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Hi ladies! Officially a mommy :). pip
Thanks for the post, Nicole and for everyone's well wishes! Liam and I are home and doing well - although I don't know that anything could have prepared me for motherhood!
So...the birth story...long and detailed cause you all know how I am. We'd had an especially busy weekend over Columbus day with taking my 5 y.o. niece shopping for her birthday, my family baby shower (which involved me doing a round of "Just Dance," which may or may not have contributed to my early delivery!), and running around like a crazy woman shopping for the remaining baby items we needed. Luckily, that Monday also included meeting up with Juan for lunch and then going out to dinner together...since I don't know when we'll get to do that again.
Tuesday the 12th I felt all around terrible. I was miserable and nauseous and tired at work all day and couldn't believe I had 3 more weeks of this! At 7:30 that night, Juan and I were setting up our new coffee table and getting things organized when I stood up and thought I'd peed my pants. I ran to the bathroom, where Juan and I tried to figure out if that was my water breaking or if I'd suddenly become incontinent. After a few more gushes, I called the OB who told me to get to the hospital because my water had broken. This is when I freaked out - our place was a disaster, I hadn't packed a bag yet...Juan and I ran around the apartment trying to get everything together that we'd need and got to the hospital.
When I got there, I was only about 1-2 centimeters dilated, and we asked that they let my body do its thing and see how we progressed. I wasn't having any contractions yet, and I knew that since my water had broken they wouldn't let me go forever, but figured it was worth a shot. By 2 am I was having regular contractions and had dilated to 5 cm, so we were feeling pretty good about having the natural childbirth we had wanted. I'd been up and moving around a lot and the OB on duty suggested I try to get some rest so I'd have energy when it came time to push. I did, and fell asleep off and on for a few hours.
By 9 am, I was still at 5-6 centimeters and the new OB came on, one from the practice I use and know well. She was growing concerned because Liam wasn't dropping into position. In addition, they found out I was group strep B positive (apparently a bacteria found in many women that is no big deal for us but can pass on to our babies), which added some urgency to getting him out. After talking with the OB we decided to go ahead and do the pitocin to get things moving faster...which then turned into me getting an epidural as well because the pitocin contractions are NOTHING like the real thing (Juan and I had a really hard time with that because we really hadn't wanted medical interventions, specifically pitocin...I definitely shed some tears).
By noon I was at 9-10 cm and the OB thought it was time for me to start pushing to see if we could get Liam to move down into the birth canal. After 3 hours of pushing, he hadn't budged. In fact, all that had happened was that his head had started to swell and was bruising 
. Not to mention, I was completely exhausted. We basically had two options at that point: she could try to get him out with the vacuum, which could cause potential brain damage and may not even work, or we could go with the c-section, which could result in me hemorrhaging because of the length of time I'd been pushing. We opted for the c-section (hemorrhaging seemed more controllable than brain damage-but I definitely had a good, drug induced cry over having to even make the decision) and half an hour later we had our little man!
Liam was born on 10/13/10 at 4:09 pm! He was one day shy of "term," but weighed in at a healthy 7lbs 1oz and 20 inches long. Juan and I are completely in love! After a brief stint in the incubator to cure a little jaundice, Liam and I got to come home on Sunday.
Re: Hi ladies! Officially a mommy :). pip
He is absolutely precious!! Congratulations!!
I'm sorry you didn't get to have the birth experience you wanted, but I'm glad you're both doing well!!
Congrats!! He is adorable.
What a handsome little guy! Welcome to the world, Liam!
Congrats, Angela!
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Updated 3-12
Oh my god he's soooo cute! Sorry things didn't quite go the way you planned, but they never do, do they.
Congrats mama!
Thank you all - yes we are both totally in love with him...I'm afraid he is already a very spoiled boy
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And, seriously, I'm glad he came when he did! If he had gone full term he for sure would have been in the 9 lb range. I can't even imagine.
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