Sunday, August 26, 2012

Pierce

Joe and I went to the hospital at 7 a.m. to be induced on Thursday Aug 16, with the assurance that we would probably be holding our new born sometime that afternoon.  The nurse asked what our birth plan was and I said "baby out" and "epidural."  We sat around for hours waiting for things to start happening.  I watched hours of quality day time programming on TLC.  Joe started a baby pool asking friends and family to guess the time of the birth and the weight of the baby.  The latest time was 10:30, by which time I assumed I would already be asleep.  We had a great nurse whose shift was from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.  When she left after 12 hours and I was only dilated to 4 cm, I realized things were not necessarily going the way I anticipated.  
Our next nurse realized something was amiss when she kept trying to find the baby's heartbeat.  An ultrasound showed that the baby was head down, but facing straight up which may have been why labor progressed so slowly.  I finally had dilated enough to push, so the doctor was called.  When he arrived we realized that although I definitely had the urge to push the cervix just wouldn't dilate enough to allow the baby's head out.  I then proceeded to try several agonizing hours of trying different positions and enduring several attempts by the doctor to vacuum baby's head out.  I had to fight the whole time to not push, which was horrible.  The nurse kept saying things like "this is not how I saw this going" and "this is not how I planned to spend my night."  I was torn between laughing at her cluelessness and wanting to slap her.  Finally, the doctor gave me 30 minutes to try and get the baby to turn and then proceeding to a c-section.  We waited out the longest 30 minutes ever, and then realized this little dude was not coming out.  The doctor said we may never know why he could not come out the usual route.  
I went in for the c-section, and as soon as the incision was made, everyone in the room went "Oh."  The cord was wrapped around and under both of his shoulders and around his neck.  There was no way he was ever coming out having tangled himself up pretty tightly.  At first glance he was huge with enormous hands.  8lbs. 8 oz and 21 inches long.  Our biggest baby yet and a week early.  I was surprised to see my mom in the recovery room at 1 a.m. but I am glad she came.  I was so shaky and out of it I could not actually hold baby boy for awhile.  Joe and I finally settled on a name after months of debate: Joseph Pierce Deaver.
 Poor, little cone head had a huge bruise on his head from the vacuuming attempts.

 This is what hours of labor and various drugs makes you look like.
 Big Brother!
 Big Sister!
 The kids...and mom still looking out of it in the back ground.
 Finally going home from the hospital on Monday (had to spend an extra night so that Pierce could work on his tan and knock out his jaundice in the bilirubin box).

Still torn about which is a harder recovery, c-section or vaginal birth.  The doctor promised me I could have a VBAC next time.  I was like, "next time...ha, ha, ha."

5 comments:

Jessie Lewis said...

Oh my! I'm so sorry you had to go through all that. But I'm glad you got such an adorable little boy out of it.

Stephanie said...

Your poor, poor nurse having to experience such an unexpected evening...that is quite the story!
I hope you are feeling better this week!
Little Pierce is pretty cute! I love the picture when you are first holding him, he is just looking straight at the camera so alert.

Shawn AND Chelsey said...

there better be a next time! your kids are too dang cute for you to stop now! :)
i'm sorry it was so stressful! but so glad he is here safe! he is so dang cute!!! good for you! hope you are recovering well! can we bring you a meal in or do you have dinners coming out of your ears? let me know! love the name!

p.s. those are the exact same stats that jax had!! 8 lbs 8 oz and 21 in long! crazy! :-)

sally said...

I had no idea you had such a rough labor. I'm so glad Pierce came out safely. I hope you're feeling alright. Having a c-section (after all that labor) is really rough. Can I do anything for you?

Your Mom said...

You know what's funny, my son's middle name is Pierce, he also had a cone head from the vacuum, and he was also large.

weird.