Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Tyler Daniel is here!

Tyler Daniel was born Feb 26th at 4:47pm after 8 hours of labor and 17 minutes of pushing. He was 10lbs 2oz, 20 inches long. I'm so glad we induced, we knew he'd be big, but was expecting another 9lber, not 10!

Got to the hospital at 6am for my induction. Original plan was pitocin (meds to start contractions) at 6am, water broken at 9am. Got the IV right away, then they ordered the pitocin. It was 8:30 before the pitocin came, so when my Dr came 30 minutes later, I hadn’t made any progress, so he didn’t break my water. I was 3.5cm when I got to the hospital. I had a nurse and student nurse. They also asked if it’s ok if a new Dr came in too. She was really nice too, it was kinda nice having the extra company and attention.

At noon the contractions were getting closer together and a lot stronger. I asked for the epidural, knowing my Dr would be in soon to break my water. I wanted the epi before the Dr came. 20 minutes later the Dr came and checked me. I was 5.5 cm dilated, he broke my water. The contractions came even closer together and stronger after that.

At 12:30 the epidural guy came in. It hurt to sit leaning forward through the contractions. He was nice and stopped while I had contractions, but I still couldn’t move. The epi was the worst part of the whole labor and delivery. Last time it wasn’t fun, but it took right away and wasn’t too bad. This time he couldn’t get it in right, it kept hitting bone, which really hurt. I was kinda scared of it hitting the wrong spot or something going wrong. He finally gave up on the one spot and said he needs to try another spot. So another sting of the needle and more pushing the tube in. I was so uncomfortable, sweaty and almost nauseous. He was still having the same issues with that spot. He said I wasn’t pushing my back out far enough, but I was trying as hard as I could. My belly was pushed against my lap and I just couldn’t lean or arch any more than that. So he finally asked to try a 3rd spot. I was so frustrated and in pain, I was considering just going without! But I decided to try 1 more time. That one hurt even more since it was below the other 2 spots, I was wishing I’d just said no. But it was looking up that time, he sounded hopeful. He finally got it in the right place and it started working quickly. I was so relieved, but the experience has really left me unsure of getting one again. I didn’t look at the clock after it was in, I wish I did. It felt like a good 30 minutes, but who knows how long it really was. At least I was comfortable the rest of the day. Too bad the pitocin makes contractions a lot more unbearable. I've heard people compare them with regular ones and they thought the regular ones were doable, but not the pitocin ones. I've never had anything else, so I have no idea.

Around 3pm I was at 8.5 cm and they alerted the Dr that it wouldn’t be very long. He was just finishing up and planning on heading over anyway. At 4:30 I was fully dilated and my Dr walked in. The lady Dr that was in training did the actual work, my Dr just assisted and showed her how to do things. They left the epidural pretty strong. With Dawson they turned it almost off and it just took the edge off things. The contractions were coming really fast, so I was pretty much pushing the whole time, there really wasn’t much waiting for another contraction like last time.

They held him up and I saw his chubby face. He had such big cheeks and so much chub that it was puffed up around his eyes. I knew he was at least as big as Dawson was (9.1). They put him on me, which was a new experience for me since Dawson had to see the NICU people first. It was nice to see him right away. His face was all bruised because he came out so fast and he was so big. He’s a bit jaundice too, but the levels are pretty low, so they aren’t doing anything about it. It’ll go away soon. He’s still pretty dark, mostly his face from the bruising. It’ll be interesting to see his skin tone once the jaundice and bruising goes away.

I’m feeling pretty good now. The bleeding isn’t as much as I remember from last time. The most pain is my tailbone if I sit for too long. My lower back hurts if touched too hard. I really haven’t had much chance to rest, I pretty much have been up and going since we got home. It’s hard to rest with a toddler demanding I get up and play with him every time he sees me sit down!

Tyler got down to 9lbs 6oz in the hospital. He went in for a weight check today to make sure he's gaining again, and he's up to 9lbs 11oz now, so no worries there. They all lose some in the hosptial. They looked at me today too, I've been having a lot of pain. Turns out it's a yeast infection, so I got on meds for that. I hope they kick in soon!

Dawson has had a wide range of reactions so far. The first night he ignored him, only glancing at him a bit. In the morning he had a total fit that the baby was still here. Threw tantrums and was whiny all morning. Then he decided to check him out, so he climbed onto the couch and was about to jump right onto him. I sat with him and he pointed at baby's eyes, nose, mouth, etc. We're working on being gentle. Today he decided the bouncy seat makes a great tv chair. He was sitting in it when I got home. Then I took Tyler out of the infant carrier and he went and sat in that too. He laid his head on Tyler's chest once and grinned. I think he's definitely starting to get used to it. He likes to watch diaper changes, I pulled up a chair, but he prefers to peek over the side, though he can just barely see into the bassinet.

Dan has off all week, so that'll be really nice. He's been a ton of help so far, changing diapers, feeding Dawson, playing with him, tending to crying children when I'm in the bathroom. I think it's really helping Dawson that there's 2 of us to help him out when he needs something. We both gave him lots of attention before bed and he was grinning so big and soaking up all the attention. I think he'll do really good, he's getting used to it pretty quickly.

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