What an incredible 9 days it has been for us. We are so excited to announce the arrival of our SON, Henry Marc Ralph, born August 6th 2015 at 9:59am, weighing 7lbs, 9 oz and 21 inches long!
He is seriously the easiest baby in the world and we all are just completely obsessed with him! It's already hard to picture what life was like without him.
And here is his birth story:
On Wednesday August 5th, I had a special afternoon with the girls. We went to their favorite park and then out to dinner at the local diner with friends. I was feeling nauseous after dinner, which in hindsight should have been a clue, since I've felt that way before labor with both girls. The thing was though, that I had nothing else going on - usually by 38 weeks (I was 38w4days) I have tons and tons of mild contractions. But I was totally ready for labor to start. Adalyn's birthday had passed, I was all caught up on work, and I even was able to go to Adalyn's 4 yr old well visit that morning. She was terrified of getting her shots, and I was so happy to be able to be there for her.
I got home with the girls around 6:30pm and quickly put on their pajamas and washed them up for bed. Eloise was particularly clingy that day, and requested to go "uppy" many times. My back hurt from carrying her and I was tired and quickly plopped down on Adalyn's bed to start story time...
That's when I felt a gush of fluid. My mind quickly went to it being blood, since that's exactly what happened around 6 weeks. Many of you don't know the full story, but all of the bleeding at the beginning of this pregnancy started while reading the girls a bedtime story. It wasn't a good feeling to be reminded of that, so I excused myself from the story and ran to my bathroom. That's when another gush happened, and when I realized that it was my water!
I've never had my water break before. My doctor ruptured me during labor with Adalyn to move things along, and Eloise's water didn't break until she was crowning. I did a little dance of, "Oh my God, Oh my God, what do I do?" and then quickly called Andrew. I was absolutely certain that this was going to be a fast labor like with Eloise. Andrew picked up right away and I told him my water broke. He calmly replied, "So, what does that mean?" And I was all like, "UMMMMMMMMM IT MEANS TO GET ON THE NEXT TRAIN! HAVE YOU LEFT THE OFFICE YET?! WE ARE HAVING A BABY!" I was a bit excited and nervous for what was to come. I finished reading the girls a bedtime story. And with a towel between my legs, kissed them goodnight, had a good cry about this being the last time I would tuck just the two of them in, and then called my mom. Kimi was at the gym, but I knew I would want someone there with the girls in case things sped up. I also made a call to my doula, Kadi (same one with both girls) and explained that my water had broken, but that I was only having mild cramping and no real contractions.
Kadi suggested I at least call my OB and to see when she wanted me to come in. When I called, one of my favorite doctors (Dr. P - the one who delivered Adalyn) was on call and I knew that my OB Dr. H was on call all day Thursday because I had an appointment with her scheduled for later that morning. I knew that Dr. H had surgery that morning because she moved my appointment to noon, but I was feeling pretty elated that either Dr. P or Dr. H would be delivering this baby. Dr. P had me come in to get checked and said I could go home if I wasn't beyond 4cm. Andrew got home around 8:30pm and we got to the hospital around 9pm. I knew I couldn't possibly be that dilated because everything was so mild. Sure enough, I was only 2-3cm and 70% effaced, so Andrew and I made the call to go home and return once things picked up a bit and I was a steady 5 minutes apart.
We got home from the hospital around 10:30pm and I think that's when I realized it was not going to be a short night. I told Andrew that he could just go to sleep and that I would wake him when it was time to head back to the hospital. I had an episode of Bachelor in Paradise to catch up on, so I figured I would just work through my contractions while bouncing on my ball, just like I had done with Eloise. My contractions came and went for about 2 hours and by 12:30am on August 6th, they were regularly 5 minutes apart, though still pretty tolerable. I knew there was no way I was that far along, but the fear of things picking up quickly was real, since I had gone from 4cm to delivery with Eloise in just over 3 hours. We had planned for Kimi to sleep upstairs with the girls so they wouldn't freak out when they woke up. While gathering the last of my things for the hospital, Adalyn woke up and I was able to tell her that Andrew and I were headed to the hospital to get the baby out and that she would get to meet her new sibling the next day. :)
We got back to the hospital a little after 1am and I was officially checked in at 3-4cm and still only 80% effaced. See - waaaaaay to comfortable to be in active labor.
