Friday, July 18, 2014

Toby's Birth Story


Yesterday was the four week mark since Toby arrived.  Its crazy how fast time goes, but yet seems like forever at the same time.  Toby has been a bit more difficult than Piper was.  He's a lot more vocal... all the time.  Not sure if he's colicky or just has a lot of gas, either or it's been a challenge.  Most days I'm mentally checking off in my head, one more day down only "x" more days/weeks left til we hit 2 months!  2 months was when Piper started sleeping though the night on a semi-regular basis, and once that happened I felt like I had some of my sanity back.  He is super cute, which helps immensely after he's just spent half the day driving you crazy, and he is starting to smile which is so much fun!  Newborn stage is not my favorite, it always feels like eternity when you are in it, but then looking back you don't even remember it.  Funny how that works.

Anyways, its about time that I share the birth story.  It was quite a whirlwind event, still can't believe it all went down the way it did.  I just saw an article in the paper this week about a couple who had their baby on the side of the road, while reading it I said another prayer of thanks that it wasn't us! 


TOBY'S BIRTH STORY

Wednesday June 18th
Throughout the day I was having mild contractions.  They mostly just felt like cramps but it was encouraging because I knew something was starting.  I was kinda hoping I would have the baby that day, but when the evening came things had quieted down and I only had a contraction here and there primarily when I was up exerting energy.  I went to bed a bit disappointed but knew my body was getting ready and that meant something was going to happen soon!

Thursday June 19th
3:30am: Woke up to go to the bathroom, realized I was having a contraction.  It felt very similar to what was going on the day before so I didn't think much of it.  Went back to bed.

4:00am: Contractions, although not strong, seemed to be coming consistently so I started tracking them on my iPod with a contraction timer app.  They were lasting about a minute and were coming every 8 minutes or less.

5:00am: I'd been tracking my contractions and they had been consistent the last hour, sleep was not necessarily happening as I would almost fall asleep and then have another contraction.  I remember them saying if you can't sleep through it then it's probably the real thing. I woke up Matt and let him know I'd been having consistent contractions for the last hour.  We decided to just wait and see what happens, Matt called our doula to let her know things were potentially starting but decided she didn't need to come over just yet.

5:30am: I had attempted to stay in bed up to this point but my mind was elsewhere and sleep was not happening so I decided to get up, shower and finish packing my hospital bag just in case this was actually it.  Once I was up and moving around my contractions starting coming closer together.

6:00am: Woke Matt up again to tell him he should probably get up, get his bag packed and call our doula to come over.  Contractions were still coming consistently every 5 minutes or so and were getting more intense.

6:45am: Our doula comes over, I can still breathe through contractions but they are now at the point where I have to stop what I'm doing to get through them. Matt wakes up Piper and gets her packed and ready for my sister in law who is coming to pick her up.

7:00am: Piper leaves, contractions still coming consistently but I'm not feeling like its urgent.  I try and eat some breakfast, baked oatmeal, but I only get down two bites.  Not really hungry.

7:30am: Things pick up a little bit and I decide its time to go into the hospital.  I call my doctor and she asks a couple questions. I remember saying my pain level was about an 8 out of 10.  She said I was welcome to come in whenever, but didn't necessarily need to go to the hospital.  If I wanted them to check me at the office, there was an appointment at 8:30.  I knew it wouldn't be super long because things seemed to be progressing.  I was guessing I might have an hour or so of labor in the hospital before the baby was born so I told her I would prefer to be checked in triage. I hung up the phone and went downstairs.  The next contraction I had I literally cried through it, it was that bad.  When it subsided Matt and I looked at each other and said we need to go now!

8:00am: We are on the road to the hospital.  I had had a couple more contractions before we left, each as bad as the one right after I hung up the phone.  The first contraction I had in the car was absolutely ridiculous, we are merging onto 222 (catching the tale end of rush hour) and I literally think I'm not going to make it, my body might just explode.  Now looking back I'm pretty sure I was in transition.  I never do well with contractions when I'm sitting down so I flip over (in the front seat) so I'm on my knees hugging the back of the seat.  The next contraction comes, I'm pretty sure my water breaks but nothing really comes out because he's descended far enough to block it, and I feel like I have to push.  I'm yelling at Matt "I have to push, I have to push!"  He's saying "don't push just breathe through it, just don't push!" ...while rubbing my back and trying to drive at the same time! At this point our doula is following behind us to the hospital and I'm thinking, I hope she knows how to deliver a baby because we might be having a baby on the side of 222. Contractions are really pretty terrible throughout the entire drive there, just trying to focus on breathing through contractions and keep my sanity. It was so incredibly uncomfortable though...every time Matt sped up my butt hit the dashboard and every time he slows down my belly hits the front of the seat.  Not fun at all. 

