My REAL Labor Day

After a productive yet also relaxing and fun Labor Day holiday, came my real day of labor.  And oh boy, it was some serious labor!  

My contractions started around 4AM.  I was sleeping in the recliner in our bedroom and was waking up about every 15 minutes with some pretty bad pains.  It took me a few times of waking up and falling back to sleep between contractions before I realized what was really going on.  Once I started timing them they were 12 minutes apart, and I just kept sleeping between them.  Finally around 6AM they were about 7 minutes apart.  

At 6:30 I told Mike I thought I was in labor but he just thought the contractions would stop, and he went back to sleep.  (lol)  I decided to do some laundry and make sure I was totally prepared and packed.  I called my parents to let them know I was in labor so my mom could head out to our house to pick up Melia for a couple days.  Then I called Mike's parents to see if his mom could come over to stay with Melia til my mom was able to get out here.  She said she could come over and I told them I'd call them when I was ready for them but that I was going to let my contractions go a little longer.  At this point they were 5 minutes apart.  

I called the hospital and told the nurse I was in labor.  I asked when I was supposed to come in and she said when my contractions were between 3 and 5 minutes apart.  She asked if I was going to get an epidural and I told her no.  She then told me that in that case I should stay home as long as possible until they were 3 to 5 minutes apart and I couldn't walk or talk during the contractions.  She told me that they'd hold a room for me with a jetted tub to labor in.

Mike finally woke up and realized I REALLY was in labor.  :)  I did some more laundry, and got Melia up and dressed and did her hair, stopping every 4 minutes and bracing myself--sometimes screaming.  Ooh it was hurting REALLY BAD especially in the small of my back.  We called Mike's parents to come over and they arrived around 8AM.  They probably thought I was a crazy woman on the floor on my hands and knees groaning and screaming like a mad lady!  My contractions were 3 minutes apart.

We jumped in the car and headed to the hospital which is about 20 minutes away--30 in the morning traffic.  Driving was the worst.  I was trying to brace myself on the chair and was just dying!  We turned on the radio and I tried to sing along with the music.  It really helped and I even tried to sing through some of my contractions but eventually they got bad enough and close enough together I just had to grit my teeth through the pain and squeeze Mike's hand.  Finally we arrived at the hospital at 8:30 AM.  

We parked valet and as I got out of the car a big contraction started.  Mike was like, "COME ON!" and I was like, "I CAN'T!"  The valet guy got me a wheelchair but I didn't take it because sitting only made the contractions worse.  I was glad to be out of the car!  When we got up to the labor and delivery floor another contraction started.  They were asking some check-in questions and I dropped to the floor on my hands and knees.  A friend of mine had told me that was the best position for labor for her.  I have no idea what my best position for labor was...definitely not sitting, but I don't know that my hands and knees was too great either.  

Anyhow, the nurses saw me go down and said, "GET HER TO A ROOM!"  They rushed me to a room.  I didn't want to sit so I was pacing the room.  They called my doctor to get over there as soon as possible.  I finally sat down long enough to let the nurse put an IV port in my arm, but opted not to be hooked up to an IV because I didn't want to be restricted at all.  Then she checked me.  I was at a 7.  She folded the bed into a chair for me (I didn't know they could do that) because anything was better than laying down.  I had wanted to do some labor in the tub, but I was too far along by that point.

My doctor came in and I was in sooo much pain I wanted to die.  At this point I was saying I wanted an epidural but the nurse (she was AMAZING, especially compared to the one I had when Melia was born...) kept saying, "You've come so far and you're doing so well, you don't want to get an epidural now!"  The doctor told me I'd probably have the baby too soon for the epidural to work anyway.  I know that if you're an 8 you're too far progressed to get an epidural and I was probably about an 8 by then anyway.  

Holy crap, it was hurting so bad!  The doctor told me he was going to break my water and then I'd have a baby really quickly.  He broke my water and the contractions got a whole lot more severe.  I was screaming my head off and swearing like a sailor!  At one point I told Mike I hated him (for doing this to me).  I kept swearing and Mike would just smile or laugh!  I was SOOO mad!  SERIOUSLY, that was pain like nothing I've EVER felt before.  I thought Melia's birth hurt...  At one point I turned to Mike and told him I really really wanted to commit suicide.  (Seriously, it was bad!  Lol!)  Then later I held his hand and with tears in my eyes looked at him so seriously and said, "Mike you have to PROMISE ME you WON'T let me do this again."  He said okay and I held on tighter and was like, "No Mike, you have to PROMISE ME!  PROMISE ME!"  Oh my gosh, it was so miserable!

