Alex Laine was born on Friday, August 21st at 12:10pm. He is 8 pounds 3 ounces, 21 inches long and completely amazing. Even as I'm typing this, a tear comes to my eye. All I can do is stare at him. He's beautiful and I can't believe he's mine.
I'm sure you are wondering "How'd it go?". Well...let's just say, there is no kinda pain that compares to labor.
I had a doctor's appointment Thursday afternoon at 3:45pm. Dr. Martin inserted a Foley Catheter into my cervix and placed water in it to help expand my cervix. The goal was 3cm. I started feeling mild contractions every 10 minutes or so throughout the evening. Not bad at all. We checked into St. Mary's Hospital at Midnight Thursday night. The nurses are absolutely incredible. They put an IV in me and started the petocin. I started getting contractions regularly every 10 minutes. Not bad, but uncomfortable to where I couldn't sleep. They gave me some medicine that was great and I guess I got about 4 hours of sleep. Broken sleep since I had to go to the bathroom, but sleep at least.
My doctor came in around 6:30am to check on me and I was at 4 cm so she was pleased. She was also surprised I didn't have my epidural yet. I hadn't needed it, but all of a sudden, wham! My contractions were coming every 2 minutes and so incredibly painful that I thought I was gonna' die. I cannot even describe that pain. Well the anesthesiologist was in a C section. I got to the point where I just could not stand it and finally my nurse brought in a doctor from heart surgery to do my epidural. He swept in there, laid me on my side, gave me my epidural like it was nothing. And it was. It was smooth, flawless and I wanted to name my baby after him. I immediately felt some relief. I was able to rest a bit more after that. Well after awhile I could feel some pain in my left hip, then my right. The epidural was wearing off and I had gone from 5cm to 9cm in a little over an hour! I knew I wouldn't be able to stand the pain to start pushing at 10cm. So they brought in another doctor to give me more of the epidural medicine. That numbed me completely and I couldn't feel anything. Nothing. Hard to know "where" you are pushing to, but we worked it out.
So I pushed for a bit. Not too bad, but not huge progress. I believe the nurses became concerned because they called in Dr. Martin earlier than planned. She whisked in there, checked me out and found that the cord was around the babies neck. Not in a bad way, but it was preventing him from moving forward and his heart rate would drop when I pushed. Also , the muscles were so tight in my pelvis, they wouldn't allow the baby to pass through. He was too far down in the birth canal though at that point for a C-section so she went after him with the forceps. It was very fast from there. There was an army of nurses and Dr. Martin. They delivered Alex, swept him up, cleaned him up and were absolutely 100% amazing.
My husband and were both crying. I was mostly waiting for the big cry. Once I heard that big ole' cry, I knew my baby was okay.
The nurses noticed a dimple though at the base of his spine. Which could have meant something was wrong with his spine. But they wanted to let the doctor look at him. I didn't let myself worry about it. The nurse practicioner for Dr. Feld came in to look at him. She said the dimple was closed and his spine is just fine.
My baby is perfect and I am so grateful to my husband, Dr. Duy-Thu Martin and her staff and the staff at St. Mary's Hospital for making my pregnancy and birth a truly amazing time of my life. I highly recommend Dr. Martin. She is a no-nonsense, hard working doctor who kept me in line from day one to ensure I had a healthy pregnancy.
Pregnant? Call her up: 546-6721.
and I highly recommend St. Mary's Hospital for your delivery.
I will have pictures of Baby Alex for you very soon.
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