While I was trying to sleep, Jessica came back in, because the monitors on my stomach weren't working correctly. They weren't getting accurate readings of my contractions (which thank goodness at this point I was barely feeling), and they weren't getting readings on baby's heart rate. She had Dr. Peregrin come in, and she asked if she could place a monitor in the top of baby's head, and another one up in my uterus to monitor my contractions. I said of course, so they got all of that going. After they were correctly monitoring me and baby, they started to notice that when I had a contraction, baby's heart rate would dip down really low. After the contraction, the baby's heart rate would jump right back up. Jessica, my nurse, said that it could mean that the cord was wrapped around baby's neck. Which completely freaked me out!! She said not to worry though, that was completely common. The only thing they would worry about was if baby's heart rate didn't rebound after it dipped down low. So, for now... we were ok, but they were keeping a close eye on my monitors. So much for getting 'rest'. Gabe and I sat for the next hour just staring at the monitors.
My nurse Jessica did another 'check'. Through out the night I had pretty quickly gone from a 4.5, to a 6, to a 7. The last check I was a 9, but now... it was "Go Time". Jessica said that we needed to do a few pushes to get baby low enough before we would call Dr. Jensen in for the final pushes. Baby's heart rate was still dropping/rebounding at this point, and Dr. Peregrin had decided to turn off the Pitocin which was speeding up labor. Once they did this, my contractions which were one right on top of the other... had spread to as far as 4 and a half minutes apart. Jessica, and Gabe watched contractions on the monitor in case I missed one, but we pushed at every contraction that I had... which seemed so few and far between.
About an hour into pushing, we finally had the baby down to where it needed to be to call Dr. Jensen. At this point I was exhausted. More exhausted than I have ever been. The no sleep from two nights ago had caught up with me, along with no sleep that night... I was literally sleeping in between my contractions. I couldn't even keep my head up. I was praying for a 2nd wind, or 3rd, or 4th wind... whatever 'wind' was next.
Now, almost 15 hours after labor had begun... the prep team came in our room. They had a table set up with tons of tools. It was starting to get a little intimidating again. Dr. Jensen came into check me, and said that we were ready to go. Dr. Peregrin, who had gotten off earlier that night had come back to see our baby being delivered. Everybody was excited, and was anticipating if we were going to have a boy/girl. Dr. Jensen had me pushing through a few contractions, but quickly realized I had no gas left. He said that he could try to help me by either using forceps on the baby, or a vacuum to get him/her out of there faster. I told him whatever he thought - he was the expert after all! They decided to use forceps, and Dr. Luking (yes, the doctor that helped us the day before too) took the forceps, while Dr. Jensen walked her through everything. The epidural had me almost completely numb up until this point, and feeling 'pressure' was the only thing I could do on focusing on where to push. As the baby got closer, and closer to being born, a whole new wave of pain hit me. Many times worse than any of my previous contractions. I really didn't think that I was going to get through it. The anesthesiologist's assistant was there with us, and she came to my side, and pumped a syringe of something into one of my IV's. This gave me the ability to get through the last couple of pushes.
Just one push away from meeting our son/daughter... Dr. Jensen told me that we could order a last minute sonogram if we wanted to know the sex of the baby. :) Leave it to him to be joking around down to the very last moment!! One more push, and Dr. Luking, said.... "How about a boy?!" Then we got to hear our baby boy's first cries. All the pain, and worry up until that moment had vanished. All I could do was keep my eyes locked on my son. When I looked over at Gabe, he was crying, and I started to cry. He said, "that was totally worth it, and we're not going to find out for the next baby!". He was referring to the sex, which just weeks before he told me we WERE going to find out for the next baby. So, 'I won'. :) I'm keeping him to his word!!
I can't really explain the first minutes of being a mom... but I'm sure all you 'moms' out there know what I mean. It was so surreal, and overwhelming, but I was so calm at the same time. Zachary Steven was finally here!! Jessica asked me if I wanted them to wipe him down, and bring him to me... or to go ahead and clean him up, weigh him, and then bring him. I wanted him as soon as I could, so they just wiped him off - him screaming all the while. They put him on my chest and he immediately got quiet. His eyes were open, and he just stared at Gabe and I. He was so peaceful once he was in my arms! I remember bouncing him a little bit, and Gabe told me later that I said, "he likes when I bounce him, I know he does!"
Gabe and I had our eyes fixed on Zachary while the doctors worked on me. I had a lot of tearing because of the forceps, and I had also 'torn' to a third. With all that going on, I was completely 100% distracted with my son. They could have been cutting my leg off, and I don't think I would have noticed!! After they had me stitched up, and cleaned up... we met our new nurse. I was right... we had Zachary Steven at 6:31 AM, just a few minutes shy of Jessica's leaving time!
Our new nurse, Melissa, got him all washed up, weighed, and measured. Zachary weighed in at 8 lbs, 10 oz, and was 19-1/2 inches long.
Dr. Jensen also made the comment when Zachary was first born that his cone head would go away by the time he started Middle School. Jokester. :) Thankfully, he has already lost most of it!!
Right after Zach was born, he scratched his left eye, so for the next few days his poor eye was swollen. He also had bruises on the top of his head from the forceps. My poor baby! Gabe joked that he got in a fight with a baby in the nursery. You should have seen the other baby.... :)
Close to 17 hours after we had started, Gabe and I had our nurse send for our family to come meet their grandson/nephew. After a few hugs/snuggles/congratulations, everybody was eager to get some rest.
Because of my high blood pressure, I was not able to leave my bed for a full 24 hours after Zach was born, and they continued to give me the Magnesium to lower my blood pressure. This meant when Zach cried during the day, Gabe was the go-to guy to get him fixed up. He changed Zach's first diaper - which was the black, tarry meconium. No one told him that it would look like this... and that was Gabe's first 'freak out' as a parent. He also did not hear the nurse say she was putting antibiotic cream on his eyes, so poor Gabe thought our baby's eyes were all gooey too!! Poor guy!! He had to be running on adrenaline, because he was up with Zach quite a few times... and I was snoozing away. I literally couldn't keep my eyes open if I wanted to.
At one point that morning our pedetrician stopped by to meet Zachary. His name is Dr. Chopra, and he was actually my pediatrician. (Did I also tell you all that Dr. Jensen delivered me? I'm sure I have! I don't have to Dr. 'shop' much!). Dr. Chopra said that Zach was perfect, and said that he would get him circumsized the same day. Gabe took him up to get circumsized later that morning, and Dr. Chopra said, "He didn't even cry. He was a very brave little man!" That made Gabe proud. :)
Because of lack of sleep, and probably because of no lack of drugs pumping through my veins... Zach's first day is a little cloudy in my mind. Especially because I slept most of his actual 'birthday'. However, I can tell you that it was hands down the best day of my life. Being a mom is such an amazing feeling, and the love I feel for my son is unimaginable. Everything about him is absolutely perfect, and I couldn't be prouder of him. I'm so looking forward to the next few days, weeks, and years that God blesses us to be Zachary's parents.
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