Xander’s delivery
We woke up at 4 am on Labor Day, Monday, September 6th, to eat breakfast and get ready for the long day ahead of us. At 5 am we called the hospital and they said to come right in for our scheduled induction. Brett and Tami came by and Jeremy, Tami and I headed for the hospital.
We arrived around 6 am and were the only ones in the Birth Center, so we got a huge room and lots of attention! On Friday I was dilated to 3 cm. They put me on pitocin help bring on contractions. By 10 am we had walked the halls and was dilated to 4 cm. Dr. Nickel broke my water at around 10:30 am. I took a Jacuzzi bath, sat on the birth ball and walked the halls to help bring little Xander here. The nurses kept increasing the pitocin and contractions got pretty bad. I got two half doses of fentanyl, but I was in a lot of pain. Contractions were between 2 and 5 minutes apart. Mom and Brandon showed up to say hi around 2 pm. We were blessed with such a great nurse, Cynthia; she was so compassionate and helpful. By 5 pm I had only increased to 5 cm and decided to get an epidural, which was a very hard decision for me. I hadn’t wanted to put stress on my baby or to slow the labor process. But I thought if I had been at 5cm for 10 ½ hours, and the pain was only getting worse, which was putting stress on the baby, I might as well get an epidural now, because it was turning into a long day. At one point close to 5 pm contractions were a minute apart.
After the epidural I couldn’t feel much of anything. Having the epidural done put a lot of stress on Xander. His heart rate got really low, so I was on oxygen and they turned the pitocin off until his heart rate could stabilize. Xander wasn’t stabilized until about 8 pm, at which point they checked my cervix and I was still at 5 cm. The nurse called Doctor Nickel and he told them, “turn back on the ‘pit’ and increase the dose every 15 minutes for an hour.” We tried that for an hour but there was still no increase in the size of my cervix.
Jeremy and I then had a talk about what to do concerning the birth of little Xander. We decided that we would continue the pitocin for another hour and if there was still no change we would opt for the c-section. This was not really what we wanted to do and it was an extremely hard decision for me because I wanted my family to be there for his birth but at the same time we really needed both baby and I to be healthy. Dr. Nickel called me and discussed our options and he was okay with our decision.
We continued to increase the “pit” until 10 pm but to no avail. I only made it to about 5 ½ cm. We had the nurses call Dr. Nickel. The nurses wasted no time in getting me prepped for Dr. Nickel. They also gave Jeremy his little outfit to put on that made him look official.
It took about an hour to prep me for the surgery. When I went in only my left side was numb so they had to move the epidural otherwise they were going to have to put me to sleep and Jeremy would not be able to join in on the surgery. Even after they moved the epidural I could still feel them poking with needles on the right side just a little, but I endured because I really did not want to be put to sleep. After they got me all situated a nurse brought Jeremy in to witness Xander’s birth.
It took Dr. Nickel a few minutes get Xander. He said that when he opened me up Xander was just looking at him making a sort of kissing face. They brought him over to me to look at and I just couldn’t believe how beautiful he was. They then took him over to this table and cleaned him up, weighed and measured him before handing him off to Jeremy. He weighed in at 7lbs and 15.9 oz. and was 19 inches long.
We woke up at 4 am on Labor Day, Monday, September 6th, to eat breakfast and get ready for the long day ahead of us. At 5 am we called the hospital and they said to come right in for our scheduled induction. Brett and Tami came by and Jeremy, Tami and I headed for the hospital.
We arrived around 6 am and were the only ones in the Birth Center, so we got a huge room and lots of attention! On Friday I was dilated to 3 cm. They put me on pitocin help bring on contractions. By 10 am we had walked the halls and was dilated to 4 cm. Dr. Nickel broke my water at around 10:30 am. I took a Jacuzzi bath, sat on the birth ball and walked the halls to help bring little Xander here. The nurses kept increasing the pitocin and contractions got pretty bad. I got two half doses of fentanyl, but I was in a lot of pain. Contractions were between 2 and 5 minutes apart. Mom and Brandon showed up to say hi around 2 pm. We were blessed with such a great nurse, Cynthia; she was so compassionate and helpful. By 5 pm I had only increased to 5 cm and decided to get an epidural, which was a very hard decision for me. I hadn’t wanted to put stress on my baby or to slow the labor process. But I thought if I had been at 5cm for 10 ½ hours, and the pain was only getting worse, which was putting stress on the baby, I might as well get an epidural now, because it was turning into a long day. At one point close to 5 pm contractions were a minute apart.
After the epidural I couldn’t feel much of anything. Having the epidural done put a lot of stress on Xander. His heart rate got really low, so I was on oxygen and they turned the pitocin off until his heart rate could stabilize. Xander wasn’t stabilized until about 8 pm, at which point they checked my cervix and I was still at 5 cm. The nurse called Doctor Nickel and he told them, “turn back on the ‘pit’ and increase the dose every 15 minutes for an hour.” We tried that for an hour but there was still no increase in the size of my cervix.
Jeremy and I then had a talk about what to do concerning the birth of little Xander. We decided that we would continue the pitocin for another hour and if there was still no change we would opt for the c-section. This was not really what we wanted to do and it was an extremely hard decision for me because I wanted my family to be there for his birth but at the same time we really needed both baby and I to be healthy. Dr. Nickel called me and discussed our options and he was okay with our decision.
We continued to increase the “pit” until 10 pm but to no avail. I only made it to about 5 ½ cm. We had the nurses call Dr. Nickel. The nurses wasted no time in getting me prepped for Dr. Nickel. They also gave Jeremy his little outfit to put on that made him look official.
It took about an hour to prep me for the surgery. When I went in only my left side was numb so they had to move the epidural otherwise they were going to have to put me to sleep and Jeremy would not be able to join in on the surgery. Even after they moved the epidural I could still feel them poking with needles on the right side just a little, but I endured because I really did not want to be put to sleep. After they got me all situated a nurse brought Jeremy in to witness Xander’s birth.
It took Dr. Nickel a few minutes get Xander. He said that when he opened me up Xander was just looking at him making a sort of kissing face. They brought him over to me to look at and I just couldn’t believe how beautiful he was. They then took him over to this table and cleaned him up, weighed and measured him before handing him off to Jeremy. He weighed in at 7lbs and 15.9 oz. and was 19 inches long.
2 comments:
Xander is so beautiful. I'm really mad at myself for not getting nice newborn pics of Terryn. I'll just put that away as a lessons learned. Your pics are amazing. Hope you're all recuperated from surgery and labor.
Congratulations you guys! He is SO adorable! I love his little hat and those pictures are amazing!
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