The Stewart Family Newsletter!: Dean's birth!

*Disclaimer: This post will probably seem like it's all about me. That's because I was there too. Sorry Dean, you'll have to write your own blog post about your birth one day. Also, this post begins a series of posts in which this blog becomes my personal journal of sorts. You have been warned.

The quick version: My water broke on Father's Day at night, and Dean was born about 10 hours later at 5am June 22, 2015! The labor and delivery went perfect, and Dean is healthy and basically the best baby ever.

The long version: (big time TMI. Again, you have been warned.)

7:30 water broke. I was sitting on Angie and Nate's couch, playing clue with Conner, Nate, and Spencer. Spencer had already won. I felt the tiniest bit of trickle, thought it was nothing, played another round (which spencer won again) and felt a tiny trickle again, then went to the bathroom because I thought it was just normal, but my panty liner was soaked through, which I thought was strange, but still maybe normal. I put some toilet paper in its place thinking it was nbd.

8:00 we went home, because Spencer's thesis rough draft was due the next day, and by the time we were home, the toilet paper was completely soaked through and my underwear was all wet. I told spencer I thought maybe my water broke, and he came in and said, "yeah, that's not normal..." Luckily we had just finished the "signs of labor" section on the dvd "laugh and learn with nancy" the night before, so we knew I needed to "sit down, note time, call doctor." So we tried not to freak out, and I called the hospital and they told me to come in, and we (spencer) rushed around the house packing last minute stuff and getting all the paperwork and things thrown in our duffle bag.

9:00 I called my mom, told her i wasn't going to chat because my water had just broken and we were going to the hospital to have the baby. *funniest moment of the whole thing: right before we left I asked spencer to go up and grab a pad for me, because I didn't want to leak all over everything. I told him to bring a few. He runs up and runs down and tosses two ultra-thin pantiliners at me.

a random picture of an ultra-thin pantiliner (the one on top), just so you can appreciate the hilarity of that moment.

I just started laughing saying "This is what you got me?! That's not going to do anything! Go back up and get the biggest pad you can find!" I think I then said, "actually, you know what, nevermind, I don't think any pad will help that much. Let's just go." And then just brought a plastic bag instead. I wasn't leaking like crazy, just once in awhile. I didn't leak from the time we left our house till the time we got to the registration desk. Then it gushed.

(too bad it wasn't st. patrick's day.)

9:30 arrived at the hospital (OSU Werner medical center), parked in the 3rd floor 9th street parking garage, and walked to the labor and delivery floor. When we got to the elevator there was a black pregnant lady being pushed in a wheelchair by two nurses. She was clearly in labor and very ready to start pushing. She was moaning and screaming and about to fall out of her wheelchair. The two nurses were rushing to get her to the right place. We just stood behind them with wide eyes and said, "we'll take the next elevator." We went up after them, and after she was all checked in I walked up to the registration desk, told them my water broke, and calmly got checked in. While I was standing there waiting for her to get all the registration done, randomly a huge amount of water came gushing down my legs! I was like "uhhhh..." "Sorry about that..." I was literally standing in a puddle of amniotic fluid. The nurse stood up and admitted me immediately. There's one way to skip the registration process. It was pretty clear they would be admitting me, but they took me back into the triage area and I changed into a gown and got on the bed and then a nurse and a resident came in and the resident checked me (painful! Glad I only had to do it a few number of times!) and to our great surprise said I was dilated to a 4 and 70% effaced! We were so surprised, because besides the water breaking, I didn't have any signs of labor! I realize now that I did have some Braxton hicks in the week or two leading up to that day, but they were never consistent or strong, maybe only once or twice a day. Never painful, it just felt like the baby was in a different position because everything seemed bone-ier, or harder. That aside, the only signs of impending labor I experienced were subtle- The week before I went into turbo mode and cleaned the whole house, bought ingredients for about 15 dinners, ordered the carseat, and made us watch a birthing class DVD from the library. The morning of the day I went into labor I woke up and just felt like my period was going to start and said to myself "this baby is coming soon." I didn't think much of it, but looking back my body knew what it was doing. I was so prepared, even though dean ended up coming 2.5 weeks early. We got everything done just in time.

