Gabriel Alma

Gabriel Alma is finally here! He was born June 25 at almost 9pm. He weighed 8lb 5oz and was 20.5 inches long.

This pregnancy, I was tested a lot later for gestational diabetes. I'm not sure why. I did switch doctors about halfway through, but I should have been tested earlier than I was. I failed the 1 hour with a 148. I had planned to take the 3 hour test, but Jonathan kept getting Saturday overtime. Saturdays were my only days to try to get the 3 hour test in (it is a fasting test, so going after he got home wasn't a healthy option). I never got to it, so I just accepted the diagnosis.

Because I technically had GD again, I should have been induced by 39 weeks. On Father's Day, I did get induced. It failed though. I was 3cm, and not very effaced. Baby was still very high as well. We went straight to Pitocin just like with Perrin's induction, and Pitocin was sort of working; it would make me have contractions every few minutes, but then sputter out, so they had to turn up the Pitocin. We tried for about 12ish hours that Sunday. Baby kept having decelerations, and then he was doing pretty bad, so they turned the Pitocin off completely, and we did Cervadil that night, which caused contractions just like Pitocin did. They switched my IV fluids to a dextrose fluid (sugar fluid). Baby suddenly was doing MUCH better. My blood sugars were getting out of being borderline too low as well.

That Monday morning, I was exhausted. I was checked and NOTHING had changed. I was devastated. All that work (about 20ish hours of legit contractions) for nothing. I asked my nurse if anyone had ever requested a c-section. She said yes, but told me she would ask the doctor if we could go home instead. He agreed. They turned everything off, but kept me on the monitors for about another hour. Baby was great and looking good, so they sent us home. Going home after a failed induction is awful.

That next week, I had a lot of bloody show. Everyone was confused as to why I hadn't gone into labor on my own yet.

My next OB appointment was Friday, the 21st. Apparently, the OB had a delivery, and I had to reschedule. I was quite devastated (again) as this was supposed to be an appointment to set up another induction. Fine. Turned out, my appointment was rescheduled for Monday at 11am.....There were no options for me; that was just what they could do. Strike 1 for the OB office. I also figured maybe a few more days would give this baby a chance to come on his own. The next day was my due date. Nothing. I was officially LATE. I have never even made it to 40 weeks. I had people asking me if I had had my baby yet. Not amused.

Monday rolled around. Jonathan had asked for 2 hours off to make it to my appointment. At about 8am, I got a phone call from the OB office, telling me that the OB wouldn't be in at 11.....Strike 2. I was asked to come in as soon as I could. After I hung up, I had to call several people to try to make it work. About 20 minutes after the first OB call, a second call came, telling me "our schedule is off, we won't be able to see you at 11", basically saying "we double booked, can you fix our mistake?". Basically Strike 3, but at 40w2d, you can't exactly fire your OB. I guess the OB I was supposed to see Friday thought I'd be seen by someone else, and was pretty upset to learn that I wasn't seen. That feels good I guess. I like the doctors. The office staff are just not the people to try to deal with I suppose. They used to be really good with patients and now, I think they have to deal with even more patients because of a certain other medical facility that can't do a good job of anything.

Everything ended up working out. I got checked, and was now 4cm and 70%ish effaced. Doctor and I both agreed it was time to be done with this pregnancy. He sent me over to the hospital for an NST (baby passed, which was unusual for him. He failed probably at least half of his NSTs). I ended up being bumped to the top of the list for my induction the next morning. I bumped another mom out of the spot. I felt bad, but my baby needed to come out. We were done, and my placenta was aging.


On Tuesday morning, we started another Pitocin only induction. Just like before, contractions got to 2-4 minutes apart fairly quickly, but baby did really well. At about 11am, the doctor came by to check me, and told me he could easily break my water and it would likely go fast. I had never had my water broken before I was at least 8cm, so I said no. After being in labor for several more hours, he came back to check me again. I again, made NO change. I requested that he break my water. He did, and I was from 4cm to 10cm in less than an hour. It felt like the doctor was checking me every 10 minutes and just adding centimeters to every last number he told me before.

Pushing sucked. I did have an epidural. This doctor is really good at letting babies' heads crown. Not really sure, but maybe my epidural didn't work as well? Oh well. There was a lot of screaming and yelling this time. With all my other kids, after their heads were out, the rest of them sort of just came out on their own. This time, that wasn't the case. Apparently, this little baby had the cord around his neck and shoulders, so that took more time to adjust. I had to push the shoulders out this time....the second he was born, he pooped. He also had come out so quickly that they took him to the warming bed almost immediately after he was born. That didn't feel fair. They gave him back pretty quickly, but it still was heart-wrenching.

After that, things were fine. Not even a 1st degree tear (I assumed a 4th due to how bad it hurt this time haha), but I was given 2 or 3 stitches to help heal faster. Baby had a really good latch and was alert enough to want to eat.

After moving to our postpartum room, they took his bilirubin number. Apparently it was really high. That next morning, the pediatrician came by to check him out. I mentioned that my last 2 babies had high bilirubin, and after my milk came in and they ate and pooped a lot, they were both fine. The pediatrician didn't seem to care one bit about my experience as a mother, and decided to keep us in the hospital overnight again. The next morning, they took his bilirubin again, and, even though he was 13.5 and the lowest level they'd put him under lights for was 14.5, they told me he needed lights for 12 hours. I didn't get to hold him unless I was feeding him, and he never stopped crying unless I was holding him. I had to send him to the nursery just to get him to be calm. I had nurses telling me it wasn't a big deal, but it is. I bond with my babies by holding them and by comforting them when they cry. I don't send them off to a nursery for strangers to talk to and care for them.

The pediatrician who had us stay is now fired from caring for my children. She completely disregarded what I said. She finally let us go home Friday afternoon, and Saturday morning, his bilirubin was down SIGNIFICANTLY, and he gained about 5 ounces in less than 24 hours. I don't care that she used to be a pediatric cardiologist; when a doctor completely disregards a mother's experience, they need to not be working with children, in my opinion.


We are finally at home and healing without anyone breathing down my neck to keep feeding my baby....I can now cry about how things went without a nurse or doctor asking me "why are you crying about it? I had to put my baby under the lights too". I don't care if your baby was under and you felt fine about it. I was not okay with it. I KNEW my baby would be fine, yet no one listened to me. I get that the lights probably helped at least a little, but had I had my baby with me 24/7, my milk would have been in sooner.

I got barely any at home time with my husband. We had to waste the entire rest of his time off at the hospital. I'll NEVER get that time back and the medical people are to blame.


The kids love Gabriel. Joey and Emmalyn want to hold and pet him all the time. Benjamin just thinks he's fun to look at, and Perrin doesn't seem to notice the baby. Gabriel sleeps well during the day, and likes to nurse at night. Once we start getting into a real home routine, I'll try to get his sleep a little more on par with mine haha.