Saturday, September 24

Miles David: A Birth Story

Little Miles made a very speedy entrance into the world and and we've been loving up on his sweet, calm, quiet self ever since.  Here's the long version of how our cute man joined our family.

Thursday, September 1st:  I had a doctor appointment in the morning and learned I was 3 cm and 70% effaced. She could feel his head and said my body was ready and that he would be here soon, Friday or Saturday most likely. I was elated and felt ready to have this baby. She then said I could schedule an induction to be sure they wouldn't share a birthday. I really did not want to be induced, but she said I likely wouldn't need to be, it was just a back up. So I scheduled it for Saturday.

My mother in law and sister in law came that night. BreAnne is going on an LDS mission to Arizona in October and they had planned to stay the night with us while they were in Utah shopping for clothes and mission supplies. We planned to get the last few things she needed on Friday, and as I wasn't having contractions, we figured that wouldn't be a problem. We went on a long walk that night to see if it would make anything happen, but alas, nothing. 

Friday September 2nd: We did all our shopping downtown and had a great morning with no signs of a baby coming. My in-laws left to go visit Kelly's brother, and my parents got to town that night. We headed to Scheels for Kelly and my dad to enjoy all the manly outdoor things, and for me and my mom to wander around and talk, while Lyla ran through the store, in heaven. 

We retuned that night and I put Lyla to bed, feeling quite a bit of anxiety, stress, and sadness for the end of an era. I started completely bawling while singing to her. I couldn't keep going and she kept asking me 'song?' while I tried to breath and keep a song going, failing miserably at both. 

I felt anxiety and stress because when it came down to it, I did NOT want to be induced. And it now seemed inevitable. I had scheduled it. It was for Saturday. It was currently Friday night and I hadn't had contractions. Not one, at least no painful ones. My parents had already arrived to help. There was no backing out now, though my mind screamed for it.

 I felt overwhelming sadness for the end of an era where it was just Lyla and me. We go together, her and me. She had been my constant companion and buddy over the last two years. During the vast majority of that time Kelly had been working 70-80 hours a week and was gone when she woke up, and home long after Lyla was in bed. We did absolutely everything together and I was feeling sad that now my attentions would be pulled in another direction. I wondered how to make her feel just as loved as she always has been, and prayed she wouldn't feel like the toys in Toy Story, and feel she was being replaced.

I prayed hard that night that I would be ok no matter how my little baby came into the world, after all, its not the end of the world to be induced. My body was ready regardless so its not like it could all go wrong. And I prayed for my little Lyla girl and her adjustment and for me and my adjustment. 

Then I slept soundly for once. And nothing happened. Until 3 am when I woke up because of a contraction. I just smiled big and was happy that my body was finally doing something and thinking that maybe by morning I would be in full on labor and wouldn't have to be induced. By 4 am I had 4 contractions. 

By 4:10 I was positive our baby was coming soon. My contractions suddenly were hardly stopping. they were right on top of each other. and they were bad. I got dressed and threw my last items into my bag and told Kelly we were leaving. Just after 4:30 am we left. And for the the first time ever I told Kelly to run a red light...and he didn't! Which made me laugh, which made my contraction worse. 

Labor and delivery was slow and they seemed confused...I'll give them the fact it was 4:45am. We walked in, me hunched over in the middle of a contraction, and the lady asked 'Whatcha got going on?" and Kelly said, "we got one coming." No joke, she next said "a baby?" ummm..duh. I thought this was hilarious. They asked me annoying questions that I'm sure are required and then they sent me to a room. It turned out, it was a triage room. The minute I walked in there, I said, "There is no point in putting me in here. I'm having a baby." But she told me she to stay there anyway. Luckily she came back 10 seconds later and said they actually wanted me in a birthing suite.

Thank you.

I got changed and was getting increasingly nervous that I was going to be really far along and that I wouldn't get an epidural. That's my worst fear. I could tell my body was progressing quickly. 

