7/17/2011

One Month Ago

I need to alter this blog, as Nugget is out! He was born about a month ago, so the gestational diabetes is gone, though some habits still remain. I hope to continue to check labels, and have been trying to balance carbs, fat and protein. I'm looking forward to starting running, but for now I'm trying to get use to my new sleep schedule, and am mostly recovered from giving birth to the little one.

The whole experience was pretty good, considering it's suppose to be one of the hardest most painful things that a woman can experience. I actually chose Nugget's birthday, he was past his due date and I had been 3cm dilated for two weeks so I scheduled with my OB to be inducted as there wasn't any additional risk over going into labor naturally. So my husband and I went in to the hospital, they began pitocin by about 8AM, broke my water at about noon, and Nugget was born at 4PM. They weren't expecting him that early but I was walking around the maternity ward as much as I could, then changed positions as often as possible when I couldn't walk anymore. I didn't have any intervention other than the pitocin, so I yelled a lot probably starting at around 3. Apparently I had been having contractions before arriving at the hospital I just wasn't aware of them. Even until they broke my water I thought the contractions were pretty mild. Once the contractions were close together though, and I only got a few seconds of a break, they felt pretty bad.

I've read some things that other people have written about their birth experience and wanted to put mine out there. I chose to induced, because one of the OBs I saw encouraged it in part because if I didn't get it the following week I would have to have a non-stress test the next week. I also wasn't having any contractions that I knew of, just some suspected Braxton-Hicks and I didn't even really know if I'd had any of those, and I didn't want the little guy getting too much bigger before coming out. I would do it again if I was as dilated. His head grew an additional inch at his one week checkup. No thank you.
I also chose not to use other drugs. My mom had a negative experience with and epidural when she had me, and I thought I could probably do it, so my crazy butt tried it. I didn't take any classes to prep for the baby except CPR, I just read some about breathing techniques and positions for labor online. But then I'm crazy, I've gone through basic training for the army, and been hit by a car. I thought that I could take it on, and this time I was right.

The way our hospital worked they kept you in the hospital for two nights after giving birth. The first night the nurses told me to sleep and not worry about feeding. I had read you are suppose to feed every three hours, and so I thought it was really important that I try to feed him every time he woke up. That was true, it's good to try when they wake up, but that first night they are exhausted, and still have a body full of crap. The hospital staff gives the baby a bath and swaddles them up tight. I should have gone to sleep. I woke up every few hours because of being uncomfortable and would try to feed him. At some point he spat up, and I pushed the nurse call button. They came in and let me know that spitting up was completely normal, they are pushing everything out of their system. Doing it again, if he woke up crying or fussing I'd feed him but not every time I woke up and he seemed unsettled. Besides the nurses will come in every few hours to get blood or other things, so when they do you can feed the baby. Other than that, sleep.
The day was good. The baby got circumcised, checked by a pediatrician, and I saw a lactation consultant, had my blood checked, and asked the nurse any questions that came up during the day. Night two was a monster. I would feed the baby and the second I put him down he would cry. At one point I ended up crying myself because he wouldn't latch, and was hungry. The hospital had a sheet about the second night in the folder they gave moms, basically saying it was going to be nuts, and recommendations for how to get the baby to sleep. Plus I'm pretty sure the nurses would walk around and if they heard a baby screaming for a while they would go in to help out the poor family trying to figure out what to do.

I really don't like being at the hospital, but I was glad to have the support there when I needed it, and wouldn't have done it any other way.
I had an easy time with labor and delivery, which is unlike other experiences I've read about, but I also didn't have an immediate attachment to my baby. He was still this foreign critter, who I could barely fathom came out of me. I constantly was just surprised that I'd given birth, and confused about how to fix the babies cries (so having nurses, and my husband around to help was great). I was an attentive parent, but not an enamored one. I think that's slowly changing.

For those of you who are pregnant or looking at becoming parents, I would recommend listening to other people's advice and experiences, but just don't dwell on much of it too long. Every person, every baby and every experience is different.