It's been one month* since these photos were taken and I figured I should get to work on writing Wyatt's birth story.
After a wonderful pregnancy with only a little bit of morning sickness that lasted to the end of my first trimester my due date of July 10th 2017 came...and it went! Honestly, I wasnt that surprised that our baby boy didn't come on his due date. I had had a feeling my whole last month that he would be a few days late. Though I still cried at my pre-natal appointment on the due date. The poor NP that got to see me that day! I was a big, very pregnant, tearful mama to be.
On Thursday July 13th I did some last minute things like go swim laps, get a hair cut and eat out for (deep fried) sushi with my hubby. While I was at the hair salon i noticed that my mucus plug had come out and my baby was feeling super active the whole time I was getting my hair done. I had a feeling that he was coming soon but I didnt want to get my hopes up too high.
Later that night as it was time for bed I started to feel some more regular cramps around 11:30pm. I tried to go to bed and couldn't fall asleep because the cramps were obviously contractions and they were starting to get painful and be more frequent. A while after Josh fell asleep (he knew I was having contractions but when we called the hospital they said that they weren't close enough and to wait it out a while longer. So I gave the hubby permission to get some sleep!) I was in some serious pain so I took a hot bath to see if it would help relive the pain. But I was so tired and couldnt really recline because of the big belly...so that didn't last too long.
Around 3:30am I woke Josh up and told him that I needed to go in, the pain was too strong and the contractions were close to 4 minutes apart. We called the hospital and let them know we were coming! The whole way there I was in so much pain (I might not have too high of a pain tolerance...but still, I was dying!) and I felt every bump in the road as we sped along.
Once we were there in a triage room on the L+D floor I had to wait around forever for a nurse to come in. Once she finally got there and checked me she informed us that I was only about 1cm dilated (same as my last pre-natal appt) and 75% effaced. I was happy to hear that my cervix had softened! But SO frustrated that I hadn't dilated since Monday...UGH! The Dr came in a while later and told me I was in 'false labor' and I about jumped down her throat! I didn't realize at the time that 'false labor' was a medical term. I was like, 'um no. This is real labor and REAL painful, Lady!'
All they could do for me at the time was give a morphine shot so that I could get some sleep. After the nurse gave the shot I asked her when I would know to come back in seeing as my contractions were 4.5 min apart and I was in tons of pain. She said that the pain would just get to be "way worse" then it was right then. I wanted to kill her. Haha.
But after the morphine, I was SO out of it on the way home and luckily I was able to get about 3 hours of sleep. The sleep was short lived because soon we were up and headed back to Kaiser for my "fetal stress test" that the NP had scheduled for me (if I was still overdue by Friday, which I was...).
The nurse did an ultrasound to check Wyatt's fluids and they hooked me up to a fetal monitor. They monitored my contractions as well as the baby's vitals. Everything looked good and when the OB was ready to check me, I had dilated to 4 cm! I was sooo relieved! Josh was too because I think he was worried I would snap if I didn't get admitted, haha.
When we got upstairs to the Labor and Delivery (L&D) floor, the nurses still didn't want to admit me until they could confirm that I was in "active labor" and I told them that I was NOT going anywhere! (being 5 days overdue in July is no joke!) They gave me a room and monitored the baby again for a while before sending me to walk the halls for 1 hour so that they could check to see if I was actively dilating. I was in a lot of pain as Josh and I inched along the L&D halls. When I was checked after our walk, I had dilated to 5.5cm! After that I was "officially" admitted around 3:30pm and we were in business! My parents and sister, Sierra joined us and the waiting began.
Because I had tested positive for GBS I had to have two rounds of penicillin before I could deliver the baby. The anesthesiologist came in and did my epidural and I got some shut eye for a bit. After the penicillin was done, they gave me Pitocin to speed up my contractions because they were stuck around 4.5 minutes.
There were trips to Five Guys (made by my birthing cheering squad while I was at the hospital), Netflix was viewed and cookies were made and delivered by both my Dad (when he ran home to check on our pup) and my MIL. I couldn't eat them though because of the epidural.
