Milo's Birth Story

Oh where to start? I guess that I'll start with my doctors appointment on Wednesday. I had my membranes stripped knowing that statisticly at 38 weeks it only works 50% of the time. I didn't want to have to deal with induction the following week, so I figured I'd give it a try. I was at a five and so my doctor told me he'd be very surprised if it didn't work and that I didn't have this baby that night. He said to give it 8-12 hours for contractions to start and kick in. Well I had plenty of Braxton Hicks, but not a whole lot else going on. I actually went home and took a nap, cause the previous night Ollie was awake all night and I only got a few hours of sleep. I figured that if I was going into labor, I would try to rest up if I could. I decided that I would get up and actually do some cleaning and some cooking and see if it kicked anything into gear. Well it really didnt, but a few inconsistent contractions. By that evening/night I wasn't expecting a whole lot to happen, cause not a whole lot had. He had told me when a woman goes home really crampy and sore, it actually means it didn't work. When they go home and not a whole lot happens, it means it did. I still wasn't trying to get my hopes up, cause I had gone past my 12 hours mark around 9:30, with not much going on. In the meantime, word had gotten up to Nana at girls camp that I was at a five and that the doctor thought that I would have the baby that night. So she called and asked if she could help, and had started heading on her way to our house. We did mention there was a big chance nothing would happen, but we were grateful she came anyway. We were worried she would get here and we wouldn't have a baby for days. When she got here around ten something I think it was, I was having a few more contractions randomly. After chatting for a bit we all went to bed around 11 something. Well, we got in bed. By this time my contractions were frequent enough that they were keeping both of us up. They still were inconsistent. Around 1:30 they were every 8 minutes, every 3 minutes, every 5 minutes, back to 9 minutes. We decided that we could go anyways, even if they weren't the normal 5 minutes apart. I'm glad this wasn't my first baby. I would have stayed home until they were 5 minutes, which never really happened. I would have been in trouble. Just like with Ollie, on the way to the hospital, a 20-25 minute drive, I had no contractions. It made us a little nervous. I got the hospital and they were back to about 2-3 minutes apart. Well I have to first say, that there were a lot of things about this hospital that we didn't love. They had a few nice things, but most things and most of the people annoyed us. That sounds mean, but they were very rude, or lacking in helpful areas. Ha! Anyway, with that said, they put us in their "observation"/ triage room. Their rule at that hospital is that they need to monitor you in that room for one hour, then call your doctor and let them decide if you get to stay or leave. VERY dumb. I'm sure that they make exceptions when a woman walks in with a baby ready to fall out of her, but most women they do this way I guess. So I was at a five plus they told me and was told to hang out and see if I would progress within an hour. If I didn't progress the doc would probably talk pitosin. Lovely right? The thing that makes us mad about this rule is that I have strep B, and need two bags of antibiotics in me before baby comes. I also have quick labors. So when we asked if I could start antibiotics, we were told no, cause my doctor hadn't officially admitted me yet. So we hung out for an hour, during which I heard the nurses talking about how I was barely at a five and how my contractions were far a part. They had just gone to 8-9 minutes again. I was worried they would send me home. It stressed me out, I live in Hurricane, it's not right around the corner. Im not a first time mom, this wasnt false labor people. I atleast knew that. It stressed me out enough that I felt like I had a hard time breathing through my contractions. Well when the hour was up, they came and checked me again, and despite my spread apart contractions, I was dilated to a six and had shown progression, so my doctor admitted me. It was funny to watch the attitudes of these nurses go from rude to "helpful". They took me to my delivery room and let me do my thing there. They gave me ice chips to suck on. It's the first time I've ever been given them and they actually sounded great to me, so I was excited. In the past they let me drink stuff. Well they did with this one too, but I was all over the ice. With these contractions it actually helped if people talked to me while I had them. It distracted me a lot. I wasn't as prepared with my hypnobirthing with this baby as my others. Well with each I was less and less prepared. I think I found it harder and harder to find time to practice with each kid. I'm a busy mom, I had my reasons. My fault completely, but still. Anyway, it didn't help that the more intense these got, the longer they got. Getting longer is normal, but breathing through an intense 3 minute contractions wasn't like either of my others. Those are hard to breathe through. Well shift change came and around this time, which was six a.m., I was asking about medicine options. I knew that I wouldn't get an epidural, but I was considering something to take the edge off. When the new nurse checked me I was at a seven. She had told me my doctor would probably be in there around eight to break my water. When I told her that my contractions were hard and lasting three minutes she told me at least they were six minutes apart and I could rest in between. Now normally with wanting a natural birth this nurse would have