Well, I didn't have to make it another week from my last posting...just 3 more days. I worked half days for the last week, and Thursday night I started having labor pains. They were far enough apart and mild enough that I decided I needed to head to bed in order to sleep through as much of it as I could. Friday morning about 3 am, I woke up with pretty consistent labor pains, which kept me up until about 4:30 am. I went back to bed, dozed for awhile, and Alex got up about 6 am to get ready for work.
As he got ready, my contractions started coming harder and faster. At only 4 - 6 minutes apart, Alex decided maybe going to work wasn't a good idea, and we both sat in the living room timing contractions for the next 2 hours. Around 8 am, I called my mom and dad to tell them I thought it would be a good idea if they started heading this way to get Brenna. They arrived about 9:30 am, and as I was in quite a bit of pain at this point, we headed to my doctor's office. Ironically, my doctor was on vacation when Brenna was born, and once again, she was on vacation for Grant's arrival. The nurse practitioner checked me at the office to make sure I was in labor and gave me the great news that I was 6 cm already. I was ecstatic and still thought I might make it without an epidural at this point.
We got our room upstairs, Dr. Reisinger (who also delivered Brenna) came up and broke my water awhile later. I labored for another hour with 1 cm of progress. Then the pain started to get really bad, and I was at the point I was thinking I was going to get sick. The nurse said I hadn't made any further progress, so I decided that I couldn't make several more hours of this pain. The doctor came and started the epidural at 2:30. Given my past experience, they gave me extra fluids before the epidural and only gave me 1/2 the dose in my back. I still had blood pressure problems, but I didn't bottom out like I did with Brenna. The epidural started to take effect, and they rolled me onto my side. At this point, I told them I felt a lot of pressure, and the nurse checked me again. In just a few minutes with the epidural, I had gone to 10 cm. They never even had to hook me up to the epidural pump for the rest of the dose. It was time to push!
This time, it only took 10 minutes of pushing, and Grant David Rogier made his arrival into the world at 3:05 pm. It was a much more pleasant labor experience, and I am so glad that I was able to labor so long without the epidural because I think it helped everything keep progressing. Grant weighed 9 lbs 3.9 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long. His head measured 14 3/4 inches. He also came out screaming like a banshee, just like Brenna, but we can definitely say that so far, he doesn't show signs of being as fussy as Brenna.
Evenings are a little rough with him, but other than that, he is being a model baby. You can see his huge feet in the pictures below. Enjoy. I am sure I will post more in the next few weeks. They change so much this early in life.
As he got ready, my contractions started coming harder and faster. At only 4 - 6 minutes apart, Alex decided maybe going to work wasn't a good idea, and we both sat in the living room timing contractions for the next 2 hours. Around 8 am, I called my mom and dad to tell them I thought it would be a good idea if they started heading this way to get Brenna. They arrived about 9:30 am, and as I was in quite a bit of pain at this point, we headed to my doctor's office. Ironically, my doctor was on vacation when Brenna was born, and once again, she was on vacation for Grant's arrival. The nurse practitioner checked me at the office to make sure I was in labor and gave me the great news that I was 6 cm already. I was ecstatic and still thought I might make it without an epidural at this point.
We got our room upstairs, Dr. Reisinger (who also delivered Brenna) came up and broke my water awhile later. I labored for another hour with 1 cm of progress. Then the pain started to get really bad, and I was at the point I was thinking I was going to get sick. The nurse said I hadn't made any further progress, so I decided that I couldn't make several more hours of this pain. The doctor came and started the epidural at 2:30. Given my past experience, they gave me extra fluids before the epidural and only gave me 1/2 the dose in my back. I still had blood pressure problems, but I didn't bottom out like I did with Brenna. The epidural started to take effect, and they rolled me onto my side. At this point, I told them I felt a lot of pressure, and the nurse checked me again. In just a few minutes with the epidural, I had gone to 10 cm. They never even had to hook me up to the epidural pump for the rest of the dose. It was time to push!
This time, it only took 10 minutes of pushing, and Grant David Rogier made his arrival into the world at 3:05 pm. It was a much more pleasant labor experience, and I am so glad that I was able to labor so long without the epidural because I think it helped everything keep progressing. Grant weighed 9 lbs 3.9 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long. His head measured 14 3/4 inches. He also came out screaming like a banshee, just like Brenna, but we can definitely say that so far, he doesn't show signs of being as fussy as Brenna.
Evenings are a little rough with him, but other than that, he is being a model baby. You can see his huge feet in the pictures below. Enjoy. I am sure I will post more in the next few weeks. They change so much this early in life.
Keeping Everyone Updated on my progress - much to my husband's amazement. I told him it gave me something else to focus on besides the pain. :-)
Right before I start pushing. I had to have oxygen due to my drop in blood pressure with the epidural.
It's a boy!
Proud Mama
Father and Son
Proud Big Sister
Look at those feet - they barely fit in the box.
Congrats, Sara! So glad things were a lot smoother this time around. I hear little Grant is a snuggler! So yummy!
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