the story

let me back-track a bit and i'll run through the birth details...

so i went into my regular appointment on friday...the day before my due date. we talked with the dr. about inducing since ryan's big tests were coming up quickly.  she started talking about inducing on the weekend of june 4th.  when i said i was concerned about the baby's size (he measured 7 lbs 12 oz at a 38 week ultrasound), she said she thought monday the 30th would be better.  i came back later that day for a non-stress test which showed i was having contractions every two minutes, so she thought i'd probably be in labor before the induction.

no such luck.

here i am tuesday, may 31st at 2:30 in the morning.  my mom went with me to the hospital since it would likely be a long while before anything happened and ryan could get some sleep and study time in with us not around.  he joined us in the late morning.

they started me on pitocin at about 4:00 a.m.  i was still having contractions every two minutes, but i didn't start feeling them much until about 3 p.m. when they broke my water (how weird does that feel...).  the contractions were pretty hard and fast then (two minutes isn't much recovery time between contractions), so i asked for an epidural pretty quick.  pretty much from that time on i was stuck on my back.  any time i tried to switch to my side, the baby's heart rate would drop.  in the early morning hours the nurse had me start doing a little pushing to see if the baby would drop further down.  i kept thinking she'd call the dr. any minute, but it was still hours before that happened.  luckily i was able to get some short naps in between pushing times.  

the dr. came at around 5:30 or 6.  she had me push a couple of times and then told us she thought it would be better to just go ahead and do a c-section.  when i pushed, the baby would drop a little, but he moved back up when i stopped and he was turned posteriorly causing me a lot of back pain when i pushed.  it was so disappointing to me to have to do a c-section after more than 24 hours of labor.

they took us into the operating room almost immediately and got everything prepped.  ryan got to come in and sit with me before they got started.  when they pulled the baby out, they said he had the cord around his neck so i started freaking out a bit.  it wasn't long before we heard his cry though....so naturally i cried.  ryan got to go see him and cut the cord and everything and then they brought him over to show me.  

so beautiful.

as reported in the last post, he weighed in at a whopping 9 lbs.  his head measured 12 in. and his chest 14 in. making us glad we ended up doing the c-section.  it was so much better and safer for our little boy :)

i was in recovery for about an hour after the surgery.  when i was in labor, my nurse told me i could eat as soon as the baby was delivered, so i told her to have a sandwich and a sprite ready for me.  after the surgery, however, you

 can't. eat. anything.

talk about torture.  the last thing i ate was a granola bar at 2:30 in the morning on the way to the hospital.  they let me eat ice chips an hour later.  then water an hour after that.  by lunch i could have clear liquids.  i think i ate about 6 jell-o's that afternoon.  finally my mom got them to give me a slice of bread and some crackers.  

(see the jell-o on my table)

my mom and ryan kinda rotated staying with me the rest of the time at the hospital, so ryan could study and sleep before his test on the 3rd (which we won't have results of for another 4-6 weeks!). 

(after the test)

my mom made us a german chocolate cake to celebrate cody's birthday and ryan's test being done.

funny how all the nurses love you when you share your cake with them ;)

we finally went home on saturday morning and have been lazing about with our beautiful baby, cody, since then.