Dominik's birth story

We're home!  And it's great to be home!  But before I tell stories about what's happened since we came home, I have to write down Dominik's birth story, because I'll probably forget something...and that's what blogs are for, anyway, right?  Sharing the minutiae of everyday life?

Tom and I arrived at the hospital on Wednesday for Dominik's 9 a.m. scheduled induction.  We learned that they were short staffed that morning, so they were waiting for more nurses to arrive that had been called in.  Maybe more babies wanted to be born on Cinco de Mayo than normal?  With Konrad's 9 a.m. induction, I was hooked up to the baby-nudging medicines by 9:45 a.m.  For Dominik, it was almost 11 a.m.  But Tom and I were there to keep each other company and we had fun talking until our nurse arrived.  After he broke my water, my doctor prayed with us for God's hand in the delivery.

I made a specific request to the anesthesiologist to not give me a full dose for my height/weight since the last time I had such a good experience with a lighter dose (I even asked them to check the hospital records for what the dose was the last time).  But this anesthesiologist didn't decrease my dose, and sure enough I ended up with one leg completely asleep.  We tried different things (spending more time on the side with the leg that was still awake), until I asked the nurse to ask the doctor to decrease the dose.  She found him, busy with another patient, and he told her we could turn off the epidural for one hour.  Great!

She turned the epidural off.

At this point, I know all the moms out there who have given birth and enjoy epidurals are saying, "Cindy, you are crazy!"  Hey, I can handle some pain (I tried to have Lukas without an epidural before begging and crying for pain killers 20 hours into labor), but I also remembered how hard it was with Lukas and Natalie to have to wait hours before I could walk because I got too much in the epidural.

After about 30 minutes of the epidural off, I was starting to feel contractions (I hadn't been feeling anything) but it was still mild pain.  I called her at about 50 minutes and asked to have the epidural turned back on, even though I still couldn't feel my leg, because I was concerned that with the rate the contraction pain was returning, I wouldn't have enough happy medicine in my system when the baby was ready to arrive.  That green button in the picture is the button I pushed to get a little extra happy medicine before Dominik arrived.


As she was there turning on the epidural again, the nurse asked if I had been feeling any need to bear down.  I said I was feeling a lot closer to the end and she said, "I should probably check you."  But for some reason she didn't, and left the room.

Ten minutes later, I thought "she really should have checked me!" so I called her in, she checked me, and said, "Ok, the baby is further down."  then... "Wow, you're ready to go!"

"I'm fully dilated?"

"Yes!  Let's go!"

But wait, I didn't have enough epidural in my system yet!  She said the baby is ready to come.  I asked her to page the doctor and see if we could get more happy medicine in my system before it was time.  I turned off the movie I'd been watching to pass the time (Julie and Julia).  Then Dominik's heart rate started to drop.

Not a good thing!

Another nurse came in, they moved me to another side, gave me oxygen so the baby would get more oxygen, and still the doctor hadn't arrived.  Dominik's heart rate would drop to the 80s, then go back up, then go down...he was right there ready to be born, but we had to wait for the major league catcher.  The nurse also requested a doctor from the children's hospital to come over since the meconium coming out (even before Dominik was born) was thicker than when the doctor first broke my water.  Between the two issues--drop in heart rate and calling a pediatric specialist--I was really concerned.  Right before I delivered, there were more than 10 people (besides Tom and me) in my room--nurses, OB, pediatrician, even a few students observing!

But then my doctor arrived and Dominik was born with just two pushes.  Someone said, "he's beautiful!" and someone else said, "he's perfect!"  I got to hold him and wipe him for a few minutes before they took him across the room to get super-duper suctioning to get all the meconium out of his lungs.  He was screaming a lot, so I knew he was ok...I didn't realize until later that the reason he was screaming so much was because he was getting suctioned.

And then the anesthesiologist showed up to check on my dosage.  Too late!  The good thing is that I did get just enough medicine in my system in the few minutes we were waiting for the doctor, to not be at all uncomfortable during the final push.  I wasn't able to walk for at least three hours, but it was still much better than what I experienced with Lukas and Natalie.

Dominik took a little while to latch on, but finally figured it out.  He nursed well the first night, but the next morning I had to work hard to wake him up enough to be interested in nursing.  Now that he's two days old, he's doing great.  Overall, he's sleeping well and eating well.

And his siblings really love him!  But this post is long enough and I have a baby to feed, so more stories tomorrow.  Thanks to everyone for your prayers and kind wishes.  We are having a great time with our new Happy One!