Around 1:30am Josh woke me out of my half-sleep state and told me that my contractions were 2 minutes apart! Shortly after that the nurses came in with the midwife to check on me and they saw that I was a full 10 cm and the nurse was like, "it's go time!" Apparently my bag of waters still hadn't ruptured so the midwife ruptured them for me and it was time to push! One of the nurses, Elizabeth who was covering for my nurse while she was on her break, rushed out of the room back to her patient saying, "it's a birth-quake!" apparently there were a couple other babies being delivered at the same time!
My parents had left about an hour before since nothing was really happening...so Sierra called them and they booked it back from Fairfield to the hospital in Vacaville. Dad was driving about 90 mph!
They arrived about 20 minutes into pushing!
It's difficult to explain what it feels like to push and push knowing that your body is working to deliver the baby you've never met but have felt so close to for the past 40 weeks. I was focused on what my nurse, Lisa, kept telling me to do (she was seriously a rockstar!) and I was so hot and sweaty! Giving birth is definitely a LOT of work.
At one point the midwife and nurse gave each other a look (which Josh noticed, not me. I was so exhausted and focused on pushing) because the baby's oxygen levels had dropped a bit. They rose back up though and we carried on. Apparently it's normal for that to happen off and on during delivery. Babies have a reserve of Oxygen to help with this.
When Wyatt's head was out I looked down at him and my mind was BLOWN! His head was so big! It was the most surreal moment, only to be topped by actually feeling him leave the womb and be placed in my arms. The midwife had to pull him out because they weren't able to get a good reading on him O2 levels. He had also passed the meconium in utero so they were in a rush to get him cleaned up. He was so purple and I was in shock from everything that when they plopped him onto my chest, I just wanted them to take him and make sure he was ok somewhere where I didn't feel like he was going to slide off of my chest. The nurses took him and cleaned him up.
When I heard his cry a few seconds later, it was the sweetest sound. I cried tears of relief and joy. Josh gave me a sweet kiss and just like that we were parents.
Wyatt Wray Dahlin was born on Friday July 15th, 2017 @ 2:18am after about 27 hours of labor.
He was 9 pounds and 21 inches long (only half an inch smaller than his daddy!)
I'm not really a private person, so when my family wanted to be there in the delivery room I was fine with it. I'm so glad that they were there because as we were getting cleaned up (and stitched up...for two hours) it was so fun to have my parents and sister there with Josh and I to welcome baby Wyatt into the world! We also called Josh's parents on FaceTime to share in the excitement (postpartum)!
Once I was all stitched up (it took forever and was super annoying and painful...worst part for sure) I actually passed out as the nurse was helping me back from the restroom. They were going to move us to a new room but ended up leaving me because I had lost a lot of blood.
The next morning we were moved to a new room and I finally got to shower. Then the visitors arrived! My parents came back with flowers. They were followed by my in-laws. Later that afternoon my SIL Emily and her family came to meet the newest cousin. It was so fun to see everyone love on baby Wyatt. Though at the time they kept asking us what we wanted to name him! Lots of suggestions were made by the cousins. :) We stayed the next night in the hospital because they didn't want to let me go yet because of my stitches and blood loss.
It took us the whole hospital stay to decide on a name. I think deep down I had known for a while that we would probably name him Wyatt Wray, but there were still a few other names that we loved. It's so hard to decide on a name! I mean, they're going to have it forever!
Becoming a parent is such a surreal phase of life. I don't think that you can really "prepare" yourself for how it will change you. There is definitely a learning curve; the first 6 weeks are pretty much a roller coaster.
For me, I feel like giving birth to Wyatt has awoken some kind of inner self, a 6th sense of sorts. Though it can be difficult at times, I love being a mother. It feels so natural to have him on my hip, in my lap or breast-feeding in my arms. To see him do something new or look a little different every day is incredible, and a little scary. Time flies so quickly when you're measuring it in your child's eyes.
I am so grateful for all of the joy Wyatt brings to my life. He is a light and we are so blessed to be his parents.
-M-
*It has now been 5 months since Wyatt was born. Parenting does leave me with much energy for non-baby things! But I'm pleased to have finished this post before 2017 is over :)
Comments
Post a Comment