Our family got a little larger on Sept. 4th. Thomas Peter was born on Sunday afternoon and ended up weighing more than anyone ever expected- he came in at 9 lbs 2 oz.
I was induced because I was already 4 centimeters but not having contractions so the doctor worried about my water breaking at home and my not having time to reach the hospital. So off we went to the hospital Sunday morning. We got there pretty early but I was just monitored for awhile- it was in fact 3 hours before the doctor came in- Pete and I watched a lot of History Channel. Once he left they started the drugs, and we watched more History Channel. I had decided, with the help of my husband, that I would have an epidural this time. Since the contractions with Luke didn't really hurt but the whole actual pushing thing did, to the point I refused to continue, we thought it might be best to head this off at the beginning. Every 20 minutes they upped my drugs, and the only thing that I noticed was some back pain that was more irritating than painful. The nurse would ask every time if I was in enough pain for an epidural yet and I never was. Once I saw, by looking at the monitor, that the contractions were happening every 3ish minutes I figured it was now or never. The epidural lady was actually quite surprised to see that I was smiling and talking to her. Up to that point getting the epidural was the most painful thing to happen and it actually did hurt some. Pretty soon after that they broke my water- I am not sure what time maybe -12:30 or 1pm? Just tell us when you need to push were my instructions, but I worried I wouldn't know since I had an epidural, but really this epidural wasn't at all like I thought it would be -I could still move my legs and feel sensation. While waiting for the desire to push I began to feel faint and dizzy so I called the nurse in and she did some stuff with the epidural bag to help bring my blood pressure up. However, as soon as she left I felt this urge to poop/push. Pete told me to page the nurse again but I felt that would be rude since she was just in there so I waited some-partly wondering if I just kept waiting would I notice a baby's head just hanging out? Anyway, about 5 minutes later I paged her and told her I felt like pushing. She was quite impressed that baby's head was in fact right there but I still about half a centimeter to go before I could push. Well again, as soon as she left I really really felt like if I didn't push I would explode. I let about two of these episodes happen before I paged her again. She confirmed it was definitely go time. Still we had to wait for the doctor to make it to my room so I was forced to reign in the pushing desire. This differs greatly from when I had Luke. I never really had the pushing desire instead I had the --I am in so much pain I want to die desire-- but that is different altogether and was combined with the I absolutely do not want to push desire. I guess the epidural was working and for once I was having a 'normal' birthing experience. Pete was actually able to be next to me and participate for the first time ever. He held my leg up and when the pushing began to hurt - like we knew it would- he was there for me to dig my nails into his chest. The pushing did begin to hurt but in a burning way. I just started yelling-- It burns! It burns! So they gave me a numbing shot which did seem to help some but it still really stung. The pushing desire was overwhelming and I was even asking if I could just go ahead and push. There was only one time when I said I didn't want to. I think it took about 20-30 minutes of pushing and out he came. His left shoulder got a little stuck, but no episiotomy needed, and he was born at 2:08pm. He was all bruised on his face and his left elbow, but he was just fine. People immediately began commenting on how big he was before he was even weighed. This was a bit of a surprise because at 36 weeks I had an ultrasound to try and determine his weight since Luke was 8 and a half pounds and got stuck, we didn't want the same thing to happen again. The ultrasound showed that he was around 6 lbs and 10 oz at 36 weeks-- I guess this goes to show you ultrasounds can be wrong. Either that or he just gained a lot of weight in two weeks. He was only 19 inches long but weight wise-- over 9 lbs!!! What??!! Who would have thought a baby that large could come out of me?!
So here are some pictures.
 |
| The Weigel Boys |
 |
| I feel I should note that we have only used a pacifier a couple times as we aren't really a pacifier family |
 |
| See we are a thumb sucking family-- the tradition continues. He was sucking it immediately after birth-- as they were weighing him. |
1 comment:
Congrats! He is adorable! I can't believe how big Luke is! I think it's the new baby that makes the other kids grow up instantly!
Post a Comment