Wednesday, May 6, 2015

How To Have a Baby: Part II

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! :) 

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