What a different a second baby makes! I am happy to say that this turned out to be a sweet experience! Much more do-able! I am so thankful and feel lucky to have gotten to experience a delivery that we could enjoy....instead of being so tramautized like we were with Kate. It still had it's moments...but a completely different experience!
Monday night, Dec. 20...we were suppose to check-in to the hospital at 9 pm. I was really feeling bad about having to leave Kate because she was starting to get sick. My mom and I actually took her to the doctor Monday morning and started her on medicine so that she would be healthy in time to meet her baby brother. Ty and I had also both been put on antibiotics for sore throats and coughs. I knew Kate was in great hands with my mom and Zack.....but I was just feeling so guilty about going off and leaving my sick baby.
Once we got to the hospital though, my focus began to shift. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I was well on my way to going into labor on my own! I was already dialated to a 3 and 80% effaced. I was also already showing contractions on the monitor! I had told my mom that I was a little crampy earlier in the day. They also said that my bag of water was bulging which meant that it would probably break soon. The nurse called the doctor to see what they wanted to do because she said they typically wouldn't insert Cervadil when a mom is already to this point. They were right. They cancelled the order to put in Cervadil and instead of starting Petocin at 3:00 am instead of the 7:00 am scheduled time. I thought it was really nice of the doctor on call...Dr. Hampton Richards to put off the induction bc he said "she is Dr. Nokleberg's patient...let's let her deliver her." They were telling me that I would most likely have a lunch time baby! Whoo hoo! Really????? I just couldn't imagine after what we had been through last time. They told us to try to get a little rest before we got started. This was probably 11 or 12 o'clock at night.
I can't remember what time I got my epidural....but it was at a point when the contractions were getting stronger and they said that it might be a good idea to get it now while he was close by. Sounds good to me! Only problem is that my blood pressure runs low and getting an epidural causes it to drop really low. This makes me feel very, very nauscous. They had to help me with that for quite a while before I started to feel better. Ugh!
Once 3 am rolled around, I was ready to just get it going. They started me on Petocin and the contractions began to pick up right away. By 8 in the morning, Dr. Nokleberg was surprised that my water hadn't broke yet so she said she would go ahead and break it. This was so different from last time. With Kate there was a big gush. With McClain....the nurses said there was so much fluid. They were guessing maybe the baby wouldn't be as big...maybe it was all fluid. (wrong!) But there was a lot of fluid too! It just kept coming out for what seemed like forever! This helped me to jump to complete really quickly! I told the doctor that I definitely thought I was at a 10. There was so much pressure and I felt like I wanted to push. They checked me and sure enough. It was time! I think this was around 9:00 am.
They started to prep the room for delivery. I began to get really nervous at this point. This was the part of Kate's delivery that was just beyond horrible. I just knew I could do that again....and really didn't think I would have to. Even when the nurse checked me for the last time she said "I can promise you that this will not be a 3.5 hour push!" Made me feel so much better. I also got so nervous because I knew that from the moment this baby boy was born....again our life would never be the same! So many wonderfully exciting things ahead....but what? And who will this baby be? Just so many unknowns....
Around 9:30 they were ready for me to start pushing. I tried to take myself back to Kate's delivery at the end and think about what I did then to finally deliver her. This push was only 30 minutes long and consisted of about 8 contractions. There were a couple of times where I was suppose to push 3 times and I still felt like I needed to which probably sped up the process bc she had me keep going. Although it is still tiring...it was exciting too bc with each push I was getting closer and closer to meeting Baby Mac. I could tell it wasn't going to be long. I remember a strange sensation that I didn't remember from before. There was a point where it felt like the baby had moved from out of my abdomen area and moved into my pelvis. My tummy felt empty....which I hadn't felt in so long. I knew it was almost over. Still not a fan of the time when the baby comes out! But it happened so much quicker that the pain involved was short lived!
And then there he was!!!! Such a miraculous experience! They asked Ty if he wanted to cut the cord...he said "I'm good" (He had cut Kate's) and then asked me if I would want to cut it while handing me the scissors. I just went with it! Pretty cool!
One last kiss before Ty and I headed to the hospital to meet Baby McClain!
My festive hospital socks!
First glance and cutting the cord:
Our big baby boy weighing in at 8 lbs. 13 oz.
Our Christmas Present!
No comments:
Post a Comment