Labor and Delivery

most of you (if not all) probably don't want to read the details of my labor and delivery, but seeing as I use my very sparse blogging as a journal of sorts, I'm going to blog about it, if for no one else but me. That being said, there will be photos, so feel free to skip the writing and just look at the cute baby

11/7/11 - The 7th marked 38 weeks gestation, and meant it was time for another doctor's appointment. Pat and I headed to our appointment with no expectations. I was certainly feeling ready to be done being pregnant, and I was way ready to be done working, but I wasn't feeling like the baby thought it was time. The doctor confirmed at the appointment that I wasn't ready. I was only dilated to a one and he even made the statement "plan on being pregnant next week." After being checked we continued to chat about some of my concerns, including the perceived hernia I previously wrote about. The Dr. then surprised us both by saying, "actually let's plan to induce you next week on the 14th." I was ecstatic! We finally knew when this little boy was going to arrive. In addition to scheduling the induction he set up an additional ultra sound at the imaging center to get a better idea of what was going on with my hernia. This turned into a minor freak out on my part. I had the ultrasound on Wednesday which confirmed I had a hernia and then was told I needed to find a general surgeon in the next two days that would operate on it when I delivered the baby. I managed to find a doctor who saw me on super short notice and then actually suggested waiting to operate until at least six weeks after delivery - it was a relief, however, I hate that I still have this to worry about a surgery in the not too distant future!

11/13/11 - Being a scheduled induction meant that I was checked into the hospital the night prior to our delivery date. As I mentioned, my body wasn't prepared for labor, so it was necessary to give it some extra help. I don't remember the name of what I got, but it was used to ripen my cervix. When the nurse gave it to me she told me she wasn't sure how I would react to it - apparently some women don't have any side affects at all, others have severe cramping. Unfortunately I fell into the severe cramping category. It was a long painful night. No matter what I tried I couldn't get comfortable, and of course every time I moved to get relief from the cramping I would move my monitors and the nurse would have to come in and re-position them. I'm pretty confident that my night time nurse hated me. I also was getting up very regularly to go to the bathroom which included unplugging all my monitors and taking them as well as my IV along with me. Around four I called the nurse and asked if I could take a bath to try and get some relief. A different nurse came into the room and helped me into the tub - it sadly didn't really help - that being said, after a failed bath attempt the nurse got permission to give me some pain reliever through my IV. I got this around five and managed to snooze until six.

11/14/11 - Come Monday morning I was pretty miserable. There were multiple times during the night/early morning where I asked Pat if we could go home. The sad part was, I wasn't really having regular contractions and didn't feel any closer to having a baby. Around 8:30 I finally saw Dr. Young. At that time he broke my water. I was super grateful to have had that happen in a hospital bed as opposed to sitting at my desk at work (yuck!) and he started the pitocin in my IV. Where I was already so uncomfortable I also requested some more pain reliever in my IV. The nurse left to get the medicine and in the few minutes she was gone I decided that I was ready for my epidural! I was sorta embarrassed to ask for it as I was only dilated to a three, but the pain over ruled. Once that was done I finally slept comfortably. I snoozed all the way through contractions until I reached about an eight. At that point I wasn't feeling pain, but could certainly feel the pressure of the contractions. It wasn't long before I was a 9+ and the doctor was on his way - it was time to deliver! I honestly don't remember how long I pushed for, I do remember saying I didn't want to do it anymore and even though I couldn't feel it I knew exactly when I got my episiotomy (this unfortunately didn't keep me from also tearing naturally) , but in retrospect it really wasn't very long at all. I think I pushed for 45 minutes max and then baby Dylan made his appearance! What an indescribable feeling! My little boy was finally in my arms. I felt a mix of relief, joy, and concern - I just kept asking everyone if he was okay, I needed pretty constant confirmation that he was perfect and I dare say that he is perfect! Patrick and I made an absolutely amazing little boy.

And as promised - here are some of the first pictures of our little Dylan. We love him so much and feel so blessed to have him in our family.

He's Arrived!

Dylan Charles Holloway

November 14, 2011

8 pounds 4 ounces, 19 inches

A precious miracle from our Father in Heaven

Blessed beyond measure

Dear Dylan

We're ready...and so is your room!

My not so adorable bump

Back in June Pat and I enjoyed a fun, but wet trip to Boston, which resulted in us both coming down with a cold. I was about 20 weeks pregnant at the time and my cold happened to get pretty nasty and included lots of coughing, sneezing, and nose blowing. All of that added up to one super sore abdomen. For about a week I had a horrible pain right above my belly button (it hurt to stand up!) and I swore I could feel a small knot. At the time I mentioned it to my OBGYN and he assured me it was probably just a pulled muscle, but if it didn't get feeling better to let him know. To my relief it improved significantly and I forgot all about it.

At about 30 weeks I finally started looking undeniably pregnant. I had a full baby bump and one adorable spot on my belly where the baby was consistently sticking out. The doctor said he thought it was probably a foot. I would occasionally push on it and it would go in and then later be popped back out. I fell in love with that little foot. However, over the weeks it didn't move and was getting quite a bit bigger, at that point I decided it was actually my baby's cute baby bum. Every where I went people would comment on my bump and I would smile big and say "I think that's his bum" and they would feel it and I would love it.

