Labor & Delivery

Ok - here are the details for those who are interested...

Monday night - my mom was here staying the night and around 10 pm I started to feel weird. I was hot and  sweaty and was having minor contractions. I told Steve to pack his bag and get work stuff done. He had planned experiments and made 2 different appointments for the week not believing my mommy instincts saying that this baby was coming early. I took a shower and felt much better so I thought it was a false alarm.

Tuesday morning - I woke up around 5 am and was having contractions. Nothing painful and they were about 15 minutes apart. I called and they said to listen to my body and come whenever I felt I was ready. Of course I couldn't go back to sleep so I took a shower and continued my Friday Night Lights marathon. Steve and I took a walk around the neighborhood and my Aunt Jeannie came over around 10:00am. I was still having contractions about every 10 to 15 minutes. Around 12:30, they started to pick up so my aunt drove us to the hospital. I was sure we were going too early since I wasn't in that much pain, but I was sick of waiting around. When we got there I was 4 cm dilated and the contractions were getting stronger so they admitted me. Steve and I just hung out, walked around the hospital, and watched TV. Labor is so funny because you feel completely normal when you're not having a contraction and then BOOM, ouch! Around 5:30pm, I asked my nurse for an epidural but I was kind of on the fence because I was still able to handle them. She convinced me to wait a bit, but by 6:00pm, I was ready. Around 7:00pm, after the epidural, I started throwing up. Not fun. I also could feel every contraction since my epidural was patchy - also not fun. Then the shaking started - triple not fun. The doc checked me and said it was time to push. It took them a while to set everything up so around 8:00pm, I started pushing. I was really only super uncomfortable for about an hour throughout the entire thing. Not bad.

Delivery - I pushed a few times and he was on his way out, but he had what's called Shoulder Dystocia. It's where his shoulder gets stuck on the way out. They did the "McRoberts maneuver" and he came out. I guess it's pretty rare and Steve said it was scary to watch but I was so darn happy that he came out so fast that I didn't care at all. He was born at 8:15pm (so 15 minutes after my first push). I think the nurse said I pushed 5 times. Ahhhh...second babies. :)

He looked so small to me when he came out but I knew I wasn't having a small baby, so I guessed high 8s. Steve guessed 7 pounds 9 ounces. He was 8 pounds 8 ounces, beating his big sister by 2 ounces. A pediatrician had to come in to check his shoulder since some babies break their collarbone when they get stuck, but he was fine. They kept calling him a "linebacker" b/c he was so big with broad shoulders and I kept shouting, "No. He's a quarterback." It was pretty funny. They didn't measure his length until the next day, but he was 22.5 inches (two inches longer than Annika). That's pretty long. He also has a big head, just like his daddy. :)

We decided to name him Benjamin John since that was the name I wanted the entire time and Steve finally agreed. Benjamin is partly a family name on my side, and partly after Ben Franklin, but mostly we just like it. Ben was also the name of the doctor who delivered him so I took that as a sign. John is after Steve's dad.