Thomas Michael: A Birth Story

Thursday night (12/9/10) we went to the mall.  I had been experiencing contractions regularly throughout the day but they were pretty far apart.  At the mall, I walked from one end to the other and my contractions stayed on pretty strong.  We got home and I started timing them on my iPhone (because as my mom says, we are yuppies).

 The times listed are from right before we went to the hospital.

I decided to go ahead and go to bed to try to get to sleep in case tonight happened to be 'the night'.  At 1:30 am, I had a contraction that actually woke me up from the pain.  But I was able to go back to sleep.  Then at 3:30 am, I felt an unfamiliar feeling.  I nearly peed my pants.  Well that's weird, I thought to myself.  I've gone 40 weeks and a day without peeing my pants, why would that start now?
So I got up and the "pee" never stopped.  I didn't realize it at the time but my water had broken.  Yeah, I know.  Duh? But I was kind of in denial.
The contractions started to get intense after that, about 4 minutes apart or less.  We called the doctor and he said, "Yep, come on in.  Sounds like you're going to have a baby today." 
We showered, packed, called our parents and then headed to the hospital. It took some time because I kept having to stop to deal with contractions.  We got to the hospital about 6:30 am.  They were about 3 minutes apart at this point.  When we pulled into the parking garage, I told Andrew, "If I'm only dilated to 3 cm at this point, I'm going to be really upset." 
In triage we found out that I was in fact only dilated to 3 cm but I was 90 % effaced at this point so it was still progress.  We met our nurse for the day who was awesome.  She took us to our super nice birthing suite.  Our parents showed up shortly after.  This was about 8:00 or 8:30 am. 

40 Weeks and 1 day, plus a fetal monitor sticking out on the belly 

I was still smiling at this point!  My doctor showed up and talked to us for awhile. My nurse was giving me advice and she said "You will probably not want to get checked very often at the beginning because it can be very discouraging."  I was experiencing some very painful contractions at this point.  Lots of breathing was needed to get through them.  They asked me how bad my pain was on the pain scale.

I said an 8 because it was, as the chart says "Horrorroso".  My mom and Cyndi were sure that my pain couldn't have been that bad. 

At about 9:30 am my doctor comes in and tells me that she has another patient to check on at the hospital 20 minutes across town.  She asked if I wanted to be checked before she left.  Only because she was leaving, I decided to have her check me. She immediately says, "Do you want an epidural? You need to get an epidural now if you want one because you're at 7 or 8 cm dilated."  I was in pain so I said, "YES PLEASE!"  The nurse starts my IV that takes a half hour before I can get the drugs.

About 20 minutes goes by and my body actually starts involuntarily pushing and bearing down on its own.  My nurse runs to get my doctor.  My doctor tells me this baby is coming and asks if I still want the epidural.  I opted out of it because I knew I was so close to the finish line.  

I started pushing at 10:30 am.  I had my doctor, my nurse, a resident, and Andrew all in the room.  Little Tommy was born at 11:06 am with the help of all my coaches.  I did cuss though.  It was the hardest thing I've ever done.  But it was amazing how the body actually worked.  The contractions were fairly close together, probably 2 minutes apart at the end.  But it was nice because I was still able to get a break.  Then when I was almost done pushing, the contractions stretched to about 5 minutes apart so I could get a break before the big push.  Just crazy.  

I don't know what hormone courses through the body during a natural childbirth but if they could bottle and sell that stuff for athletes, WOW! I was on a total high after he was born.  It was insane.  I am a very emotional person normally (i.e. crying during The Princess Diaries) but I had no emotions at the time.  It might have been traumatic shock, I guess?? Who knows.  I can't even describe it.  I didn't get tired or emotional until the second night after he was born.  That story will come at another time. 

Tommy was born so fast that he didn't get a chance to really get squeezed through the birth canal so he had a lot of mucus still in his system when he came out.  When they gave him to me, he was PISSED.  They eventually took him away and sucked the bad stuff out of his belly (about 13 cc's I think, a lot I guess).  That made him even MORE pissed.  But eventually he calmed down and fell asleep.  Before our parents came in, Andrew told me I looked like Alice Cooper because my mascara had smeared all over my face.  He wiped most of the make up off my face so that's why it looks like I had been crying.  I'll show these pictures here.  I'm not happy about them.  They are gross.  But it just goes to show how hard it was.  Natural childbirth is not for everyone.  I just happened to be extremely lucky that it was that fast, otherwise, I don't know that I could have done it.  Soooo... on with the pictures... Ugh.  

 Tommy with Grandpa Mike and me, Alice Cooper.  Just kidding.

 My first meal of the day, crackers.  I only posted this picture so I could show you the difference in my face in one day.  I had swelled a bit before he was born.  Maybe it was that Athletic Juice coursing through my veins that I'm going to somehow bottle and sell.  :)

  Tommy and me.  My face finally returned to a somewhat normal size.  Thank goodness. Ugh.  

Gram Cyndi and little Thomas.  Happiest new grandmother on the planet! 

Proud father of a perfect little boy

Normally they put babies in pink and blue knit hats but they just got the Christmas hats in that week so little Tom got a red and green hat instead.  Merry Christmas Tommy!

We tried to capture his gigantic hands in a picture but you just can't tell.  He has the longest fingers I've ever seen on a baby.  His feet are huge too.  When they gave him to me after he was born, Andrew said, "Look at his hands! He has Gollum hands!"  He was still having trouble regulating his body temperature so his hands were a little purple and very wrinkled.  They truly looked like Gollum's hands from Lord of the Rings. 

 Finding his hand, yum!

 Adam and Steph came to visit

 Brian is still not sure about this little guy.  He doesn't understand why he can't snuggle with him just yet. 

Sweet Sleeping Baby Thomas

 

Little Tommy is starting to stir so I have to post and go but here's one last picture.  Merry Christmas from Thomas Michael!