Monday, August 19, 2013

so I had a baby

So about two months ago I had a baby!
Ta Da!
Isn't he beautiful?
Ohmigoodness.
So....I thought I would write out my birth experience, for you to read.....and in all honesty for me to remember.
I'll try to not make it too gross.

So Baby Gill was over due by 5 days, and I was not very happy about that...it was HOT HOT HOT in Boise and I was super swollen and grumpy pants.
Mr. Gill, Bosley and I had been taking lots of walks trying to get things started to no avail.
At my post-due date appointment with my midwife I was told I needed to have an ultrasound to make sure he was doing ok-that it was very routine.
The appointment was on Thursday June 27th at 12:15pm.
At the ultrasound the tech was telling Mr. Gill and I that the baby looked really good, but that we would probably be having the baby that day or the next because she couldn't see any amniotic fluid....which is bad fyi.
So we went straight to Labor and Delivery where we were admitted and I got hooked up the saline fluids, a Penicillin drip and continuous monitoring.....because its high risk to have "no amniotic fluid" so I had to wear a strap around my *HUGE* belly the entire time until the baby was born.
Mr. Gill and his sister Heather were at the hospital with me from pretty much the beginning of the process.
We decided to try to manually induce labor, by inserting a balloon to mimic the head pushing on the cervix....and that started some contractions BUT they went away after a couple of hours.
They make you wait 12 hours after the balloon to try something new so we spent the night at the hospital all hooked up but going nowhere.
The next morning (Friday) at about 6 am they started the Pitocin drip. I don't remember the name of my nurse that day but she was awesome. She had three kids (a set of twin she delivered on Pitocin w/out pain relief) and we knew mutual people. She is a believer and was just very encouraging.
Everything was going well, I was having contractions but not really feeling much of anything. The baby was looking really good on the monitor but my belly was so big that it felt like every time I moved the nurse had to come in and adjust the do-dads.
I had lunch, we watched videos, took walks and around 4 or so in the afternoon I started "feeling" the contractions. I was checked and dilated to about 4 1/2 cm.
So we kept walking and trying to get things going. A couple of hours later they checked me again and I was at 6 cm and as they were checking I had a big contraction and my water broke....even though I had "no" amniotic fluid....explain that one to me.
Anyway after that things got VERY real. It was like in an instant I felt like my entire body was contracting.
I'm pretty sure I told Mr. Gill and Heather I was going to die several times.
So-here's where I'm going to skip over some kinda gross details about what my body was doing for the sake of people like-my Dad. If you want details of the crazy things that were coming out of my body let me know-if you've had a baby you can relate.
Mr. Gill and Heather were awesome though during the rough contractions, helping me stay focused and not screaming like a crazy woman the whole time....I only did that at the end.
I'm so thankful to have had them both there with me to get me through those crazy intense couple of hours.
I was in BIG labor from about 6pm (I think) until 11pm when Baby Z made his arrival.
I pushed for about 20 minutes and almost broke Mr. Gill's arm in half. He was up by my head-thank goodness. Those last couple of pushes I remember screaming like a crazy woman. I hope the other moms to be in the rooms next to me weren't scared!
Moments after being born 

I was on my hands and knees on the bed-so it required acrobatics to get turned around the see my baby boy, but it was like instant relief once he was out!










Mr. Gill cut the cord (even though he wasn't planning on it-the Midwife kinda just made him)....and he was fine. It felt like almost right after he was born I got the shakes, and had them for at least an hour. They said it was from all the adrenaline in my system after delivery....I believe it because that whole thing was the most intense/physical process I'd EVER been through.
about 12 hours after being born









Baby Z wasn't too vocal right away so they had to get him stimulated into crying, but I did get to hold him right away. He was just so beautiful. He also had a low temperature so he had to be under the heat lamp for a while too.
He was super chill the first couple days after coming into the world.
I think he was just taking it all in.



Mom get me out of here!

He no longer has that problem. This boy gets LOUD!
The rest of these pictures are from a *photo shoot* I did in when he was about 5 weeks old. 
Which is when he started SMILING!
















So far being a Mom has been so fun. Exhausting but fun.
I'd trade sleep for his sweet face any day!

I'm sure my posting will be just as sporadic but hopefully more fun as I give updates about baby Z, being parents and all the fun that follows!
:)

*Jenny

1 comment:

  1. Aw so sweet!! He is so handsome :) you did a great job! Thank you for sharing ;) I'm hoping I can try a vbac next ;)

    ReplyDelete