My due date was May 13 and at my 34 week appointment I was set up to be induced a week early (which technically would be May 6 but since that was a Saturday we went with the fifth). Baby's measurements were good and he was head down. My doctor was going to leave town on May 6 so we decided it would be best for me to be induced before he left.
My wonderful sister in law (and her husband) offered to take off work and watch Everly. I had to be at the hospital by 7:00 AM. I woke up super early and started getting ready. I wanted to curl my hair because you know there's a ton of pictures after you have a baby. I took a quick shower and started curling my hair. Well it wasn't working all that well so I hopped back in the shower, washed my hair and finished getting ready. We were able to get ready and leave the house without waking up Everly. When we arrived to the Labor and Delivery department, they were all in a C-Section so we had to wait a few minutes for someone to buzz us in. We were let in and sent to the waiting room until they could come get us. We waited in there for a while and I started to get really nervous. IT was happening..this were serious now. We discussed what names we might use (we hadn't chosen a name yet) to get my mind off things. Finally a nurse came to get us and we started getting set up in our room. I got dressed in the gown and she started the IV with Pitocin and started on the paperwork. My doctor came in to check that the baby was head down and to break my water. My water didn't break with Everly until she was coming out so I didn't really have the experience of my water breaking. It's such a weird feeling and I wasn't really prepared for it. It wasn't like a gush of fluid like in the movies. It happened in a lovely slow and steady stream over the next few hours. I just felt like I was sitting on wet towels the whole time. Anytime I moved, laughed or coughed liquid came pouring out of my body. Getting up to use the restroom was a nightmare. ANYWAYS.....
I started feeling the contractions pretty quickly after the Pitocin was started. Pretty soon (just like with Everly) they started coming on too soon and too strong! So the nurse turned OFF the Pitocin to give my body a break. But then I'd stop contracting so it felt like it was kind of slowing down the process. She kept turning it off and on. A couple of hours later I got my epidural. It was much more painful this time getting my epidural. I don't know why? But once it was in I was in heaven! I couldn't feel any contractions any more. With Everly the epidural only worked on one side of my body so I still felt all the contractions. At this point Sam ran to the cafeteria to get a quick lunch before things progressed too far along. I was able to just rest and relax. Sam was back in record time and came rushing back.
I LOVE the heartbeat monitor they put on you to watch the baby. I'm always watching it and listening to the baby's heartbeat. I noticed the heartbeat dipped a little low but it came right back up. Pretty soon the nurse came in and said "your baby is doing something funky." I'm thinking 'okay what does that mean' and basically I start to panic. The nurse checks the baby and says I'm dilated to an 8 and starts wiggling him around inside me. I can tell he didn't like it and was pushing back on her. Then she decides I need to move around and get in a different position. Let me tell you my epidural was working great. I literally couldn't move. The nurse didn't understand this concept for some reason and kept asking me to move up on to my side. Yeah lady I'm completely numb from the waist down...basically paralyzed. I'm not moving anywhere by myself. After what seemed like several minutes of her telling me how to move we finally worked together to do whatever it is she wanted me to do. All the sudden I felt this intense pressure and I can feel the contractions again. They aren't as strong or painful but I defiantly could feel them and the pressure to push. I told the nurse I felt like I needed to push and she was like 'I just checked you and you're at an 8.' Yeah lady I know....I'm at a 10 now. Obviously I didn't say that out loud. Anyway she ended up checking me again and I was right, it was go time. She stepped outside to call the doctor and he said he'd be there in 15 minutes. Let me tell you 15 minutes when you're in labor and your body is ready to push is more like 15 hours. It's horrible to have to fight the feeling to push. So everyone gets ready for the baby to come and a couple more nurses join the party. The doctor finally arrives and gets all ready to get baby. During all this my contractions became very intense again so the nurse turned off the Pitocin again! Not really sure why.....my contractions stopped. So when the doctor got there he was mad because I wasn't ready to go and my contractions had slowed way down. We turned the Pitocin back on and had to wait a few minutes so I'd be ready to push. When I pushed I had to bear down and hold it for 10 seconds and we did it in sets of threes. I think we did two or three sets when the doctor realized something wasn't right. He checked baby and said "oh he's twisted all funny." Again, what does that mean? I started to panic and my immediate thought was I'm going to have an emergency C-Section. The doctor didn't even say anything but looked at the nurse behind him and she immediately handed him the vacuum suction thing. He was able to turn the baby back head down rather quickly (I didn't know that's what he was doing at the time) and I pushed another set and the doctor said stop pushing. He started clamping stuff and they held up a towel in front of me so I couldn't see the doctor anymore. He pulled the baby out and at this point I was so worried something was seriously wrong with the baby! I mean why did they put a towel in front of my face when he came out? Right after that the doctor held him up for me to see (1:25 PM) and put him on my chest while they started cleaning him off and the doctor finished with the placenta and such. I didn't have a tear or anything so no stitches! Yay!
