Labor and Delivery

Although I would rather be sleeping right now, I figure that two weeks is long enough to avoid writing. I'm sure to forget details as time goes on and since I seem to have sleep-deprived-new-mommy-brain these days I'd better get things written down. So, (since I know the anticipation has been incredibly great) here is the way Grant made his entrance into the world...

Two weeks before I had the cute little guy, my doctor had me go in for an ultrasound to estimate the baby's weight. Since both Jackson and Luke were nearly nine pounds and with my Gestational Diabetes diagnosis, an ultrasound is routine during the last few weeks of pregnancy. The estimated weight was eight pounds and eleven ounces. This worried me since babies usually gain 1/2 a pound each week during the last month. So, my doctor decided to "get things moving along" by stripping the membrane when I was 38 weeks. Because of the doctors schedule and other women going into labor (the audacity of them!) I had to wait an extra few days.

Wednesday the 6th I went in and the doctor did her thing. I was told by many people that this was excruciating but it seemed just like a normal exam to me. She said that I could expect some cramping and that if the baby was ready he would come within 48 hours. I did have a little cramping but I was really busy. Luke needed to go to the doctor, we had 6 house showings, etc., etc. I called Jimmy at work and suggested that we go out to dinner since there were 3 groups of people coming to look at the house between 5 and 7.

As we were driving to the restaurant, I realized that maybe the cramping was consistent. I had cramping and/or contractions many times over the last few weeks so if I hadn't had my doctor's appointment that morning, I would have just ignored it. We timed things through dinner and then I decided that we should go home so I could call the doctor. Jimmy put the kids to bed as I called to find someone to stay the night with them. I had to call 4 people before I found someone who was actually home! Our neighbor came right over and she was so helpful, pushing us out of the door. (I did put Luke to bed that night and got really sad because I knew it would be the last time I would put him to bed as my baby.) Anyhow, Jimmy didn't really think I was in labor (as usual) and he thought we would return home in a few hours.

It was nice driving to the hospital with my husband. (With Luke I drove myself.) We got there at about 9 pm and they said that I was about 3 centimeters dilated. The nurses called the doctor and suspected that she would have me walk the halls of the hospital for a few hours. I thought that was a great joke because I was in no mood to walk for hours. Thank goodness the doctor was already at the hospital to do another delivery. She decided that she would just break my water to get things moving faster.

Well, move faster they did. She told me that she would come back and check me in an hour. At the hour mark, I had the anesthesiologist come in to give me the epidural. He put the catheter in and administered some type of narcotic that gave me a about 15 minutes of relief from the contractions but made me VERY itchy. I thought that the whole epidural was done...but I was wrong. After some pain free resting for about 15 minutes I felt some major change happen. I asked when the doctor would be back to check me and wondered why I was in so much pain. (After my epidurals with the other two I couldn't even feel the contractions or the baby being born.) This was VERY different. I felt everything and when the nurse checked me, she got a little frazzled and kept telling me not to push. It took them twenty minutes to find my doctor. (I'm pretty sure she was sleeping, judging from the way she looked when she FINALLY came into the room.) It seemed to me that the nurse was yelling at me every couple of minutes not to push. "You don't want me to deliver your baby," she kept saying. Thank goodness that Jimmy remembered some of the breathing techniques from our classes years ago. He was really helpful in getting me through things.

The doctor came in an hour and a half after she broke my water and I was ready to go. They broke down the bed and I began pushing. I was told that I pushed for about twenty minutes but it seemed a lot shorter than that to me. My jaw was shivering like crazy, which I think really scared Jimmy but I had seen it many times on reality birth shows so I knew it was normal. After little Grant's head was delivered the doctor told me to wait and I said, "NO". So I just got the little guy out.

Jimmy and I couldn't believe how small he was. (8 lbs 7 oz and 20.5 inches long) The nurses couldn't believe that we thought he was small. He was a half pound lighter than the other two and his head was in the 50% range. (The other boys had heads over 100th percentile.)

After he was born at 12:20 am, a man who had been standing there for most of the delivery, introduced himself as the other anesthesiologist who was going to administer the epidural medication and pump. That was news to me but it explained why I was in so much pain!

I was so worried that there would be issues with the baby because of things I was exposed to early in the pregnancy. (Specifically, I was injected with radioactive dye for a bone scan.) As they were checking the baby over, Jimmy told me that he was perfect...not even webbed fingers or pile toes like our older boys. He seemed to be just perfect. By the time everything was finished up, it was about 3 am. We slept for a few hours and then Jimmy left to go be with the big boys while Grant and I hung out and rested in the hospital.

The experience, although much more painful than my other births, was wonderful in other ways. I felt an immediate bond with the baby, something that took weeks to develop with the other two. Maybe it was from being alert and not medicated. Maybe because the delivery was so short. Maybe it was because I've done this twice before. I'm not sure, but it was lovely to feel excited to have him and to just want to cuddle him and get to know him.

And so this is how we got to meet our newest little one, cute sweet Grant. We are so happy to have him.