Birth Story

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted. I know some of you have been dying to see pictures and videos of our new little addition and I just haven't had a chance to do it with Christmas and feedings. . . well, enough excuses. Baby Wesley is finally here with us and I don't know about you, but I always love a good birth story, so I will tell you mine.

I went to my prenatal appointment on Friday December 18th and the doctor checked me. I was 4 and a half centimeters dilated and 80% effaced. In order to keep me from having the baby in the van on the way to the hospital, he decided it would be best to induce me. Because it was Friday, he opted to schedule the induction for the following Monday, December 21st at 5:00 AM.

We had the boys spend the night at a friend's house the night of the twentieth. The morning of the twenty-first, we called the hospital and they weren't ready for us yet. We ended up getting checked into our room at around 7:30. They started the pitocin at 8:30. They put my epidural in about 9:00 and the doctor broke my water shortly after. The contractions were coming along and everything was going well except that my blood pressure kept dropping. I felt sick to my stomach and extremely sleepy. It was like I was loosing consciousness or falling into a coma. I don't remember much since I was so groggy, but I do remember the nurses putting medicine in my IV to raise my blood pressure and me throwing up a lot.

At about 11:30 the nurse checked me and I was dilated to an eight. She had me push three sets of ten pushes and then I was completely dilated. She had me stop and rest while she called the doctor and got everything set up. Then I pushed another three sets of ten, the doctor came, and I pushed another three sets of ten pushes and at 11:54, he was out!

He was the largest of my three children at 7 pounds 4 ounces. When he was first born, they set him on my belly and the doctor clamped the cord. Ben cut it and I noticed the little Wesley was not breathing. He turned to me and made a pitiful attempt at a soundless cry. The nursery nurses wisked him away to the warmer and they huddled around his bed trying different things to get him to breathe. Meanwhile, he became more and more blue. Just before I was going to panic, one of the nurses got an oxygen mask from a nearby cabinet and they put it to his face. A few seconds later, he was a healthy pink. At about the same time, a bunch of other people came in and started crowding around his bed. Apparently they had called the NICU team in just in case they couldn't get Wesley breathing on his own. It was nice to know that they had the facilities to help just in case.

After the initial scare, Wesley did great on his Apgar, earning a 9 just like his brothers. He looks a lot like both Devin and Layne when they were first born. He has the same nose and ears as little Devin and the same recessed chin like Layne. He has a full head of dark hair just like his brothers did. His eyelashes are not as dramatic as Devin's, but similar to Layne's.

Devin and Layne can't get enough of their little brother and are constantly wanting to hold him and give him kisses. We feel so blessed to have another beautiful baby boy in our family!

Just as a side note, I did have a complication with my labor. I noticed a piercing headache the morning after Wesley was born. I also had some nausea. We had an early discharge from the hospital, and so I was up packing and getting ready to leave, but I kept having to lay down to keep my head from aching and to keep from throwing up. I told my nurse and she said I might be coming down with the flu. After I got home, the headache got worse. I took my Lortab and Ibuprofen pain medications, but not much helped this awful headache. The weirdest thing was that the headache would nearly disappear entirely as soon as I laid down. When I stood up, the pain was back. I ended up drinking some Coke, and that seemed to help some. I slept and rested a lot, and that helped too. Anyway, the headache lasted for about five days. We figured it was a spinal block headache. When I got the epidural, some spinal fluid leaked out of my epidural space. When I would stand up, the spinal fluid would settle into my back and drain out of my head. Because my brain wasn't being cushioned properly with fluid, it would cause pain and inflammation. Once the epidural site healed and the fluid was replaced, the headache went away. On Christmas Eve, the pain was so bad, we almost took me to the ER and got a blood patch which is one treatment for spinal block headache. The only reason we didn't go was because I would have to get another IV and go through the whole epidural process again. I hate needles and being poked, so I endured the headache instead. Anyway, you women out there, if you have a bad headache after having an epidural, don't let the nurse tell you you're coming down with the flu! You don't want to go home with a spinal block headache.

Overall, it was an easy labor and delivery with a few small bumps in the road. It is a good thing these little people are worth it. I can't think of anything else that would inspire me to go through pregnancy voluntarily. Ben and I are looking forward to doing a newborn photoshoot with little Wesley sometime this next week. I will try to get the pictures posted to the blog as soon as possible. They should be really awesome! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas.