It's a Boy!

This is all about Baby Davie aka David Royal Warden V. Parts of it may be a little "descriptive" but having babies is a normal thing and you can feel free to only look at the pictures. Moving on, I had my last dr's appointment on Monday and was only dilated to 2 cm but I was starting to efface. So my dr said to come in again on Thursday.  Skip to the next day. I miss a call from my doctor in the morning and when I check the message he asks if I want to have a baby that day or the next. I was thinking "yes please!" I managed to get a hold of my Doctor and we set it up for us to go into the hospital the next morning at 7am.

Now I was a little disappointed in my progress since I was at a 3 with Colin at 38 weeks compared to a 1 with this little guy. I mentioned on here earlier that I have recently watched The Business of Being Born and learned a little more about Pitocin and other important birth related things. That show got me a little (ok maybe a lot) freaked out about how scary pitocin can be (it also greatly increases the chance you will need an epidural) and how high the possibility of a caesarean section is nowadays. So to agree to be induced after learning so much  about being induced and the risks was scary to me. I made sure to ask my doctor if we could just break my water and not use pitocin and he said that would be fine.

 There's David

 early morning

We both went to sleep a little late because of all the last minute things we wanted to get done. Including homework. I was afraid I would be too excited or anxious to sleep but I wasn't and that was good because when I did finally go to sleep it was fast.

 This is my "yay! I'm not going to be pregnant anymore!" face

When Wednesday morning came around David and I woke up at at 5:30am so we could check into the hospital by 7 am. I think I was starting to feel like a lot of Moms do before they have a baby, something like "wait, if I get induced today... then I HAVE to have a baby today!" That is a lot to commit to at 7 am, I was both excited and kinda dreading it. Mostly the physical part. With Colin I went into labor on my own so there wasn't really any other choice but to have a baby. This is when I got to meet my nurse and do the mountain of paper work that goes along with being in the hospital. The nurse asked me if I had a goal and I said " to have a baby by 7:00pm."

By the time they finally got around to breaking my water it was 9am. The midwife came in to do it and basically it didn't really work. Baby's little head was so close to the bag of water that the medwife couldn't find an edge to break it. That part was quite uncomfortable and after a couple of minutes of trying I asked if she would stop. She had already checked how dilated I was and stripped my membranes by then so we decided to wait and see if that got some stuff moving. The midwife wasn't totally sure if she had gotten my water or not so she said to make sure I paid attention just in case it was broken but the babies head was just blocking it. I was basically at a 4 which was 2 more then I had been on Monday and I was almost completely effaced, so I was hopeful.

Skip ahead 3 hours. Nothing. Haha, absolutely nothing was happening! Don't get me wrong, not having contractions was great but that wasn't really the point of being at the hospital. My doctor had come in and visited me and I was basically just sitting around. They decided to try breaking my water again and it worked, very quickly too which was a relief after the last time.

Skip ahead 2 more hours. It's 2:00  when the nurse comes in and says that the dr ordered to put me on pitocin. Yikes! That was when I started to get a little (really) nervous.  There are women who get put on pitocin who still spend another 15 hours in labor. Only with pitocin contractions are longer and stronger. I really didn't want to be put on pit because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to resist getting an epidural but I decided to just go for it. With Colin I came into the hospital at 6 cm got an epidural and made it to  8cm in the 45 minutes before my epidural kicked in. So after all I had learned from my baby birth classes, a couple of documentaries, my mom, David's mom and my friend Stephanie this time I decided (not very concretely) to try and see of I could go all natural. The plus side was everything immediately started to take off. By 3:45pm my labor was FINALLY getting tough and I was really starting to doubt my abilities and every contraction was just consuming me, I was shaking uncontrollably and starting to feel really out of control. Thankfully before all this I had read my friend Stephanie's blog and I decided to look into Nubain as a pain reliever for labor instead of an epidural. I would have taken an epidural at that point but everyone (including David) was telling me that I was going really fast and an epidural would only slow me down. By the time I really wanted one the chances of the anesthesiologist getting to me and setting me up in time for anything to take effect and be worth it was slim to none.

