It's been a while...

artygirl · November 2009

Wow, it's been almost three weeks since Lucas was born and I'm just logging on for the first time. I'm preaching to the choir here, but wow, having a newborn is exhausting.

The birth did not go as planned. I was hoping for natural childbirth and ultimatly ended up with a c-section. I started having contractions at 7am on October 15th and went to the hospital at about 11am. I had been having them every five minutes for a couple of hours. I went in and was only 1.5 cm dilated and the baby was at -2. The NP told me to go walk around, get some lunch, and come back at 2 to see if I was more dilated. So I did that and was still only 1.5 cm. The doctor told me to come back in when things changed. So I went back home and the contractions began to intensify (back labor...ouch) and were coming about every three minutes. I went back in at about 11 pm. Still only 3 cm dilated and at -2, but they decided to admit me. I labored with my doula, who was fabulous, through the night. At 3am, I was still less than 4 cm dilated and baby was still at -2. I was frustrated with the lack of progress. We labored until 3:30 am. I had been having very painful contractions since 7pm so I decided to take some Stadol to get some rest. I took a short nap and when I woke up I was rejuvenated. Still less than 4 cm dilated. At 5am they broke my water. At 7am, they did another dilation check, still less than 4 cm dilated. At that point, they wanted to do Pitocin so I opted for an epidural at that point. From 7am to 2 pm I labored under the influence of the two drugs. At 2 pm, I was less than 5 cm dilated and baby was still at -2. My doctor said that she would give me another 2 hours and if I made significant progress, we could go forth with a vaginal birth. If not, she was recommending a c-section. I was discouraged and didn't think I was going to have significant progress since I had been laboring for 30 hours and the baby hadn't budged so I opted for the c-section.

Lucas Milo as born on October 16th and he weighed 8 lbs 15.8 oz and was 22.5 inches long. He has a fabulous head of hair! If I can remember how to PIP, I will