Journey with You

My little one decided to make his arrival earlier than everyone’s expectation. We just got his nursery ready, I got a chance to go out to see plays and go to see the movie “Lady in the water” with DH. I guess I subconsciously knew that he was going to arrive soon.

I started getting some painful contractions and bloody show earlier Tuesday morning, August 8th, around 1:40am. The contractions were 5-15 minutes apart but I couldn’t really fall back to sleep. I waited until 6 o’clock in the morning to call the doctor. Nurse Vicky called me back and told me to go to the hospital to have it checked. I had a small breakfast and called work to let them know that I wouldn’t be able to make it in. I knew my contractions were still to far apart so we waited the whole morning at home. We got to the hospital at around 12:30pm and they checked me. I was only 2cm dilated. The contractions were painful though. They had me walked in the hospital for an hour. It’s a small hospital and not many places we could walk to. We kept getting mean look from people. One hour finally passed and the resident checked me again. No progress. Dr. Allen came and told me that she was going to give me a sleeping pill so I could get some rest. She told me what I’d been experiencing could be an early labor or could be a false labor. She told me next time when I counted my contraction only counted the one that take my breath away. I took the pill and got knocked out on the way home and a few hours afterwards. I didn’t like the pill because it made me feel like drunk and dizzy.

I woke up again after midnight because of more painful contractions. I timed them and they weren’t getting closer. I had another sleepless night and called work to tell them I won’t be able to go in. When the contractions hit, I had to go down to all four position. They were getting really bad. I couldn’t talk through them. I let Matt did some of his routine and we went to take a walk at the park during dinner time. After half hour walking, my contractions seemed to get more frequent, about 5-10 minutes apart. We decided to go and have it checked again. We got another Asian resident this time and she told me I was 3cm dilated. She talked to Dr. Fraas on the phone and told me to take another one-hour walk. We talked outside the hospital this time and DH got lots of mosquito bites because of that. It was dark after we got back to the hospital. She told me I was still 3cm dilated and the contractions were still not close enough to make them feel confident to admit me. She told me it could go on like this for DAYS. I couldn’t believe what I heard. She told me I could stay at the hospital for the night but they would need to send me home if I am still at the same stage in the morning. I decided to go home since they made me feel like I am not having this baby soon anyway. I took another sleeping pill from them and slept for a few hours.

After midnight on Thursday, contractions woke me up again. They were getting stronger and stronger and about 5 mins apart. I was moaning the whole time and we decided it’s time to go to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital around 4am. A nurse checked me and said I was 5cm dilated. I was surprised and happy to hear that. I was going to have my baby TODAY!!! I asked for Nubain first but it only made me really sleeping but I still could feel the pain. I finally gave up and asked for an epidural. It worked fast. I felt nothing after a few minutes and finally got to have my rest after two painful nights. At one point the doctor came the broke my water. Around 7am, she said I was fully dilated and could start pushing in an hour. There were two residents, one Asian female and one Indian male, and a nurse helped instructing me when to push. After a few push she decided the epidural was too strong and made my contractions too far apart so she turned it off. I gained a little bit sensation back after that. I was so tired that I simply dozed off when I wasn’t pushing. They helped me lift my legs when contractions came and encouraged me. To be honest, I got a little bit frustrated after a while and started thinking maybe I couldn’t do it at all. Thanks to their constant encouragement, I didn’t give up. They also got a mirror for me so I could see how far I’ve made it. I saw his black hair through the mirror and that was really encouraging. I pushed and pushed. Finally Dr. Fraas came and said the baby was going to be born with a few more push. She gave me an episiotomy and like she said, Cyrus was born a few minutes later at 10:33am on August 10th, 2006. His Daddy cut the cord. He was born with lots of black hair, long fingers, toes, and long nails. He weighed 7lb 3oz and was 20 inches long. His Apgar score were 9/9. I was so thrilled to hear his crying. To my surprise, I didn’t shed any tears. I just felt so happy and relieved!

After they cleaned him up, I got to hold me and fed him for a little while. They then took him to the nursery for a nice bath. DH went with them and I got some sleep. The nurse Robin was very nice. She cleaned me up and shortly after lunch moved me to the mom-baby unit. DH left to run some errands and I got some sleep before the nursery send Cyrus over for the feeding. He latched on very well but he was such a powerful sucker that my nipples got so sore. I guessed I didn’t have enough milk/colostrums because he just wasn’t content after 2 hours being on my breasts. I thought that’s what I was supposed to do: feeding on demand, so I kept nursing him like that the whole time at the hospital and my nipples cracked and bled. I didn’t really sleep too well at the hospital. They kept coming in to check your temperature. My stiches were sore and it’s hard to sit for a long time to nurse. The food there was good though and that really helped my appetite.

We got discharged on Saturday. My overall experience at the hospital was pretty good. Nurses were all very nice and friendly. Not much privacy that’s for sure but I got to learn a lot from nurses, including how to hold a baby, how to bath him, how to swaddle him, how to change his diaper, and how to take care of his penis (he had the circumcision, poor thing).

The following photos were taken at the hospital

Going home outfit:
 

The first two days at home were really hard. We didn’t know what we’re doing and he kept crying and rooting. My nipples got so sore that I wanted to cry myself. I finally talked to a nurse at the pediatrician’s office on Monday. She told me I might not drink enough water and I wasn’t supposed to feed him for two hours. Thanks to the help from my FIL’s wife, Linda, we took him to have his weight checked and he was only 6 lb 5 oz. Dr. Lana told me to get a breast pump right away and supplement each feeding with formula until my milk fully comes in. I felt so bad that I was starving my child. Two days later after following Dr’s instructions, he gained 8 oz. I was so relieved. Another three days later he gained about 4 oz. Doctor was happy about it, so was I.

I feel time flies. He is already 11 days old! It feels like I just gave birth to him yesterday. The past few days were hard. My sore nipples finally healed and I finally have more milk to nurse him but I am still supplementing him with formula. I want to gradually cut back on formula and feel him exclusively on breasts. Now that my nipples are healed, I can feed him more often and hopefully that will stimulate the milk production. The other problem/dilemma I’ve been having since we came home was that he didn’t want to sleep in his own crib. He would fall asleep in my arms when I nurse him and would wake up crying as soon as I put him down in the crib. It drove me crazy in the middle of night when I need my sleep as well. I ended up feeding my lying in my bed and let myself fall asleep with him. He could go on sleeping for a long stretch time with me this way. I know lots of people are co-sleeping but I still would like to train him to sleep by himself. I hope I can figure something out soon.