Finally he started crowning.  I could tell that the doctor and the nurses were worried about something.  They kept whispering and talking in muted tones.  But I just kept pushing.  I wanted that baby OUT and that pain to be over.  Finally, FINALLY, FINALLY that little head came out.  Wait...no, that BIG head came out!  Even the doctor was shocked at the size of this little man's head.  He was like, "WOW!  No wonder you're screaming!"  Then later he was like, "Now THAT is a HEAD!"  

Unfortunately a giant coil of the umbilical cord came out along with his head and was right by his neck.  Because of this, the circulation to his head and the nutrients to the cord were being shut off.  Thus the plummeting heart rate and the nervousness of the physicians and nurses.  As I first laid eyes on my little baby's head, it was shockingly gray.  A horrible color.  I immediately turned to Mike and said, "He's dead!"  Mike told me he wasn't but I was certain he was.  It was such a terrible feeling at this point to think I was giving birth to a child who was already gone.  Again I said, "Mike, he's dead."  He again assured me he was not dead.  Then his little head started turning purple.  I knew he was still alive, but purple was no better than gray, and I knew he wasn't going to live much longer if we didn't get him out.  But then the doctor told me NOT to push.  As his face grew darker and darker purple the doctor informed us there was a shoulder dystocia meaning that his shoulder was stuck.  In addition to the cord coil shutting off circulation, his shoulder was stuck in my pelvis making it almost impossible for me to push him out and get the cord uncoiled.  (After coming home I have since researched shoulder dystocia and they say it is one of the most frightening emergencies encountered in the emergency room.)  After tricky and careful maneuvering by my truly incredible doctor, and one more big push on my part, out he came.  

When Melia was born she was quickly whisked away from me due to her low heart rate, extreme paleness, and the fact that she had aspirated the meconium.  My situation with Evera looked much more grave from my point of view so I was shocked when upon delivery they immediately laid him on my stomach to clean him up and let me have some bonding time with him.  Miraculously, as soon as he was fully out and that cord got uncoiled, he immediately gained normal coloring and was no longer purple at all but a perfect pink!  It was such an odd feeling to have this slimy little being squirming around on my arms as they cleaned him up.  Then they gave him to me and I held my perfect little man--a little blotchy, but perfect nonetheless.  I loved the mommy-baby bonding time.

And Daddy got some bonding time too.

It took me forever to deliver the placenta.  Luckily though the doctor wasn't yanking on the cord like the doctor did when I had Melia--cause that hurt!  Anyway, once I finally delivered it the doctor was just laughing because it was so enormous!  He said, "No wonder your baby was so big.  This is an amazing placenta!"  The placenta weighed 4 lbs! 

My doctor told me after the whole birthing process was over, that had I not gone naturally I probably would not have been able to deliver Evera.  His head was just too big and I needed to be able to push so hard--had I had an epidural, I wouldn't have been able to.  I guess that's some encouragement for natural childbirth.

After a slightly scary delivery, all was well and my little man was perfect.  It was such an incredibly different experience than that with Melia (although she was perfect too...).  They left him with us and never took him out of our care.  He was sticky and his hair was matted and yucky for quite a while.

They moved us up to the postpartum floor and then it was time for his bath.  Usually the father is able to accompany the nurse to bathe the baby while the mother recovers.  Although the childbirth itself had been excruciatingly painful, I was feeling pretty darn good and mobile seeing how I'd had no medicine or epidural during labor.  So I asked if I could go along.  They were a little apprehensive (considering I'd just given birth) about letting me walk down there and be mobile, but I was doing so well, they agreed.  Mike was still the one who got to give the little man his first bath, (I didn't want to rob him of that!) but I was able to be there to watch and take video and pictures!

He wasn't too thrilled about it at first.

But, just like his big sister Melia, once Mike ran that warm water over his head, he quieted right down.

Here he is all cozy in his towel after his bath.

Later that afternoon, my mom brought my sweet baby girl Melia to meet her sweet little brother Evera.  As she walked in the room she was looking at me and noticed I was holding something in my arms.  She surveyed it a little apprehensively as I said to her, "Melia!  Look what Mommy has!  Do you know who this is?"  She gave me a concerned look, furrowing her brow and I replied, "This is BABY EVERA!"  (For 5 months now we've been talking about Baby Evera.  Melia would pat my belly, or kiss it and talk about Baby Evera all the time.  One time while we were in the bath tub and she was poking at my belly I told her that Baby Evera was going to come out soon and that she'd get to hold him and play with him.  She immediately tried to open up my belly button--assuming that is where he'd come from--and tried to peer inside shouting, "Baby?!  Baby?!" seeing if he'd respond to her.)  When I told her it was Baby Evera her eyes widened and she stared harder at the little wiggling creature in my arms.  She let out a giggle and cried out, "Baby Evwa!"  She then quickly climbed up on my bed to get a closer look at her new baby brother.

