Evan
So, our baby boy is finally here. Actually, he arrived almost exactly a week ago, 9/21 at 9:45pm. He was 8lbs 3oz and 19" long, so a little heavier and a little shorter than his sisters. I had another pretty quick labor, with the active phase being very short.
Friday morning, Chris called in to work to see what time they wanted him to come in. It was supposed to be his 3rd day of medical leave because he had a vasectomy the Tuesday prior, but they had aircraft coming back from Fallon so they needed him to come in for a little bit. I had been having a few random contractions, but no more than a couple an hour. I did start losing my plug though, and in the past that had always meant labor was about to start. Anyway, he left for work around 1pm, and around 2pm the contractions all of a sudden became more frequent. Perfect timing, right? lol!
Around 3pm I sent Chris a text saying the contractions were more regular, and he decided to head home. He picked up Elena on his way home, and we started getting the girls' stuff together and loading everything into the car. We left the house around 4:15pm, but stopped to bring some diapers to a friend's house, drop off the girls, and mail some stuff from the post office before actually going to the birth center. We got to the birth center around 5:45pm, talked to the midwife, chatted about how my contractions were and getting antibiotics in my system. I was only at 2cm and 80% when the midwife checked me, but with my history of fast labors and wanting to get the antibiotics in, she said they were going to go ahead and check me in.
At that point I decided to try to stay in bed as much as I could, because the contractions were further apart when I was reclined and I wanted to try to get the iv antibiotics in and let enough time pass so that I wouldn't have to stay more than 24hrs. I had been gbs+, but was on oral antibiotics and had requested a retest that came back negative. The midwives knew that meant I was clear, but the pediatricians still considered me to be gbs+ anyway (ridiculous!), so getting the iv meds was really to appease them. It took a while to get the meds up from the pharmacy, so they weren't done being administered until about 8pm. I tried to sit around more after that but started feeling really antsy, it was SO hard to sit still when it felt like my body was telling me to get up and move.
Around 8:30-8:45 I gave up on staying in bed and decided to walk the halls. The contractions picked up very quickly and were soon intense enough and close enough together that I was having a hard time talking through them. I didn't want to walk anymore so we went back into the room, the nurse came in to see how I was doing, then left to get the midwife to come check my progress. Just as the nurse was leaving the room, my water broke (at 9pm). The midwife came in, confirmed that it had broken, and I was at 9cm. The urge to push started to come shortly after that. Being back in bed seemed to weaken the contractions a bit, which was frustrating to me because I wanted to be able to work with the strong ones for more effective pushing. After just about half an hour of pushing, little Evan arrived at 9:45pm. The cord was partially around his neck, so due to that and the force of pushing he ended up with a bit of petechiae (tiny pinpoint bruises) on his face and neck. Chris caught him and also cut the cord.
We stayed the night and then went around and around with hospital staff over how long we'd be staying. Like I mentioned, I had been gbs+, but had retested just 2 days before he was born and been negative. I had been on clyndamycin (the same antibiotic that the hospital gave me during labor) for 10 days thanks to a broken tooth, and had finished that up the same day that I went into labor. Clearly there was no time for me to become gbs+ again, but the lovely pediatric hospital staff treats moms as being gbs+ for the duration of pregnancy if they test positive at any time. I knew that me taking the oral antibiotics meant Evan was getting the meds in utero, and the boost of the iv meds continued it plus he was then getting the same stuff when he was born and started breastfeeding. In other words, there was zero risk that he could have come in contact with gbs! We ended up leaving after exactly 24 hours, we didn't stay the 48 hours that the ped staff wanted us to. They tried hard to convince us, going as far as saying that babies die from gbs (you know, the stuff I *didn't* have). Scare tactics for the win...thanks so much. I wasn't worried though, I know the facts and know that he would be just fine. Thankfully the midwives aren't of the same mentality as the peds staff and they understood (and agreed) with what I was saying. Got to love being an informed patient :)
So we're home, he's doing great, I'm slowly feeling more normal again, and we're adjusting to life with a new little one.
