After 40 long weeks, our baby boy is finally here!
We are so happy and so excited, and so completely in love with him!
Introducing Deagan Jacob!
(I've had a few people ask, it's pronounced "Dee-gan")
Born June 3rd, 2013 at 1:03pm
9lbs, 18 1/2 inches
No wonder I was so uncomfortable these last few weeks, I was carrying around a linebacker!
The whole day was a whirlwind, it flew by so fast that my head is still spinning. On Sunday, I was told I was 5th in line for inductions, which left me anxious and worried that I wouldn't even get in. I hardly slept at all that night. I was anxious, frustrated, and worried. Plus, I was dying of heat. I think I only got about 2 solid hours of sleep. But I woke up at 6am and waited for the hospital to call me. At 7, I walked out of my room and at 7:05 I walked back in and saw that I had a voicemail from the hospital asking me to call them back. So I did and the nurse said "My name is so-and-so, how soon can you be here for an induction?"
(My last pregnancy photo. Taken right before I left for the hospital. 40 weeks, and 2 days)
I was in shock! I was NOT expecting to be called in that early. Apparently, they originally weren't going to be able to get me in that morning, but a few girls called in and cancelled their inductions, so I moved up the list! (Just a side note: they performed 10 inductions the same day! That's not including scheduled C-sections and those who came in from going naturally into labor! It was a busy, busy day for the nurses!)
(his poor nose and a little bit around his mouth was bruised)
I told her to give me 45 minutes to an hour to give me and Bryant time to get ready, and get Savannah up and ready, and drop her off at my parents house. I was so nervous, that I tried to eat a rice crispy treat in the car so I wouldn't have an empty stomach, and I think I could only get 3 bites down. So we dropped Savy off and rushed to the hospital.
(Bryant got to catch a quick nap while I was in labor. Not fair...)
We checked in, and the nurse got me all situated in the delivery room around 8:00am. Around 9, she got me hooked up to some fluids, some antibiotics, and the pitocin to get my contractions going. She asked me if I wanted the epidural then, or if I wanted to wait. I told her I would wait until the contractions got good and going.
Once my contractions started, the nurse came in to turn the pitocin down, because I was contracting really fast (I did that with Savannah too, I just react to pitocin really well I guess.) And I asked her when she would recommend that I get the epidural. She told me that she had already put me on the list because it was filling up and she didn't want me to be at the end of it and really uncomfortable. She asked how long my first labor was, and I told her it was about 7 hours. I asked her if inducing made your labor longer (like SO MANY people tried to scare me into thinking...) and she said "oh no, if this is your 2nd baby, cut your first labor time in half and that is how long you will take this time." I didn't believe her because that would mean I would have a 3 1/2 hour labor, which just seemed way too fast to me.
Just then, the doctor came in and broke my water, and he said that should really get my contractions started, which would help me dilate.
I was grateful she put me on the list for the epidural because not 10 minutes later, the contractions started to hurt and in walked the epidural guy. It was perfect timing! So we got that started and I started to go numb and I felt comfortable and sleepy, (and itchy! I had lots of people tell me pitocin made them itch, and it really does!). The nurse checked me and I was almost at a 4. So Bryant laid down on the couch and snoozed and I settled in and watched an episode of "Arrested Development" and relaxed, thinking I had several hours ahead of me. The nurse left and told me to page her if I needed anything, and that she would check on me from time to time.
Well, within an hour I started to feel really low, intense pains during each contraction. Like, I couldn't talk through them, except for when I told Bryant to shut up when he was asking me a million questions and I couldn't answer them because I was hurting (I'm mean when I'm in pain...) I was worried that the epidural wasn't working anymore, so I paged the nurse and said my contractions were really painful and if there was any way we could check the epidural. She came in and asked if it felt like I needed to push, and I told her it was low intense pain, but that it had to still be too early to push. She said "If it was just contractions, the epidural would help, but I think you're about to have this baby". So she checked me, and his head was literally RIGHT THERE. I mean, he had done all the work and I was at that last stage before he was born. So she rushed out to grab the doctor and the nurses, and they got everything all set up within seconds.