Here she is carefully examining his tiny toes.

My mom got out the camera and Melia would not even look away from Baby Evera long enough to give her a smile.  She was too intent on checking him out--still not so sure about it all!

 

But then she decided he was okay and wanted to snuggle him.  (This is such a nasty picture of me all puffy and postpartum, but I thought it was so sweet of Melia, so I posted it anyway.)

Here's Melia holding Baby Evera with Daddy.

But she especially loved snuggling up with mommy on the bed and holding Baby Evera.  Look at that smile!

She absolutely LOVED it when I helped him wrap his little fingers around hers.  To hold her hand.  She kept saying, "Baby Evwa howd Mia hand!"  (She always refers to herself as "Mia.")

Ah how I love that girl!

Around the time that Melia came to visit, the nurse came to check on me and informed me that by that time all the gushing of blood out of my body should've stopped.  I told her I thought I was still gushing.  She checked me and I looked okay but just a few minutes later I felt a giant gush and it sortof felt like it was pulsating out and that something came out with it.  She checked me again and said I had passed a small clot and to keep her posted.

Shortly thereafter I needed to go to the restroom.  In the bathroom all the sudden I felt something pretty much fall out of my body.  I called the nurse again and she said it was probably just another small clot but that she'd "fish" it out of the toilet to be sure--the blood in there was so thick you couldn't see anything.  I returned to the bed and told my mom and mother-in-law who were both there that I thought I'd just given birth to Evera's twin sister (joking of course).  The nurse came out and looked a little startled and said for no one to go into the bathroom.  Then she turned to me and said, "You weren't kidding!  That was huge."  They measured and weighed the clot I'd passed and said it was around 300 cc's of blood.

The nurse called my OB and he said to have the hospitalist (the hospital doctor on call) come and check me out.  A while later the hospitalist came in and checked me.  He first kneaded my belly (like the nurses do when they check to see if I'm still gushing and to help my uterus contract).  He was NOT gentle about it and it hurt like heck.  I was crying out.  Then he said to me, "You are not going to like me, but I am going to have to feel in your uterus to see if there are any more clots."  Yeah...I was NOT liking him.  That hurt so dang bad and unfortunately there WERE clots so he had to MANUALLY extract them.  OH MY CRIMINY, it hurt like HECK!  So as he is manually extracting clot after clot I am screaming my head off.  I was BEGGING him to stop.  I cried and cried and begged them to just give me a little break and then he could do it again.  So he stopped for a minute and began to explain to me that if they didn't get the clots out I might bleed to death because my uterus would never stop bleeding because it couldn't contract enough to get to normal size with the clots in there.  He also told me if I kept bleeding it would result in the need for a hysterectomy.  Finally I agreed to let him finish.  It was so incredibly painful.  He said he was unsure if he was able to get them all out and that if I continued to bleed so profusely, they would have to do a D and C.  While the hospitalist was explaining all this to me I had tears streaming down my face--it had hurt so bad when he'd extracted the clots.  He sat on the bed next to me and just held my hand for a long time.  He was surprisingly sweet.

Luckily, shortly thereafter, I stopped gushing and was able to enjoy more of my handsome little man.

The next day my doctor came to see me and asked how I was doing.  I told him I was much better than the day before.  He thought I was referring to the birth and he replied, "WHATEVER!  You were a ROCK STAR!  I'm already having them construct a shrine of you out front!"  :)  The following morning when he came in before I went home, he said, "There's the GODDESS!  They're almost done with your shrine out front!"  Lol.  He is such a great doctor.

My sister told me Evera is just vain and wouldn't come out until his hair was perfect.  That's why he was so overdue.  :)

The next day Mike picked up Spencer to come see his new little brother!  He totally adores him.

He is such a great big brother!

Here's my dad with Baby Evera.

And here's Baby Evera with his stuffed monkey from Aunt Kristy.  :)  Isn't that monkey cute?!  Ooh and Evera is pretty dang cute too.  :)

 

Here I am enjoying time with my boy!

Mommy's All Star!  :)

Here he is with his hat on ready to go home.  I LOVE this bear hat--unfortunately it's turned funny in this picture.

He likes sleeping in the car seat.

 

And here we are, ready to go home!

Miraculously our little man slept 9 hours the first night home.  It was AMAZING.  Mike held him the whole time and that's why he slept so well, but it was SUCH a relief--considering the MISERABLE night we had the first night home with Melia (she screamed from 7PM to 4AM STRAIGHT)!  It wasn't a trend and I don't think he's ever slept that long since, but he is a pretty good boy.  He's a big spitter and in the evenings he gets a little ornery and sometimes he just wants to be held...ALL THE TIME...but he's a pretty good boy.  

We love our Baby Evera!