Welcome
Greyson Rocco!
Born: October 7th at 3:55AM
Weight: 7lbs 9oz
Length: 19.75 inches
(P.S. This is where you should stop reading if you wish to steer clear of
any information that may be TMI for you.)
Grey was brought into this world via an induction. As a general rule of thumb, inductions tend to prolong the laboring process, especially for first time moms. I would highly recommend waiting for your body to induce labor on its own (if medically appropriate) rather than having a drug-induced labor. My experience with it was right on point with what I had read or heard. We were admitted on a Monday evening for Cervidil placement with a plan to start IV Pitocin the next morning. Both Chad & my Mom accompanied me to the hospital. The Cervidil placement wasn't by any means what you would call comfortable, but it really wasn't too bad. After the Cervidil is placed, the waiting game begins. So I sent both of my companions home to get some sleep. I needed them both rested and strong for the coming days. :)
The Cervidil was removed the next morning and the IV Pitocin started at 6:30AM. I didn't really feel much until they ruptured my membranes (bag of water) at 9:00AM. Once this occurred the contractions became much more intense and painful. I actually ended up receiving my epidural around 10:00AM (at only 2 cm dilated). I'm thankful I went with it early, because the anesthesiologists had difficulty getting it regulated to a level that actually managed my pain. That wasn't finally accomplished until 11:30AM!! Yikes!!! After that it was a very slow go.
My body was very slow to progress with dilation, and I don't think my contractions ever did become regular. I was finally given the "thumbs up" sign that we were ready to begin pushing a little after midnight on Wednesday morning. I pushed, and I pushed, and I pushed...for 3 hours!!!!
The doc didn't seem to sure about why everything was taking so long...other than my contractions never did become strong enough or regular enough. Weird. After 3 hours of pushing, I hit my limit...or ran out of steam basically. Little Grey was still hanging in there though and hadn't shown any signs of distress from being in the birth canal for that long of a period of time. (He's been a bit resilient this whole pregnancy. What a good trait to have!) After pushing for that long, I didn't want to opt for a c-section, especially if Grey wasn't "asking" for one. So we opted for a vacuum-assist...something that I was totally terrified of, as one of my friends has had a very negative experience/outcome. The doc was pretty certain though that it would work - and that it did. One or two tugs accompanied by me pushing and our Grey was out in the real world! Yahoo! It's exhausting to think back on it still that my labor was 22 hours (counting from the start of the Pitocin) with 3.5 hours of pushing! Phew!
The hospital where I delivered has a policy of placing the baby right on the mother's chest immediately after delivery for skin-to-skin time. However, because of the vacuum-assist, the hospital's policy is to have the NICU team on stand-by in the room. So skin-to-skin time would be delayed until after the assessment was complete. I was so thankful that the hospital had these precautions, because when Grey was finally delivered he had a nuchal cord x2 (umbilical cord wrapped around his neck twice). This could have been awful for him, but he never ever showed signs of distress. The doc mentioned that the umbilical cord was very long and that was most likely why the cord was only wrapped loosely around his neck causing no distress.
Now everyone I know told me how glorious it would be to hold your baby for the first time, but I must admit that I was thankful for those extra 15 minutes post-delivery to just decompress. I sent Chad over to the warmer with the NICU team & Grey to watch the assessment while Mom hung back with me to just...BE. When they actually gave Grey to me, we were still waiting on the placenta to be delivered. I found it terribly difficult to concentrate on the baby and feel that "glory" that everyone talked about. I ended up just letting Mom & Chad hold the baby until we were finished in Labor & Delivery and could be transferred to Postpartum. That's when I was mentally ready to hold this awesome human being, snuggle with him and just take it all in.
The delivery was tough, and I was way more emotional that I had ever imagined I would be, but we had stellar nursing & OB staff to help us through it!! It was a long road for this family to even get to this point, and I am grateful for it all each day when I wake up and look at Grey!
Cheers!
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