Then right before 37 weeks said bump became extremely painful. Too much standing, bending, lifting caused my little baby bum to cause me pain to the point of getting teary eyed. I went into my next appointment and asked the doctor about it, assuming baby had been comfortable in that spot for so long that it just became horribly stretched and sensitive. To my horror the doctor said "I actually think that's a hernia, I'll take a look at it after you deliver." He was so casual and nonchalant about it, but frankly it's freaking me out. I keep imagining my insides poking out through this hole in my body, not to mention it's getting more painful by the day. Some days it hurts to put a shirt on because it rubs against it. On top of all of that, I can't even tell you how many people I let rub my "adorable" hernia. Oh me, oh my! Today is my 38 week appointment and I'm hoping to get more information about said hernia, if there's anything I can do to help with the pain and how it may impact my delivery. Just another ache and pain to add to the joys of pregnancy!

Sasquatch

Our weather took a nose dive this week, dropping nearly 20 degrees literally over night. On Monday our high was 72 and Tuesday it was 55, plunging us right into fall and reminding us winter is around the corner. For the most part I was prepared for the change and threw on a long sleeved maternity top Tuesday morning as I got ready for work. Next I rummaged through the bottom of my closet and pulled out a couple pair of sensible pregnant lady shoes - a pair of Converse and my good ol' Toms. To my horror, I couldn't so much as get the Converse to go on my foot, no matter how I tried, the heel of my foot was not going into that shoe, next up, the Toms. I managed to barely squeeze my foot into the shoe, but determined if it was that tight at 7 am I didn't want to know how they'd feel at 5 pm after a full day of work. I pulled off the Toms and slid into my trusty flip flops and ran out the door. Nearly everyone I encountered at work had some sort of comment about my choice of foot wear, to which I simply replied "it's all that would fit on my foot." That evening when I got home from work my husband was equally unimpressed with what he saw on my feet and drove me down to DSW (one of my favorite shoe stores). We looked up and down the aisle for anything that looked comfy and was bigger than an 11 (my normal not pregnant lady foot size!) For you ladies with large feet, you know how impossible it can be to find an 11, let alone anything larger. After walking down all the aisles and trying on a few pair of super comfy looking 11's that didn't work, I headed over to the men's department. As I slipped on a pair of men's Converse the dear DSW employee approached me and said "we have Converse in the ladies department if you want to try those on instead" she looked horrified as I explained to her I normally wear a size 11 and my now huge pregnant lady feet will no longer fit in a woman's shoe. She gave me a somewhat awkward "oh, okay" and walked away. Luckily for me, I was able to come away from this shopping experience with not one but two ladies shoes - both moccasin type shoes with warm fuzzy slipper like material on the inside. I'm not going to lie, they are a bit snug and there's no way in hell they'd go on with a pair of socks, but I am hopeful they are going to work for the next four(+/-) weeks until this baby comes out and then I am praying that these feet of mine go back to their "normal" size of an 11 and that I'm just experiencing swelling due to pregnancy and not permanent foot growth because of pregnancy! As a kid when my feet were growing like weeds my dad used to tease "if those get any bigger you're going to have to start wearing the boxes" the joke isn't so funny now as I fear this may become my reality.

Stage 5

Remember a few weeks ago when I posted this blog and was grieving the loss of my HR career? Well I am happy to report I have reached Stage 5 of the grieving process which is Acceptance. Not only have I accepted the end of my career, I am now counting down the days! I let my boss and coworkers know that I won't be coming back after the baby is born and now I'm just ready to be done! I am doing everything in my power to stay motivated and engaged, luckily I have a few projects to wrap up before I go! Six more weeks until the baby is due and until I trade in the HR business for mom business! Hurrah!!

REM Sleep

I am sort of in denial of the fact that I ever even reach the point of REM sleep these days, but I must, because I'm having dreams, extremely vivid dreams, some of which could be classified as nightmares. A few nights ago I had a dream that I was horrible at being a mother. I wanted to be good at it and I was trying so hard, but I just simply was bad at it. It seemed no matter what I did it wasn't enough, or was just flat out the wrong thing to do. At one point during the dream I suddenly exclaimed "oh no, the baby is outside!" and then proceeded to go pick up my crying baby from a puddle in the pouring rain. He was swaddeled all nice and tight and had a hat on his head to keep him warm, so as you can see I was obviously trying to do good things, but that didn't counteract the fact he was lying soaking wet in a puddle. I'm sure the dream came from a few of the fears I've been having lately, namely that

1.) I am not going to bond with my baby

2.) I really am going to be bad at it seeing as I don't have a clue what I'm doing

3.) I am going to suffer from post pardom depression

With that, I suppose I shouldn't read too much into the dream as the very same night I dreamt that Pat was standing at the vaniety rubbing toothpaste all over his belly. I have no analysis of, or reasoning behind that one.