I think I pushed for about 7-8 minutes total! After the first push, the doctor said I could touch his head if I wanted, he was that close (I didn't, I don't know why, but that sounded gross.) Then the nurse started to giggle and told me that if his head was any indication to how big he would be, that he was going to be at least 8 1/2 pounds. Again, I didn't believe her. She also told me that she hoped I wasn't expecting hair, because he was pretty bald.
So after a few quick, intense pushes, Deagan came into the world! After only 4 hours of labor, only 1 hour of that with an epidural, and less than 10 minutes of pushing! All the nurses started giggling about how cute his rolls were, and how chubby he was. They immediately started taking bets to see how big he was. One nurse got it right, 9lbs even! I was completely shocked when they told me that! I knew he was big, and I knew he was measuring ahead of where Savannah was, and she was 7 and a half, so I thought he would be 8lbs at the MOST. Nope, this baby was a cannonball! One of the nurses said she rarely sees someone my size give birth to a baby that big, and that my hips must be nice and roomy (uh, gee, thanks?) . She also told me that If I ever planned to induce again, to go a week early, because most of your subsequent babies just get bigger each time (yikes!) He is pretty short though. They said 9lb babies average about 21-22 inches, and he was 18 1/2. Savannah was like that too though, chubby and short. Because he was LGA (large for gestational age) they had to check his blood sugar levels every so often. They were always perfect, so he had no issues. He's just a tank.
After they got him weighed and all that, they gave him to me again and he immediately started rooting. So they all left and I began nursing him. He ate for almost an hour! Apparently, 9lbs of fat rolls require a lot of calories to maintain! After an hour, the nurse came back in to check on us, and told me I could order lunch and just eat it there before they sent me down to the mother's room and took him off for a bath and testing. So we got another full hour of just snuggling and bonding with him.
We are so unbelievably excited and relieved to have him here, and I'm very grateful that I have had 2 easy labor and deliveries so far. Really, other than those last 10 minutes, the whole process was relatively pain free. Even my recovery is going well! With Savannah, it took me a couple of weeks to feel fully 100% again. With this recovery, my back is a little sore from where they had the epidural, and that's about it. Nothing a little tylenol can't fix.
It took us a full day to finally decide on a name. We've had Deagan on our minds for a while now, but we wanted to make sure it was perfect. That night, and all the next morning, we had written a list of our top 10 names, and we slowly crossed them all off one by one. None of them felt "right" except for Deagan Jacob, and I love it!
So far, he is a really mellow baby, just like his sister was. He only cries when he's hungry, which is a lot. He took to breastfeeding a lot faster than his sister. I was feeding him 5 minutes after his was born. With Savy, we didn't really get the hang of it for a long time.
He's got a little bit of jaundice like his sister did too. We go in tomorrow to test again, but I'm pretty confident it won't be as bad as Savannah's was, because he's eating a lot better and has more consistent diapers than she did. We are just keeping all the windows open to give him lots of natural sunlight today to help.
Savannah loves him! As soon as she saw him, she said "oh cute baby!" and is very good about being gentle with him. She loves to hold him, touch his cheeks, his hands, and his hair. (Even though he's pretty bald, he has more hair than Savannah did haha! And it's very, very dark.) She likes to be a helper too. I had just a small bottle for him at the hospital (he was eating so often, I was in a lot of pain, I needed a break for a couple of feedings) and she was very good at helping to feed him. Once he was done and sound asleep, she kept trying to shove it in his mouth. We will have to work on that. She also thinks his name should be Gus, and got in an argument with Bryant about it. It was hilarious!
I'm so grateful for nurses and doctors. My nurses this time were amazing! The main nurse helping me made me feel so comfortable and so much less anxious than I had been coming in. She must have known I was a little scared because she just sat in the room and chatted with me for the first hour, until they got a little more busy and she had to help in other rooms, and if you know me, I'm pretty chatty, but I get more chatty when I'm nervous, so it was comforting to have her there to distract me.
