Our sweet little Graham made his grand entrance into this world early Sunday morning on December 21st. I had been in pre-labor for about a week and a half and was anxiously awaiting when my false labor contractions would turn into real labor. At my 37 week prenatal appointment I had gone from no progress to 2 cm dilated and almost completely effaced. My OB thought I wasn't going to make it to 38 weeks because Griffin came early and I had been having pretty strong contractions. But, 38 came and went, then 39. I was continuing to dilate, by my 39 week check I was 4+ cm and she was shaking her head because she couldn't believe I was still pregnant. I had been having what's called "prodromal labor" every single night. It's when you get regular, timetable, painful contractions that do dilate you but eventually stop before active labor status. It makes for an very emotionally and physically exhausted Momma! I would wake up a couple times a night for hours because the the contractions, then fall back asleep when they would stop and finally wake up in the morning feeling like I ran a marathon. The good news? Women that have prodromal labor tend to have really fast labor a once it actually does start...
On Saturday the 20th we had a wonderful day, we walked down to 4th avenue for a crepe breakfast. Griffin found out he loves crepes, not the sweet Nutella kind either! We ordered him one of those and he decided he like our egg, cheese tomato and spinach ones instead. He is always surprising me! Then we went down to the Children's Museum and had fun playing fireman and pretend shopping. He took a great nap and Sean and I relaxed on the couch. I had been feeling off the whole day, almost like I was getting the flu. My whole body aches and I was also REALLY anxious. I couldn't sit still and just felt overall agitated. I thought, maybe it will happen today!? After Griff got up we hung out around the house a little and then headed over to Winterhaven to look at the Christmas lights. We got there early, before it officially started in hopes that we could still make Griffin's 7 pm bedtime. He enjoyed the lights, especially the Frozen themed ones! For those of you that don't know, you walk a neighborhood that goes Christmas crazy, so I figured walking would help if this was actually go time. I was having some decent contractions and Griffin was getting tired so we decided to go home after about 30 minutes. I'm happy we were able to do it because once I got home I knew we were going to be putting Griff down to sleep for the last time as an only child.
Sean and I usually take turns getting Griff to bed, that night he offered to do it because I was pretty uncomfortable, but I knew this was it and wanted to soak up the moment. We read three books together and snuggled for awhile, just us three before kissing and hugging that sweet boy and wishing him sweet dreams. It was really wonderful.
I took a bath to relax my muscles and Sean poured himself a beer. We started timing the contractions together. They were about every 4 minutes and strong, just not too painful. We decided to rent a movie and relax on the couch. The contractions continued and started to become painful so we called my Mom just to give her a heads up that it may be time! They continued for about half the movie and then they just stopped. I was so defeated. We finished the movie and I took a couple bendaryl to help me sleep and went to bed. About 30 minutes later, BAM, I woke up with an incredibly strong and very painful contraction. I grabbed Sean's hand to wake him up, it passed, then BAM I got another one a minute later. He got on the phone and called my Mom to come in, I got out the bed and filled up the bathtub hoping for some pain relief because I knew we had 30 minutes until we could leave. The contraction that woke me up was so painful I was immediately brought back to being in labor with Griffin. There was no mistaking this for something else, it was go time! They were coming really fast, like alarmingly fast, every 2 minutes. I kind of panicked because I felt like we may not make it to the hospital. Sean helped me get dressed and we threw our bags in the car and waited for my Mom. She got there a couple minutes later and we were off.
I told Sean to get us there ASAP because now the contractions were 1:30 apart and were incredibly painful. Something about a moving car and having a contraction should be illegal, its cruel and unusual punishment! Sean got us there fast, I think at some point he was doing 60 mph down Speedway, but we got there 20 minutes later and Sean helped me inside. They took one look at me, grabbed a wheel chair and took us to triage. They checked me, I was 7+cm and took us straight to a labor and delivery room. I kept thinking how fast things got out of hand, in an hour since my first real contraction we were about to have a baby. I asked the nurse if I had time for an epidural and she said yes, and I relaxed. I really did not want to do this again without some pain relief! The nurse put my IV in standing up, because there was NO way I could lay down. My contractions were 1 minute apart, so standing still was really hard, but she was awesome and it was in and ready in less then 2 minutes. The anesthesiologist came in and did my epidural in record time. Once the medicine started to kick in life got great, my nurse said I was in transition and we should be able to push soon. I wasn't feeling the need to so she said we could rest. They all left the room, turned out the lights and Sean and I got 4 hours of glorious rest. It was so wonderful and peaceful. I was in my bed watching my contractions on the monitor, they were every minute and I couldn't help but be so thankful I was sufficiently numb!
 |
| All smiles after the epidural |
Sean got some sleep, I remember looking over at him wrapped up in our big blue blanket from home and feeling so happy. It was the same blanket we brought to the hospital when we had Griffin and I knew shortly we would all be snuggled up in it again, this time with another sweet baby! I feel asleep for about an hour but mostly stayed awake soaking up the moment. We were about to meet someone really important and special, I was so excited. Around 6 in the morning our nurse came in, checked me and had our OB break my water. She had me sit up in bed to help baby come down and they got the room ready for delivery. I was fully dilated, ready to go, peaceful, relaxed and happy. What a different experience the second time! My doctor came in and we got ready to push. Three contractions later, our baby was born! I couldn't get over how easy it was! I remember baby came out facing down, she turned it over and Sean said"it's a boy!!". We laughed and cried and were so excited Griffin that got a little brother. Best experience ever. Graham Parker Schoonmaker was here!
 |
| Its a BOY! |
 |
| Nice big cry for us! |
 |
| Nothing feels better then holding your sweet baby for the first time! |
After our awesome hours of skin to skin and nursing time it was time for Graham to get his footprints and vitamin K shot. He did great for the footprints but had a really strong reaction from the pain of the shot. Poor guy, little did we know that things were going to head the wrong direction quickly. I kind of wish I could just erase the next four days from my memory and just pretend none of it ever happened. I wish that for once we could of had the normal experience of bonding, visits from family and pure joy and excitement. To be perfectly honest, it's hard not to feel bitter and unlucky, but our story does have a happy ending and I'm trying to find the silver lining because that's all you can do. I'll save that story for another post, but to leave things on a positive note, I'm currently snuggled up with a sweet little guy, thankful for his peaceful breathing, kissing his little face and feeling my heart explode with happiness. Life is good.
Comments
Post a Comment