Labor Timeline
Tuesday, March 8th
Elective Induction, 1 day after my due date
Don't I look insanely giddy with my makeup all done and hair straightened?
It all goes to pots in 7 hours. I mean I guess I'm still giddy.
6:30 Hospital check-in, 2.5 cm 70%, no contractions
8:30 Petocin
10:30 Doc broke my water, 3 cm 80%, -2 position
Hunger pains more than anything up to this point. Eric got breakfast served
11:00 Reached highest dose of petocin
11:15 Pain reaches around the back, fluid still leaking, contractions 2-3 minutes apart peaking for 10-15 seconds, finally feeling difficult contractions but manageable
11:30 Flavored ice chips are awesome. Watching HGTV, contraction patterns good, just waiting for them to get strong and open the cervix.
12:00 4.5 cm, head lower, more fluid leakings
12:15 Ordered epideral even though contractions still manageable
1:00 Epideral, 5 cm, the needle was more painful than expected, legs & bum pretty numb. Initially just pain on the left side of my lower pelvic area but at times would spread back up my left side stomach / back. Eric gets lunch. I get more ice chips.
2:30 6 cm. The pain was very difficult to manage especially since I couldn't move.
2:55 Anesthesiologist came back in to readjust the needle & increase the dose. I was crying a lot.
3:00 Turns out, I was complete at a 10. Doctor just pulled in the parking lot.
3:14 I pushed twice to get his head out and a third time for his body. I barely felt pushing. I cried like crazy when I heard him.
Dallin Austin
8lb 14oz
20 inches
3:14 PM
The doctor and nurses were surprised he didn't come in as long as we all thought. They even remeasured. Same weight as his sister, but 2.5 inches shorter.
Glucose Issue. He was perfect except his glucose levels were low so they put him on this test protocol where they tested him every 2 hours 3xs and then went to testing every 4-6 hours in a 24 hour period (sometimes it was a prick, if he failed the quick prick test, they had to collect blood drops for the lab). Since he failed a lab test during the night & results were still borderline, we had to restart the testing all over again and make sure we were feeding him every 2 hours supplementing formula on top of nursing to get his levels high. He was EXHAUSTED and very difficult to wake up to feed every 2 hours. But the formula helped get him passing levels. So although we had to stay another night, he avoided the NICU IV. We are still advised to use formula with nursing until I get a good supply of milk in. They said this is common with larger babies who depended on their mother for insulin regulation. Hopefully his body has been properly regulating and that eventually it won't involve so much feeding…but we like big babies.
Dad got light headed after his circumcision. But that went well. They told us he would be a little lethargic in order to cope. Sometimes he cried out in pain and we wonder if it is gas or related to that. He had a certain jaundice level that requires us to come back 3 days later to validate that it is still not a concern. So one last heel prick.
He was pretty chill and exhausted at the hospital. Since being home, we have discovered his hatred for soiled diapers & diaper changes, and his quick moving frog legs don't make it any easier. Perhaps it'll be better once the circumcision scabs. He kept me up hourly in the middle of the night for feedings. We fed him 20 ml from the bottle right before bedtime hoping to get some extra sleep, but he was still up an hour later! So he doesn't just sit there awake anymore. He likes to be swaddled, held & fed. It seems we might have another cuddler on board and who doesn't love to cuddle with that soft skin. Something noteworthy - he makes breathing noises at times similar to his sister, yet he is a very shallow breather which makes every parent panic. We whine when he makes sounds, we whine when it isn't obvious he is still breathing. The life of a parent.
Lexi has been a great big sister. She loves her baby brother and loves to help take care of him, hold him & give tons of kisses. It's still weird thinking we have two kids. We knew this was coming but it's still a crazy reality to think Lexi isn't an only child yet we have to still make sure we attend to both their needs so that everyone still feels loved.
My recovery has been faster this second time around. I could walk around after 24 hours even though limited. I had a 1 degree tear this time, but the blood stopped sooner and my body seemed to know what to do quicker. Instead, the uterus contractions have killed the first few days, especially while nursing which is what I was warned about. I had some mild vertigo and still some hot flashes so the hormone changes have been exciting as well. Since the epiderals don't seem to work 100% for me and makes managing the pain that does exist that much harder when I'm numb, I still have doubts about getting one again. I hate the pain on my spine half because it's scary to me and I hate being completely numb. However, labor pains suck too, haha. Outside of a few minor things, my two birth stories are pretty similar. For many things, it's just a matter of memory fades, whether that's a blessing or a joke.
The most important thing is that we are home! And as Lexi will tell you when she looks at the picture below, "that's my family".
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