Oliver was born on Saturday, April 11th at 6:47pm. He weighed 10 pounds, 1 ounce, had a length of 20 inches, and has a full head of auburn red hair!
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| Mom loving Oliver the night he was born |
Last Friday I had an NST and ultrasound scheduled in my OB's office, so I went to that thinking, "Everything is fine, no contractions, no movement, no anything. With the induction scheduled for monday, we'll just plan on that." The NST went just fine and I loved listening to his heartbeat. As soon as the tech started looking at the ultrasound she said, "wow, there is no fluid in there, like, barely any at all. There's no way the doctor is going to let you wait until your scheduled induction on Monday." At which point, I was VERY excited, even though my OB was out of town and one of my favorite nurses who was working Friday was off at 7pm. I saw another doctor in the practice who said I had enough time to go home, grab my bags and Chris, who had left work already to meet me at home, go give Zoë a kiss at daycare (grandma picked her up later), and then head to the hospital! Chris was a saint and picked up Jimmy John's for me on the way home since I hadn't had a full meal since 10am and I was absolutely panicked about not eating for forever.
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| First family photo |
When we arrived, we met with the doctor on call (also not my OB, but very, very nice) who gave us some induction options. He got as far as "One option allows you to eat for the first 12 hours, the second option does not" and I picked the first option with eating. That involved a Foley Bulb insertion (UH, terribly painful, thankful nurse Jehna was there to suggest Fentanyl for me) that would dilate me to 4 cm (I was still only at 1.5) by the morning so we could start Pitocin. At midnight, the bulb fell out on it's own which meant I was 7 hours ahead of schedule, but we still waited until 7am to start the pitocin (so I could have breakfast!).
By noon, my contractions were getting closer together, but I really didn't really feel them very much. The new doctor on call, Dr. Cohen, wanted to get a pressure catheter in so we could monitor the contractions from inside (much more reliable source of contraction data). She did this (very painful thing) twice, and the damn thing didn't work either time. It would read tests when I took a deep breath and coughed, but never an actual contraction. While weird, the team said they didn't really like these new catheters and they would continue to watch my contractions with the outside abdomen monitor. My contractions pretty much stopped being found even on that, so they lowered the pitocin and started over again. By now, I had had an epidural (after the trauma of the catheter experience, I didn't want to feel it if they had to do it again AND my contractions/cramping was getting uncomfortable), so I couldn't feel a thing. Around 4pm the doctor came in and wanted to insert
another catheter and when she did said that there was a
lot of unusual bleeding and, knowing my history with blood pressure and the fact that the pitocin wasn't doing anything for my dilation or getting regular contractions, she would feel better going to the OR and getting the baby out. I was OK with that!
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| Ready and excited to go! |
So, by 6pm I was being wheeled down to OR 2 (Zoë was born in OR 1) and being prepped for a repeat C-Section. Because of my first c-section and the surgery for the hematoma I had the day after Zoë was born, Dr. Cohen was worried about the scar tissue on my abdomen, but confident that because this wasn't an emergency c-section that she could take her time in getting baby boy out. Oliver was born at 6:47pm and after being held up over the curtain, they started cleaning him up and Chris went over to take pictures and watch. I could hear his voice over by the clean-up area and loved hearing him talk to our new son even though I couldn't see anything. All of the nurses in the OR kept saying, "he's so big!" "look at how huge his hands are!", etc. Even Dr. Cohen said, "uh, yeah, didn't you feel how hard it was for me to get him out of your abdomen? I really had to wiggle him to get him out of there!". Finally, one of the nurses said, "he's definitely over 10 pounds" and I believe my response to this absolute stranger was, "shut up, he can't be!". They didn't weigh him in the OR, but when they did back in my room, and sure enough...
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| First picture with Oliver! |
He is wonderful! And of course, HUGE and definitely an unexpected size. Dr. Cohen said that the surgery went extremely well, all of it, and that probably the reason I wasn't progressing on the pitocin was because his EXTREMELY BROAD SHOULDERS were preventing his head from hitting my cervix to soften it up and dilate it properly (of course). While his head MAY have been ok with the VBAC, his shoulders definitely would not have been. :)
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| Zoë meets Oliver for the first time |
Big sister is absolutely in love with him, of course. She insists on holding him every single day and loves to give him hugs and kisses (sometimes gentle, sometimes with a running start). I looked back at the blog to find out when Zoë hit the 10 pound mark and it wasn't until about 4.5 months. So, we think we have about a 4 month old on our hands right now. ;) He's HEAVY to hold and definitely doesn't fit into any newborn clothes or diapers. It was super nice to clean out half of a drawer of his clothes as soon as we came home.
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| Big sister assumes the holding position |
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| Kisses! |
We've got an appointment with a lactation specialist tomorrow at the hospital, but he's really eating very, very well (at least to me he is...in comparison to Zoë, anything is good I suppose). I'm dealing with the usual aches and pains that comes after a c-section (pain, swollen feet, and now the joys of starting out breastfeeding) but so glad to be home and enjoying our new son. Zoë is going to daycare full time until the end of the month so she's enjoying her usual routine while we relax and take care of baby brother at home. Chris is, as always, being a wonderful caregiver and ensuring that I don't overdo anything and that I take care of myself. He's working from home, too, which will allow him to stay home next week, as well, which is wonderful! I wish he could work from home all the time (although, he might not get anything done if that were the usual case since I keep trying to talk to him).
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| Grandma and Oliver |
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| Grandpa with Oliver |
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| Baba, Dedo and Zoë with Oliver |
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| Beautiful Teta with Oliver |
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| Awwww... |
Thank you for all of your messages and well wishes as we welcome Oliver into our family. We are enjoying relaxing as a family and getting into the swing of things as a new foursome, so if you don't hear from us right away we're probably in the throws of a toddler temper tantrum or a newborn poopy diaper/hungry scream.
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| Oliver's first tubby time at home |
