On November 11, at 11:45 am our son, Darren Keaton Plain, was born! I realized I haven't posted an official blog about his birth, and thought it would be appropriate to do so before Thanksgiving since I am so incredibly thankful for our amazing boy!
On November 10, Adam and I checked into the hospital where I was scheduled to be induced. The first step was to have a medication called Cytotek placed on my cervix to help with dilation and effacement. We started the process at 9pm and finished it at about 6:30am (My mom was there until about 11pm, when we realized nothing exciting was going to happen that night. We sent her home to get some sleep so she'd be fresh when we got things going in the morning). After that, I was given a dose of Pitocin to start my contractions.
Waiting anxiously to get started with the Pitocin
After having a few small contractions, the nurse came in to monitor the baby. Turns out the little one REALLY did not like it when I had contractions and protested by bringing his heartbeat down to 50 bpm (normal baby heart rate is 120 to 160 bpm). The nurse took me off the Pitocin after 20 minutes and told me the baby was showing signs of stress and that we were going to hold off on inducing until after she had spoken with my doctor. We continued monitoring the baby's heart rate and found he also did not like me getting up to go to the bathroom. When I would lay down again and put the monitor back on, the nurses would come back into the room within seconds to monitor him. My mother-in-law, Sally, made it to the hospital shortly after I was taken off the Pitocin since we had asked her to be in the room with us when the baby was born. Well, things definitely changed from there!
The doctor came in a few hours later to talk with us about our options. Basically, the baby was showing all the signs of stress that a baby shows after mom has been in labor for 15 hours and being close to being born, not only a short time of very early labor. The doctor did not feel comfortable with us putting the baby through more stress from labor and then possibly have to have an emergency c-section, so we decided to go ahead with a scheduled c-section early in labor. I was scheduled to go into the OR at 11:15. At 11:10 the nurse came and got me ready to go.
Silly hat for surgery? Check!
I walked in to the OR where they started prepping me and I met the anesthesiologist. He put in my spinal block and then I laid back on the table and waited for my husband (They only let one person in the OR for the actual procedure. It was a no brainer on who it was going to be!) to come in as my body got more and more numb.
Adam prepping for the surgery
Adam and I nervously chatted while we waited for the baby to finally be out. The anesthesiologist told us we had about 10 minutes to baby time...and I swear, not 1 minute later we heard our baby crying and the doctor tell us "It's a boy!" We got the brief glimpse of our little man before they took him to clean him up. Then they brought him to us.
Hi Mommy!
Our first family photo
Close up of our little man
After Darren was cleaned up and we took pictures as a family, Adam took him to the nursery for his tests and I stayed to get stitched up and moved to the recovery room. Normally, new moms would stay in recovery by themselves until they can wiggle their toes (usually about an hour), but I asked if my mom could come in and stay with me while I was in there. It wasn't their normal policy, but they went and got my mom and we had a nice visit for about 10 minutes before Adam brought Darren in! Turns out, he kept putting his fists in his mouth while he was in the nursery, so the nurses said he needed to go be with mom for bonding and eating. He latched right on and I just stared at him and cried over our blessing. The four of us (Adam, my mom, Darren and I) got to hang out in the recovery room for about 45 minutes or so before I could wiggle my toes and go back to my room.
It's a boy!!! The nurses had a great time showing him off to the "grandparent paparazzi"
Daddy and Darren in the nursery
When we got back to our room, we had many visitors: Grandmommy Kathie and Grumpa Shawn, Grandma Sally and Grandpa Doug, Uncle Sam and Great Grammy. Everyone got to hold little Darren and took pictures with him. Mommy, Daddy and Darren got some rest after everyone left, and then our friends, Josh and Katrina (and of course, little Jack, who unfortunately wasn't allowed to come in the room) came to visit. Even though Jack weighed the same as Darren when he was born, Katrina couldn't believe he was ever that small!
We had a great first night just the three of us. Daddy changed all of the diapers because I couldn't get out of bed yet. It wasn't until very early Thursday morning (like around 1a.m.) before the nurse got me up to stretch, and I didn't get taken off the IV, foley catheter and leg compression machine (to prevent blood clots) until about 8a.m. It was very slow going, so I stayed in bed most of the time except to use the bathroom and stretch. Friday I was VERY ready to go home, and got my staples out before I could be released.
That's our hospital/birth story...before I get out of here to go feed the little one, here are a few more pictures of our little guy!
Darren in the recovery room with Mommy
Trying on the hat great grandma GeeGee made for him
The "going home" outfit...we ended up taking off the green mittens. They didn't stay on very well!
Not too sure about this whole car seat thing
