Welcoming Ian

This post is a week in the making. Not that it hasn't already been written in my head, but just hasn't found the time to be completed. Baby-Bliss-Mode, Post-Partum mode, The reality of 2 kids mode, all have set in!

Happy One-week birthday my beautiful boy. Born at 4:06 pm on Wednesday, April 14th, you were welcomed with open arms and hearts. As I write this you are sleeping so peacefully beside me and I could literally eat you up with all your sweet baby goodness.

Since it took a good four years to write of Ben's birth I thought given while fresh on my mind and before the years of noise in a TWO boy house destroys my memory of your birthday. Just for kicks, check out Ben's newborn pic and tell me that Ian is not a blond version of Ben.

As planned we got to the hospital before 6 am and were thrilled that there was room at the inn for us. It would prove to be a very busy day in labor and delivery with our main labor nurse, Angie juggling our birth along with another family. Early on I was feeling alot of pain in my back as they did the EFM before starting the Pitocin. Much like Ben's labor I couldn't keep the EFM on without holding it and laying in the bed on one side, so we consented to an internal monitor :-( This took away my ability to be in the tub and kept me wired up but allowed me to be on the birth ball, standing, or sitting in the rocking chair to labor and OUT of bed. Unfortunately this also meant that my water had to be broken adding to my chance for cord prolapse again.

I asked Angie as she was starting the Pitocin to please run it as low as possible as I didn't want to be 0-60 in back labor without options. She agreed and reviewed our birth plan with us and let me know that my code word for an epidural was, "I really want to eat ice cream." In the end she and our doula, Sam, were an amazing team that worked well together and along with Bill were amazing support. At no point did I want Bill kicked out and later that night he showed me the damage my nails had done to his poor arm.

By 10 am I was in a regular contraction pattern but not in alot of pain, just heavy cramps. Bill and I were watching our backlog of Daily Shows and then started watching the Hangover on his new iPad, sweetness itself. It was about at the Rob Riggle Taser scene that I had the thought, "I wonder if being hit with a taser would feel better than these contractions."

Angie had been waiting on my OB to come and check me and by 1 pm she did herself determined I had progressed to 6-7 cm and called for the delivery table to be set up. I was beginning to hit transition and asked what my options were. The increase in intensity and frequency of contractions were really hurting and were about 2 mins apart. Angie hadn't marked "screaming" yet on the patient assessment only moaning and severe pain, but can still talk normally. Seriously is there a time I CAN'T talk?

Angie commented that she didn't think I would make it to an epidural due to being an hour out but offered to start the IV line if I really wanted some ice cream. She offered to run a single dose of Stadol into my IV which I had had a really bad experience on with Ben's birth. NO, in fact Hell No along with all the other cursing that was hurled during labor. She then suggested since I had had a bad reaction to Stadol to consider a dose of Nubain which she commented was a step down in pain management without as many side effects (like attempting to take off my gown and being overall hot and sweaty) We went with the Nubain which did indeed take just a bit of the edge off to get through transition without the epidural.

By 3:45 my OB appeared and I was really feeling the need to push. Angie was trying to stretch my cervix the final way and was instructing me not to push. Yeah, sure as this is literally like the most primal urge ever experienced. I unfortunately somehow wound up on my back in the one position I didn't want ot be in to push but the contractions literally had taken my breath away and I couldn't argue.

Angie told me I needed oxygen (don't they tell you that in the event of an plane crash too to shut you up), and from someone I hear the NICU team was being called in. I remember asking out loud if the cord was wrapped around his neck just like Ben's birth. Serious panic was setting in. NO, but his heartrate is in the 50/60s and we need you to push him out with the next contractions. As the NICU team was coming in someone knocked over the spotlight lamp onto the table of instruments. It was not the peaceful, serene birth I dreamed of but rather chaotic as people were scrambling to grab tools before they hit the floor. The OB told me he was going to use the vacuum to assist and within a few more pushes and the agonizing pain of crowning, Ian was out and screaming his lungs out. And yes, I graduated to "screaming" on the patient assessment!

Bill was able to immediately be with Ian unlike at Ben's and brought him to me as I was being stitched and delivering the placenta. I forgot how much the out of body experience of being totally in the moment with the pain but also like you are watching it from some other place.

It was a good labor and birth. Mercifully, during labor Ian turned from posterior I am sure because I stayed out of the bed, labored in as many positions as I could manage, and had wonderful support. I also highly recommend watching the Hangover for your disengagement from the pain of labor, actually laughing did hurt!

Happy one-week birthday my beautiful boy. How much I want for you and your brother. You have already blessed me beyond reason with your safe arrival and your beautiful blue eyes and dimple just like your brother and dad.

How much I have to be thankful for and how lucky I am to welcome you.
I'm still in sheer and total bliss.