Sorry it's taken so long to get this posted!
As I mentioned on the Labor&Birth board a few weeks ago, I started having contractions on Thursday night/Friday morning, Jan.10th/11th (early details
here lol). Finally, around 11pm Friday night, they started coming every 4mins or closer, and getting more intense; I called the case room to see what we should do, and they told me to come on in and get checked. I still hadn't dilated! This time however, the dr's could tell that the contractions were getting pretty intense, so they decided to have me wait another hour or so and they would check me again to see if I had progressed. I was told that as soon I was actually dilating they would take me in right away for my c-section; if I wasn't dilating when they checked again, they would likely admit me to the floor as they could pretty much tell that things were getting underway anyhow (I guess they could tell by the no-longer-able-to-talk, shaking-and-trying-not-to-scream contractions I was having every two minutes at that point lol).
In the meantime I was offered a shot of Demerol to see if it would help; the dr said if I was truly in labor it wouldn't stop anything, but if it wasn't actual labor, I might get some sleep. 15mins after getting the shot, I was asking the nurse when it would kick in.
She asked me, "Didn't it even make you at least a bit sleepy?" I said, "Yeah, in between the contractions..." lol. No joke, by that time I was so exhausted I was passing out for about 20 seconds between contractions!
Anyhow, when they checked me again, all we heard was, "Yup, you're going to have a baby tonight!" DH's response: "Okay, just to make sure we heard that right, you mean she's
actually dilating?" Yup, I made it to all of 1cm.
So, I was poked, prodded, and prepped, and Damian made his entrance at 5:49am Saturday, January 12th, at 7lbs11oz, 19 1/2" -- and all you could hear from everyone in the room was "OH MY GOODNESS he has a full head of red hair!!!"
But get this: once things were settling down, the OB came around the curtain to DH and me, said "Just LOOK what your boy had done!" and held up a length of Damian's cord -- with a snug knot tied in it.
Luckily he had a long umbilical cord and the knot hadn't put any pressure on it. (My boys and their cords... one double-corded around the neck, and one with a knot tied in it.
)
We did end up spending an extra two nights in hospital though... on our third (and what should have been our last) night, he gave me a HUGE fright because I couldn't wake him for his feeding, and he just didn't seem right. My nurse had to come in, strip him down, wipe his face with a cool cloth, and basically keep poking him to bring him around. Yup, you guessed it, jaundice -- the nurse's comment: "Well look at you, you're glowing!" lol. She ordered a bilirubin check on him at five that morning, and by that afternoon he was under the bililights -- in the NICU, because both light beds in the nursery area were already in use. That meant me trekking down two floors and over several looong corridors every three hours through the night to nurse him. Not an easy thing to do 3 days after a c-section... Suffice it to say by my second trip the nurses were bringing me in a wheelchair.
Anyhow, after his extended suntanning session,
we stayed in one more night for observation, and then finally got to go home. Here's a pic of me and the munchkin!
Damian Raymond's birth story (finally!)
(((HUGS)))
You done great! i love the pic of you both.x
congrats
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