In triage, after being told we were admitted.

9:45-ish They took me into a labor room and my nurse got me situated with giant pads, mesh underwear, an iv (in my wrist! It was the worst part of Everything!), and monitors for baby's heart rate and for contractions. We couldn't believe we would be having our baby in less than 24 hours! The doctor on call said I might have to start pitocin (my auto correct just typed "pita." yeah, if only they had offered me a pita...) if contractions didn't start, but my nurse was great and said I could have an hour to walk around and try to get them to start naturally. So by about 10pm, she left the room and I walked laps in the room, watching the clock and trying to time contractions. By 10:30 I was on the toilet, where the contractions really started coming and I could breath through them. I remember getting mad at spencer because I kept asking what time the clock said (I couldn't see it) because I was timing the contractions and he wouldn't answer me immediately and was getting tired of me asking. He was still trying to work on his thesis! The contractions were strong enough by this time that I was focusing and deep breathing to get through them, and I was shaking like crazy.

At about 11 she came back in and I got back in bed and she checked me and said I was 100% effaced and at a 5/6! True labor had successfully and naturally started! No pitocin (or pitas!) for me! I was having regular contractions every 5-7 minutes, and she told me that I could have an epidural any time I wanted. I wanted to hold out until they were unmanageable, so I declined at that time. They really weren't that bad. She said I could labor in bed for another 30-60 minutes and she would come check on me, and then left. I rolled to my left side and laid there for a few minutes, and then a HUGE contraction hit and I couldn't even breath through it, I just was moaning uncontrollably. As soon as it was over I told spencer to get the nurse, I wanted the epidural now! I didn't want any more of those. he called her back and she called the anesthesiologist and about 15 minutes after the anesthesiologist was in my room prepping me for the epidural. It was great. They raised my bed and spencer sat on one side and I sat up with my legs over the edge and rested them on his thighs, and held his hands, and i curled my head and shoulders down and in, and my nurse held my gown down around my face so I could breath, and then the anesthesiologist went to work inserting the epidural. When she put it in, I could feel pain going along the left side of my spine. It was so weird. And kind of oddly painful. But not too bad. It was done pretty fast and I could lay back down and they gave me a shot of happy epidural juice and it worked great so I was started on the epidural. The nurse said she would let us try to rest for an hour. She turned the lights down and gave spencer blankets and I was all bundled up, and so we tried to rest for a little bit. I think spencer fell asleep, but I just rested with my eyes closed until she came back in around midnight or so.

sweet, sweet epidural

oh yeah, spencer was there too.

12:00 midnight: She helped me roll onto my left side to do another hour of labor. She didn't check me at this time. Spencer I think went back to sleep, and I again tried to rest, but by about 12:30 the contractions were getting pretty painful again. I was feeling A LOT of pressure in my butt area and felt like I needed to poo. I started moaning through the pressure pain and deep breathing slowly through the contractions. I'm telling you, something about laying on my left side really got things going.

At 1:15am the nurse hadn't come back in yet, so I woke up spencer and had him get the nurse. She came back in and I told her I was feeling a lot of pressure and thought maybe I needed to poop, so she wanted to check me again. She looked surprised and calmly said, "well, I don't feel any cervix. And you're at 100%" and it didn't really register with me or spencer what she said, so I asked "wait, what was I at?" And she said "you're at a 10. You can start pushing." We were so surprised! It all happened so fast and smoothly! She had me push a little with the next contraction and it felt great to push with the pressure. She called the doctor in.