The next 5 hours got pretty interesting. I was exhausted from having being up since 3:45am the night before (stupid pregnancy insomnia) and working through these uncomfortable contractions. Uncomfortable really was the right word, because they were completely tolerable and I could still talk through them. Andrew, Kadi, and my mom stayed all night with me and encouraged me to rest. For whatever reason, the maternity ward was FREEZING and I happily took breaks from walking and rested in my hospital bed, under the warm blankets. I had a fantastic nurse for these 5 hours. She was also a natural birth mama and was completely on board with our plan. But, she was not happy to see that my contractions were spacing out rather than getting closer and stronger like they should. She started to talk to me about...dun dun dun...pitocin. At this point, it was 6:30am and almost a full 12 hours since my water had broke. I was starting to feel very defeated and disappointed that things weren't happening at warp speed like with Eloise. "Third baby syndrome" the nurses kept telling me. Apparently it always goes like this?!
Around 6:45am my nurse woke up Dr. P and I agreed to a cervical check to see if there was any progress from my last check 5 hours ago. Unfortunately I was still only 3-4cm but 100% effaced. We talked for a few minutes about how pitocin would really help me, how I would still be allowed to walk around, and how my risk of a c-section went up every hour that passed because of the infection risk with ruptured membranes. I was so tired and really wanting to meet this baby soon, so I agreed to a low dose of pitocin to kick things up a notch.
Dr. H took over at 7am and I was feeling good about our decision. She explained that she would be in surgery from 8am-11am but she would try to finish early to deliver this baby. I met the other on-call Dr. just in case, and although not a member of my practice, I liked her, and was feeling pretty confident despite what I had been told about pitocin-induced contractions.
Everything I had heard about them was true. They were a lot sharper and really wrapped around my back. Things from here get REALLY fuzzy and you can tell from lack of pictures that it was intense. My hypnobirthing techniques were once again a lifesaver. I relied on Kadi's calm voice and eye contact with Andrew to get me through. My mom was wonderful and did exactly what I asked of her - nothing! I warned her in advance that I can't have talking and don't like to be touched in labor. I typically stand and rock through contractions, but I just didn't have the strength this time. Surprisingly, I found myself most comfortable in the hospital bed, on my side, and gripping the handles through each contraction.
Around 9am, I reached a point where I couldn't handle them anymore and requested the epidural. Kadi and Andrew knowing that I always get to this point, encouraged me to keep moving forward without it. I remember Kadi telling me that if I'm feeling this way, I'm super close to meeting baby and by the time they get the epidural it will be time to push baby out. I requested a cervical check to see my progress and told myself that only if I was at 8cm would I forgo pain relief. The on-call Dr. came in and sure enough I was at 8cm. I knew I would be meeting our baby within the hour and decided to push on without it.
It wasn't much longer before I was feeling the urge to push. Just like with Eloise, but with the help of pitocin, I had went from 4cm to 10cm in 3 hours. I was crying this point and was fearful of the pain to come. It was becoming very apparent that this baby was not going to fall out like Eloise did. I was going to have to work and I didn't have any energy left. But one involuntary push and suddenly, Dr. H ran in! She had literally ran up from surgery to deliver this baby and it was all I needed for me to continue.
I don't know how long I pushed for, but I think it was 5 or so difficult ones with one pause to remove the cord from around his neck. And then, my "It's a Boy!" face. :)
And Andrew's "It's a BOY! face". My heart....
Our first meeting...
And from this point on, my heart would never be the same...
Since all of my deliveries have been in the morning, my awesome Dad continued the tradition of bringing me an Egg McMuffin from McDonalds. I was STARVING!
The girls came in the early afternoon after playing at the pool with Kimi all morning.
They were SO excited and incredibly sweet with him.
Kimi made the sweetest onesie with the girls!
Part of FIVE!!
Andrew fulfilled my other craving for dinner.
Pastor Cliffe came and prayed with us the next morning.
And the girls came and hung out the next day and brought me pizza.
Saturday was our day of discharge and once again, I ordered the strawberry stuffed french toast. It's pretty cool having all children at the same hospital.
We have this same picture with all three of our babies!
More to come on Henry's first 10 days with us! Oh and duh, some of his newborn pictures to come too. ;)
Beautiful post, Alex. I felt like I was there and teared up seeing the pictures of you and Andrew meeting him. Just precious. Congrats again!
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