Reuben under the warming lamp
This face says it all-traumatized and unsure. Reuben's adjustment to this life has been difficult for him and us. Thankfully nothing life threatening has occurred, but he does have major tummy problems. It reminds me of Peter's newborn phase.
Adeline was a little unsure of Reuben at first, but after a few minutes she fell in love with him and would not stop stroking his head.
The boys said, "Oh, baby Reuben is so cute!" Then, they planted themselves on this chair and stayed glued to a game the rest of the visit.
Reuben in his "going home sleeper."
Reuben's Birth Story:
I began having regular contractions Monday night at 2:00 am; however, they never got stronger and eventually stopped by 6:00 am. At my doctor appointment that morning, I was excited to find out that I was dilated to 4 cm and mostly effaced. The bad new was that my water had broken and I would need to be induced if I did not have the baby on my own by that night. My doctor said I could go to the hospital now to be induced or I could wait to progress on my own and go to the hospital tonight. I opted to stay at home until Peter got home from school, so we could drop all three kids off at one of my visiting teacher's home.
By the time we made it to the hospital at 5:00 pm, I was dilated to 4.5 cm and the doctor said most of my water was gone. She said I could labor on my own until seven o'clock, but after that I would need to start the pitocin because of the risk of infection. So at seven o'clock the nurse announced that I was dilated to a whopping 5 cm. Darn body! I was going to try and have Reuben naturally but once I knew pitocin was involved, I promptly asked for an epidural. By eight o'clock my epidural and the pitocin were all set up and working. At 8:20 pm I was dilated to 8 cm, and the nurse said she would come check me again at 9:00 pm. However, 10 minutes later I began having excruciating pain and felt the sensation to push. It was worse than the pain I had when I was in labor with Rigby naturally. I told Scott to go get my nurse. He looked down the hall but nobody was in sight so he came back and said he thought she was in with another patient. I think I said something like I don't care just get me a nurse now!
What seemed like an eternity later, but was really probably only 10 minutes, the nurse came back and was surprised to see I was 10 cm already. She said, "I will text your doctor and you can start pushing when she gets here." I should have just started pushing on my own because it hurt SO badly. For the next 10 minutes, I held onto the bed rail while I moaned, "I need to push so badly. Please, just let me push." I probably said that about 20 times until the doctor arrived at 8:50 pm. I pushed for a little over 10 minutes and Reuben was born at 9:03 pm.
Sorry if this is too much information but I want to record it for my sake. I NEVER want to have pitocin again!!! My body is extremely sensitive to medication and that stuff just ripped through my body like a wrecking ball. I felt natural labor with Rigby, and the pain with pitocin with an epidural was worse! After labor, I bled so much that I started to feel dizzy, sick, and lethargic. For 2 or 3 weeks after Reuben was born, I felt drained of energy more than I ever have in my life; I do have more kids than ever before, but I really think that the pitocin played a big role in my slow recovery this time. I am glad that I have access to medicine so I did not have to deal with an infection, but I hope I never have to use it again.
We are so happy to have Reuben in our family, even if he has been a very grumpy and difficult newborn. I am looking forward to getting to know him and seeing his little personality develop!
No comments:
Post a Comment