband. Congrats.
Hello! I came across your blog looking for new or soon-to-be mom’s. Congrats on your beautiful baby boy! How big was Xander? I am due on 10/10 and am terrified that I am going to deliver a 10 pounder.
And he is a beautiful and perfect boy
congrats sara!!!
Congratulations!!! What a beautiful baby! Glad to hear you and Xander are doing well. All the best to you.
Congratulations Sara and Zach and Welcome Xander! I have so enjoyed keeping up to date from afar on your progress through the blog. Xander is so adorable and I know you’re happy to finally have him part of the “real world”! Take good care of yourselves!
Congrats to you!!! Glad both you & the baby are doing well. Your post was interesting and reminded me a lot of my own recent L&D – my daughter was born on September 18th. The hospital also sent me home twice to “relax” (yeah, right…) until the contractions got more intense, which was frustrating. It’s as if they want you to be dying from pain before admitting you…! Anyways, good luck with everything!
Congratulations! How about this for a coincidence, my water broke on Wednesday the 20th and I was given pitocin that afternoon. My son Joseph was born 6:15am on Thursday the 21st! I guess now we both know what a contraction feels like, and we will be better prepared next time!
CONGRATS! YOUR STORY OF LABOR AND DELIVERY SOUNDS OH SO MUCH LIKE MINE! LABOR STARTS- GO TO HOSPITAL, SENT HOME, GO TO HOSPITAL, LABOR FOR WHAT SEEMS LIKE FOREVER(42 HRS) ONLY TO HAVE A C-SECTION BECAUSE BABY IS FACING THE WRONG WAY! ITS WEIRD- I TELL MY STORY ALMOST THE EXACT SAME WAY! I NOW AM WORKING ON BABY #2 AND I’M RELIEVED THAT I WILL NOT HAVE TO GO THRU ALL THE PAIN OF LABOR AGAIN- THOUGH IF MY HOSPITAL WOULD LET ME IM SURE ID TRY FOR A REGULAR DELIVERY! I WISH YOU AND YOUR NEW FAMILY THE BEST OF LUCK(SURE YOU WILL NEED IT IN THE YEARS TO COME)!
congrats!!!! wow look at that hair. you both look very happy, enjoy every moment of him they do grow so fast.
I just wanted to say thank you to all of the well wishers – it is always nice to hear from you
I hope that all of you who are expecting have healthy and relatively quick and painless deliveries, and enjoy your new additions as much as I’m enjoying mine!
Congradulations on the birth of your beautiful son. I’m anxiously awaiting the birth of my 7 th grandchild, a boy, Hunter, due any day now. God bless.
[...] I hadn’t ever heard the term “VBAC” (pronounced ‘v’ back) before I got pregnant this time around. Apparently if you have a c-section in your first pregnancy, you are sometimes have the option of having a “Vaginal Birth After Cesarean.” I happen to fall into this category. So now I get to decide, do I want to try another regular delivery, or would I prefer to go straight to a scheduled c-section? For those of you who don’t recall, my first delivery experience was quite lengthy and painful and ultimately ended in an emergency c-section. For those of you interested in the gruesome details, you can check out Xander’s first post here. [...]
Neat! I’m pregnant with my second child and can’t wait for the due date, even though I know a few things there’s plenty I don’t. Thanks for the information, you don’t know how much I appreciate it.Thanks!Darla