By about 2:30 or 2:45, the doctor was there all ready and the room was set up for delivery. I was actively pushing through contractions by about 2:45. The contractions just felt like strong pressure coming in waves. They were only coming every 5-6 minutes though, so I had a lot of time to rest in between. The way they were spaced out also made them feel like time was passing fast. By about 3:30 you could see his head, so they got me a mirror so I could see. I was shocked at how stretched and bulging everything down there was. But it was cool to see, I guess. Spencer was on my right, the nurse was on my left, and the doctor was at my feet. They were the only people in the room the entire time. It was very calm and intimate, and I didn't feel rushed. It all felt very natural. spencer fed me ice chips when I wanted them, and put a wet washcloth on my forehead when I was hot. And didnt do anything when i told him to stop. The rest of the labour was a blur, but every 6 minutes or so I would push as long and hard as I could up to 10 seconds, then exhale completely, breath in again, and try to push for another 10 seconds. I unusually only got to 6 or 7 seconds on the second push. I really appreciate the way this doctor and nurse approached labor and delivery. They let everything happen naturally (aided by the epidural!) and didn't seem in a rush, even though there was another woman on the floor ready to start pushing when I still had an hour left to getting Dean out. The doctor was the only doctor on call at that time, so they just told the other lady to not push. haha. But I really appreciated their attitude to birthing, and I'm glad there were no complications.

Dean was born at 4:59am on June 22. I couldn't see anything in the mirror they put up, because the doctor was blocking it with her body, but I just remember pushing as hard as I could and then he came out. He started crying, almost immediately it seemed, and they put him on my stomach. He looked weird. :) He had a ton of dark hair and his face was all smooshed, but he was healthy and had a cute strong cry. His face was smooshed and swollen, but his head was still a normal round shape. He didn't have a cone-head like a lot of babies do. At least it didn't seem that way, because he had so much hair to cover it up! Spencer cut the umbilical cord (like cutting a beef stick!), and a few minutes later I somehow delivered the placenta. She kindof just pulled it out. gross, i know. I had a few little small tears (all 1st degree), so she stitched me up. Dean stayed on my chest for probably half an hour or so, and then they weighed him and all that. Spencer was with him for that. He weighed 6 pounds, 4.9 ounces, and he was 21 inches long. When they brought him back to me the nurse helped me try to breastfeed him. He had the strongest suck! It hurt so bad. Hopefully he got something out. Later, we found out he was tongue tied and so that was partly why he wasn't latching correctly. My poor nipples.

The Proud Dad!

A little later the anistesiologist came back and removed the epidural and then we just hung out in the room for another hour or so until they had a room ready for us in the maternity recovery wing. A nurse came with a wheelchair and Spencer carried all our stuff and I carried Dean in the wheelchair up to our room. When we got there there was a nursing team ready waiting. One of them gave Dean a bath and another one helped me go to the bathroom (fun!) and they got us situated and left. Unfortunately they had to come back in every half hour for the next day or so to check on us, which meant little to no sleep for me. I got mad a Spencer (a lot) when he would complain about how tired he was. The first night he even went back home to sleep, and lucky me I stayed at the hospital up with Dean all night. I think I only got about 4 hours of sleep in the 2 days. I was so exhausted. Finally at one point, I just started crying while a nurse was in there, and then they got me more pain medicine and put a do not disturb sign on the door. Smart nurses. And then spencer stayed with me that night. Smart Spencer.

Here you can see beneath his tongue where he was tongue tied. I'm not sure if this was taken before or after they clipped it.

Dean went to see the pediatricians in the nursery and they brought him back and told us he was tongue tied and suggested clipping his tongue. Danny was also tongue tied and so I was familiar with the process and what it meant, so I gladly consented. My nipples looked like the top of a tube of lipstick. We also wanted him to be circumsized, so they set up a time to do that the next day. Interestingly enough, the pediatrician was a guy who used to be in the Riverside ward with us. His name is Ross. We had his daughter in nursery. So he performed the tongue clipping and the circumcision. Spencer went with him to watch the tongue clipping. He said basically they held open his mouth and then just used a razor blade to cut the little flap under his tongue. He didn't have it too severe, but I'm still glad they had it done, and caught it fast before it caused too many problems. As it was, the nurses were pushing to have him eat as much as he could in those first 2 days there, and they stressed us out to the point that we all finally said, just give him some formula. He downed 20 ml in 2 minutes, so at least we were sure he had something to eat. But besides that, all Dean wanted to do was sleep all day, because you know, he had just been born. and circumcised. So we just took it easy, ordered as much food as we could from the cafeteria, and tried to have "fun" in the hospital. I met with a lactation consultant as many times as I could and they gave me tips and support and all sorts of free goodies. The second day spent in the hospital was mainly focused on breastfeeding. Even though I was exhausted and just wanted to go home, I'm glad I got the personalized breastfeeding support and was able to stick with it until my milk came in a few days later. I believe Dean was also circumsized that second day too.

