After arriving home from the hospital with each birth, I have written each child's birth story for their scrapbook. Last night I sat up way too late writing Abe's, so here it is:
May 27th started like any other day, I straightened the house and hung the laundry out on the line, took a shower and prepared for my 41 week appointment with Dr. Masciello. I arrived at Hawthorne for the ultrasound first and was told that Baby was measuring very large, approximately 11 pounds 1.8 oz. Assuming they were off by 1-2 pounds I didn’t worry and went on to complete the non-stress test so I could head home. Well, the non-stress test was not going the way Dr. Masciello wanted so he said I either needed to head to the hospital for an induction or go have lunch and come back to see if the test results were better. I chose to go to lunch and practically ran to my van trying to hold back the tears. I had planned all along that I would go into labor naturally and this was not in my plan for today. I did not even have my hospital bag packed. After calling Chad and Grandmommy to let them know what was going on, I ate and headed back to Hawthorne for the non-stress test again. Dr. Masciello had left to go on-call at the hospital and Dr. Thompson monitored my test. After about two more hours of trying to get the desired result, Dr. Thompson agreed that I needed to head straight to the hospital to start an induction. Having been at their office for so long, I was ready to accept their diagnosis. At about 3:30pm I headed across the street to the hospital all by myself, no bags or anything. Chad planned to have Anthony drop him off as soon as they were done working and Amber headed over to be with me until Chad could get there.
I checked in with Admitting and headed on up to the 4th Floor. As I laid in a bed in the Triage area waiting for a Labor & Delivery room, Amber arrived. She notified the Pastor and a few church members to begin praying for us and then she prayed with me. While she was praying, I began contracting! I was thrilled and so proud of my body. I could see the contractions on the monitor and bragged to Chad as soon as he arrived that I was actually in labor on my own!
Around 7pm, a Labor & Delivery room was available and I was moved there. They broke my water and I continued to contract on my own going from 2cm dialted to 3.5cm by the time they started the pitocin. I had a wonderful nurse who was softspoken and kind. They were so busy that night with deliveries but she took great care of us.
As the pitocin increased, so did the pain. Around midnight it became unbearable and I requested the epidural. The epidural procedure was terrible and lengthy but at least the pain was greatly decreased as the result of it.
About an hour later, Baby’s heart rate was looking questionable, so the nurse asked me to turn over on my side. Before I moved she checked me and found that I was ready to deliver! “No practice pushes,” she said and alerted Dr. Masciello that we were getting ready to meet this little guy. Chad was sleeping on the couch, so we woke him up with the exciting news.
Dr. Masciello arrived and I pushed through one contraction to get the head out and another contraction to get the shoulders out. Jesse Abram greeted us at 2:19am on May 28th, 2008. He was handed directly to the NICU nurses since there had been a trace of meconium in the amniotic fluid. He was so adorable and everyone was talking about how big he was!
The NICU nurses took him for monitoring because his breathing was a little labored, although his apgar scores were 9 and 9. After the delivery, I was laying in the bed thinking about everything that had just happened when the nurse came in saying “I have breaking news! Your son was 11 pounds 2 oz!” She said she had never delivered a baby that big before. I couldn’t believe it either! My son was 11 pounds 1.6 oz (almost exactly what the ultrasound tech had guessed) and 23 inches long. He had quite a reputation around the hospital and looked so crazy in the NICU with the preemies and average size babies!
We were moved to Room 9172 for the rest of our stay, and Piper and Cohen visited first thing Wednesday morning. They were thrilled to meet their little brother just as we had been early that morning! With it all said and done, I know this was the day my son was supposed to enter this world, whether it was my original plan or not, it was God's perfect plan.
1 comment:
Praise God!
He's such a sweetie pie!! I can't wait to see him again.
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