Micah Edward is Here!

Now, for all the details . . . Nothing happened after I exercised Saturday morning. Once again, I only felt contractions if i sat down, and they weren't regular or strong or anything. But Bob was really getting antsy about having another crazy drive down the beltway, like we had with Faith, so he wanted me to just go in and get checked. I called the labor unit, and they said to come right on in. So we got to Bethesda around 3:00. They put me on a monitor, and it seemed like the baby's heartbeat was going up and down, although later they decided it was actually just the monitor being wacky, and not the baby. But that made me a bit alarmed and more likely to want to want to stay. When the doctor examined me, she said I was at 5 cm. I was hoping to be at least 6 cm, but oh well. So they admitted me, with a plan to let me walk around a little bit, and then start some pitocin to regulate my very irregular contractions and also to break my water. Now I don't like interventions, and I would much rather go into labor all natural. But it wasn't happening, and I was just a little bit concerned about the baby being healthy. Two of my other kids (Luke and Anna) passed meconium before birth, and I knew that was a possibility here too. I just had this weird feeling.

I walked around for about 30 minutes, although I knew that wasn't going to do anything, if all my treadmill walking didn't ever start anything! I was happy to find a birthing ball in the room for me to use (an improvement over 2 years ago when I had Faith), and well as wi-fi (another improvement!). My nurse was great about letting me sit on the ball, so I rocked on there for awhile. Eventually the pitocin got started at around 4:45, and the contractions did get regular, although still not too strong. Finally the doctor came in at 6:15 to check me and break my water. I was still at 5 cm! That was discouraging! And there was indeed meconium in the water. Another thing to pray about. So they kept ramping up the pit, and eventually when I was checked at 8:00 or so, I was all of . . . 6 cm. What?! I was not happy! I was sure I was moving into transition because I was geting sweaty and a bit shaky. I was starting to doubt this one doctor's ability to measure me, LOL.

The contractions were getting quite strong by this point, and Bob was doing a great job of pressing his fist into my lower back to put counterpressure there. I was lying on my left side by that point, which is my "favorite" position for transition. I will say, though, that the thought of having hours more of these strong contractions was making me seriously be tempted by an epidural. In fact, the doctor (same one who kept measuring me) told me, "I know this labor isn't progressing as fast as you would like, so you can always just have some other drugs, if not the epidural . . ." I was actually tempted, but I just tried to take it one contraction at a time. I could tell the baby was moving down, and I was definitely feeling more pressure.

Around 9:00 I told Bob I was getting close, although I knew I wasn't complete yet. He went ahead and pressed the call button, since you never know how long it will actually take the doctor to get there! To our surprise, 3 of them (2 regular docs I had been seeing all afternoon plus one student) came right away. They checked me and said I was at 9. Then the one who usually measured me said they would check back in an hour! Ha! I let them leave because I wanted to be on my side for a little longer, but I told Bob I was already feeling pushy, and it definitely was not going to take an hour for me to go the last cm! Sure enough, by 9:15 I was definitely pushing, so we called the doctors back, and they officially declared me complete at 9:20. It was nice to push on my own for a contraction or 2. I hate the whole "breaking down the bed" uncomfortableness, right as you are ready to push!

So there I was, pushing away, and I could tell this baby was going to be big because he wasn't just popping out, LOL. I could feel him moving down and start to crown, so you would think that the next push would just pop him out. But it didn't. So with the next contraction, I pushed really hard. And kept pushing. Took a breath and pushed some more. And a bit more. Why wasn't he out yet?! The doctors and Bob were all saying, "Keep pushing! Don't stop!" and they were moving my legs all around. But the head was not coming out!! I was pushing so hard I saw stars! I was really starting to doubt if this I was going to be able to push this baby out. It was a little scary, but it wasn't like I could really dwell on it, LOL. Finally the head came out, but there was no relief, because there were the shoulders. Another hard bit of pushing, and then FINALLY I felt the body slither out. Relief--at last!

Micah Edward was born at 9:38 PM, April 9. Because of the meconium, the baby had to go directly over to the pediatrician there in the room for suctioning. I could not have cared less, LOL. I was just so relieved to have him out of me! I took a look and could tell he was a big baby--like I had any doubt about that after all that pushing! The peds docs got him all suctioned out, and then I started nursing. He fussed around for awhile, but remembering Faith and her low blood glucose adventures, I really worked to get him to latch on. Finally he did and nursed for awhile. I talked to my mom at this point, but we didn't have any details about any statistics because no one had weighed or measured him! Finally the corpsman came in with the scale about 11:00. Micah was 10 pounds, 8.5 ounces, and 22 inches long, with a head circumference of 38 cm (15 inches!). Yeah--that's big. Micah did have a low blood glucose reading the first time they took it, so we had to get it checked a few more times. But thankfully it was never low again, and he's been nursing like a champ.

I was so sore last night. I had to laugh about how much I had been complaing about my aching pelvis. HA! I didn't even KNOW what an aching pelvis was! I thought my pelvis was going to crumple up and fall out. I could hardly walk! Thankfully, that is another benefit of Micah being my 8th, and not my 1st--today I feel much, much better, and not so sore at all. My bleeding has really tapered off too, which is nice. The doctors and nurses kept remarking about how amazing it was that I had a pitocin-induced delivery with no epidural and no tearing. It was definitely a gift from God. Micah's name means "Who is like the Lord?", and I could feel the Lord strengthing me during the whole labor.

So we will be coming home tomorrow, Lord willing! I wanted to get pictures posted from here, but the connection is really slow, so I'm not even going to bother trying. In the meantime, Bob and I are just enjoying this nice, quiet little vacation, snuggling with Micah and rubbing his sweet newborn head and cheeks! He's a doll! We're so thankful for him.