Happy Tuesday, friends!
I hope everyone had a fabulous Labor Day weekend...we definitely did because BENNETT CAME HOME FROM THE HOSPITAL YESTERDAY!!! Hooray!!!
Now that I have a little more time on my hands because I'm not driving up to the hospital 3 times a day, I wanted to sit down and write his birth story out, before I forget all of the details!
I was originally supposed to get induced on August 27, a whole month before my actual due date. I think I mentioned this on here before, but my placenta was in the back, making it very difficult for my doctor to transfuse blood to Bennett once he got bigger. My high risk doctor said he wouldn't do any more blood transfusions in utero after about 32/33 weeks, so we were all crossing our fingers that Bennett would make it 3 weeks after my last transfusion without getting super anemic. However, my doctor got a little concerned that Bennett had gone through so much blood between transfusions #2 and #3 (#3 was the last transfusion), so he consulted with the NICU doctors and they all agreed to move my induction date up by a few days. Instead of getting induced at 35 weeks and 4 days, they would induce at 35 weeks exactly, just in case Bennett was getting anemic (there isn't a very good way to tell if baby is getting anemic after so many transfusions, except for regular MCA scans that I had been getting as well as doing BPPs and NSTs. Bennett looked great on all of these things, but my doctor wanted to be conservative and err on the side of caution).
So! I probably should have gone in the night before, like I did when I got induced with Lucas, but the hospital was full, so instead I reported for duty at 7:30 AM on Thursday, August 23.
We took one last family of 4 picture before Trav and I left for the hospital!
The labor and delivery floor was insane that morning...my OB jokingly said people were coming in off the street in labor! Because I wasn't anywhere close to being in active labor yet, I waited in triage until about 12:00 PM.
While in triage, I got this balloon catheter thing put in to help me dilate, and HOLY MOLY did that thing hurt. So much blood everywhere (eek, sorry!). It was awful. I got it put in at 9 AM and was literally counting down the hours until my doctor would take it out at 9 PM.
By the time we finally got moved to a regular L&D room around lunchtime, I was STARVING. They wouldn't let me have anything except clear liquids! So all I ate the whole day was popsicles and jello.
I was so freaking hungry all day!
Once we got settled in our room, they started me on pitocin around 1:00. It took a little while to start feeling contractions, but once I felt them start to get stronger, I immediately asked for the epidural (I had also asked for it while we were still in triage, at like 10 AM! Ha! I wanted to make sure I got one!). So around 3:30-ish, I got my epidural. And let me tell you, it was the best epidural out of all 3 deliveries. OMG, it was magical!
I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening napping and trying not to think about how hungry I was. I had to constantly lay on my side, because when I was on my back, Bennett's heart rate would drop and my blood pressure would get super low. My low blood pressure, combined with all of the drugs made me super nauseous and shaky. My hands could not be still! Around 9:00, the doctor came in to take out that God-awful catheter thing and break my water! When she did, she also checked me...I was 6 cm dilated! Upon breaking my water, my doctor saw some meconium in the fluid, which freaked me out, because now I had yet one more thing to worry about with this baby.
The doctor and nurses had me to continue to lay on my side with a big old peanut ball thing between my legs. Let's just say I have been in more comfortable positions. Between the crazy low blood pressure, shaking, and intense hunger, I basically wanted to die/get this baby out immediately.
The nurses told me to call them as soon as I felt pressure down there to push. They kept checking me, and I was only at like 7 cm. I was so worried I was going to have a c-section at this point because I really wasn't progressing much, and baby's hear rate kept dropping. Thankfully, a little after 12:30 AM I started feeling more pressure...the nurses checked me and I was 9 cm! I was also excited because it was now August 24...which meant baby was going to have an all even-numbered birthday! (I hate odd numbers and it kills me Ella and Lucas both have odd numbers in their birthdays!)
I quickly got to 10 cm and was ready to push! I pushed through 2 contractions, maybe about 10 minutes, and Bennett was here at 1:13 AM!
We did not know gender, and I was about 80% sure it was a boy. As soon as I saw Bennett, even before I saw his "boy part," I knew he was a boy because he looked exactly like Lucas!!! And then the doctor let Travis say, "It's a boy!"
Because I was induced at 35 weeks, we weren't sure what kind of condition Bennett would be in. Thankfully, he came out crying and had good color, so I got to hold him right away! Also, this is so random but he smelled so good! Is that not weird?! He had such a newborn smell to him!! It smelled like...diapers and baby powder maybe? I don’t know, I just remember holding him for the first time and thinking “he smells like such a newborn!”
Anyway, then they took him over to the warmer to wipe him down, measure him and do all that good stuff! They also suctioned him out really well, and I don't think he swallowed any of the meconium that had been found when my water was broken!
He was a good weight (6 pounds, 2 ounces) and he was doing really well! They were keeping an eye on his breathing though. I feel so lucky that they gave him back to me to do a little skin-to-skin while they monitored his breathing. I honestly thought he would be immediately whisked away to the NICU right after birth, so I was soaking up this short hour of baby snuggles that I got to have!
While we were snuggling with Bennett, his oxygen saturation level was a little low. It was supposed to be 95%-100% and his was in the low 90s%. The nurse from the NICU decided to take him to the NICU for monitoring. Looking back, I'm surprised they didn't take Bennett to the NICU for his real issue (hyperbilirubinemia and HDN), but hey, I guess anything to get him where he needs to be, right?! So we kissed our sweet baby goodbye. The nurse made it seem like she was going to bring him right back, but...this is not my first rodeo, guys. I knew Bennett was going to that NICU for quite a while!
The crazy thing is, at birth, Bennett's hemoglobin was 14! 14! That's a really high, healthy number. And that was the whole reason I got induced early...we all thought his hemoglobin at birth would be like an 8 or 9. What a little trickster!
Bennett came off the c-pap to help him breathe within 12 hours, and Travis and I went to the NICU to see him for the first time at like 4:30 that morning (yeah, we didn't sleep at all that Thursday into Friday night!). Looking back, it wasn't nearly as traumatizing as it was when Lucas got admitted to the NICU. Mostly because I knew he was in the right place to help get him healthy ASAP!
I was crazy sore the next few days, especially in my hips (probably from those hours of laying on my side with that damn peanut ball), and the cramping was a lot worse than I remembered from Ella and Lucas!
Yay! I am glad that he's finally home with y'all!
ReplyDeleteYAY! I'm glad y'all are all healthy and home.
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