My baby boy was due April 25. As this day came, and then went, we began to wonder how long we would have to wait for him. I was induced with Sophie when I was 10 days passed my due date, with her being born shortly after midnight to make her 11 days late. I really wanted to wait him out and not be induced, but my doctor was not comfortable with going past 42 weeks. At 41 weeks 5 days, I agreed to come into the hospital to began to be induced the next day (at 41 weeks 6 days). They were allowing me the option of using Cervidil instead of just beginning with Pitocin, though, so that it might put me into labor and be closer to a natural induction. Cervidil is applied directly to the cervix to aid in ripening it in preparation for labor. I had had Pitocin with Sophie and really did not want to go through that again so this option seemed more ideal to try.
On May 8, after stopping for lunch at Sonic on the way to the hospital, Brandon and I arrived around 1 pm to check into the hospital. It felt weird being without Sophie and knowing that when we returned home we should have a baby boy with us. They got us all checked in, then applied the Cervidil about 2:30. The nurse told me that if it was going to do much of anything for me, it would be about 2-4 hours. About 15 minutes after application, though, I began having regular contractions. I had previously had some, but not regular ones. Over the next couple of hours, they began to intensify and became closer together. By dinner time, I was in quite uncomfortable pain, but could still carry on a conversation, albeit kind of distracted. The anesthesiologist came and spoke to me about an epidural. I had written into my birth plan I did not want one, but wanted the option to have one if I changed my mind so she was just checking on me to see where I stood. I was unsure of what I wanted so I had the nurse check me to see how far I had dilated. I was only at a 4. Seemed like it would be a while. I told her no, not at the moment and would see if I wanted one in a few hours. I really enjoyed being able to walk around and move as I felt I wanted while I was having contractions. The idea of being stuck in bed with a catheter was not appealing to me. Been there, done that, and did not enjoy it.
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| Waiting for my boy, before things became really intense. |
Once night shift came on, I was assigned a nurse name Claire. She was Irish and has delivered babies literally all over the world. She was very experienced and ended up being quite the blessing to me. She helped me do all the natural methods of working towards my baby coming without medicine, but was informing me of what medicine had to offer. She didn't push for an epidural and told me if I wanted, she could give me a narcotic pain reliever, just to help out for a couple of hours. I initially declined that as well, but as things began to progress, I did consider it. I decided to not get an epidural at any point that evening, though I feel that was a tough decision to make knowing how it all went down. At 10 pm, while we were trying everything we could to get my water to break on its own, I finally agreed to half a dose of the narcotic pain reliever my nurse Claire told me about. I only wanted half because I just needed a break as the contractions were quite strong with only about 20-30 seconds from the time one ended until another began. I was in a lot of pain and having trouble just carrying on a conversation with Brandon. Thankfully, everyone understood and no one was really expecting much from me as far as entertaining went. Around this time at home, my mom was getting Sophie to bed. My mother-in-law kindly offered to stay with Sophie at home while she slept so that my mom could come to the hospital and be there with me. My mom had been at the birth of every one of her grandchildren, and a few other's kids and grandkids. I did want my mom there for me in this as well. It was a blessing that she could come, even if there wasn't much for her to do but moral support. When she arrived, I was having my "break" with the pain medicine still helping relieve some of the intense contractions.
Around 11 pm, the pain meds wore off. I was back to intense pain, just as one would expect labor to be like. My water still had not broken. I waited until around 11:15 (I believe around then as things were starting to just blend together in one painful haze), then agreed for the doctor to break my water. Everett's head was right at the opening of my cervix, causing the sac to bulge, but not break. I was at an 8 finally, but nothing was progressing, so I decided my body needed a little help. After breaking my water, I almost instantly went to a 10 and things were ready to go.
I'm not going to lie: it was quite painful! There are really no words to describe the feelings of pushing him out. It's just one you have to experience to understand and appreciate. After he was FINALLY out (it felt like a long time, but really only took about 20 minutes of pushing I think), they laid him on my chest and belly. I laid there at first just with my eyes closed trying to recover a little, but I was listening to everyone saying how big he was. I finally opened my eyes and looked down at him. He was huge! After waiting for the cord to stop pulsing to cut it, the doctor finished with me as they cleaned Everett up a little and got his weight. My doctor saw the scale as he was weighed and my first indication he was much bigger than we all expected was seeing her clamp her hand over her mouth in surprise. I asked what it said he weighed: 9 pounds 15.3 ounces and 20 inches long! The nurse later told me that Everett had actually pooped on the way out so he was most likely at least 10 pounds coming out. No wonder it hurt so badly!!! I'm sure it would have hurt anyway, but I seriously had doubted I could push him out as I was trying to. Through all the screaming I kept saying I couldn't do it. Turns out, I could and did, just as God intended. By the way, the screaming scared the girl in the next room. She was there to be induced and was wanting an epidural before ever even having a contraction. Haha! Oops! Sorry unknown friend!
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| Brandon, me, and our Big E right after delivery. |
Once things calmed down, my mom went home and Brandon laid on the fold out chair and went to sleep. My wonderful nurse took my big boy for a few hours to allow me to rest. It greatly helped. The next morning, I felt pretty good. I took a shower and was preparing to go home. I knew it would be the next morning, but was mentally getting prepared. My mom, MIL, and Sophie came to visit. I received flowers with a card Sophie signed herself. Everyone left around lunchtime and I was alone with my boy for a bit.
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| Sophie meeting Everett |
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| Such a good big sister from the beginning! |
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| Mr. Everett |
My mom came up that evening to bring me some decent food. As she and a friend from church were visiting with me, Everett had his first spell of stopping breathing. I was feeding him some formula (all babies over 9 lbs at that hospital were supplemented with formula while there as standard procedure) when all of a sudden, he acted like he was straining to poop and never recovered. He began turning blue. My nurse who helped me deliver was working again and came rushing in. She easily got him breathing again at that time. For the next hour, we were enjoying chatting. My friend left and it was just me and my mom. The nurse came in to do some checks on Everett and as she was looking at him, he again had another episode of not breathing and turning blue. At this second episode, the nurse really became concerned. To make a long story short, arrangements began to be made to transport Everett to a hospital in Austin to run some tests. The little hospital we were at didn't have the ability to run the tests so he needed to be moved to somewhere that did. He had a third episode while arrangements were being put together. He ended up on a helicopter to Austin, one in which there was no room for me to accompany him. My mom helped me pack up and took me home to meet Brandon. From there, in the middle of the night, we headed to Austin to get to our baby boy. He had another episode at the hospital in Austin shortly after we arrived. We were told the next day that he would stay until 5 days after his last episode. They ran a few tests, all of which came back normal. He never had another episode and went home when he was 8 days old. Finally our family was all home!
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| Finally home! |
As for the cause of his episodes, they never found a cause. Apparently, this is quite common in large babies and believed to be from that part of the brain still developing and maturing. He is fine and doing well now. Praise the Lord for taking care of my boy!!! God must have plans for his life. So excited to see what they are!
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