We were discharged the third morning (after ordering as much breakfast and lunch as we could!) and the nurse wheeled us down to the car where spencer pulled up and then just left us on our own. She didn't even check to see if the carseat was installed correctly or anything. We actually had to borrow a carseat from Elizabeth Sanders in the ward, because we had only ordered ours the week before and it hadnt arrived yet. So we buckled him in, probably more clumsily and carefully than we are now, and then just like that we were on our own. Spencer said he felt weird and scared being alone and the only ones responsible for Dean. I think I was just excited to be out of the hospital and bringing Dean home.

When we got home we took a few pictures and then I probably crashed in bed. We ended up pulling Deans crib into our room and parking it right by my side of the bed. It was on wheels and was exactly the same height as the bed, so I could just roll his crib closer or farther away when I needed to get him or get up and I could also see him easily and didn't have to worry about him as much. It is weird after having someone live so close to you -inside you- for 9 months, it's weird to have them sleep more than a few feet away all of the sudden. I was surprised at how hard the recovery has been. I am writing this nearly 4 months later and I still have weird pains in my pelvic muscles every day. I think at first, I hurt myself most by climbing in and out of our tall bed, and also from going up and down the stairs so often. After a few days I could hardly lift my legs to climb the stairs or get in bed. I probably rushed the recovery process too fast.

Besides the first day of being tongue tied, and learning how to breastfeed properly, dean really hasn't had any problems. (and even that, compared to some babies I know, he was a dream learning to breastfeed!) We think he is a really good baby. He didn't lose much weight after birth, and a week after birth he was at or above his birth weight. His pediatrician, also an LDS guy, referred to us by Ross in the hospital, said Dean was doing really good every time we took him in. He screamed when he got his 2 month shots and had a low fever that day, but was fine the next day. We took him to church when he was 2 or 3 weeks old and everyone raved about how cute he was and how much hair he had. My mom came and stayed with us for the first week or so, and helped feed us and drive us around and go shopping and stuff. I think my mom coming helped spencer the most, because then I wasn't yelling at him to help me all the time. as much. :D

Ever since he was born, Dean has always slept well at night. (I hate when people ask if he's sleeping through the night. what does that even mean?!) He has basically followed our sleeping schedule. He would wake up about every 2-3 hours to be fed, but then immediately go back to sleep, and wake up for the day around 8am or so, or whenever we were ready to get up for the day. Now at 4 months, he goes to sleep around 9pm, and sleeps until 2am to be fed, then another 2-3 hours until another feeding, and then another 2-3 (or intervals of 1 hour if he's trying to be annoying) until about 8am when he wakes up for the day. He will stay awake 1 hour, sleep 1 hour, off and on, until about 1 when he will sometimes take a longer nap and wake up around 3pm. He might fall asleep around 5-6-7, and then he will usually stay up until 9pm when it's time for bed.

He has hit all his milestones so far exactly on target. His most recent tricks (around 4 months old) are: he laughs at everything I do and smiles everytime he sees me (it makes spencer jealous. its great.), he's getting good with using his hands, he is pulling himself into a sitting position if we hold him on our laps, and he is either teething or pre-teething because he likes to naw at things and usually has his fingers in his mouth. He will smile at us, and random strangers at the store or wherever if we smile and talk to him. He loves bath time and is learning how to play and entertain himself throughout the day. He also just discovered his feet and is learning how to sit by himself. (tummy time, it does wonders for the abs.) Also, he just rolled over from back to front today for the first time! (Nov. 12, 2015. I'm just finishing up this post now!) He is getting so strong. We think he is hilarious and sooooooo cute. He is such a good baby. Seriously, I feel guilty telling people how good he is.

And now an onslaught of adorable hospital pictures: