Here's the story of Stanley Paul Markov, born on 4/21/15 (nine days
before his due date of 4/30/15), weighing 7lbs 4 oz, and 21in long.
I
was half expecting his birth to be similar to Gwen's, but it was
totally different. With Gwen, I started contractions the day before and
knew she was on her way. With Stan, I woke up at 12:30 am thinking I had
peed the bed. I got up, went to the restroom, changed my panties, and
went back to bed. Before I could fall back asleep, I was all wet again.
Oh, maybe this is what it feels like when your water breaks!
I
woke up Alex, who had just fallen asleep, and gave him the news. I
called my mom to come stay with Gwen and we headed to the hospital. We
checked in (I know it sounds like a hotel, but it's kind of like that)
around 2:30. I still wasn't having any contractions, so they wanted to
check to make sure that my water had in fact broken. Well, as they were
getting ready to check me, a whole bunch more fluid leaked out,
confirming that we were there to stay.
As with Gwen, I
wanted this process to be as natural as possible. I started walking laps
around the maternity ward, while smelling an oil mixture that could
induce contractions. I could walk for 40 minutes and then I had to be
hooked up to the machine for 20 minutes. I did this for 6 hours without
any progress (I came in at 1.5 cm dilated and there was no change). My
doc decided it was time to get things moving. I was already on fluids,
so he wouldn't be under stress, but they wanted to start Pitocin. I
really didn't want to do that, but I held off as long as my doc would
let me.
Around 9am, they started me on the lowest dose of
Pit. I tried walking some, but it was hard to do because I had to be
hooked
up to IVs and this heart rate machine that didn't cooperate. So, I spent
most of that time on the yoga ball. From 9am to 1pm, Nurse Pam slowly
upped my dosage, and I was at 5cm when the doc checked me. From there,
it really took off. I was having lots of back labor and instead of
getting an epidural, we decided to try to move the baby using the Texas
Roll. This meant laying in bed on my side with my bottom leg laying
straight and the top leg pulled into my chest resting on pillows.
Apparently, this did the trick!
By 2:15 I was at 10cm and
ready to get the baby out. Nurse Pam had to check me during my
contractions to make sure that my cervix was where it needed to be. If
it wasn't for her and Alex yelling at me not to push, they would've had
to deliver the baby. She called for Dr. Voelkel, who had to run to get
there in time. As soon as she got there, it took forever for the next
contraction to come. It finally came at 2:19 and baby boy was born at
2:20. Yes, I only pushed for one minute through one contraction!
He
came out so fast that the fluid in his lungs was not flushed out (they
pulled out 15 ml). And his face was bruised so much it looked like he
was covered in freckles. Another side effect was constant sneezing and a red ring around each of his irises. They
called him a fake c-section baby because labor was so fast. But he was
still beautiful with a full set of hair. He was a spitting image of his
daddy!
We are so blessed to have healthy baby. And even
more blessed to have a big sister that is totally in love with him! We
thank God everyday for our healthy family.
Happy Babies!
--Am
PS - No poop on the table this time! :)
