Well as most of you know, our little bundle of joy came out to play on Friday the 18th. He was born at 6:05 pm and weighed 7 pounds 11.6 ounces and 21 inches long. The delivery was actually pretty smooth, just took forever! We arrived at the hospital at 7:00 am, got checked in and hung out in the waiting room for about 10-20 minutes before our nurse came and brought us back to the room. I put on the lovely hospital gown and got into the oh so comfy bed. She strapped two monitors to my belly, one for his heart and one for my contractions. Apparently I'd been having contractions and didn't know - what I thought was him stretching out and pushing his feet against my belly was actually a contraction. After she did all that, checked my blood pressure and my temperature, she hooked up my IV and started the pitocin.
I have to say I pretty much wimped out. As soon as the pitocin kicked in, I started feeling my contractions in my lower back and asked for the epidural right away. And here is the most painful part of my labor journey. when they inserted the epidural, he must have hit some sort of nerve as I no longer was experiencing my contractions in my tummy and lower back - they were all concentrated in my right upper thigh. That was probably the most excruciating 2 hours of my life until they got my epidural out and redone. They actually had to call some one else in to fix it, the guy that gave it to me the first time struggled for about 30 minutes before he called some one else in. Once the 2nd epidural was in, it was smooth sailing. I no longer felt anything and actually napped.
At about 3:30 I got the urge to push, so we started that. The worst part of it was feeling like my head was about to pop off my shoulders when I was pushing. :-) 3 hours later, Ben decided to come out and see what all the fuss was about! I did cry a little when they put him on my chest for me to see and hold him - I couldn't believe he was finally here and all mine.
The rest of the hospital stay was pretty basic, I suppose. My parents came out that night while i was still in the labor & delivery room to see Ben and bring me some freshly baked cinnamon rolls - I was dying of hunger. They said to have just a light meal before coming in, as I might have a reaction to the medicine. I was so excited, I couldn't sleep past 4:30 that morning and so at 4:30 I had a croissant and a small glass of orange juice. Didn't eat until after 7:00 that night and was RAVENOUS. I made every one in the delivery room laugh when I said "I can't believe all I can think about right now is how hungry I am" in between pushing sessions. I ordered a hamburger from the cafeteria and I swear it was the best tasting food I'd ever had.
The next day we had a few visitors. My brother, Carin and the kids came and Victor & Tiffany came and then my parents came out again. Ben passed his hearing test and got the a-okay from the pediatrician. We were discharged on Sunday and sent home.
Having Ben at home is so wonderful and so challenging at the same time. He does absolutely beautifully during the day - eats and sleeps on a pretty consistent time line & he fusses very little. Actually the days are pretty boring while he's sleeping. I don't know what to do with myself. I'm trying to nap often in preparation for those nights that aren't as fun. For some reason, Ben's got an insatiable appetite at night. Sunday night was horrific. Monday night was only slightly better. We visited the doctor on Tuesday and she instructed us to replace every 2nd or 3rd feeding with formula to encourage those wet diapers (he was only having one wet diaper a day) and I have to say since we started doing that, last night was much better.
I'm so stoked about pee and poop now. Every time we have to change him, I cheer a little. I giggle over all the little faces he makes. I excited to watch him grow and change and develop. I'm excited to get to the point where we're sleeping through the night again. :-)
I can't believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve. Since I stopped working, I have completely lost all perspective of time. It just doesn't feel like Christmas! Usually at this point, I'm running around like a chicken with it's head cut off, trying to finish my last minute shopping and get everything wrapped. This year I'm all done and there's nothing to do but wait.
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