Sunday: Flood Gates
My water broke Sunday morning- I had gotten up around 9 am and was feeling eerily good and calm, so naturally I assumed 'no baby today'... had a big breakfast and crawled back in bed to snuggle/wake the hubby. Had a mild contraction, than trickle (that was 9:30 am). Stood up and then 'gush'...took a shower- an started to feel the contractions coming on... got to the hospital by 11am- by then the contractions were right on top of each other and it was all back labor.
I had NO breaks... FINALLY by 1:45 pm I got the epidural, I was about 5 cm. By 3-4 pm I was 6 cm, then by 5:00 pm I was 10 cm. The only reason Whit was born at 6:41 pm, instead of 5:41 pm or sooner was because we had to wait for the doctor to deliver 2 other babies. At the point I got the epidural, the labor went from nightmare-ish to relaxed. It was funny, my nurse came in at one point to tell us that my contractions were 1.5-2 mins. apart and all the nurses at the nursing station who were looking at my monitor told my nurse to turn down my pitocin, they didn't believe her when she told them it was all natural. Unfortunately Ilse and my Mom didn't make it in time for the birth, but arrived soon after.No one had any idea that he was going to be such a BIG baby (I was 7.5 lb. and Joel was close to 8 lb.)... of course I had to have an episiotomy. The dr. and nurse (who were both relatively young) said it was he was the biggest baby they had delivered vaginally. Chances are if they had know he was so big, they would had tried to give me a c-section, which i would have been adamantly against- so it all worked out. Thankfully the little tank is just long (i.e. the new born onesies and diapers fit- but the new born pants are to short, etc.)
Monday: Get Me Outta Here!
By Monday morning I was ready to pack my bags and go home.
The hospital beds were so short my feet hung off the side and the "air" mattresses they have, have to be the worst ever. Besides being loud, they are incredibly uncomfortable. Thankfully the OB Dr. that delivered Whit came in around 5:00 am and offered to discharge me early. I think I counted the hours until 7:00 pm rolled around. Joel and I both commented how surreal it was to drive home that night as a "family"...it was an incredible feeling.Whitaker did a fantastic job "latching" from the get go and so begins are
journey of nursing.Tuesday: Home Sweet Home
Thanks to Whitaker's size (we think) he was already sleeping at least 4 hours at a time at night. Joel did a great job waking up with me to change diapers and adjust pillows for when I nursed.
Ilse decided to head home (poor kwilai had been a trooper and was absolutely spent) and Mom decided to stay behind and fly back home. I don't remember much of Tuesday, special thanks to the tylenol w/ codine the dr. prescribed.Wedensday: Dairy Cow
Nursing thus far had gone really well.
My milk "let down" and low and behold it was the last day I remember not being miserably engorged. Mom continues to dote over Joel, Whitaker and I hand over foot- the food, Oh the food. We had a personal chef and maid- it was fantastic!Thursday: The Pump
The boobs- they're miserable... I hit the bottom on Thursday. Here I have this near perfect child and my body is completely malfunctioning, to the point were I was starting to get jealous of my Joel and mom cause they could JUST enjoy Whitaker, where I was constantly trying to cope just to feed the poor little guy. I had so much milk, I actually started to get sick. Thankfully mom convinced me to pump, which the lactation consultant later told me saved me from getting a full blown infection.
Friday: Farwell
Joel heads back to work Friday morning and mom left to fly back home that night. I have to say I was a bit apprehensive knowing Whitaker and I were going to be flying solo come Monday morning. Thankfully I already started to recover from the delivery and seemed to have more energy and stamina. The good news that day was the scale started to drop drastically as I began to deflate from all the fluids of pregnancy as well as from the IV during my hospital stay.Saturday: Cope
Unfortunately issues with being engorged were still a problem, now it was a matter of coping. During the week I had made several calls to the Lactation Consultant and I had started trying the different suggestions and discovering which were helping verses the ones that were only making it worse. Joel, Whitaker and I had a quiet day. At this point Whitaker is sleeping even longer and more soundly causing the problem of not being able to nurse frequently enough for me to have some relief. Granted because I had so much milk, the little tyke was getting quite the tummy full each time he nursed, so can you blame him for being able to sleep so long?
Sunday: We made it!
Whitaker is a week old- wow. There are and were times through out the week where I couldn't help but just stare at Whitaker in wonder. He is finally here. After 10 months of anxiously waiting and the clock ticking ever so slowly- I was already feeling time flying by. Joel and I are so grateful for the life the Lord has entrusted to our care. As awesome and daunting as it is to think of the responsibility, we look forward for what the Lord has in store for Whitaker's life and for our family.
Thank you to everyone for your 'well wishes' and 'thoughts' this past week! To see updated pictures of Whitaker, make sure to check out his very own web ablum, there is a link for it to the right of the blog (or you can click on the slideshow).
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