I started having cramping when I was 38 weeks along (June 26). It just felt like period cramps, but I was also having weird cramping in my hips (weird, I totally googled hip labor and it's a thing, apparently). I went to church that week but was totally miserable. I thought I might possibly go into labor that day but no luck. The next day the hip cramping happened in the morning and then went away. The following day I had period-like cramps in the morning and it was hard to walk. I went into the doctor that day for my check up and they checked me and said I was dilated almost to a 2. I was thrilled since with Logan I never got to a 2 even with massive amounts of pitocin and didn't make any progress until they used a foley bulb on me. I was so happy that my body seemed to be moving along naturally this time!
On Logan's birthday, July 2 (I was 39 weeks along that day), I was cramping again a LOT, and I was thinking that might be the day (but I did NOT want the boys to have the same birthday!), but after I sat in the tub for a while and took a Tylenol, the cramping went away. The next day I had another doctor's appointment. I was super sore all over my body and was having light contractions but I was still only almost a 2. I was pretty disappointed that I hadn't made any other progress. The light contractions continued, and on July 5th I started to lose my mucus plug (I know, ew, sorry). July 6th I lost a bit more and that night I had a constant cramp and pressure all night, but it didn't prevent me from sleeping. I just noticed when I would wake up to go to the bathroom...five times...that I was still cramping, but I didn't really think anything of it. Oh and I'd had a REALLY hard time walking around at the splash pad with Logan that day.
July 7th I woke up (well, Logan woke us up at like 6:30) and I was still feeling that constant cramp/pressure feeling. I told Jordan about it and he was like, "Maybe I should stay home from work today." At first I told him no, don't worry about it. But after I had my breakfast (Cheerios, cherries, and bacon) and was still feeling pretty uncomfortable and I told Jordan it would probably be best if he stayed home and that I was going to take a bath (I always feel better in the bath!)
So I was in the bath and I was texting with some of my friends about my constant cramping and whether or not it was labor type pain, when the cramping suddenly started getting a lot worse and then they would disappear. Like a contraction, seemed like. I never had regular, normal contractions when I was pregnant with Logan due to my water just breaking without contractions. So I decided to start tracking the contractions on my app at 8:00am.
I was pretty shocked at how immediately they were regular and long. The doctors say to wait until your contractions are 1 minute long, 5 minutes apart, for an hour before going to the hospital. Mine were immediately around one minute long and five minutes apart.
I texted Jordan while in the tub at around 8:15 saying, "You need to call AJ, these are contractions, see if Ann can take Logan." Well it turned out that day was the ONLY day Ann couldn't take Logan. Fortunately a sweet girl in the ward, Nikki, had offered a couple months ago to take Logan for me if I went into labor before my mom got to Arizona. So I sent her a text and she immediately said, I'll come get Logan RIGHT NOW. Which was so nice because she's out in Gilbert and it's a 25 minute drive, and she has a bunch of kids. But she came right out immediately and he was so thrilled to "go play with friends" that he didn't even want to say goodbye, he was basically just bouncing down the stairs yelling "Bye Mom!" I had wanted to get a picture of us together but he was gone before I had the chance. Haha!
The contractions were continuing to come quickly and regularly so we quickly gathered up our stuff, said goodbye to Lexi, and headed into the hospital. The whole way there I was like, I feel like this is happening really fast, we'll probably get there and they will tell us to go home, which will suck because contractions HURT. I didn't really have natural contractions with Logan so it was completely different.
We got into the hospital at about 10:00, got through registration, and they put me in triage where they would decide if I was going to be admitted or not. I had Jordan take one last pregnancy picture of me. I was 39 weeks 5 days along.
So Jordan and I sat there and watched Flip or Flop on HGTV while we were waiting. I held Jordan's hand through the contractions and tried to breathe.
Finally at 11:15 I was at a 5, and on my way to delivery. I really liked that they had the anesthesiologist come into my triage room and prep me for the epidural, and she walked with us to the delivery room and immediately put in the epidural as soon as we were in the delivery room, so we really didn't have to wait very long at all. It was AWESOME.
We had a great nurse named Hannah who was really great and I sure appreciated everything she did. She was really quick about everything and very attentive. Once the epidural was in, she helped me get on my side and put a big peanut shaped ball thing in between my legs, which made it really comfortable. I was getting a little tired by that point. By 12:00 I was at a six. Occasionally baby's breathing would go a little lower than they liked so they would put me on oxygen and that would help.