That was when they gave me Nubain. It instantly made me calm down and feel comfy, tired  and a little fuzzy, not to mention it took away the shivers that had been wracking my whole body. However by the next contraction I learned that that was all Nubain really does. It takes off the edge. It's kinda like only having laughing gas for a really bad cavity filling or pulling a tooth. I felt way more in control but I still FELT.

By about 4:30 I REALLY wanted an epidural... again (haha remember I said I wanted to TRY to go natural). Only this time because everything was going so fast there was not much discussion it was more like me whimpering about it. That was when I had a BAD contraction and I felt a bunch of water gush. For two seconds I thought I wet myself but the nurse assured me it was amniotic fluid. The next contraction I felt like I needed to push, that is putting it lightly because really my body was pushing (hard) anyways. Again I felt a bunch of water, only this time I really had emptied my bladder. I'd say it was awkward but I was a little preoccupied at the moment, it is kinda funny to laugh about now though. I had a similar experience when I had Colin only it was my water then too. After I emptied my bladder David said he could see baby's head which had me shocked and two seconds later I had another contraction where I had to push like crazy. It was almost like two long contractions because I pushed so long and hard but immediately after I was done! At 4:42pm I found out I had a baby boy! I went from 10cm to completely done in 7 min with 2 and a half pushes!!!

They cleaned little Davie off a little and set him on my chest. I was so shocked and David kept asking if I was happy but the best word to describe how I felt right then was whiplashed. Did I really just have a baby in 2 hours and 42 min?!?! By the time they put me on Pit I figured I was going to be in labor all evening but I still made my goal of having Davie before 7pm, go me!

After the initial shock wore off they weighed him and I was again very surprised to find out that my little Davie wasn't even 7 lbs. David Royal Warden V was 6 lbs 13 oz, 19 inches long and of course COMPLETELY PERFECT! When little Davie's dad was born he weighed 10 lbs! I was 7 lbs 11 oz myself and Colin was 7 lb 3 oz. Needless to say I wasn't expecting anything under 7 and a half pounds. Aside from all that I can't say enough how happy I am that he is so little, I LOVE tiny babies. There is something so great about being able to cuddle with a teeny tiny baby and little Davie does it SO well.

 Brand NEW!

 Not the best picture, but I was excited

 First bath with daddy

 wiggly little guy

 It was fun to watch David wash baby Davie, I'm pretty sure David was afraid he would break the baby 

 David with his baby boy. 

 Video conference with all our family. We had the iPad, the laptop and both of our cell phones running in order to do it. 

Keeping baby Davie fresh in his baby tupperware 

Back to my birth experience, I think that without the Pitocin I probably still would have gotten the Nubain but it was better than an epidural. The second baby was out I felt almost instant relief and within 30ish min when they had me get up to use the bathroom I couldn't believe how great I felt. Thank you Stephanie for sharing both your baby stories on your blog! Between your stories, family experiences and always wanting to try going natural I was able to do it! I also have to say that being able to say I had a baby naturally is pretty cool too. And yes I realize that I was on pit which is not natural and I used  Nubain to help my pain a little but trust me it was natural! I'd also like to thank my Mom at this time for passing along some great genes! Haha, she also had very quick labors and was nice enough to share those genes with me. So far they have been greatly appreciated and used well. Lastly I was so thankful to have David there to help me every step of the way. He was an amazing support and was so good to me the ENTIRE time. I love him so much.

Once all the unexciting labor stuff was over David and I got to hold our baby all evening. I did, and still do, a lot of the skin to skin stuff with little Davie mostly because he is so sweet and baby soft but also for all the health and bonding it promotes. It was a busy afternoon with a calm evening and we are so happy to have our little guy. Nothing beats having your own baby.

I look all full of attitude in this picture but I really wasn't. Ahhh, what a great day!