Evil Eye

Hey all, I have a few minutes until Victor decided he wants to eat again. Before I go any further, I know you want to see the little guy, so here he is, Victor Elvis:

Pretty cute, eh? He was born on July 30th, at 1:40am. He is a healthy, content little baby.

It was a long labor, my water broke on Monday night at 10:25pm, right after my first contraction. He had already passed meconium into the amniotic fluid, so I knew I would not get to stay at home until the contractions got closer together. We went to the hospital, and I was in triage for a while and I was admitted into the delivery room at about 1:30am on Tuesday morning. My contractions would get closer together, and then there would be a gap before the next round. This went on for hours, and in the meantime my cervix was just not cooperating. I had already been dilated 1cm for about 3 weeks, and after around 12 hours (I think, I have to admit I was not looking at the clock) I was still only just past 2cm. It had been suggested earlier that I consider augmenting the labor with Pitocin, and I asked that we wait a while and see if my contractions became regular. We did wait, and to no avail, so I agreed to the Pitocin, but not to the epidural. I now understand why Pitocin and epidurals go hand in hand, the contractions become brutal. But, I did my breathing exercises as best I could with guidance from a wonderful nurse, and Scott. Whenever I started to become overwhelmed, he would quietly remind me to relax my muscles and breath slowly, which is just what I needed. I wasn’t always able to relax, but more often than not his reminders did the trick. This went on and on until about 11:30pm Tuesday night. Again, I am not sure about the time. At this point I was dilated and needed to start pushing. I could feel his head pushing against my pelvis, and could hardly stand it. The delivery part of this affair took around 2 hours. It is amazing how many doctors and nurses fill the room at this stage. They all are ready to go into action as soon as the baby is born, but in the meantime, many of them are just waiting and cheering you on. I had a whole team around me guiding me through the pushing, including Scott who was standing to my right, quietly encouraging me on, and thank goodness, I felt like I didn’t know what I was doing, which, well, I didn’t. I really hit a point where I was very worried I could not pull it off, but they kept right on talking me through it until he was born. I can’t even begin to the describe the feeling when they guided his head out and then his shoulders. I went from having firmly decided that this was an only child to feeling like I could do it again, which still seems crazy to me.

Because he had passed the meconium, they did have to whisk him away to the little table in the room with the warming light to clean and examine him, since there was concern he had aspirated some of the meconium and there is danger of infection, plus he was breathing pretty fast I seem to remember. But before long, they decided he was ok, and Scott finally was willing to leave my side to go see him. All the while I had delivered the placenta, and was being cleaned out, and stitched up, while watching them tend to Victor across the room.  Then, finally, they handed him to me, and he latched right on.

He was born at 1:40am on Wednesday. Whew! He was cute from the start. He wasn’t wrinkly or red, just plain cute. I guess that 41st week in the womb did the trick.

We came home on Thursday evening. They had already discharged Victor, but they waited a little longer with me, since my blood pressure had dropped over night, but was already normal by morning. It was a really long labor, so I guess they had their concerns. I am still feeling pretty sore, but I am healing up well. Our family has been taking very good care of me.

So, we’re a little family of 3 people and 2 cats now. The cats have been very good around the kid, they sniff him from time to time, but leave him alone, and they hang out with us as usual. We’ve been sure to give them lots of attention, so they haven’t been jealous. Other than needing to get more sleep, we’re doing well, and getting the hang of things. I am enjoying being able to sleep on my back, wear pants, even if they are still maternity pants, and my shoes fit again. We have supportive families and friends who we love. I have a healthy little baby, and a husband who is a natural father, and just amazing. I don’t have words for what he means to me.

Welcome to the world Victor. I can’t wait to see who you become.