8:10am (approx): We arrive at the hospital.  I'm a hot sweaty mess because my face has been buried in the back of the seat for the entire drive. I look up from the seat and a wave of relief hits as I see we've actually made it.  I'm trying to keep my breath and stay relaxed, but when you know a huge contraction is always a couple seconds around the corner, its just really hard. Matt helps me out of the car and into the hospital...at this point walking is somewhat difficult because the baby is so low.  I remember there being a bunch of people in the lobby.  I have another contraction in the lobby, still trying not to push which is so incredibly hard when that's all your body wants to do. The lady at the front desk is all flustered and picks up the phone to call back to triage. The people in the lobby get a nice show while the contraction lasts! :)  ( I imagine it looking something like it does in the movies, but I'm pretty sure that's not at all how it actually looked) The lady tells us they are waiting in triage so Matt and our doula help me sprint-waddle down the hallway.  We get to triage and of course they need me to sign stuff, don't even know what I signed for, and I have another contraction while trying to sign.  After seeing my contraction they decide to take me in the first room available instead of whatever other room they had in mind down the hallway.  The triage nurses come in all calm and say something like.  "Ok we need to check you to see how far along you are, lets get you out of these pants."  The nurse goes to check me and yells "She's crowning, we need to get to delivery now!" I over hear them saying they aren't sure if they are going to make it to the room, and where is my doctor, call her immediately but grab the on call doctor just in case she doesn't make it in time. I'm hunched over on my hands and knees on the bed having a contraction as they wheel me down the hallway to the delivery room. The on call doctor comes in and introduces herself to me. I remember thinking it was weird that she was saying hi, while everyone else was in chaos getting things set up. A minute later my doctor shows up.  I feel another contraction coming on and I ask if its finally ok to push.  I get an enthusiastic yes from my doctor. Thank God!

8:24am: One contraction and three pushes later Toby August arrives!  9lb 6oz (what?!) Totally shocked at how big he was considering how fast he came, and he was early too! Guess I just have big babies. I'm still on my hands and knees so they hand Toby to me through my legs and help me turn over.  I can't believe how quickly it all went.  My mom calls to say she is here, she was supposed to be there for the birth.  Matt had called her when we left the house but she made it a couple minutes to late!

I'm kinda in shock that it's over already, but so incredibly glad as well.  Time really does diminish the recollection of how painful labor actually is.  After this birth, in the same fashion as the last, I think I really don't ever want to do that again!  The nice thing about Toby's birth was the fact that I got 6 hours of sleep before it happened instead of pulling an all-nighter for the birth.  Definitely like it this way around.  I didn't tear as bad this time either which made a world of difference in recovery.  I was feeling like myself again a lot quicker.  The thing that got me this time (which my mom did try and prepare me for but I didn't fully get it) was the intensity of the contractions afterwords as my uterus was shrinking back down to size.  I remember a little bit of pain the first day with Piper when nursing, but this time around it was full on breath-through contractions while nursing for probably the first week.  It was not nice at all... like little reminders of labor almost threatening to come back. :(

All in all it was almost exactly 5 hours of labor.  After things had calmed down a bit I remember praying for that exact number earlier in the week.  I remember thinking Piper's birth was 9 hours and I labored 5 hours in the hospital, it would be nice to only have a 5 hour labor this time.  Fun how God even answers the prayers you forget you prayed!  Unbeknownst to me, Matt was praying for an hour of hard labor with only 5 minutes of pushing.  Which looking back the hard labor started right after calling the doctor around 7:30 and Toby was born at 8:24, and with 3 pushes I'm pretty sure it was under 5 minutes of pushing!  Crazy right?!  Love when you can see tangible evidence of answered prayers like that!


For those of you interested in how we picked the name, both Toby and August were names we had heard randomly and liked.  Not sure where I heard Toby, but Matt like the name August from August Busch the former CEO of Anheuser-Busch. It was actually a name on our list from when we were pregnant with Piper.  I didn't like it as a first name but agreed to it as a middle name!  We wanted to pick a name that had a good meaning to it as well.  Toby (a medieval form of Tobias, which is the greek form of Tobiah, which is from the Hebrew name Toviyyah) means "Yahweh is good" and August (a form of Augustus) means "great" or "venerable". source  and for those of you who have to look up the meaning of venerable like I did... I'll save you the time, it means "accorded a great deal of respect, esp. because of age, wisdom, or character."

So there you have it! Toby's story :)  Despite being frustrated with him and his constant crying we are super excited that he is here and we love him so so much! We had newborn pictures taken the week he arrived and are waiting to get the pictures back so I'll post some more pictures as soon as we have them!


Until next time :)

Monica






1 comment:

  1. I Loved Reading This. Congratulations Again!

    ReplyDelete