What a week -- birth!

I have NOT had the energy to update my blog about finally giving birth because it was an unexpected situation that landed me in the hospital all week.

First: the awesome stuff - I gave birth to a son, Hunter, on Monday night :)

And we are both very happy and healthy! So, really, nothing else matters!

But things didn't even remotely go as planned. I woke up at midnight/early Sunday morning with labor pains. They were far apart and irregular so I tried to get some sleep (though didn't get much). Later that morning, we grocery shopped, ate a nice breakfast, I showered, etc. I had planned to ride out most of my labor at home.

But then my water broke at noon and my doctor told me to go to the hospital. Do off we went and I spent the rest of Sunday working through contractions that were growing ever stronger and closer together.

I was still in labor on Monday morning, not too strange. Eventually my doctor checked my progress (they don't do that much when your water breaks to reduce infection) and I was 8 cm dilated! I was happy to hear that and soldiered on without an epidural, feeling like I was close so shouldn't bother. 

However, several hours later my contractions stayed about 2-3 minutes apart and at the same intensity and I hadn't dilated further. They eventually gave me pitocin to try and progress the labor (again worried because I had broken my water over 24 hours ago and that risks infection).

Around 6 PM on Monday I got an epidural because I was in so much pain for so long, I was exhausted. They hoped me relaxing would help get the baby further down. I was 9 cm at this point but couldn't seem to fully dilate.

Eventually a new midwife started her shift at 7 PM and checked me out - she felt the baby was in a bad position. She had an ultrasound done and saw the baby was face up and definitely not moving down the birth canal. After an hour of monitoring me with an internal contraction monitor- they saw that finally the pitocin was starting to distress the baby and my contractions were not getting anything done.

After consulting with my OB, and with me, no one felt like I was going to be able to give birth naturally.

So after over 40 hours of a pretty intense labor, I was getting prepped for a c-section.

The procedure went quickly and well (though I was beyond freaked out and couldn't stop my non paralyzed parts from trembling) and it was clear to them the baby WAS stuck in my pelvis in a bad position (they even had trouble getting him out through the surgery!). He was also 9 lb 14 oz and really crammed in there haha :)

I heard him cry, and I cried and my husband cried ... But they took my son to get cleaned up and alarms kept going off. Scary. They couldn't get his oxygen levels up because he had too much mucous in his lungs. They took him to the NICU before I even got to see him :(

I was given anti-anxiety meds in recovery because I was a mess. My adrenaline had been pumping for almost 2 days, I had had no sleep and I did NOT have my child with me!!

After a few hours, they took me up to the NICU on my stretcher to see him - he was gorgeous!! And doing a lot better but they were still keeping him till they were certain he was ok. It was a long night without him and I barely slept. My head was racing from the past 2 days, my body was destroyed from exhausting labor and surgery. I was sad to not have held my son on his birthday.

Then, at 8 AM on Tuesday morning, they brought him down to my room to stay! I got to hold him and oh... I was so in love.

The next few days were a blur of learning to take care of Hunter and trying to sleep :)

I stayed in the hospital till Friday morning, I was experiencing a lot of pain and having a hard time managing it. I was also struggling to breastfeed and none of us were sleeping well.

It felt like a lifetime in the hospital but also such a blur!!

I've absolutely fallen in love with Hunter, however, and it has made all the pain and distress and everything else just not really matter :)

We're figuring stuff out at home now. It feels surreal! I'm happy :) But also a little freaked out by everything that happened, I won't lie. It's hard to be recovering physically from the week - to not be able to do much for myself or Hunter. Chris has been truly amazing with taking care of us, I'd be lost without him!

So that's why you get the late update - I'm an exhausted mess of a human! But also a very happy, lucky new mom with a beautiful new baby :)