As the nurse is cleaning the baby she says something about the cord almost being around his neck. Sam could see what I couldn't during delivery and said that the baby's cord was stuck on his shoulder. The doctor told us that he was transverse and that's why the doctor had to vacuum him to turn him back head down. Only 1 in 400 babies is transverse and it usually ends up in an emergency C-Section. Even one of the nurses made a comment about how we were lucky the doctor was able to turn the baby back head first.
They took the baby to get all his measurements and do the APGAR score. Once they put him back on my chest we started taking lots of pictures and told our families. While our families were responding to the text we both decided to name him Theodore James Hunt. We both felt like that was his name and it was the only name on our list that seemed to fit. We spent the next several hours enjoying Theo together. It was so quiet and peaceful with just the three of us (the nurses pretty much left us alone). After a few hours they came in to give Theo a bath and move me to the recovery room. We moved down the hall and got all settled there.
Sam's family came to see the baby and brought Everly. She didn't seem to care much and didn't even really want to be around me. After that visit, my aunt and uncle who were in town from St. George came over to see the baby. Once they left, Sam went home to spend the night with Everly. I took care of Theo until about one in the morning. Then I asked the nurse to take him to the nursery and I slept until 5:30 when they had to check my vitals. Sam and Everly came over once they woke up and brought breakfast. We spent the morning together in the hospital room. Everly was more interested in the baby and in sitting with me. We had Sam's sister come get Everly around noon and it was perfect timing because that's when she started losing it. She needed a nap and to get out of the hospital room.
That afternoon the pediatrician came in to do Theo's circumcision. The doctor asked if either of us wanted to come watch (NO!!). It all went well and we were released from the hospital shortly after they were done.
We were a family of four! It was so nice to be home and back with Everly. The first four days home it was just us four. My mom came out on the 10 to help. She stayed for about 10 days and it was great to have her help. She did all the cooking and dishes and mostly took care of Theo because Everly needed me. My mom even took Theo all night twice because he takes bottles so well she was able to feed him. It was heaven to be able to sleep a bit. Sam went back to work after a week so that was also really nice to have my mom here the first few days Sam went back to work.
The first month with Theo has been great! He's the best baby in the world and we love him so much. He sleeps great! I'm talkin like sleeping three hours at a time the second night home and now we're up to five to six hours at a time at night! What more could I ask for, right? He's SUPER mellow and chill. He just hangs out for the most part and only cries if he's not feeling well. He's a happy baby and he's so fun to have in our family. Everly has adjusted better than I thought she would. She loves baby and loves to get right in his face. She gives him lots of hugs and kisses and really likes to hold him. Every once in a while she gets a little aggressively violent towards him so we have to watch that close. If she's tired she'll get really upset when I hold or feed him because she wants me to hold her. There are really good days and really bad days but I'm loving it and couldn't be happier!
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