Remember how I was being super impatient about how Finn hadn't arrived yet? Well turns out I might have been more than impatient and actually been feeling that it had been time. When my grandparents were here over Easter weekend, I could barely walk-I had chalked it up to being sore from tennis but it seemed to be lasting longer than it should have. I also just didn't feel quite right and felt that he should have been there by now or that something should have been happening.
So spring break came and went and no baby. I went back to work on April 1 and worked Monday-Wednesday. I felt ok, tired and not very mobile at all but by Wednesday I was feeling a bit dizzy even after I had been eating and drinking plenty of water. I knew I wouldn't be going to work the rest of the week but was till frustrated at no signs of labor. I stressed about emailing my co-teacher and principal about not coming in but of course they were more than understanding.
I had my appointment at 1:45 on April 4 and mentioned to my doctor that I had noticed a decrease in Finn's movements. A normally VERY active baby and now his movements were just an occasional kick here and there. So off I went to labor and delivery. I had been before for my stomach bug a few weeks back so I wasn't too worried and honestly thought it was nothing. He probably just didn't have enough room to move around.
I was hooked up to a monitor to track his heartbeat around 2:30. Maybe a half an hour or so later, a doctor (she has a specific title but I can't remember-she's a special doctor haha) came in and let me know that I'd be staying here and having the baby. My OB would be coming in to induce me and that's that. The reason being was that Finn's heartbeat would decelerate with some of my contractions that led them to believe that my placenta was "pooping out" as she put it. See! I told you he was supposed to come out... He just didn't know how!
Mom and Ali left to go home for dinner and Brett was at a track meet so I was totally bored for several hours and slightly uncomfortable since I was in jeans and had definitely not packed my hospital bag, much less brought it with me. Brett came at about 7 and I was induced at 8:15. 3 cm dilated. I was pretty heavily monitored and checked frequently so sleep wasn't an option. Pitocin also makes contractions much more painful and I definitely made myself go too long without any relief. Natural childbirth at this point was out of the question and I opted for a pain killer which I received at 1:45. 4 cm dilated.
Let me tell you, this pain reliever did nothing. It was not supposed to totally eliminate the pain, just take the edge off and leave me feeling drunk-ish. Yeah, nope, nothing. Epidural at 2:30. That was the weirdest feeling. It didn't really hurt too much just felt like a pinch, a little stab, and I could feel the liquid going into my body. That did the trick. I couldn't feel anything. "Danielle, you're having a contraction, can you feel it?" "I'm having a contraction?" Finn started having a reaction to the pitocin and they took me off around 3 or 3:30; he had started to decelerate again and my blood pressure dropped a ton. I had to be on oxygen, was dry heaving, and had an excessive amount of bleeding. It was a scarier moment for Brett I think because I was just so out of it but I was definitely scared. My nurse, nice as she was, was a bit high strung and a little panicky so she wasn't reassuring or really letting us know what was going on. Luckily another nurse I liked was in there and she said this might be due to the placenta separating a little bit and they were just trying to figure everything out. Jeeze, with the other nurse it seemed like I was headed for an emergency C-section! Once I was off pitocin, everything regulated again and I was now 6cm dilated.
I started to progress naturally, but slowly for a couple of hours so my nurse thought he might be ok with the pitocin again around 5:45. At 6:15 she came in and turned it off. Guess we were just going to have to go slow but I was getting much more regular on my own. Even thought he pitocin ended up not working, it atleast helped get labor going which was good.
I stayed about 9 cm for awhile but around 10am I was good to go so my doctor broke my water and they turned down the intensity of my epidural. I tried to start pushing at 11 but I was still so numb that I wasn't doing anything. I'm just really responsive to epidurals I guess... They turned it down even more so the intensity was half what it was and I was able to start pushing at noon. I had to up my pain relief a little bit because now I was DEFINITELY feeling my contractions.
My contractions were doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing so I was pushing every minute or so then relaxing. It took me a while to get this pushing thing down-it's definitely not something that you just know how to do. Then I got really good and really motivated. I also got really frustrated because it was getting progressively more painful and everyone kept saying, "You're doing a good job! You're almost there!" I can't tell you how many times I heard I was "almost there" and that can get discouraging when it's like I was "almost there" 20 minutes ago!
It was a very intimate experience, however, just my OB, nurse, and Brett. Brett even had a leg, haha, which I know wasn't his plan but when I started pushing he was instructed to hold a leg and that was that. He was very thankful in the end that he was able to do that-what a powerful experience! And at 1:24, our beautiful baby boy was born! I laughed and cried, Brett cried, Finn cried-it was all so wonderful.
Finn was cleaned off before he was going to come to me but they found he had taken a gulp of fluid on the way out and had extra fluid in his lungs and wasn't able to breathe super well. Brett held him and took him up to the NICU while I got stitched up-after having a 9 pound baby who is 22 inches long, some tearing is expected.
Finn was going to need to stay up in the NICU since he wasn't able to eat on his own quite yet and he just had to pass some tests in order to leave. As far as NICU babies go, he was the healthiest you can be he just wasn't quite as self-sufficient. He was able to leave the NICU on Sunday and stayed with us two nights in a transition room. He was still hooked up to an iv to maintain his blood sugar and we were taking his temp every three hours. Nursing was (and still is) a struggle because he wasn't introduced to it right away. Frustrating as that has been, I'd rather be be able to breathe and be healthy than be an expert feeder. We make it work-I pump and use a bottle and a little shield, he just likes the plastic. We're working on it, though, and hopefully he'll be able to nurse on his own in a couple weeks.
Brett and I spent a total of 5 nights in the hospital and I hadn't been outside from 2:15 pm Thursday until about 1 pm Tuesday. It felt weird to be outside and to be bringing Finn home! It was so exciting and it was fun to see Katara's reaction. She is still getting used to him, but they'll be buddies soon enough. We are starting to figure out a better sleep/eating schedule-we were so used to waking him up in the NICU that we continued doing that here. The best advice we got was that he's not a NICU baby anymore so don't treat him like one-this is how we knew we likes our pediatrician :) Last night we finally just let him sleep and it was awesome. He ate at 10, slept til 2, slept til 5, and then til 8... Awesome :) And Brett and I switch off which has been working really well (Brett uses a bottle with my milk). Brett is better at changing diapers than I am. He used the analogy that he has had to deal with the pressure of a floppy fish that he is able to transfer those skills to a squirmy baby. And I'm fine at it, I definitely gagged at one of his dirty diapers but haven't since.
He was one week old yesterday and it was such a beautiful day that we did some errands and took him to the park. I had him in the stroller while Brett played tennis-very fun :) And he's a big boy! Eating more and more every day. He also loves riding in the car, his eyes get super big when we put him in his seat-so cute :)
