Arlo Gregory's speedy arrival

jaxlynn · January 2012

Hello ladies!

We welcomed our baby boy yesterday morning and it could not have gone better, it still feels so surreal. We had a busy day on Saturday and I was having some contractions over night and into Sunday. Discharge changed from mucus to moreso bloody slime. I took it pretty easy all day on Sunday, contractions coming and going but nothing at all consistent. I went to bed shortly after our daughter did. I was still having contractions and would wake up from them, but was able to go back to sleep in between them, until about 1:30 in the morning. At that point I was definitely having bloody show, but contractions were still very intermittent. I took a shower and pretty quickly the contractions started coming 2-3 minutes apart. We woke a nearby friend to come stay with our daughter around 3am. We got checked in at the hospital around 4 and I was 4.5 cm dilated. My water broke in the triage area and the nurse there told us she thought things would progress quickly.

In the birthing suite I really appreciated the exercise ball (as I had at home, too) and stayed on that for about an hour, just breathing through the contractions and pressure I was feeling. Around 6am I asked to be checked again and was at 5.5 cm. At that point my water GUSHED out and I figured things were about to move fast. (Sidenote: within about 3 minutes, I was checked, my water gushed and I was having wicked contractions.... and a gal came to do a blood draw right in the middle of it. So weird.) The contractions really piled up on each other then and I labored on my side holding on to the bed railing. I was just focusing on breathing through them. Pretty quickly I felt the need to push, and I thought no way I was ready, yet. But they checked again and sure enough, within a half hour I had gotten to 9.5 cm and told me to bear down whenever I felt I wanted to. The OB came in, I pushed for 15 minutes and Arlo was born at 6:56am! He was 8 lbs, 4 oz and 21.5 inches. He stayed on my chest for quite some time and latched on within 15 minutes. My hubs thought it was strange that the nurse in the birthing suite pretty much never left the room and was just staring at me. After Arlo was born I said, "Bet you didn't expect to be here for his arrival!" as she was off duty at 7:30 and she said, "Oh no, I had a feeling this was going to go fast, that's why I didn't leave the room at all! I just didn't want to say it out loud in case I was wrong!" The nurses and OB were excellent and said it was a beautiful labor and delivery. I feel like a rock star! It was amazing - so opposite of my first delivery with my daughter when I had HELLP and was hooked up to so many machines. Recovery has been great, too. Definitely sore and having after birth pains, but they're fading fast and Arlo is doing fantastic with nursing and sleeping.

We're so happy and big sister is so proud! Best wishes to you all!