When the nurse checked me she told me I was at 6 cm and I could tell she was trying to be really calm but that she was surprised and felt the need to hurry things up, too, but labor and delivery nurses are trained to be the calmest people in the world so Kelly and I felt that everything was going very slowly. 

They managed to get my IV in on the second try, instead of the 6th, like last time, which I thought was kind of amazing considering the fact that one nurse was pushing on my knees to relieve pressure from contractions, while one was trying to poke me, while I'm in a ball of agony and Kelly was pressuring them for the anesthesiologist the whole time. The nurses got kind of annoyed, but all I could think of was how well Kelly knows me ;)

The anesthesiologist came right after and he was pretty amazing. He was able to keep working through my contractions somehow, and got me all set up. By the time he got to me I was a 7, so he gave me a combined spinal/epidural, which basically means a lot more drugs to make me even more numb. He said if he didn't do that, the epidural likely wouldn't have worked fully because I was so far progressed that its hard to play catch up with that amount of pain. 

It definitely worked, I felt so much better and even got to sleep. My water still hadn't broken and my midwife left it intact so that I could rest. If she had broken it I'm positive he would've been born. I'm pretty sure I was a 10 shortly after this. Even though I was numb I could tell that I couldn't put my legs together...But they let me do an hour of 'rest and descend' which is amazing because I got to sleep and my body did most of the work for me, prepping our little guy to be born. By 7:30 my midwife walked in and said it was time to have a baby. They had to call the nursery doctors to be there because there was meconium present so they may have to get fluid out of his lungs.
When they told me to push, I had hardly done anything when they told me to stop, because his head was already out, then I *sort of* pushed again and he was born. The first thing I noticed was hair. Dark hair! I was positive Kelly and I would create a gaggle of bald blonde babies as thats what was in my family and its whats Kelly's parents told me about his family. We have so few baby pictures of Kelly that I didn't really know what he looked like as a baby. (We dug out some photos when we got home. Kelly and Miles are twins!!). Kelly cut the cord and then they let me do 'sacred hour' where they just give me the baby and we get to snuggle for an hour before they do anything else. So they hadn't even weighed or measured him.
My midwife on Thursday had sad she guessed he was about 8 pounds and one or two ounces. She guessed spot on. He was 8 pounds 1 ounces, and 20.5 inches long.
I only needed two stitches and my recovery seemed much faster this time. I stayed in the hospital till just Sunday afternoon, and am so glad they let me leave then, because I was so bored. I hate being in the hospital! I was alone mostly because Kelly was alternating between being with me and being home with Lyla. Also, Monday was Lyla's birthday and I very much wanted to be home for that. Also - who the heck can sleep there? Not me. They even gave me an ambien but I still couldn't fall asleep. Not that it mattered, they brought Miles to me every 2 hours, so I am not sure why they gave me sleeping meds anyway.
Miles is the calmest, sweetest little guy ever. He was so active in my tummy that I thought he would be crazy, but he's just the best. He loves to sleep and absolutely loves to snuggle. He ends up sleeping in our bed most of the night, something I never thought I would do but he loves it and so do I.
His big sis loves him tons but hasn't quite figured out how to take care of a baby. She can be gentle when she touches him, or kisses him, but she also has an obsession with trying to climb into whatever he is in. Whether its the bassinet, the swing or the rock n play. She climbs in and gets right on top of him, thinking she's cuddling him....yikes! The other night for family home evening we taught her how a baby is fragile and how to hold them, and treat them. It kind of helped....
 He's three weeks old today and is already changing so fast. At his 2 week appointment he was up to 8.5 pounds. I don't want him to get bigger! There is nothing as sweet and perfect as a newborn and this stage ends too quickly. He's truly the sweetest, snuggliest, sleepiest babe ever and we are all in love. Kelly gets a month of paternity leave at work so he's got to spend so much time with Miles its adorable to see him bond, and even to see him playing and cuddling with Lyla, too.

These three are my favorite.
I am beyond blessed. 


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