I'm very grateful to have had such a healthy pregnancy. Even though I was uncomfortable and complained a lot, in hindsight, both my pregnancies have been very manageable, easy, and problem free. Which is a rare thing. I can only hope and pray that my other pregnancies will be the same. (And yes, we fully plan on more kids. But we think we want to wait a little longer between this one and the next. At least until Savannah is in school, and I'm done with school.)
And I am very grateful to Bryant. He is a great labor coach and he takes a lot of pride in his kids. He is an amazing daddy and he makes me feel like superwoman, and he is proud of me and loves me unconditionally. He praises me for my role as wife and mother, which makes me feel extra special.
I love him, I love Savannah, and I love Deagan.
Being a mom is pretty darn awesome!
Once my contractions started, the nurse came in to turn the pitocin down, because I was contracting really fast (I did that with Savannah too, I just react to pitocin really well I guess.) And I asked her when she would recommend that I get the epidural. She told me that she had already put me on the list because it was filling up and she didn't want me to be at the end of it and really uncomfortable. She asked how long my first labor was, and I told her it was about 7 hours. I asked her if inducing made your labor longer (like SO MANY people tried to scare me into thinking...) and she said "oh no, if this is your 2nd baby, cut your first labor time in half and that is how long you will take this time." I didn't believe her because that would mean I would have a 3 1/2 hour labor, which just seemed way too fast to me.
Just then, the doctor came in and broke my water, and he said that should really get my contractions started, which would help me dilate.
I was grateful she put me on the list for the epidural because not 10 minutes later, the contractions started to hurt and in walked the epidural guy. It was perfect timing! So we got that started and I started to go numb and I felt comfortable and sleepy, (and itchy! I had lots of people tell me pitocin made them itch, and it really does!). The nurse checked me and I was almost at a 4. So Bryant laid down on the couch and snoozed and I settled in and watched an episode of "Arrested Development" and relaxed, thinking I had several hours ahead of me. The nurse left and told me to page her if I needed anything, and that she would check on me from time to time.
Well, within an hour I started to feel really low, intense pains during each contraction. Like, I couldn't talk through them, except for when I told Bryant to shut up when he was asking me a million questions and I couldn't answer them because I was hurting (I'm mean when I'm in pain...) I was worried that the epidural wasn't working anymore, so I paged the nurse and said my contractions were really painful and if there was any way we could check the epidural. She came in and asked if it felt like I needed to push, and I told her it was low intense pain, but that it had to still be too early to push. She said "If it was just contractions, the epidural would help, but I think you're about to have this baby". So she checked me, and his head was literally RIGHT THERE. I mean, he had done all the work and I was at that last stage before he was born. So she rushed out to grab the doctor and the nurses, and they got everything all set up within seconds.
I think I pushed for about 7-8 minutes total! After the first push, the doctor said I could touch his head if I wanted, he was that close (I didn't, I don't know why, but that sounded gross.) Then the nurse started to giggle and told me that if his head was any indication to how big he would be, that he was going to be at least 8 1/2 pounds. Again, I didn't believe her. She also told me that she hoped I wasn't expecting hair, because he was pretty bald.
So after a few quick, intense pushes, Deagan came into the world! After only 4 hours of labor, only 1 hour of that with an epidural, and less than 10 minutes of pushing! All the nurses started giggling about how cute his rolls were, and how chubby he was. They immediately started taking bets to see how big he was. One nurse got it right, 9lbs even! I was completely shocked when they told me that! I knew he was big, and I knew he was measuring ahead of where Savannah was, and she was 7 and a half, so I thought he would be 8lbs at the MOST. Nope, this baby was a cannonball! One of the nurses said she rarely sees someone my size give birth to a baby that big, and that my hips must be nice and roomy (uh, gee, thanks?) . She also told me that If I ever planned to induce again, to go a week early, because most of your subsequent babies just get bigger each time (yikes!) He is pretty short though. They said 9lb babies average about 21-22 inches, and he was 18 1/2. Savannah was like that too though, chubby and short. Because he was LGA (large for gestational age) they had to check his blood sugar levels every so often. They were always perfect, so he had no issues. He's just a tank.
