Landon was born on Wednesday October 12, 2011 at 3:28 pm weighing 6 lbs. 3 oz and 19 3/4 inches long. That was singly the most important day of my life...it was perfect. So perfect in fact, that I find myself reliving moments of that day over and over again.
So here it is. My baby's story...if you read it all, great. If not, that's great too. But I'm mostly writing it down for me to look back on whenever I want to remember the most wonderful day of my life.
October 11th-
I had been having weekly u/s' and non stress tests starting at 34 weeks. I was 37 weeks and just had my tests done and was meeting with my Dr. He tells me my fluid level is low and that it had been steadily decreasing over the weeks. He said everything else with the baby looked great but he didn't really like the number my fluid scored at. Since I was technically full term he gave a few options. I could induce, or wait a few days and re check the fluid level. If it was still low then I would be induced. I decided to schedule another u/s for a few days in hopes that my fluid level started to go up on it's own.
That night I went into work. (If you don't know, I am a nurse in the NICU). Ever since the appointment I had earlier that afternoon, I didn't really feel right about my decision to wait it out. Since I work so closely with Labor and Delivery, I decided to talk to the nurses out there and pick their brains (which I have done often throughout this pregnancy!). They said with a number that I had, ladies usually come in for IV fluids at least to try and up the fluid level. They saw no problem with giving me fluids and talking to the on call doc. I was fine with that decision, clocked out from work, and went to get monitored. I got IV fluids and saw the on call Dr. who actually did my D&C with a previous pregnancy and I was comfortable with him. He didn't like my fluid level either and ordered another u/s. After IV fluids, my level actually went up a bit, not a whole lot, but just enough to still make me "on the fence." The Dr. gave me the option to induce now or to re check in a few days. I told him, I have no idea, that I needed him to tell me what to do! So he asks to check me and go from there. I was at 3 cms in the office earlier that day and now I was 4-5 cm. So he said "well that is an easy decision. Since you are progressing we should start the induction now."
I was fine with that decision but it was still a shock! I wasn't ready. We had no bags packed since we thought we had a few more weeks. Justin just showed up and ran back home to get a hospital bag. Both of us were kind of quiet since we couldn't believe that we would be meeting him sooner than we thought.
Since I was GBS + I needed to get antibiotics in before they induced me, so I got antibiotics and then at 5:30 am on Oct. 12th, they started the pitocin. Earlier on that day I started having some braxton hicks contractions, they were barely noticeable. As the morning went on, the contractions came a little more frequently but still not painful. He re-checked me later that morning and I was still about 5 cms. He broke my bag of waters and they continued to increase my pitocin. Slowly my contractions started to get more painful. They were pretty sporadic but definitely getting more intense. I think I did pretty good with the pain, whenever I would get a contraction, I would close my eyes and try to breathe through it. After they re-checked me again, I still wasn't making any progress and the pain was getting worse, so I decided to get an epidural in hopes to relax my body to speed things along. The epidural kind of scared me because I knew where they were putting it and I think the anticipation of something bad happening was worse than anything. After it was placed, I got hypotensive, light headed and nauseous. Which the Dr. expected so they gave me a drug to help and just like that my blood pressure got better and I slowly started feeling not so loopy.
After I got the epidural, I was able to relax. My contractions weren't painful and my lower half felt a bit numb but I was still able to feel pressure and move around. After a while I was re-checked and was at 7 cms! And it seems like within an hour, I went from 7 cms to 8 cms fairly quickly, and then next time they checked me I was complete! That part happened so fast. The nurse got me ready to start pushing and it felt so surreal to me. Whenever I though of myself in labor I imagined I'd be in complete agony and pain. But since I had the epidural, I felt pretty good. I was able to feel the contractions, but it was just some pressure, no pain at all. So when she started having me push, it just felt weird because I couldn't believe how fast everything was happening. I got the hang of pushing fairly quickly I think and pushed with the nurse for about 10 minutes or so. Then we were ready to deliver so the Dr. was called. The nurse kept saying how great I was doing with pushing for being a first time mom and that gave me the encouragement I needed. I think I pushed for a total of maybe 10 more minutes with the Dr. before Landon entered the world. As the Dr. was delivering him, I looked down and saw his perfect little body and immediately burst into tears. Not just a few tears, but full on ugly crying tears, and I didn't care who saw. My co-worker said it best when she said "I feel like I've been holding my breath for 37 weeks and just let my breathe out." That was exactly how I felt at that moment. The Dr. turned him around and put him on my chest. As he was being put on me, he was looking up right into my eyes and instantly I fell in love.
We're home now and trying to get into a routine. Landon sleeps all day and is up at night. We are sleep deprived but happy. Homebodies, but content. A messy house, but full of love.
"Heaven blew every trumpet and played every horn, on the wonderful marvelous night you were born."
My dearest Landon...you are loved.
