Our New Life Together: March 2012

So I am terrible at blogging, but will try to be better with little Zak around now, I'm sure it will be much more fun to write about him then just Jeb and I!

So overall my pregnancy went GREAT! No real complications, and I was able to work up until a week before my "due date" which I was happy about. About the due date: originally my due date was February 29th according to our calculations. When I went in for the "dating" ultrasound they confirmed this date. But when I went in for my next ultrasound they said the baby was measuring larger and they wanted to switch my due date to February 22nd. So they went with that which made me all psyched up to have this baby by the 22nd. Boy was I wrong.

Labour Story:

I was 2 cm dilated at my 39 week appointment. The baby was “really low” so they were thinking it would come “soon”. Wrong Again. My mom flew into town on the 20^th, thinking that I would have the baby a few days after. Well we ended up having lots of time for cleaning the house, making meals, and of course MALL WALKING (anything to try and get this baby out). The 40 week appointment came and there was still no change, I was not impressed. They told me they would schedule an induction for 10 days from then. So I started to try some of the old wives tales to get labour started (everything but castor oil). Walking, spicy food, swinging on swings, stairs, dancing around. greasey foods, etc. etc. Nothing worked.

February 29^th at my 41 week appointment I told the doctor to do whatever she could to try to help induce labour and to not hold back anything! So she swept my membranes and told me to be sure to walk around lots. Well I had an ultrasound appointment booked for right after so everyone in the waiting room at the ultrasound place thought I was crazy because I was just pacing around. I was determined to get this baby out! I got home and walked in circles around my main floor, and luckily all the walking worked! At around 4 o’clock I started to feel very light contractions, at least what I thought were contractions. My dad flew into town at 6:30, and I still wasn’t 100% positive I was in true labour yet. At around 8 we were all sitting on the couch talking, and you could tell when I was having a contraction because my whole stomach would change shape, it was kind of fun! We started timing them and they were 4 minutes apart and lasting 45 second or so.

The contractions were not too painful and I continued to labour at home. Jeb had gone to bed so he could get some rest, but I woke him up around 3am so we could get to the hospital. I was a bit concerned about ensuring I got the antibiotics I needed (I had to get 2 doses 4 hours apart). We got admitted to the hospital at 4:30am, and I was 4 cm dilated. They gave me the IV with the antibiotics and I started the walk the halls! By around 7 I got admitted into my own room. I spent some time in the shower which I had been looking forward to since the hot bath at home helped a lot with the pain. At 9:30 the doctor checked me again and I was 7 cm. She offered to break my waters but I decided just let nature take its course. But my next contraction after the doctor left my water broke naturally anyways! At 10am the contractions started to get more painful, and I had to be in bed so the nurse could keep the monitors on me. I started using laughing gas which I think helped a bit. By 10:30 It was starting to get pretty painful and the nurse told me that the anaesthesiologist was going in for a scheduled C-section and I had to decide in the next 5 minutes if I wanted an epidural or not. So I asked her to check me, I had decided if I was over 8 cm I would not get it, but she said I was just under. I decided to go ahead with the epidural. 20 minutes later the dude finally shows up, and by the time he was done asking all these questions and getting me all prepped and ready I felt like it had been forever! He said it would take about 15 minutes to start working. Well, the nurse checked me after he was done and I was 9 ½ cm. So much for dilating with an epidural. I was 10 cm by 11:45, but the nurse said we would wait to push and let the contractions do a bit of the work now that the epidural had kicked in. Well by 12 o’clock I had such an urge to push I told her I could wait any longer! Well by 12:52 little Zakary had arrived. Right after he had come out I was just looking at Jeb waiting for him to announce the babies sex. It was a BOY! It was an amazing experience to have him placed in my arms and being able to cuddle him.

It has been an amazing first week with little Zak. We are pretty tired, but everything is going GREAT! We are so blessed to have such a sweet little spirit in our home!