Happy Birthday to that special little man in my life

After six months of trying to talk husband into another baby, two heartbreaking miscarriages, jumping through hoops medically, three months of bed rest and an extremely closely monitored pregnancy....my son was born May 27 at 10:42pm, weighing 5lbs2oz (he was a peanut, but still 8oz more than my daughter), 17"long.

So in honor of his third birthday (holy cow, I can not BELIEVE he's THREE, yikes!) I dug through IV using the advanced search and found his birth story I had posted.

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Ok, where to start. I had an appt Thurs (5/22) and was only a fingertip dialated and about 40% effaced but my cervix was extremely short. We discussed that bc of how far away we lived from the hospital (1.5hrs) she was worried that when I did go into labor I would be delivering in the car and the way things were looking that she would check me again Tues (5/27) and would schedule an induction then (which we had already been pretty much planning on considering we knew this was another IUGR baby). Monday (which happened to be Memorial Day) I had some pretty bad cramping and contrax and thought we would have to go to the hospital because my dr had said not to wait for anything too regular because it would be too late, that if I even *felt* like I might be in labor to hurry in (but it ended up being nothing). I had an appt Tues a/m at 8:30, I was 37wks along. I was 3cm dialated and 50% effaced. Things looked good at that point. Then she sent me to have an u/s to test my amniotic fluid level. That's when things got interesting. It should be *at least* 5 and mine was under 2. The tech was able to find 2 small pockets and that was IT. Then I had a NST done, which was ok but towards the end also started not looking so great. My Dr decided right then that I needed to head straight to the hospital to be induced immediately. I was so surprised and scatterbrained. THANK GOODNESS I had been carrying my hospital bag and daughter's around in my car because there wasn't even time to go home and finalize things there or anything. The most disappointing thing was that my Dr would not be able to deliver him. I absolutely love her and we were both hoping so badly that she would be able to be there, but it just wasn't possible.
So I called my husband and told him I was coming to pick him up (he was fortunately working near my dr's office), we dropped off daughter at my mom's school and headed to the hospital. They started the Pitocin at 1:30 w/ the plan to increase the levels every 30min-1hr. They warned me that a lot of times babies w/ low amniotic fluid don't handle the contrax that well and that's why they were starting so slowly w/ the Pit and that any sign of distress I would have to have a c-section. Which threw me a bit. At 5:30 they checked me and I was still 3 cm but 75% effaced and they broke my water. My contrax immediately picked up at that point. Although I had really hoped to go natural this time, I knew that being completely bedbound bc of the monitors and Pitocin that I would most likely be unable to but would go as long as I could w/o anything. At 7:30 I was experiencing horrible back labor, I felt SO much pressure and the contrax were so close together and so intense I couldn't get a handle on them. I asked for the epi then. They checked me and I was 4cm and completely effaced. I got the epi at 8 but it only took on the L side. So from 8-10 they did all sorts of things to try to get the epi to take on my R as well. It was so wierd! I guess it was better than not having one at all but they were sooooooooo incredibly intense on my R side. My son's heartrate was dipping quite a bit w/ the contrx and they decided they needed to put an internal heartrate monitor on him (in his head, ick!) and an internal thing that would check my contrax as well, when they checked me, I was only 5cm (this was at 10ish). Immediately after they did that his heartrate dropped to under 40. The room was immediately filled w/ nurses, dr's, I couldn't even see my Husband because there were so many people in the room. They flipped me over on my L side to try to increase blood flow and put me on oxygen. Up until this point his heartrate had been dipping a bit w/ the contrax and they were some concerned but not horribly so. I was so scared, I was sure I was going to be whipped off to have an emergency c-section. But his heartrate went back up w/ everything they were doing and it looked ok. By this time my epi was working on both sides but bc they had to keep giving me so much I now couldn't feel my legs AT ALL. The objective was for me to be able to still feel/move my legs so that when it was time to push I could. Anyways, at this point Husband called his parents and my mom to update them and let them know it would be awhile still bc I was only 5cm. I had been horribly nautious, was throwing up and they went to check me again and there was his head, my Dr said I wasn't kidding when I said it would go fast, lol(the exact same thing had happened w/ my daughter, they had checked me and said it would be several hours, I began puking and *poof* there she was w/in minutes). They quickly got everything prepped and called in a special pediatric team to stand by bc he was IUGR and had shown signs of distress. I pushed through 3 contrax and there he was at 10:42! I didn't tear or anything, it was an incredibley easy delivery. The only shocking part was his dark black hair, lol! My daughter had had *some* hair but it was very blond. His apgar's were 9 and 9, which everyone was thrilled about seeing how the labor had gone.

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My son is the best thing that has ever happened to me. He has taught me patience, and to be less critical of others. He's humbled me. My daughter was a perfect baby, and I'm not exaggerating. And I accredited it to my "perfect" parenting. I was *that* person that looked down on others who couldn't "control" their unruly children, their babies that cried in restaurants.... It took all of oh, four days of doing exactly what I did with my daughter to realize this little boy needed a whole different baby manual and uh, he didn't come with it. (lol) He wanted to held by me 24/7, and not just held, like while sitting in a chair. He wanted to be *moved*. The car was a nightmare...because it meant he wasn't being held. That child spent his first year of life attached to me in some form...GOD BLESS my Bjorn....

Him and I share a special bond and yes, he's a mamma's boy. And I love that about him....

EE danced at 8:00 AM
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