I went into labor around 11pm, Friday night. No forewarning of any sort beforehand, just like last time. Contractions started coming regularly by 12:30am. Damon was out and I finally got in touch with him and got him home by 2am. My wonderful friend and doula, Theresa was called around 6am and came over to check my progress. I was at about 2 centimeters and we made the decision to head up to Huntersville, about a 20 minute drive from our house, to deliver him at Presbyterian Hospital. Only thing we forgot - the camera.
The situation just didn't seem right for a home delivery. Our house was still massively out of order. We still can't find half the things we'd like to, there was a ton of laundry that needed to be done and no working dryer. By the time I got checked in, maybe around 7:30am, I was up to 4cm. Marcia, my midwife (who must have been surprised to see me since she knew we'd planned a homebirth), gave me some sort of sedative since I was beyond exhausted by that point, having been in labor for 8 hours and not having slept in 24. I caught little minute long naps in between contractions once that took effect for the next hour or so until I was transferred into the delivery room.
The transfer made my contractions really peak and for the next hour I was still reeling from the sedation. The room was spinning and it was hard to hold myself up in certain positions for a bit. Once the fog cleared though I had progressed to about 6cm. I eventually settled myself up on the delivery bed in sort of an all fours position which I never did get out of. I spent the next 2 hours probably like that, gripping my tummy with my right hand, clenching the bed rail or the bed itself with my left, biting down hard as I could on the bed itself through each contraction. Thank god Damon was behind me and far, far away from my teeth! His job (along with the nurses too from time to time) was to rub my back constantly through each contraction. I simply could not have gotten through it all without that.
I progressed pretty quickly after I hit 6cm. I could already feel my body pushing, though I don't think anyone else in the room was aware of that until very near the end. Marcia was delivering another baby by the time Dylan dropped way down into my pelvis and I'd begun to really push. Diane was the nurse who stayed through it all. I remember feeling Dylan's head lodge itself WAY down, nearly out suddenly and I reached down to see if I could feel him crowning. I felt his soft wet little head begin to pop out and noticed my belly was no longer there anymore either. Damon started yelling something about how he thought he saw him crowning and then I heard Diane say no, that wasn't his head.... then she started screaming into the intercom for Marcia to come NOW!!! She sounded frantic and very worried that she'd be delivering the baby. That made me start laughing on the inside since by that point there was no stopping him and I wasn't the least bit concerned who was standing behind me when it happened - my family was already there, all that mattered.
Marcia must have shown up at some point, I really wasn't aware of it and without my glasses I couldn't tell her from Diane or any of the other nurses either. I remembered feeling someone pull on the baby and I screamed for them to stop, that it was hurting me. Damon says that was Marcia. Two more pushes got Dylan's little head out into the big, big world. With one last push, the only one I actually had to work at and one big gush (my water must've finally broken) he slid out on to my legs and was born! Damon says he shot out like a bullet. Marcia and Diane caught him while Damon's hand was on him too. He had a lot of fluid in his lungs still, was all purpley and silent - Lianna was just like this so it didn't worry me, but everyone else seemed really concerned by it. I remember hearing them saying they needed to cut his cord, it was too short, etc. I started screaming and yelling at them at this point that NO! They were not going to cut his cord too soon! They did clamp it much sooner than I would've liked, but all my arguing slowed them down considerably too. Marcia cut the cord before Damon had the chance but Damon was the first to hold him.
I was so exhausted by this point that I couldn't move from where I was to really even turn around and look at or hold him. I think they were busy wiping him off and things like that on my legs still too so I couldn't move right away. Everyone else is busy right now so I'm not the one to write anymore on all this... seeing as I have no idea what really went on afterward... (I swear I will get the story out of em soon). One thing I do remember is delivering the placenta and then remembering that Lianna wanted very much for months now to have a poke at it. Marcia helped her get some gloves on I think and the two of them had fun exploring it. Later on that morning Lianna told Diane how dumb she thought it was that they'd taken away the placenta when they could have kept it and used it for something more practical.... like feeding lions at the zoo! We all thought this was hilarious and then talked about why it might not be such a good idea to feed lions human body parts. I said nah, they wouldn't want humans, only pregnant humans!
I was asked before they did anything to the baby which was such a wonderful, welcome difference from last time. We avoided nearly everything - no Hepatitis vaccine, no eye ointment, no vitamin K shots. The only "routine" stuff they did get away with was a syphilis blood test on me AFTER I had Dylan (they actually wanted to attempt a blood draw while I was in labor, wtf!) and a PKU so we could be discharged early.
So anyways... little Dylan Mathew Neri was born on September 27, 2008 at 11:20am. Weighed 7lbs, 9oz. 21 1.4 inches long. Has a head full of black hair. Is tongue tied but mildly so. This has been causing some real challenges so far with breastfeeding but today Damon and I met with an amazing lactation specialist at the hospital nearer our house who was just an angel. He's feeding like a pro now and the two of us both feel sooo much better for it. The stay at the hospital was sort of lousy. The staff was excellent, warm, compassionate. Can't complain about them. The freaking cafeteria on the other hand... not that the food was so bad, but the HOURS and the stupid rules! Ugh. First night I missed dinner, then the second day I was just totally underfed. I demanded an early discharge mainly for that reason alone (and my stupid uncomfortable bed).
So we are home. Got in around 9 or 10 last night. Feels so good to be settled back in and able to breastfeed. It's much harder with this lil guy than it was with Lianna, but not impossible like it seemed yesterday. Yesterday and this morning were so bad we were honestly contemplating formula. Damon's main thing he keeps saying is how perfect the delivery was. Things like textbook, beautiful, that he saw the Miracle of Life movie but this was just so much better. He says he wants to have 15 babies now. Haha, too bad I'm not making anymore. Anyways, I'm off to shower, eat & SLEEP again.
Love to all & more later!
~Arielle
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oh yeah... send me your addresses everyone so we can mail out announcements!
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