After they got him weighed and all that, they gave him to me again and he immediately started rooting. So they all left and I began nursing him. He ate for almost an hour! Apparently, 9lbs of fat rolls require a lot of calories to maintain! After an hour, the nurse came back in to check on us, and told me I could order lunch and just eat it there before they sent me down to the mother's room and took him off for a bath and testing. So we got another full hour of just snuggling and bonding with him.
We are so unbelievably excited and relieved to have him here, and I'm very grateful that I have had 2 easy labor and deliveries so far. Really, other than those last 10 minutes, the whole process was relatively pain free. Even my recovery is going well! With Savannah, it took me a couple of weeks to feel fully 100% again. With this recovery, my back is a little sore from where they had the epidural, and that's about it. Nothing a little tylenol can't fix.
It took us a full day to finally decide on a name. We've had Deagan on our minds for a while now, but we wanted to make sure it was perfect. That night, and all the next morning, we had written a list of our top 10 names, and we slowly crossed them all off one by one. None of them felt "right" except for Deagan Jacob, and I love it!
So far, he is a really mellow baby, just like his sister was. He only cries when he's hungry, which is a lot. He took to breastfeeding a lot faster than his sister. I was feeding him 5 minutes after his was born. With Savy, we didn't really get the hang of it for a long time.
He's got a little bit of jaundice like his sister did too. We go in tomorrow to test again, but I'm pretty confident it won't be as bad as Savannah's was, because he's eating a lot better and has more consistent diapers than she did. We are just keeping all the windows open to give him lots of natural sunlight today to help.
Savannah loves him! As soon as she saw him, she said "oh cute baby!" and is very good about being gentle with him. She loves to hold him, touch his cheeks, his hands, and his hair. (Even though he's pretty bald, he has more hair than Savannah did haha! And it's very, very dark.) She likes to be a helper too. I had just a small bottle for him at the hospital (he was eating so often, I was in a lot of pain, I needed a break for a couple of feedings) and she was very good at helping to feed him. Once he was done and sound asleep, she kept trying to shove it in his mouth. We will have to work on that. She also thinks his name should be Gus, and got in an argument with Bryant about it. It was hilarious!
I'm so grateful for nurses and doctors. My nurses this time were amazing! The main nurse helping me made me feel so comfortable and so much less anxious than I had been coming in. She must have known I was a little scared because she just sat in the room and chatted with me for the first hour, until they got a little more busy and she had to help in other rooms, and if you know me, I'm pretty chatty, but I get more chatty when I'm nervous, so it was comforting to have her there to distract me.
I'm very grateful to have had such a healthy pregnancy. Even though I was uncomfortable and complained a lot, in hindsight, both my pregnancies have been very manageable, easy, and problem free. Which is a rare thing. I can only hope and pray that my other pregnancies will be the same. (And yes, we fully plan on more kids. But we think we want to wait a little longer between this one and the next. At least until Savannah is in school, and I'm done with school.)
And I am very grateful to Bryant. He is a great labor coach and he takes a lot of pride in his kids. He is an amazing daddy and he makes me feel like superwoman, and he is proud of me and loves me unconditionally. He praises me for my role as wife and mother, which makes me feel extra special.
I love him, I love Savannah, and I love Deagan.
Being a mom is pretty darn awesome!
Those cheeks! What a cutie. Congratulations on the new addition to your family. I'm glad you had a great labor and feeling tolerably well. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad everything went well for you! The one time I had Pitocin was the time I didn't get an epidural, because it made me go too fast. The only reason they did it was because my water broke before I came in and after five hours they said I wasn't in true labor. I think if they'd waited one more hour I'd have been fine..all my labors were exactly 7 hours.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm jealous your pushing went so well! I must suck at that part, because after four babies, my pushing stage has been between 2-3 hours each time, two ending in C-sections. You're awesome! And I'm sure you wanted to hear about all that again.
Congrats!!!
ReplyDelete