Benjamin Jacob

Benjamin Jacob is here!

7 pounds 13 ounces (1 ounce heavier than Joey and our heaviest baby so far) and 19.75 inches long (a full inch shorter than Emmalyn, and he is our shortest baby so far).

Born on January 12th at 356 pm.

He looks like Joey when he sleeps and like himself when he's awake.

I was induced on the 11th at 8pm....it was supposed to start at 5pm, but it didn't. The cervadil was placed at 8pm, was in for 12 hours (with Emmalyn, it was in for maybe 4 and I went into labor on my own after that), and hardly did anything.
It was taken out at 8am, and they started the pitocin. I was so afraid of the pitocin, because I had heard it caused much worse contractions, and the pain was HORRIBLE. Not exactly true in my case, but I probably should have spoken up sooner.

Anyway, Benjamin's birth story is on his blog, but there were a few things that were a little scary with his birth...

I made it to a 4cm on the pitocin before I wanted something for pain. At first, I wanted the narcotic. Then I was going to get the epidural if I still wanted something else. Well, the narcotic lasts for 2 hours, and then stops working. I was told there was a surgery, and only 1 anesthesiologist in that day, and the surgery would take 2 hours minimum.

If I were to get the narcotic, it would have to be 2 or so hours before the baby was born, to keep baby healthy.The epidural would have no effect on the baby.

I ended up deciding to get the epidural. The anesthesiologist was about a half hour late to her scheduled surgery, and for that I'm extremely grateful.

I got the epidural, and had gotten back in bed and was totally numb (they gave me a huge heap of medicine through the epidural, and then after about 1.5-2 hours later, it would be me pushing the button every half hour). The nurse checked me (I was at a 7cm! Woo!) and as soon as she took her hand out, my water broke. On its own! She was a little surprised, because it was literally as soon as she took her hand out.

Then things got chaotic, and a little scary. My nurse suddenly rushed out to the baby nurse to tell her that I was at 7cm, and that my water had just broken. Suddenly, both nurses rushed into my room with the cart of tools and sheets and such, for the doctor to deliver the baby. He wasn't there yet, and they had called him a few different times, asking where he was, and to tell him how close I was to having the baby.

The baby's heart rate dropped a lot. The alarm "ding dong" sound kept going off, and I knew it wasn't for me, since all I was hooked up to was the blood pressure, and my blood pressure was only being taken every 10 minutes or so. I started panicking because I thought it was a little too coincidental that I had just gotten the epidural, and the baby's heart rate was plummeting.

They put an oxygen mask on me (which I've never had before). I started sobbing, thinking my baby was dying. The doctor walked into my room less than 10 minutes after the epidural was placed. He checked me, and I was at an 8-9, and he waited for a contraction, and I was suddenly at 10cm!

I pushed probably 5 times total and he was out. I had a 2nd degree tear, which was great! Benjamin was extremely purple when he came out, but he was screaming, so I was relieved.

I ended up losing quite a bit of blood this time. I'm not sure why....the nurse kept writing down how much I was losing, and how often she was changing the blue pad under me. I felt fine, but I also was enamored with the baby the whole time, and generally, when I've just had a baby, I don't care about the world around me haha. I didn't need a blood transfusion or anything, but they kept a close eye on me the entire time I was in the hospital. I recently passed a very large (about 5-6 times larger than what was normal) clot. I got incredibly squeamish when it happened, and almost threw up. I called the hospital like I was supposed to if anything like that happened, and they said to just rest more...but I have 3 kids...hahahahaha.....Jonathan took the next day off of work, and I got to rest a little more, and haven't had issues since.

One other thing that was so great about the anesthesiologist being late for her surgery, was that the nurse had that narcotic in her hand. She had scanned my bracelet, and was ready to put it into my IV.

Benjamin was born less than a half hour after the epidural was placed. That heap of medicine that had come through my epidural hadn't even fully taken effect yet. If that anesthesiologist had gone to her surgery, I would have gotten the narcotic. The baby could have been born not breathing, and he wouldn't have been placed on me right away, and I wouldn't have gotten to hold him immediately, and we have no idea if he would have been able to stay at Gritman. The nurse told me that he would have gotten a shot to help him breathe again, but they don't like to give those to babies, and it sounded like she wasn't 100% sure he'd start breathing on his own anyway.

Other than that, it was pretty calm and nice and relaxed at the hospital. Benjamin has been a really great eater, and he doesn't seem to have a posterior tongue tie or upper lip tie (Emmalyn definitely has an upper lip tie). He doesn't sleep through the night AT ALL, which is exhausting, but I guess that's a good thing for my milk supply...right?