Friday morning, Chris called in to work to see what time they wanted him to come in. It was supposed to be his 3rd day of medical leave because he had a vasectomy the Tuesday prior, but they had aircraft coming back from Fallon so they needed him to come in for a little bit. I had been having a few random contractions, but no more than a couple an hour. I did start losing my plug though, and in the past that had always meant labor was about to start. Anyway, he left for work around 1pm, and around 2pm the contractions all of a sudden became more frequent. Perfect timing, right? lol!
Around 3pm I sent Chris a text saying the contractions were more regular, and he decided to head home. He picked up Elena on his way home, and we started getting the girls' stuff together and loading everything into the car. We left the house around 4:15pm, but stopped to bring some diapers to a friend's house, drop off the girls, and mail some stuff from the post office before actually going to the birth center. We got to the birth center around 5:45pm, talked to the midwife, chatted about how my contractions were and getting antibiotics in my system. I was only at 2cm and 80% when the midwife checked me, but with my history of fast labors and wanting to get the antibiotics in, she said they were going to go ahead and check me in.
At that point I decided to try to stay in bed as much as I could, because the contractions were further apart when I was reclined and I wanted to try to get the iv antibiotics in and let enough time pass so that I wouldn't have to stay more than 24hrs. I had been gbs+, but was on oral antibiotics and had requested a retest that came back negative. The midwives knew that meant I was clear, but the pediatricians still considered me to be gbs+ anyway (ridiculous!), so getting the iv meds was really to appease them. It took a while to get the meds up from the pharmacy, so they weren't done being administered until about 8pm. I tried to sit around more after that but started feeling really antsy, it was SO hard to sit still when it felt like my body was telling me to get up and move.
Around 8:30-8:45 I gave up on staying in bed and decided to walk the halls. The contractions picked up very quickly and were soon intense enough and close enough together that I was having a hard time talking through them. I didn't want to walk anymore so we went back into the room, the nurse came in to see how I was doing, then left to get the midwife to come check my progress. Just as the nurse was leaving the room, my water broke (at 9pm). The midwife came in, confirmed that it had broken, and I was at 9cm. The urge to push started to come shortly after that. Being back in bed seemed to weaken the contractions a bit, which was frustrating to me because I wanted to be able to work with the strong ones for more effective pushing. After just about half an hour of pushing, little Evan arrived at 9:45pm. The cord was partially around his neck, so due to that and the force of pushing he ended up with a bit of petechiae (tiny pinpoint bruises) on his face and neck. Chris caught him and also cut the cord.
We stayed the night and then went around and around with hospital staff over how long we'd be staying. Like I mentioned, I had been gbs+, but had retested just 2 days before he was born and been negative. I had been on clyndamycin (the same antibiotic that the hospital gave me during labor) for 10 days thanks to a broken tooth, and had finished that up the same day that I went into labor. Clearly there was no time for me to become gbs+ again, but the lovely pediatric hospital staff treats moms as being gbs+ for the duration of pregnancy if they test positive at any time. I knew that me taking the oral antibiotics meant Evan was getting the meds in utero, and the boost of the iv meds continued it plus he was then getting the same stuff when he was born and started breastfeeding. In other words, there was zero risk that he could have come in contact with gbs! We ended up leaving after exactly 24 hours, we didn't stay the 48 hours that the ped staff wanted us to. They tried hard to convince us, going as far as saying that babies die from gbs (you know, the stuff I *didn't* have). Scare tactics for the win...thanks so much. I wasn't worried though, I know the facts and know that he would be just fine. Thankfully the midwives aren't of the same mentality as the peds staff and they understood (and agreed) with what I was saying. Got to love being an informed patient :)
So we're home, he's doing great, I'm slowly feeling more normal again, and we're adjusting to life with a new little one.