The last of the birth stories before I started blogging in 2008. I hope you all enjoy!
Liam was due January 7th but given the size of Ace, Mark and I both were a little worried that he would come out just as big if not bigger. Dr. J was a bit anxious too. So, due to that and (yep, lack of education), we decided to be induced quite a bit early. Looking back, Mark and I both thought he would have been better off if we had waited. Hindsight...yada yada.
Also, during his pregnancy the hospital I had used to deliver Zoe and Ace stopped taking our insurance and we were almost forced to go to the larger hospital (while better equipped, it's quite the baby producers and more of a business and less personal than the smaller hospital we had come to enjoy). Much to our delight, our insurance began to cover the smaller hospital so a delivery there was back on. But, somehow, we got all mixed up. Dr. J signed us up for an induction the same day as three other women...but they were at the big hospital. And just us at the smaller one.
When I arrived at the smaller hospital, they had no record that I was scheduled to be induced. Calls were made and they went ahead and hooked me up and got things ready to start pitocin but nothing started until the final word came down from Dr. J to start it. I visited with Zoe and Ace who were anxious to meet their new little brother and we just sat and waited. Around lunch time, Dr. J had not come in yet because of the other deliveries at the other hospital and so my water had not been broken. Mark headed out to lunch and we were told Dr. J would be there after lunch. As I laid (yeah, on my back) in pain, I rolled over and heard a pop. After that contraction, I paged the nurse and told her my water broke. She didn't believe me but came in and did their little scientific check which said it hadn't but she knew by the amount of fluid it had. So, for the first time ever, my water broke without Dr. J having to do it. Pretty weird. And I got a little frustrated that Mark hadn't been there to help through those painful contractions.
Dr. J came in forty five minutes later and I told him he was a bit late. We were all set. I waited a bit longer to get the epidural. When the anestheiologist was putting it in, I felt something weird on my right side and said something about it. He said that was normal and continued what he was doing. However, when he was all done, I was numb on my left side but could pretty much feel everything on my right. I knew that wasn't right but it was enough numbness to take the edge off. We waited until around 3:30 when I realized I was feeling more pressure. I called the nurse who checked and saw I was complete. She called Dr. J who was finishing up a delivery. Now, with feeling on one side, I knew that I couldn't control the pushing too well. The nurse offered to give me a shot to slow the contractions for a few minutes until Dr. J came. I agreed to it and pushed the epidural button furiously until I couldn't even move my left leg. Dr. J came in plenty of time and by the time he arrived, I couldn't even feel the contractions to push. (So, my entire stomach was numb but the legs weren't). They told me when to push and I pushed a few times and out came Liam screaming passionately.
Liam did give us a brief scare. Even though he was crying, he didn't "pink" up like he needed to. The nurses took him to the NICU briefly to check his pulse ox level. It all turned out fine and his apgar scales were really high despite his whiteness! I'm guessing he's just really white.
He was also the smallest of our crew weighing in at a whopping 7 lbs. 4 oz. He had the biggest feet but was so small for a long time, Mark and I thought we would break him by holding him. If we could ever claim a high needs baby, Liam would have been it. He had colic bad enough that he would choke when laying down and his sleep patterns were really erratic up to about four months (as opposed to the last three who settled down quite easily at night and mostly during the day after a few days or weeks). We loved our little one dearly and that one small trip to NICU made us even more grateful for him!
And, despite our high needs baby, believe it or not, eighteen months later we were ready to do it again! But, Josiah's story will come next week (as soon as I find it), our first "no epidural" baby!
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