October 5th

October 5th was a pretty special day for our family. At 7:28 pm, Alistair Fredrick Robinson was born weighing 8 pounds 2 ounces and 19.5 inches long. He was evicted out of my belly because I am too miserable and impatient to go beyond 41 weeks pregnant. 41 weeks is depressing enough, I can't even imagine what 42 weeks would feel like.

His birth wasn't anything out of the ordinary. To us however, it was a very extraordinary and exciting and surreal experience. Well, once we finally kick started my body into labor anyway. It took the whole morning and afternoon to get my body to cooperate this time. I went into Labor and Delivery at 7:15 am. They didn't even bother looking at my veins to see which ones were good, they just brought in a heating pad right away. Apparently, they know me as the girl with crappy veins and a history of kidney stones. They attempted twice to put the IV in; the second time I bled all over the place. I made the mistake of looking at it. I felt super nauseous the whole time they were doing this, but the sight of my blood (which has never made me lightheaded before) made me cold and clammy. I was determined not to pass out so I just laid there while they put a cold rag on my neck. I know it wasn't within my control but I  was still embarrassed. That's the second time in my whole life (both within 2 months) I almost passed out over a needle.

They started me off with the pitocin. It didn't do much the first hour but I was starting to get contractions. Unfortunately I wasn't progressing so the Dr. put me on Cytotec. That definitely didn't do anything. By this point, the clear diet they put me on was starting to make me feel irritated. I don't want to look at another strawberry jello ever again. I was beginning to think that I would be pregnant for another night, and I was praying they would keep me overnight instead of send me home. The Dr. ordered more pitocin (sigh of relief from me! At least that had been doing something), and within half an hour I was having uncomfortable contractions. Very quickly they began to be 1 1/2 to 2 minutes apart, and they had to turn off the pitocin completely because they didn't like how close together they were. The nurse told me it was possible the contractions could taper off and stop completely, so when the contractions started spreading apart and getting less intense I became discouraged. Out of the blue I started having the most uncomfortable contractions! Hallelujah! The only time in the world when it's exciting to be in so much pain that you can't even breathe!! Although, I had an easier time dealing with the contractions once the pitocin was gone.

I think that it was between 5:30 and 6 pm that I told the nurse that if my contractions were going to get any worse, then I wanted to have an epidural. In order to get an epidural, they had to check to see if my body was even progressing; they won't give you an epidural if the pitocin contractions aren't even doing anything. I had dilated 3 cm (I was 6cm by this point) and had made some progression on the effacement. Dr. sand wanted to double check to make sure I wanted an epidural because sometimes it slows things down, and although in the back of my mind I knew I could do it without one, I just KNEW that I needed an epidural and there was no convincing me otherwise. Brother McGee administered my epidural, and almost immediately Dr. Sands artificially ruptured my membranes. He checked to see how much progress I was making and immediately had me positioned to start pushing. The poor nurses weren't even ready for it! I wasn't even mentally prepared to push at this point, I had no idea it was going to happen so fast. Alistair came out pretty blue, and he didn't make any noise until they put him on the table. I liked that I could at least see him from how I was sitting, and got to hold him after they bathed him and all that fun stuff.

Meanwhile, Dr. Sands was working on getting the placenta out. It seemed to take forever. When he was analyzing it to make sure it had all come out, he noticed there was a piece missing. This is the part where I am so glad they gave me an epidural, and I will spare all readers the gruesome details.

I will also spare readers the rest of my traumatic bleeding problems. But I will say that I was mortified, BJ was pretty worried, and I was in a lot of pain because the medicine they give you postpartum for bleeding makes your uterus contract a lot....which really really really hurts. I was in a lot of that kind of pain for the next few days while I stayed there. The wonderful news is that I recovered VERY well, and the nurses and Dr. were very pleased with my recovery. I know that the Dr. is pretty dang biased when it comes to birthing in a hospital, but it really hit home when he told me that sometimes women who bleed like I did after a home birth often don't make it to the hospital in time to recover. He likes to mumble a lot, I've noticed. He went on about how women have this romantic idea of home birthing but in reality there were a lot of babies and mothers that died back in those days....blah blah blah. I share a lot of the same opinions, which is why I always chose to give birth in a hospital...but I really think birthing at home can be safe if the woman is smart about it and has a good back up plan.

I really like the food at the hospital, and I was the only one in L&D for at least a whole day, so I felt tremendously pampered. I would have stayed another day if I could have convinced myself I really needed it (which I didn't, but I sure wanted it!).

Later, I found out that BJ watched the birth! I am so proud of him for it too. I think he is really happy with himself too. I never expected him to "get over it" and watch the miracle of life. There is something different with BJ this time too. He is more experienced maybe, I'm not sure. Whatever it is, it's made him a lot more interested in being involved with the baby and with helping out around the house. He is even taking care of the girls, getting their baths ready and getting them to bed and feeding them and playing with them...keeping them super happy. Which he has always done, but I've always had to remind him to do things. He's just really stepped up to the plate and is doing his absolute best to take care of me this time. He even picks up Alistair and offers to hold him, even though in the past he was always too afraid to "break them." They do look pretty fragile, but they're tougher than he thinks they are.

The girls are adjusting really well! They really love him, and they haven't shown any signs of being jealous or anything. Penny started the terrible two's already so maybe that's why I'm not noticing much from her yet. But samantha is incredibly interested in her brother and enjoys helping me get him to sleep and give him his binki.

Alistair, so far, has been very chill. He doesn't have a lot of interest in the binki, so I haven't really pushed it on him. He sleeps well without it so I won't fuss. He does prefer being held until he falls asleep though, which has been both good and bad. I absolutely adore his snuggles. He is a really good eater, and I'm glad I don't have much problem getting him to latch on or wake up to eat. We will see how much he changes in the next few weeks though!