been ideal... At the moment I wanted to hit her. Ha! She went and got a birthing ball, and asked if I wanted to walk or sit on the toilet for a bit. I tried the toilet, which did wonders with Gabe, but I wanted to go right back to my bed. I had to sit up in bed through my contractions, where with Ollie I had to lay on my left side. It's funny how different they all can be. Well after a few more contractions of this I kept telling Adam I couldn't do this for another two hours. It was intense. Now this baby was probably the most work Adam had to do. Ha! On the other labors I didn't want to be touched and I just wanted to listen to my music. This time I had to squeeze the life out of Adam's hand and have him help talk me through them. I finally had Adam call my nurse back in. I asked her when she planned to check me next. She told me probably when my doctor got there. I told her I wanted her to check me now. She thought I was silly cause she had recently checked me, but she did anyways. Surprise I was at a nine ready to push. Man I hate not being taken seriously. She had to hurry and call my doctor to get there. In the meantime the two nurses told me if I felt like pushing, which I did that I could bare down if I needed to. I thought that was silly without a doctor even there. No on call doctor there just in case either. So odd. My doctor walked in and said, "Wow she's doing really good." I guess that's nice to know that I was still pretty calm despite wanting this baby out of me. He joked how he was sorry about his bedhead. I told him I didn't care that I wouldn't be looking at him anyways. He suited up and Adam asked him if he had any guesses to the sex of the baby. He asked a nurse what the heart beat was. She told him 140 and he guessed girl. He then told me that baby was turned posterior and that a few good pushes would flip it around, which it did. Adam said I only did about five sets of pushes and he was out. I thought it felt waaaayyy longer than that, but pushing isn't my favorite part. ;) I felt like such a baby. Pushing is probably when I complain the most. I just wanted it out. Ha! Atleast I dont scream or swear right? When baby came out our doctor said, "What is it Dad?" Adam announced, "It's a boy!" We were all a little surprised due to everyone predicting a girl. Such a great fun surprise. One of the best things we've done. So glad we decided to wait. They put the baby right up on me to let the chord drain a little bit. He was the cutest little man. Adam and I just sat and talked to him about what a fun surprise he was. They then got baby weighed and cleaned up in a sponge bath while I got stitched up. Our pediatrician happened to be right there at the moment and came and checked him out. She said he looked great. Because I had strep B she told us she wanted us to stay for 48 hours. Bleh! We knew that was coming. I couldn't deliver the placenta just yet so he had me wait. That was different than my others. He said if you wait five minutes it usually detaches itself and comes right out. Which it did. Their baby scale measured in kilos which we thought was kinda silly, cause they had to use a conversion chart to figure out his weight. He was 7 pounds 8 ounces. He was 20 1/2 inches long. He was born at 7:01 a.m. The nurse said to me," You're right you wouldnt have been able to do that for a few more hours, you would have had a baby." Yep thats what I was trying to tell you lady. They then let me do some skin to skin and try to feed him. He ate really good so I thought I was so lucky. He then got to meet his Daddy. This is always one of my favorite parts. I love watching Adam those first moments with our kids. It's just really special. We didn't have to stay in the room too long before they moved us up to the forth floor. I still have mixed feelings about our stay. I had some good nurses, and some random ones. There were pros and cons to this hospital compared to our other hopital in Reno. They had much better food. It was room service with a full on menu to order from. We never had a pediatrician check on Milo, and had issues getting ours there for his circumcision. The security was way lax, and they didn't really have a nursery. It was all kinda odd. I hated when a shift change came, cause I had to explain myself over and over. Communication among the staff wasn't happening. Poor Milo was struggling eating. He was spitting up, gagging, and throwing up. He had some bad gas bubbles that would just make him scream. Then the nurses would come in and want to know why I wasn't feeding him every two hours. He wouldn't eat and when he would he'd throw up. It was hard. I told Adam you know you've been there too long when you start having the same nurses come on another rotation. We were very ready to go home. I am grateful Nana was at home with our kids so Adam could be with me most of the time. We didn't tell Gabe what we had. We wanted her to be surprised. She saw a picture and thought he looked like a boy. She was right. When they got to the hospital, despite him being a boy, she still was excited. Ollie was interested for the first bit, then kinda just did his own thing. Gabe just wanted to hug and hold him. She was very cute. Milo also got to meet Nana and Grandpa and Grandma Weiss at the hospital. Nice to have some visitors. Later Gabe told Adam that she was sad she didn't get a sister, but she still loved her new brother. :) We ended up going home late Friday night. If we stayed until Saturday morning,or 48 hours, we'd have to be gone by seven in the morning, or get charged for another day. Really silly. So we would rather leave late. So we did and took our little man home. Such a nice feeling. Anyway there's the story. I'll have Adam read it and add his two cents. ≈≈≈≈≈