baby fino is here 06/05 late preterm UPDATED

efino87 · June 2014

Short version: baby boy fino arrived at 7:11 am on 06/05 at 36w4d after my water broke and labor quickly progressed. He was 8lbs 6oz and 20 1/2 inches long. He is doing well, loves to eat and is being closely monitored while rooming in with me. We are hoping to jump through a few more hoops to be released tomorrow 06/07. Long version: I will add a complete story as soon as I have access to my computer. Here is a photo until then!

Update: Thank you everyone for the kind words! We are happily home now. So here's the part you have been waiting for, the actual REALLY LONG birth story.

Background: On Wednesday, June 04, I went to my OB for a regular 36 week appointment. We had been followed closely this pregnancy because of the history of preterm birth and I was feeling excited to be so close to having a term baby. The OB saw me pretty quickly, my cervix was 2-3 cm dilated, 50% effaced and baby was at the -2 station. When the OB took my fundal height, she found it was now measuring five weeks ahead and again brought up the likelihood of a c-section. She scheduled another growth ultrasound for the following week but let me know that if the ultrasound was still tracking ahead, a vaginal delivery would be unlikely. I took it like any hormonal nine month pregnant lady would and bounced between acceptance, terror and ugly crying. I decided to go for a walk alone to think things out and when I got home I did some research about suspected large babies before calling it a night.

Life has a funny way of working things out sometimes. I had a hard time sleeping that night and couldn't get comfortable. At 1:00am I woke up suddenly and felt a small trickle. I headed into the bathroom and sure enough a few more trickles followed. I sat on the toilet a moment debating the best way to proceed and ending up yelling out to my DH to, "get up and get dressed my water broke". After a few phone calls, my dad showed up to watch our DD and we made the twenty minute drive to the hospital. My contractions had picked up at some point and were about two minutes apart. That trickle of fluid had turned into me soaking my pants and the truck seat (a towel would have been a good move).

When we got to the hospital around 2 am, I waddled into the ER leaving a trail of fluid through the parking lot and we were quickly moved to L&D. The nurse took one look at my soaked self and knew my water had in fact broken so they quickly got my changed and hooked up to ivs. I was checked and at a 3-4 and maybe 70% effaced. I had orginally planned on laboring without the epidural for awhile but at that point I couldn't remember why so I gladly accepted the offer to call the anesthesiologist around 3am. I have scholosis and my last epidural didn't go well so I was nervous but this doctor was great and quickly got me set up. We turned out the tv and sat around watching CMT with our nurse, chatting and laughing like nothing was happening. At this point I believe I was around 5cm and 90%. I was the only person in active labor on the floor, so it was nice having the extra attention and help. The epidural caused my contractions to die down, so she moved me into different positions to keep things going and move baby farther down. I was feeling pretty good considering until nausea hit me hard. I was checked again and at 7cm and 100% then I started vomiting hard, which caused me to be complete within a minute. The doctor had not arrived at this point and was about 30-45 minutes away.

Laying still and breathing through the urge to push while we waited for the doctor was probably the worst part of the experience but once the doctor arrived we were able to quickly get going. I think I pushed through 4-5 contractions before our baby boy was born. He ended up being large like they expected and I received a small second degree tear on the way out. The doctor immedatly put him on my chest and we were able to nurse while I was stitched up. After he ate he was weighed and measured and cleaned up. Bobby Lee was 8lbs 6oz and 20 1/2 inches long, with a 14 inch head. We were thankfully allowed an hour of bonding time before the rush of visitors came in.

Since he was late preterm and large, he had to have a few extra tests and some more monitoring done during our stay but passed everything eventually. The biggest problem we encountered was his lack of bowel movements but he has more than made up for that since. I am very thankful that this situation turned out as well as it did and we are very happy to all be home together. Thanks for reading our story and best wishes to all of the mama's of June!