Hellobee Boards

Anthony Joseph (AJ) was born at 6:08 a.m.
9.4 lbs
21"
Prefect
My Labor was crazy fast and a crazy story I'll update later

@FaithFertility: Congratulations on the birth of your son! I look forward to hearing about your birth story!

@FaithFertility: congrats!

@FaithFertility: oh no! I hope his time there is short!!

@FaithFertility:

AJ update:
He got off oxygen today so fingers crossed he keeps his good levels up with out it!!!
He is eating like a champ so we are doing both what ever I can pump and formula! We can hold him for feeds and that just made it so much better!
I go home tomorrow, he stays that is hard but I miss G and he is in great hands when I am not there!

@FaithFertility: He is so handsome! I hope he gets to come home soon!

Congrats to all the mamas so far!

Our little boy arrived on 10/20 at 9:31am after a pretty fast and intense labor (successful VBAC )
8lbs 3oz 20-3/4", No name yet

I'm pretty sore but otherwise we're both doing well. Hope to share more later.

@FaithFertility: So much hair! And so precious! Glad to hear he is making improvements each day. Hugs to you, mamma!

@charmed: Yay congrats!!

@charmed: congrats!

@FaithFertility: he is really cute. He looks like he's so observant already

@FaithFertility: awww, very sweet. My oldest loved DHs voice right away, she'd use her tiny lil neck muscles to try and turn toward him whenever she'd hear him.

@FaithFertility: congratulations!!!!

As promised, here are the details on Baby S (I'll share her name and photos in my next post so that I can delete it later but leave this post up), who will be one week old in just over an hour!

I went into the hospital last Saturday morning for a planned induction due to IUGR.

(Background: At my anatomy scan, baby was measuring behind by at least 2 weeks, and the maternal and fetal medicine team decided it would be in our best interest to have an amnio done to see if there was any underlying cause. None was found, so I continued to be monitored monthly, then bi-weekly, for the remained of my pregnancy. At 35 weeks, growth had dropped off to a point that I started twice weekly monitoring until I could be induced without steroids at 37 weeks. Doctors suspected placental issues that might be limiting the oxygen and nutrients reaching the baby.)

I arrived at seven, but there wasn't an LDR room for me to be admitted to available until after 10 AM (thanks, full moon weekend!). Once admitted, they started me with a Foley balloon catheter (um, OUCH! I hadn't had one of those before !) to help me dilate, since I was only at 1 cm, and an epidural before beginning pitocin. Those first few hours were a breeze - my epidural was light, so I could feel my legs and contractions, but wasn't in pain. Things were progressing slowly but steadily....around 3 pm I was dilated enough to remove the Foley balloon, so they broke my water and cranked up the pitocin, expecting a baby before dinner time. This was the only really scary point of my labor - at some point, when baby tried to descend, she was squashed in such a way that her heart rate tanked, and a ton of people came running into the room to get me into a position that allowed her more space/oxygen, and to set up for a possible emergency c-section. They attached an electrode to her head to monitor heart rate, put me on oxygen, and took me off of pitocin for about an hour, saying they'd restart it again at the lowest level as long as her heart rate stayed up. Once they started the pitocin again, my contractions picked up quickly and I was feeling a lot of pressure.....I called in the physician's assistant to tell her I "thought" I might be feeling the pressure they said to let them know about and sure enough - we were ready to go! My OB came in and had me do one "practice push" but told me to stop because baby was right there and the pediatrician/neonatologist weren't in the room yet (they needed to be there because of Baby S's expected small size). Sure enough, in about 1.5 pushes, Baby S was born - 4 lbs 11 oz, 17.5 inches. She had to go straight to the pediatrician, and I needed to be worked on as well, so I didn't get to hold her right away. It turned out that her umbilical cord was very short, very thin, and inserted at an odd place on a small placenta. My doctor had to remove the placenta manually because pushing or pulling on the cord would have torn it. Knowing this makes me so thankful we opted for induction when we did, since the cord could have become detrimentally damaged, or baby could have crashed as she descended, if we left her in to bake longer. As it was, she was born crying (she sounded like a tiny kitty cat) and kicking. I got to hold her for a few minutes before she was taken to the nursery to start her glucose monitoring, since she was low.

After 24 hours of glucose tests and a "car seat challenge", we were permitted to take her home. She came home at 4 lbs 6 oz, and hasn't gained any back yet, but we're seeing her pediatrician a few times a week to work out a feeding plan that will get her gaining. She's tiny, but perfectly proportioned and healthy - pure perfection, in our opinion!

For now, she sleeps most of the time, but we're getting scattered moments of open eyes and awareness, and a teeny bit of vocalization here & there. I can't wait to get to know her has she gets closer to her due date and matures!

Link to a photo in the November thread - I'll delete it for privacy in a day or so: http://boards.hellobee.com/topic/november-2016-labor-watchdelivery/page/2

@FaithFertility: Huzzah!!!!