the very next day after my "so over it" post i ended up going to the hospital (after calling the OB's office) to get checked again for the lovely pain i was enduring. they gave me 2 percocet and after an hour i wasn't feeling any better so they offered to induce (with the warning that the baby's lungs might not be ready and he might end up in NICU if that was the case). i decided that since he was measuring big anyway, and i was already past 38 weeks, that it would be fine. i had driven myself to the hospital, so i called jerry to let him know i was going to stay. he was in brandon, the kids were at school, and he did very well in keeping from being in a big panic. he finished up his work, got the kids out of school early and settled at the house with money for pizza and instructions to watch movies all evening, then he headed to the hospital. by the time he got there they had broke my water and had started pitocin, i was at 3 cm, then quickly moved to 4 and on to 5. at 5 cm i asked for an epidural because i knew from experience that the pitocin is a pain after awhile and i'd be screaming for an epidural eventually anyway. i got the epidural and my blood pressure plummeted, it took them 4-5 doses of ephedrine to get it back to a stable number to be able to start the pitocin back up (during this time they had discussed a possible c-section, but tried to avoid it if at all possible). after about 30 minutes of pitocin, they came in and said the baby's heart rate wasn't great and they were going to stop the pit to see if it went back to normal (it was running too high for too long and then would drop too low before and after contractions). after 30 more minutes of monitoring, his heart rate was fine and they decided to try to start the pitocin again. the first 30 minutes were good, so they decided to up the dose a little bit, but 10 minutes into the higher dose his heart rate went up high again and would spike low. i was still on 5 cm, so there was no way to get this to go faster without putting the baby at risk, so they decided that a c-section was needed, to which we agreed because we wanted a healthy baby more than we wanted a surgery-free delivery.
at this point, i wasn't scared or nervous, but part of me was second guessing myself about agreeing to the induction...maybe i should've endured the pain longer, maybe if we'd waited a c-section wouldn' t be necessary, maybe if we waited he wouldn't have been in any distress...
they got us ready for surgery, jerry came in and they began. within 5 minutes baby was delivered. he had the cord wrapped around his neck twice, and it was pretty tight...a regular delivery wouldn't have been an option if we had waited, and he would've been bigger and maybe had more distress... thaddeus aaron was delivered at 8:51 p.m. on 9/2, weighed 9 pounds 6 ounces, was 21 3/4 inches long, and was 2 weeks early! they did a little work on him to get all of the fluid out of his lungs, but both of his apgar scores were good and he was just perfect!
i was given morphine (which made me itch like crazy) and benadryl, so i was pretty much out of it for the first night, though i didn't think i was at the time. now it's all kind of a blur. i was discharged friday evening, but thad had to go under the bili lights friday morning through saturday afternoon because his bilirubin count was too high. his weight had also dropped to 8 pounds 7 ounces, so that was a bit of a concern also. it was stressful for me to go home without him that night, but due to the c-section there was no way i could have slept in a chair all night long either.
we took him back to the hospital for a blood test on sunday, which was up a little but still okay, and then we went to our pediatrician on monday for another follow-up blood test. he weighed 9 pounds 2 ounces that day, and his bilirubin numbers were okay too. i just kept him near windows with the blinds open for the rest of the week and it seemed to work well.
at his 2 week appointment at the pediatrician, thad weighed 10 pounds 2 ounces! he's been doing great, feeding well, latching on like a pro, and pooping and sleeping the rest of the time! he sleeps for 3-4 hours at a time, and is wide awake and alert more every day. he's such a sweetie pie and such a joy to have in my life. i was so apprehensive about having another little one come into our lives because it's been so long, but from the instant i saw him...all of that went away!
until i get a chance to get some more pictures, you can check out what we've got so far on our family blog. he's a little cutie pie, and he's my little cuddle bug, loves to be held and stays curled up in a little baby ball!!! i promise to get some good pictures posted here soon!!!
