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.
birth, cesarean, delivery, giving birth, infant, labor, pregnancy
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Shortly after 8am this morning Parker became the newest member of our family. He weighed in at 7 pounds and 6 ounces and is 20.5 inches long. Zach and I arrived at the hospital at 5:45 am. After some checking in and paperwork, they started me on an IV (fluids) and a fetal monitor. About 7 am I was taken down to the pre-surgery area. I met with the anesthesiologist and got hooked up with a spinal. Just before 8am they took me into the operating room. Zach came in shortly after that, and after some prep work, the operation began and at 8:09am Parker was finally on the outside instead of the inside! I’m of course sore and a bit tired, but recovering well, and very happy to be done with pregnancy. Parker is of course adorable and cuddly, and we’re having a wonderful time getting to know our new son! We’ll be home on January 2nd and I’ll hopefully have more to post shortly after that. See Flickr for more photos.