Labor and hospital

 This pregnancy was a lot harder on me than my first. I was very swollen, barely able to sleep and had so much more pressure! Baby would move and press on a nerve and it would cause intense shooting pain down my leg and my leg would give out. It was only for a splint second but happened often. So as the due date came closer, I was eager to get baby out. On September 7th I had an appointment with my OB doctor. I was 2 cm dilated and 70% effaced. So I was making progress! I was happy with that. Over the next week I started losing my mucus plug. Another step in the right direction! The next week, September 13, I was 3 cm and 80-90% effaced and I had the doctor stripped my membranes. She said baby’s head was down in the right position when it was time. I had my membranes stripped with Grant, but this time I felt like it was more painful. I had to go back to work and during the day I had a few cramps but no contractions. After my appointment, I had this feeling that if I went on a long walk I would go into labor. I was not able to take that walk until Saturday morning, September 15th. Greg took Grant up to Ankeny to meet Grandpa and have breakfast. He came back and was heading over to the bar to watch the Iowa State game. I had a weird feeling so I told him to keep his phone available just in case. He, of course, thought I was crazy since it was still 10 days until my due date. ;-D

So he left for the bar at 10:45. I was feeding Grant lunch at 11:30 when I started having contractions. I texted Greg telling him to be ready but I was going to put Grant to bed and try to lay down and see if they would go away. I called my mom right after that to let her know I was having contractions. I was very scared since I was home alone. A few minutes later, I went to the bathroom and my water broke. Initially, I was not sure it was my water and thought I had just peed since it was just a small amount, but once it happened again, I knew it wasn’t pee. At this point I called Greg. Thank god he answered because he did not have his phone out and had not seen my first text. He was very surprised and rushed home. I put Grant to bed and was SO happy he went right down. I was upstairs when Greg came home in quite a bit of pain. He said “I don’t remember you being in this much pain last time.” And I agreed with him. This time it seemed way more intense. I knew it was time to go so I told (yelled between contractions ;-D) to call my mom and tell her to come over because we were leaving!

My mom rushed over and was there in minutes. I said that I had a feeling I had to poop. My mom said “don’t you dare sit, you need to get going, that means baby is coming soon!” It was a very intense, move like scene, on the drive downtown. I started pushing a few minutes into our trip and that scared the CRAP out of me! I remember looking up at 42nd street exit and thinking “we are never going to make it.” Greg and I were determined to make it to the hospital before the baby came. He sped quite a bit and ran a few red lights. Greg parked our car right outside the entrance and we rushed inside.

Right as the elevator door opened, I heard “Amy?” and I look and see one of my closest high school friends, Steph, sitting in the lobby. Her sister happened to be having a baby that same day. I was not in a state where I wanted people I knew to see me ;-D. I was holding that babies head in with my hand and trying to walk to the front desk. We had already called so I assumed we would just be rushed to a room to deliver, but I was wrong. They took their sweet time getting all of our information as I was frantically saying “he’s coming, he’s coming, I’m pushing, I’m pushing.” But they did not care ONE bit. The nurse actually rolled her eyes at me. The nurse then made me walk BACK across the waiting room to get to our room. I was pissed. I stopped outside the triage room to have a contraction. I asked (begged) to go to the triage room. I just wanted out of that dang waiting room. I did not want to end up being a youtube video delivering my baby on the waiting room floor. After another eye roll from the nurse, she reluctantly let me. Once I was on the bed (with some help) she checked me and FINALLY realized I wasn’t just being dramatic. I closed my eyes for a split second and opened them to a mass of people ready to deliver my baby!

The nurses were so flustered being in such a confined place they didn’t even put the baby monitor on. I remember Greg asking “is the baby okay?” and a nurse frantically placing the monitor on my stomach. I pushed for 10 minutes and he was out. Blake William Young was born 12:44 September 15th. He weighed 6 pounds and 7 ounces and was 19 inches long. They let me hold him right away. I was able to breastfeed and he latched right away. Dr. Brink had a hard time getting my placenta out. It took about 15 minutes until she was able to get it out. Getting that thing out was the BEST feeling ever! I was given a quick shot since I didn’t have an IV to help with bleeding. Also, since my labor was so quick, they had to draw blood and do a drug screen. I guess that is a sign of drug use. They also had to do a urine screen of Blake. They sewed me up, which i couldn’t feel, but I still had remaining cramps/contractions for most of the day. I was a lot more uncomfortable post baby this time around.

Even though he was only 10 days early, the nurses kept mentioning how they could tell he was early. Blake also did not have any eyebrows or eyelashes when he was born. You could see every single vein in his stomach. They said that was because the last 10 days was when Blake would have built up extra fat to cover those veins up. The postpartum nurse noticed a sacral dimple when she was assessing him after birth. We had to get that looked at before he was able to go home. We also had to get a heart echo since we noticed that hole in his heart during pregnancy. Initially, the nurse told us we could go home a day early since we delivered before 1:00 but we knew that wouldn’t happen with all these tests needing to be done, especially since he was born on Sunday.

The sacral dimple and heart echo came back normal, thankfully, but we ended up having to stay longer since Blake was jaundice. He did not have to be treated but did need to be monitored to make sure it did not get too high. Other than that, our hospital stay was pretty uneventful. Grant came to meet him and was unimpressed. He was overwhelmed with both grandparents there. We are hoping he comes around to his little brother and they become best friends some day. By the end of our stay, we were ready to get out of the hospital, but we were not ready for the sleepless nights and lack of the nursery to send him to when we were too tired. ;-D

Here is Grant meeting Blake for the first time. He does not know what to think and also overwhelmed with all the grandparents there.