Baby Reuben

I hope I wrote Rachel's birth story somewhere. I'll have to look for it and write a new one if I can't find it. Anyway here is Reuben's :D

When I was pregnant with Rachel I had no idea what to expect as far as going into labor. So I didn't expect anything. I anticipated that she would be at least a week late, but she ended up coming almost a week early. The experience gave me some inconvenient expectations for Reuben's birth.

I started having contractions on Friday the 13th of May, which was almost 2 weeks before his due date. Rachel was born about 30 hours after I first started feeling these contractions, so I immediately made preparations for my baby to come much sooner than expected. I took work off for the entire next week and began nesting like crazy. Not to mention I downloaded a contraction counter app for my iPod and started counting. I couldn't sleep that night not because the contractions hurt, but because I was very excited.

So then nothing happened. I kept having contractions and didn't know what to expect the next day, so I kept my work schedule open just in case. I get penalized if I don't make it to work or if I don't cancel my shifts 24 hours in advance, so that was a major concern for me. I was sick in December and ended up getting 9 penalties, then 8 more in January due to power outages and more sickness, and it put me way down in the queue for calls. The last thing I wanted to do was get a penalty now after 3 months of good work and slowly climbing back up the queue, so I just didn't work. It was probably better for me, because I got a lot more sleep and better sleep than I had been getting my whole pregnancy.

There I was, a week later and a week closer to the due date. I kept telling myself he'd be late, but the whole time I was expecting him to be early. I did all the nesting I possibly could, which was mostly sorting a TON of clothes given to me by friends. On Saturday, the 21st, I gave up. I was then planning to have a baby on Wednesday. I told everyone I was going into labor that night at 6 because that would be most convenient for me. 6 came and went and no labor. Still contractions, but not any worse than they had been for the past week. We attended a birthday party for a friend, and anticipated going to a second one the next day up in Salt Lake. This could be terribly inconvenient, because I was delivering in Payson. So if I went into labor in Salt Lake it would be almost an hour and a half just to get to the hospital. Luckily that didn't happen.

I of course had contractions throughout the evening, but nothing bothersome. Towards the end of the night as we were leaving they actually starting being more regular, about 20 minutes apart. I didn't mean to, but I timed them all the way home and they stayed consistently 20 minutes apart. We got home really late, so I figured I could fall asleep between contractions and get some good rest before whatever tomorrow would bring. This was Sunday the 22nd, btw. So we got into bed and Richard was out immediately. My first two contractions in bed were 20 mins apart. The next one came after 15 minutes. The next after 10. The next after 5. They were then consistently 3 minutes apart, and starting to be uncomfortable. So...maybe he would be early after all :D

Clearly I wasn't going to be able to sleep, but I tried. I was really tired. But then they really started getting painful and I felt like I'd need to distract myself. I decided to take a shower, and that was probably the best choice I've ever made. As I was getting undressed the pain intensified, but the pounding of the water on my lower back along with the heat seemed to help a lot. Well, at least for a while. I was probably in there a good 20-30 minutes before it stopped working and they started hurting more.

I tried to distract myself by getting back to sorting clothes. I had left a huge pile on the couch and figured if I would be having a baby soon it needed to be gone. I put on a movie and started sorting, but every time I had a contraction I had to stand up through it or it killed. By now it was 3 am and Richard had woken up, wondering where I was. I had told him before we went to bed that they were getting more regular, so he was kind of expecting this. I told him I wanted to go to the hospital, but with it being 20 mins from home I really didn't want to go too soon and risk getting sent home, so I was trying to wait as long as I could.

We slowly made preparations to go, with me pausing every 3 minutes to walk around in a circle breathing really slowly. Luckily my mom was still awake so we could try to figure something out for Rachel. The plan was that my mom would watch her whenever the time came, but if it came on a Sunday or Monday we'd be in a bind because she had to work those days. Well, it was Monday by now. We planned to call the house early in the morning and get one of the kids to stay home from school for a day.

We finally got into the car about 3:30 and arrived at the hospital at 4. I actually fell asleep between contractions in the car, which was lovely. And Richard drove pretty slowly and carefully so as to avoid any uncomfortable bumps, which I really appreciated. I have such a good husband, and one of my most favoritest things about him is how well he drives.