At 12:45 the OB came in and broke my water, saying that it would speed things along. She said that Parker had pooped in the sac so when he came out, they would have nurses ready to suction his lungs. She said that she didn't want him to cry after he was born because it would suck it down more, so not to panic after he was born when I didn't hear anything right away.
At 1:30 the nurse said she wanted to check me again and I was already at a 9.5. I couldn't believe it! The nurse told me to tell her when I started to feel the urge to push. I was like, "I'm not ready to push! I just got here!" I honestly couldn't believe it. I started shaking from the hormones. I was scared because I remembered how messed up I was after Logan was born.
A little before 2 the nurse said, "Okay, let's try to push." And then the OB came in and everyone got ready. I started pushing and after about 15 minutes the OB said, "Okay, I need you to stop. Don't move. The cord is around baby's neck and I'm going to cut it." That was kind of scary but she was really calm about it. So she cut the cord and said, "Okay, now we're going to push again." And after a few more minutes at 2:18, I felt him slide out.
They lifted him up and he looked really blue. It was pretty scary. He also wasn't crying yet (because the doctor hadn't wanted him to cry. They hurried him over to the little baby box thing and started suctioning his lungs. I sent Jordan over to make sure he was okay, and he was. He started turning more pink right away, and he hadn't swallowed any of the poop water stuff so that was good! He also peed all over the nurses right away and then started to cry.
I had to stay right where I was because I had to deliver the placenta (which I didn't even notice this time) and also they had to stitch me up. I tore again, which makes sense because Parker was even bigger than Logan. I couldn't believe it when the nurse said, "9 lbs 7 oz!" I was like, "Sorry, can you repeat that please?" That is one big baby!
Jordan got to hold baby Parker first because it took a while to stitch me up, but then I got to hold him and give him his first bottle, which he sucked up like nobody's business.
Here's Jordan and I and Parker in the delivery room. Pretty soon after this I we were able to go to the recovery room. My mom was flying in that day and landed just about 10 minutes after Parker was born! She was able to go pick up Logan from Nikki's house and take him back to the apartment for dinner and then we waited for them to come visit.
I couldn't believe how perfectly the timing worked out with her coming. When she came out for Logan's birth, she was there for several days before she was born. So when she bought her ticket to come out, I kept thinking that it was going to take several days before Parker was even born, but that isn't what happened at all. It was perfect! Here she is picking Logan up from Nikki's house.
Our recover room was really nice and I got to order a yummy lunch and dinner from their order in service. I had baked mac n cheese for lunch and a philly cheesesteak for dinner. Both were really yummy! It was so nice to eat since I got so hungry during labor, but I wasn't able to eat a lot because my hormones were doing some crazy things.
I was amazed at how much better I felt afterwards vs when Logan was born. When Logan was born, I couldn't get out of the bed without help for a couple days, and I certainly couldn't stay standing. This time almost immediately I was able to get up (even though I was pretty sore still).
Finally at around 7:00 Logan and my mom were able to come to the hospital. Logan was so so SO excited to meet his baby brother.
There's a really sweet video Jordan made of Logan meeting Parker, but I am not sure how to upload it onto the blog. I'll have to try to get Jordan to put it up later.
Here's Logan tickling Parker.
And my mom with both of her grandsons. So awesome that she was here right when Parker was born!
That night after Logan and my mom left, Parker got his first bath. Afterwards we did skin to skin to warm him up.
Our hospital prides itself on having the babies "room in" with mommy 24 hours a day...so sending him to the nursery at night was not an option, which was a bummer because I was super tired, since I had a baby and all. Jordan and I took turns at night holding Parker while the other person slept. Plusu people were coming in all night taking Parker's vitals or mine and for some reason they needed to take my blood at 3am. Neither Jordan nor I got much sleep. Haha.
I got a text first thing in the morning from my mom with this picture that said, "Good morning, Parker!! Would you like some apple juice?" I cracked up and it made me really miss Logan!
I was feeling pretty good so we asked to go home that day. We were just waiting around for his 24 hour check, so we watched a lot of HGTV and ordered room service and just hung out.
We took some pictures to pass the time.
Finally at 4:00 they said we were all set to go home! We got Parker all dressed up and they cut off his little ankle bracelet and we were on our way!
Parker was perfectly happy to chill out in his car seat and just slept all the way home. We were so happy to get him some and start our time as a family of four!
**if you'd like to see how this birth compared to Logan's, you can click HERE. **
1 comment:
I love reading the detailed story. So glad everything went so well for you and that you are feeling good!! He looks adorable!
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