Announcing the arrival of...

Santiago 

born at 9:29 pm on Friday, Sept. 13

So far, Santiago is a happy little baby (as long as he's fed, clean, and burped).  And I'm feeling great, aside from all of the obvious pains associated with giving birth and then being sleep deprived.  Here's a small recap of events from the last few days, hopefully without too many "TMI" details.

On Thursday, my due date, I went into the hospital to be checked.  Like at all appointments, they hooked me up to a fetal monitor for 30 minutes.  I was feeling no contractions, or signs of having a baby any time soon.  I was scheduled to have appointments every 2 days for the next week.  As I was hooked up to the monitor (bored) I was not looking forward to repeating the exact same thing day after day.

Timing contractions at home

So, surprise when my water broke that night!  I thought I'd be able to go back to sleep, since I'd really only been asleep a few hours, but the contractions started within 15 minutes.  From 2-5 I was feeling contractions every 5 minutes, and finally decided to go into the hospital.

[Obviously with this being my first child, I learned a lot in the process.  One thing that completely surprised me, though, is that when a person's water breaks, it's not a one-time thing.  It's a lot of liquid coming out in gushes over several hours.  I'll be better prepared the next time around!]

All that pain, and they told me I was only 1 cm dilated.  Seriously??  They put an IV port into my hand and then brought me to the room I'd be in post-delivery, and let me put my stuff down and hang out there and wait.  I was free to walk around and do whatever I wanted.  I just had to check in every 2 hours.

At my first "two hour" check up, they gave me a relaxant drug.  It did absolutely nothing for me.  So I went back after an hour and asked for something stronger.  I got another drug that relaxed me, but didn't do anything for the pain.  I just wasn't feeling quite so miserable in between contractions.  (Up to that point, I was definitely not enjoying the process!) After two more hours, I was still only 2-3 cm dilated, and asked about the epidural.  The nurse said she could start me on the epidural, and give me pitocin to speed things up.

Around 3:30 I had the epidural in.  It was much more painful than I'd imagined.  Not a quick pain like a normal needle, but instead a long steady pain as it went further and further and further... But worth it!  I felt very little for the next few hours.

By 6 I was almost completely dilated, but the baby wasn't low enough.  My right side was still numb, but I had quite a bit of feeling on the left half of my body, especially my back.  With every contraction I felt sharp back pain, and with contractions coming pretty much every minute I was miserable.  The epidural had a button I could press to get "extra" (to a certain extent) so I kept pressing it hoping for the best but I started wondering if they just give you the button for the placebo effect.  It made no difference.  And then the epidural ran out, and they wouldn't give me more.  They wanted me to "feel the pressure to push".  Quite frankly, I didn't want to be feeling anything.  Isn't that the point of getting an epidural??

The time between 6 and 9 pm is kind of a blur of pain, and hoping the baby came soon.  Finally the nurse said I could push if I wanted, but not 100%.  Within 15 minutes the doctor and nurse came back in and decided it was time to have the baby.

Every time I pushed the doctor put his forearm onto the top of my stomach and pushed down with all his weight trying to get the baby lower.  That might have been the most painful part of the day.  I felt like my entire head was going to explode because he was pretty much cutting off my lungs and any air back to my head.  Meanwhile, I felt nothing of what was going on "below."  Pushing a baby out of a little hole?  No big deal, apparently.  Not passing out during delivery?  Maybe a bit more difficult.

About 10 minutes of pushing, and Santiago was here!

I got to hold him for a very long time before they took him away to get weighed.  He was bloody, and screaming, but perfect.  10 fingers; 10 toes; strong lungs!  He weighed 3150 grams, or just under 7 lbs. (We had to google that the next day.)  Shortly after they took him from me, I started feeling dizzy, and told the doctor.  But it was too late.  I threw up water all over myself, and was completely soaked.  My blood pressure had dropped to something like 80/50, so they started pumping something into my iv to help.

Eventually I got my baby back, and the nurse and doctor left.  Around 11:30 my mom and I started wondering if they'd forgotten about us.  They were in no hurry to get me out of there.  But finally they wheeled me down to my room and I got to sleep.

[You can sort of see the red dots around my eye]

I was surprised the next day by how difficult it was to move around.  I felt like I had no working muscles between my knees and waist.  And my right hand still had the IV in, which made my hand sore and useless.  I was still feeling dizzy.  Finally by that afternoon I went to take a shower and was surprised to look in the mirror and see dark circles under my eyes and lots of popped blood vessels all over my face!  I guess the feeling of having my head explode during delivery took its toll.  My neck muscles were also really sore from the ordeal.

Santiago slept most of the day, but he'd wake up occasionally to eat, or cry.

I stayed at the hospital one more night, and got to go home on Sunday afternoon.  Before we left, though, the pediatrician checked Santiago and they drew blood... from his head!  It was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen, and he was screaming and screaming.  I would have been too.  It made me grateful that my IV had been in my hand.

Flowers from Mom at the hospital, right before we left

Now we're getting into a routine here at home, and enjoying the down time.  Hyrum has been able to skype with us a few times to see the baby, and said it's hard to believe that the baby on the other end of the camera is his!  It will certainly be a strange feeling for him to come home in 9 months and hold his baby for the first time.  But for now we do what we can.