After being checked in they started getting me set up in a room. I was so nervous that I wouldn't be progressing. I told the nurse that when she checked me the correct answer would be "5" and that I would then be needing an epidural. She said "Well let's check and make sure it's not too late ;)" then she assured me it probably wouldn't be too late. She checked, and I was at a 6!! Wahoo!! This thrilled me for two reasons. 1) I didn't have to go home! and 2) I felt like a real wuss with Rachel. The contractions were so painful, but I really had no tools for dealing with them so they were a lot worse than they should have been. I am very impressed by women who give birth without an epidural, but I am not one of them. Maybe someday I will be, and I want to try to get as close to that point as timing and life permit. So with this pregnancy I got just a few tools for dealing with the pain, and what I learned and practiced actually helped. I had a goal to make it farther with Reuben without an epidural than I did with Rachel (even though it was much cheaper this time), and that I did :D I got Rachel's when I was just past a 4, and I didn't get Reuben's until I was closer to a 7. I had Rachel's for 5 hours, and Reuben's only for 3. So I was pleased with my accomplishment :D Also I felt like I handled the contractions better overall. I was pretty much screaming with Rachel, but I just breathed through each one calmly with Reuben.

Ok enough of my triumphant pain story. So the nurse admitted me and they called the anesthesiologist. He didn't show up for what seemed like forever but was probably only 20 minutes or so. He gave me the epidural along with another drug whose name I can never remember. It's the same stuff they gave Richard when he got his appendix out, and it makes you feel like you're floating. I didn't like it. Yes, I was tired and wanted to sleep, but with the birth progressing as it was I kind of wanted to be aware of everything and be able to communicate with people better than I was able to.

Ok so then my doctor showed up. He checked the monitor and charts and whatnot and told me he'd be back later. He had another patient delivering in Provo at the same time and she was winning, so he went out there to catch her baby. Funny, because the exact same thing happened with Rachel, but backwards. I was in Provo and he was delivering a girl in Payson at the same time. He actually barely made it in time to catch Rachel. I had already started pushing. But I was only at a 7 and not really progressing very quickly this time, so he took off.

The nurse came in an hour later and I hadn't progressed much. My doctor is an amazing scheduler and somehow makes it to all his births without missing an appointment, and he had a plan today. He called and told them he was on his way back and to give me pitocin (sp?) to have me ready by the time he arrived, at which point he would break my water and I'd have a baby. That's exactly how they worded it. Anyway I really didn't want the pitocin. Everything I've heard and read has steered me away from it. The birth is better the more natural it is, pitocin make harder contractions but not necessarily more effective contractions, etc etc. Anyway I was already almost at a 9 and had an epidural, so I figured why not.

They gave me the pitocin and I didn't feel a change in the contractions. Oh by the way, my epidural mostly went down my right leg and it turned out I could still feel part of my left side. This was super cool because I could still feel the contractions, although they weren't painful, I felt it when my water broke, and I could feel to push the baby out. I wasn't able to feel any of that (except the water part, because that happened before) with Rachel, and it made me feel that I really might be able to do this without drugs someday.

So yeah, my water broke before the doctor got back. It was cool, we heard the pop on the monitor :D So here came the doctor and my new nurse, and I started pushing. You can guess what happened next. When they weighed him and told me how big he was, I was shocked. I really didn't think he was THAT big :D I know 8 pounds isn't that big for a baby, it's quite average really, but remember that Rachel was only 6 1/2. That's a big difference. He was born right before 8 am, and my doctor was able to get to his office for his first appointment of the day. Crazy guy.

Oh how I loved my sweet new baby. They did his tests and he passed them all, so I was able to hold him right away, and he was able to latch on and nurse for almost an hour. It was marvelous :D He did spend a lot of time in the nursery while we were in the hospital with all the tests they had to do, but for the most part we got to have our little guy in our room and everything was great. He had pretty high bilirubin levels, so we had to bring him back to get checked twice and he's still a little yellow, but no lights and he's eating really well.

On Monday Reuben will be 3 weeks old. He sleeps 5-7 hours at night and is awake for 1-2 hours during the day. He has beautiful blue eyes and the sweetest face, and he holds his head up very well. He is now nursing very well without the help of that stupid shield my defective body has to use at first. It took me 2 months to get Rachel off of that thing, so this is a big deal :D Best of all, my son loves to snuggle with me and gets grumpy if other people hold him. The best part of being a mom is seeing your kids show you that they love you. My little guy loves to be held against my chest and loves to be swaddled and rocked.

So that's the story of Reuben's birth. The pregnancy was slightly more difficult than Rachel's, the birth was much easier, and I love having them both in my life each day. Being a mom is the best thing I've ever done, hands down :D