Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Lawson's birth story- part two



I was admitted around 3:30pm and then just sat around in a giant delivery room for about two hours before anyone really attended to me. I guess they knew I was in no big hurry. Around 5pm they put in the cervidil, and David I were just hanging out. Crawford stayed at Jodi's until Ashley could pick him up after work. Ash and Chase brought him (and pizza, snacks and gifts!) by the hospital for a visit, and he spent the night with them on Friday. Around 10pm I took an ambien (which did nothing), then another ambien to help me sleep a bit. We both slept from about 11-3am which was nice. At 4 they took out the cervidil and a sweet nurse (with apparently "toddler-sized hands") checked me and said I was a 5! I was so excited. They let me get up and shower, and I took advantage of the chance to dry and straighten my hair :). It was silly at the time, but I was glad later on that I had taken that opportunity!


At 5:30 (after a pretty lengthy shower/primping... Ha) they started my pitocin (and my npo... Boo! I was so hungry all day) and said I was still 5cm. Around 8am I was a "6", having contractions but still in no pain! I was so excited. Dr. Brody was heading to a c-section so he sent word for me to get my epidural before he came to brake my water. The anesthesiologist was awesome. He told us funny stories about his kids which was a nice distraction. I was super conflicted about the epi because I didn't want to go from no pain to no feeling. He went ahead and put it in, but gave me just a tiny dose of medication in it. It didn't affect me at all- I still had total feeling. At 9am, Dr. B came in and broke my water and checked me. He said I was only a three. I was so discouraged since the nurses had said I was a 6!


I started feeling more pain from contractions and asked for a bit more anesthesia, and they came in to give me a bolus. It made me feel HORRIBLE. It was the worst part of the entire day! My BP tanked, I turned white and nearly passed out. The nurse (Christina- played soccer with Mary Shelton for years!) gave me fluids and it came back up. At 11am I was a 4, 1:30 I was a 5 and things really took off from there. My epidural was hit or miss. For several hours I was super numb, but I would say I felt about 70% of my contractions through labor. My parents and Ashley hung out with us in the room (while David was watching the Ohio State game on his phone and pretty zoned out to the whole we're-about-to-have-another-baby thing), and Crawford played at Jodi's for the morning. Chase picked C up and brought him to the hospital, and Cathy drove down that morning too. At 2:45 I was a 6.5/7, and at 3:20 I was 7.5/8

They called Dr. Brody, who fortunately lives only about 10 minutes away. He showed up in shorts, tshirt and flip flops, and checked me. He told me not to push at all because the baby was right there! They already had the room prepped (and a resident just in case Dr. B didn't make it), so Dr. Brody threw on a gown and some gloves and we got to pushing. I had a mirror so I could watch the progress, and after pushing through just three contractions (about 10 minutes) Lawson Andrew Geyer was born at 4:29pm on Saturday, September 21.





I was so nervous about my labor experience because the entire thing was so wonderful with Crawford and I was sure it wouldn't go as well a second time. Turns out, it did! The whole inducing process took a lot longer, but the actual labor and delivery was smooth and so enjoyable. The timing was crazy because the entire fam was in the waiting room when he was born. We totally didn't expect that to happen, but the Crawford hand-off was taking place and it was perfect.

Since C was born, the hospital has made some big changes that we were so thankful for. Immediately after delivery, the mom gets one entire hour of skin to skin time with the baby. As soon as I delivered him, they plopped him on my chest and there he stayed for a whole hour. They suctioned his nose and mouth and wiped him down all right there. They didn't even take him to weigh him until that hour had passed, so Dr. Brody didn't even know what he weighed until he made rounds the next morning! That was such precious time- especially in hindsight. During that time, all of the family came through to take a look and Becca got there to take a bunch of pictures. I attempted to nurse, but Lawson was pretty groggy and out of it.

They finally finished stitching me up (mild 2nd degree tear, again) and took Lawson to weigh him, etc. I was so surprised that he was almost EXACTLY the same size as Crawford when he was born- 6 pounds, 5 ounces, 19.5 inches long (C was 6/4). Even though he was three weeks early, I was encouraged that he was right on God's timing.

Lawson is here!

Just a few hours later I started second guessing that though...

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