New Bird in the nest

We finally welcomed baby Mason into our family. He already has us all wrapped around his finger, including proud big brother Cory. He is so meek and mild mannered and has the sweetest little cry. He is quite the eater and I have a feeling he won't stay skinny and wrinkly for long. Already he's starting to fill out. We're so happy and so sleep deprived. We laugh so much at the off the wall things we say in our exhaustion induced state of minds. Cory loves to watch Mason's "silly faces" and laughs and loves to listen to his little baby noises. One time Cory was holding Mason when Mason pooped (loudly); Cory looked totally disgusted and wanted to hand him back to me. It was awesome. I love seeing them together and I love looking at my "3 boys". I truly feel like our family was missing something that has finally been "made right". I already can't imagine our lives without him. 

Short Birth Story:

Mason was born weighing 6 lb. 12 oz. (one oz. bigger than Cory was) and 19 inches long (the same length as Cory). He scored an 8 and 9 on his APGARs and was home 36 hours after birth.

Long Birth Story:

While cooking dinner on Wednesday I started having time-able contractions that increased in intensity as the night went on. I just knew I was in labor and would be going to the hospital at some time in the night. I sent Kevin to bed and laid on the couch timing them until 2am. I told myself that I would endure them for one more hour and would then call the neighbor to come sit with Cory and wake up Kevin to go. I had all of our bags by the back door ready to go and at 3am I woke up Kevin. I laid down in the bed with him and sure enough my contractions started to space out and didn’t hurt as bad. By 4am I fell asleep through them. Blasted “false labor”.

The next morning I went in to the hospital for a NST test and ultrasound to check on Mason. He looked great and my contractions were still 6-8 minutes apart and mildly painful. I opted to go home and wait for “real” labor to start. Megan had come down Thursday morning with her kiddos to stay at Mom and Dad’s house with Cory, and I was starting to feel some pressure to get this baby out.  The contractions never went away and after a 2^nd night of no sleep I was getting frustrated.

Friday morning the contractions returned to 2- 3 minutes apart long enough for me to call Kevin home from work and decide to go back to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital around 11am and I was hooked up to the monitors. Contractions were 3- 5 minutes apart and we agreed to augment my labor with a low dose of Pitocin. It took a couple of hours to start the Pitocin because they couldn’t get the IV in. After 4 “tries” by 2 different nurses and finally the anesthesiologist, I had an IV in my left forearm. At 2:30 my water “leaked” and I was so thankful to have some validation that I actually was in labor. By 2:45 they hooked up the Pitocin. Everything went really fast from there. I was 3 cm when I got to the hospital and by 4:45 I was 6cm and in a ton of pain. I can probably say it was the worst pain I’ve ever been in before, but the weird part was in between the contractions I was 100% fine and comfortable. The problem was that they were getting stronger and closer together quickly and I was starting to lose my cool. I’d read what I call my “hippie book” for the past few months to prepare for natural unmedicated labor using Hypnobirthing techniques. I had painstakingly prepared my iPod with music to support this method as well as the actual hypnobirthing prompts and positive affirmations. Well let’s just say the dag-gum iPod was dead in my moment on need.

In between contractions I would tell Kevin to rub my feet and then when the contraction would hit I’d kick him away, or I’d tell him to turn on the tv to distract me and then the contraction would hit and I’d yell at him to turn it off. I also learned that I am incapable of being still or quiet when in that much pain. I would kick my leg and moan through each contraction and couldn’t stand any noise or physical contact. So embarrassing.

By 4:15 they checked me and I was 6cm and at 4:30 I told them I wanted an epidural. The anesthesiologist was at home but lived close by thank goodness and I had my epidural by 4:45pm  Funny thing…. Right after I got the epidural my water popped. I say popped instead of broke because it made a loud audible pop and the nurses thought it was so funny. By 5:15 I was 10cm and they could see baby. (I told you things happened fast!)

The problem was that my Dr was still in Springville (25 min away) and baby was ready to come. They called in the on call Dr who came in with street clothes on, took one look and said “I hope I have time to change!” After 2 contractions and a few pushes Mason came out at 5:45pm just as healthy as could be. Kevin had no desire to cut the cord and our original Dr knew this, but the on-call Dr all but forced Kevin to cut the cord.

Mason was 6 lb. 12 oz. (one oz. bigger than Cory was) and 19 inches long (the same length as Cory).  The unplanned cord cutting ritual was the perfect ending to a birth that went NOTHING like we planned but we wouldn’t have changed a thing about it. I was able to experience all the parts I wanted to before I got the epidural and was able to be emotionally present (not writhing in pain) when Mason arrived. I was able to hold Mason right away and was allowed to hold and bond with him in the delivery room until 8:30 that night. By that time I was able to walk down to the nursery and watch him get his first bath.