Maverick William
November 26, 2009
3:25 AM
7 lbs 6oz
20 1/4 inches
Wednesday (11/25) morning around 10 am, Robbie and I had just sat down on the couch to plan out our day of errands. Go to the bank, the store, clean the house, etc, etc. It was then that I realized my water had broken...but I didn't say anything for a few minutes just to make sure. I didn't want to prematurely freak Robbie out. We were just talking about how he still needed to pack his hospital bag. But he figured it out when I got up to go to the bathroom for the 3rd time in 10 minutes. :)
We were alot more calm than what my mind rehearsed in anticipation. Robbie packed his bag while I got a shower. And then Robbie got a shower. We sort of tidied the house and made sure things were okay to leave for a few days. Then we left Belle, our dog, with my parents. Although--we did sort of fib to my parents as to why we needed to drop her off. We didn't want to sound all the alarms until we got to the hospital and for sure knew that I was in labor.
Our dog Belle goes to hang out at my parents' house all the time, so she loves to jump out of the door when we pull into their driveway. But Belle knew something was up this time! Instead of getting out of the back door, she climbed into the front seat with me!! She curled up on my lap with her ears and head down. It was soooo sweet! And once she got inside, she stood at the top of the stairs and watched Robbie leave.
The drive to the hospital was sooooooo surreal. The sky was crystal clear blue and the sun was shining bright. Almost no traffic on the highway. Even though I wasn't even feeling contractions, Robbie decided to speed on the way there. His reason: to actually have an excuse to be speeding. :)
We did stop in the McDonald's drive thru before getting to the hospital. I was hungry and I knew that as soon as I got there, food would be off limits. So we both munched on chicken nuggets and french fries for the ride. Unfortunately the drive thru attendant wouldn't give us an "I'm in labor" discount.
This is me in the triage room. I looooooove ice chips, so I was quite happy. Oh and I wasn't in any pain yet either.
We finally got into our labor and delivery suite, and I was still feeling okay. My goal was to go as long as possible without an epidural. I was feeling quite confident that I could do it.
I made it to 6cm dilated, with contractions being 30 sec apart before I was in the most excruciating pain of my entire life. It was so crazy how much the pain intensified in just a few minutes. I couldn't breathe or relax between contractions at that point. So I went ahead and got the epidural. Looking back, I feel I did the right thing. I wasn't able to focus on breathing and felt my energy dwindle. The only thing I wasn't prepared for--no one ever told me, or I hadn't read it--was the vomiting! During the last couple of hours of labor I was vomiting quite frequently. I think it was a mix of an empty stomach and the stress. My doctor said that it's actually quite common for women to vomit frequently when the baby is descending. It's like the body is trying to help push him out.
After the epidural I progressed roughly 1cm per hour, and by 2am the doc asked if I was ready to do some practice pushes. Her original plan was to let me get to 10cm and still wait an hour before pushing. But after the practice pushes Maverick was (sort of) ready to come out.
An hour and a half of hard pushing later, Maverick arrived! He sort of got stuck actually. I could definitely feel him stuck in the right side of my pelvis. The pain actually ended up helping me push, otherwise I wouldn't have felt anything. There was talk of having to use a couple devices to get him out, but thankfully we didn't have to. This is the first time I saw my baby boy:
When he first delivered, all I wanted to hear was him cry. But he didn't, and it was the longest moment of my life. I kept asking Robbie if he was okay, but the nurses wouldn't let him near the warming table yet. After a couple minutes, Maverick finally gave a small whimper. By then they had called in a pediatric doctor for Maverick. His 1 minute APGAR score was a 5, but by 5 minutes it was up to a 9. Maverick just had a little trouble breathing after being stuck in the birth canal a while. It turns out though, that Maverick isn't much of a crier anyway.
Once the nurses gave the green light for Robbie to come over, she asked if he wanted to feel his heartbeat. So Robbie reached out to feel Maverick's chest, and Mav grabbed Robbie's hand and stopped crying. It was their first "moment". :)
The rest of the night is pretty much a blur. I remember being wheeled past the nursery where all of our family was watching Maverick getting the "once over" by the staff. And I remember our families briefly coming to the recovery room with us, but I quickly passed out from exhaustion.
About 8am, I woke up as the nurse wheeled Maverick into our room. Robbie was passed out on the little couch next to my bed. The nurse briefed me on all his tests and that he was nice and healthy. She put Maverick in my arms and I spent the next couple of hours internalizing that he was our baby--and the cutest one ever!
Maverick joined me in my first meal after delivery: pancakes, sausage links, and a blueberry muffin. I hadn't had pancakes in FOREVER because of the gestational diabetes. It was the best breakfast ever! Probably because our little family was all enjoying it together. :)
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