Well, he is
finallly here! Our sweet baby boy, Parker Bryan Jefferson has been with us for over a week now and we are
soooooooo in love. I wanted to document the events that occurred right before and after his birth so we would remember later on down the road.....
On Wednesday night, 2/24, we had to call the hospital at 630 to see if they had a room available for us. We were both so anxious because we just knew they wouldn't have one available right away and that we would have to wait until midnight to check in. This was not the case--we called at 630 and they said we could check in at 730! I had been anxious and nervous all day about the whole process. To distract myself, I went shopping, baked cookies, re-packed the hospital bag, and took a shower. It all helped, but not totally. After we called, I made sandwiches for us to eat in the car, and we left for the hospital.
The last belly pic--39 weeks 6 days, taken right before we left for the hospital
A last picture of us at home together
Once we arrived at about 715, they had me change into a gown and get settled in with the heartbeat and contraction monitors. At about 915, the wonderful nurse, Trisha, inserted the IV and also gave me a cervical insert to help soften my cervix. They needed to do this before they could administer
Pitocin to start my labor.
I had to unhook myself from the monitors and IV pole to go to the bathroom!
We watched American Idol and then went to bed to try to get some sleep. Alarms started going off on the monitors at about 3am because the machine was out of paper--after this, I don't know that I ever fully went back to sleep. More alarms started going off at about 5am, and then at 7am, we were finally up for good.
At 930am, they took out the insert, and I was dilated to 2cm. I was hoping that I would be dilated a little more, but this was not the case. At 1045, they began the
Pitocin drip to get things going. I was
sooooo nervous because I didn't know how quickly the contractions would start or how intense they would be. We had lots of visitors all morning and in the early afternoon.
At 3pm, I began to feel some major contractions. There were several people in the room when I decided that I needed to go to the bathroom and asked everyone to leave. When I stood up, my water broke! I was glad that this happened on its own instead of having it broken by the doctor. I knew it would be painful to have it broken, but I was glad that nature took it's course. After this happened, I was in a LOT of pain. The new nurse, Megan, checked my dilation, which was at 3cm, and gave me a shot of
Nubane into the IV. This is a narcotic medication that is supposed to take the edge off the pain but not completely get rid of it. I wanted to wait as long as possible for the epidural because it sometimes slows down labor and makes it drag on. Once they gave me the
Nubane, I felt loopy, almost like being drunk, which they told me to expect. It didn't really get rid of any of the pain for me and just made me feel light-headed. Dr.
Kwan, the OB, came in and talked about the epidural and waiting a little bit longer. Since I was only at 3cm, she wanted me to try to wait until about 4 or 5cm before getting the epidural. I told her that I felt like the
Nubane wasn't doing much, so she asked if I wanted her to check my dilation again. I as at 4cm, so she said it would be fine to get the epidural.
Here I am,
pre-epidural
The anesthesiologist administered the epidural at 4pm. I felt better pretty quick, of course, and was happy to have the
meds. They checked my cervix again at 420 and I was 5cm. Everything was progressing well! After this I just relaxed for a while. Megan came in to check my cervix again at almost 6pm and I was 9cm!! I was so glad to hear that it was almost time to push. I did not want to have a long, long labor. After she checked me, I napped for a little while. The epidural made me feel so relaxed. It felt great to sleep for a little bit! Here are all of our wonderful family members and friends that were patiently waiting to hear some news:
I started pushing with Ryan and Trisha at 810 because I had finally reached the 10cm mark. I was so relaxed that I didn't really feel like doing it, but I knew it was a necessary step in meeting our baby boy. In-between contractions, Ryan was feeding me ice chips and wetting a washcloth to lay on my chest. I was so hot and felt very nauseous. I did throw up one time and felt better afterwards. After a little over an hour of pushing, Parker came into the world at 918pm.
I was obviously extremely emotional. Doesn't Ryan look so happy?
Parker didn't look too happy :)
He weighed 9 pounds, 9 ounces, and was 22 inches long. They checked him out and everything looked good, so they gave him back to us for a bit before taking him to the nursery. He was grunting some because of having fluid in his lungs, but this subsided after about an hour.
Our first family photo!
When they took Parker to the nursery, Ryan went with him to be there while they did all of their tests.
Here is Parker getting his first bath from Daddy
After Parker was born, we stayed in the hospital through Sunday at about noon. It was nice to be there with the support of all of the nurses because I had a
really rough time with breastfeeding. Parker did not want to latch on, so I had to pump milk to give to him in a syringe pretty much all day Friday and half of the day Saturday. It seemed like every time we had visitors on Friday, it was time for me to try to feed him, and I couldn't get him to eat, so it was frustrating. On Saturday morning, Parker was
circumcised and did
very well. He was gone for about 10 minutes and came back seeming happy! About halfway through the day on Saturday, Parker latched on and finally got the hang of things. I was so happy. I had been
extremely emotional about it because I really wanted to breastfeed and not do any formula.
Even though Parker was getting the hang of things, we had a "scare" Saturday night. The nurse came in at 4am to wake me up to feed him, which was fine
becasue this is what I had asked. The way she woke me up, though, was startling, because she said, "He's jaundiced, dehydrated, and hungry. You need to feed him now or we will probably have to supplement with formula." He had also lost about 8.6% of his body weight, so they were concerned about him losing too much. In my half-awake state, I woke up, and attempted to get Parker to eat. He was so upset by the time they brought him in that it took him a few minutes to calm down. Once he did, he ate for about an hour and twenty minutes!
This marathon feeding session made me feel so good. We spoke with the Pediatrician the next morning and she assured us that there was no reason to be that alarmed about his jaundice and weight loss. After cleaning up the room, getting Parker changed into his "going home outfit," and successfully putting him in his
tight carseat, we were ready to go home.
Very ready. I was so sick of being in that hospital room. Parker screamed and screamed all the way down to the lobby, but once we got into the car and out of the parking lot, he was sound asleep. We pulled up to the house and saw that it had been decorated for the arrival of our sweet baby boy! We found out later that this was done by Ryan's parents and sister--thank you :)
This is Parker when we brought him home
Some of the decorations
When we came home, I felt a little overwhelmed and nervous about everything--breastfeeding, being responsible for another life, thinking about his whole life and the rest of ours spanning ahead of us. Also, recognizing that it's no longer "just the two of us," but now the three of us. I know he will only be a
baby for a short period of time, so I am working on enjoying these moments now instead of worrying so much about the future and him growing up. I love him so much and want the best in life for him. I want to be the best mother he could ask for, and I think that so far, I'm doing just that.
Stay tuned for an update on Parker's first week.....I am trying to get caught up with blogging after the birthing hiatus :)
