Isaac is 9 days old today and is on something of a schedule, giving me time in 3 hour increments to myself and letting me finally get online. He is the most handsome little man and I love him so much, it's impossible to think that 9 days ago we hadn't even met yet. On Sunday, May 16th at 40 weeks and 3 days preggers I was admitted to the hospital to be induced. We got there at 7pm and by 8:30pm I was on pitocin. Andro and I got as settled in as we could, we were both in fairly uncomfortable beds and I was so excited I barely slept at all, and at 2am on Monday, May 17th my water broke. I was so excited and thought, great, I'll have this baby out by lunchtime...but that's not what happened.
I didn't fully efface and dilate until 3pm. My nurse didn't want to worry me and tell me that I was making no progress (my water broke at 2am but at 9am I was still at -4 station), but I knew this was taking a lot longer than it probably should. I also knew that at least I would be guaranteed to be having the baby that day because my water broke. Throughout my whole pregnancy my stance on a 'birth plan' has always been that I want my baby to be healthy and whatever needs to happen for him to be delivered safely is what I would do. I don't believe in making ultimatums for a situation that you can't control, and I'm really glad for this because I never would have foreseen Isaac's birth happening the way it did.
I started pushing at 4pm, determined to get the baby out and was pushing 4 times for each contraction instead of 3. After 2 hours of pushing, my nurse took my temperature and I was up to a fever of 101. I was given medicine and pushed hard for another hour, my doctor came in and tried using a vacuum extractor but it didn't work. It felt like (and I'm guessing looked like from that angle) the baby was stuck. The doctor told me we could keep pushing--throughout the whole labor process Isaac had a strong heartbeat and was not in distress at all--but I knew it wasn't happening. I told her I wanted to do whatever she thought was best and once she said she wanted to take me "to the back" (i.e. c-section) I fully agreed.
After the first hour of pushing my epidural had begun to wear off and by the time they were wheeling me to the back it was impossible to not want to push through the contractions. Once they got me to the operating room I made sure to tell the anesthesiologist that I had feeling again and waited until I was good and numb again before we continued. Andro came back to the room and within a few minutes at 7:57pm the doctors had Isaac out. He was so beautiful I immediately started crying. I couldn't believe we had made a person and he was here safely. They cleaned him up and Andro went to the nursery with him. After they left I finally began to succumb to exhaustion and was out of it for the next 45 mins or so as they closed me up. I woke up when they told me how big he was--21 inches and 9lbs. 7 oz.
I was wheeled to the recovery room and was in and out of sleep there for the next couple of hours. At 10:30pm, I was wheeled down to my recovery room and Mom and Trini came in to say hello and goodnight. They had waited all day for the baby to be born and once we entered the room the nurse told them they wouldn't be able to see him until the next day. But just as I was getting settled in, the door opened and they rolled in Isaac. I have never seen 2 people more excited then they were at meeting their grandson. I hadn't had a chance to hold him, so I was excited to finally get to and the picture above is from that moment.
I stayed at the hospital until Thursday afternoon (it felt like I had moved in by then, I had been there for so long). Finally coming home was wonderful, but we're still working on a schedule and the first few days were really rough (especially the first night as I failed to fill my pain killer prescription on Thursday and didn't take anything until Friday afternoon...with a c-section that is a HUGE mistake). Isaac is doing well, eating, sleeping, and pooping like all newborn babies should, and looking at him just melts my heart, he is so sweet. I have been incredibly blessed to have my Mom with me and am extremely thankful that she was able to extend her visit for a 3rd time to help me take care of him. I know she is going to go home and probably sleep for 2 weeks straight. We are definitely a bit sleep deprived here, but I'm finally able to sneak in naps here and there and I wouldn't change it for a thing.
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