The Birth Story

So, after I had gone in the first time to the hospital thinking my water broke, they told me to come back if it continued.  The following day it had slowed a bit, but it had not stopped, so I left work in the afternoon and went back to get it checked out again.  Again the tests they took showed it to be negative for amniotic fluid.  So, that night it kept at it, and at this point I'm just not sure what to think.  I woke the next morning having some back pain, and I mentioned to Mike that I thought I might be having contractions.  He asked well how far apart are the contractions…not knowing exactly how to time them, I said they seem to be lasting 20 min.  He said well then they aren't contractions, you must just be having back pain.  So, I got ready for work.  I said to him that I was still having some pain, and that I would let him know if anything changed.  On the way to work I called him and said to stick around, and that I decided to stop by the hospital to get checked out again and would let him know what was up as soon as possible.  After the crying wolf incidents for the past 2 days, he really thought it was nothing, so he left for work.  When I got to the hospital I told them I had been there the last 2 days for fluid that was negative, but I was now having some pain.  They brought me to a room, and did yet another test….it was positive for amniotic fluid this time and I was dilated to 5 cm?!  So I called Mike up and told him to come over.  The nurses tried to contact my doctor, but couldn't get in touch with him.  I started contracting pretty close together.  And thankfully my mom showed up because the nurses disappeared for what seemed like an eternity.  I kept asking my mom to see what was up…they could not do anything for me until they reached my doctor.  I was in agony screaming, and they decided to get the fluid going so I could at least get the epidural….FINALLY they got in touch with the doctor, and then Mike showed up shortly after.  By the time I got my epidural I was already at 10 cm!  They said I basically had a natural labor.  Although, I'm very glad I was able to get the epidural for the delivery.  It all happened so quickly, I was a bit concerned they wouldn't be able to get to it in time.  I showed up at the hospital shortly after 8 am, and Liam was born at 10:27 am. The whole experience was just so surreal and amazing!  Shortly after he was born, they took him to the nursery to get cleaned up and checked out.  The nurse helped me to the bathroom, and I passed out. She said it looked like I had a seizure, but since I don't have any history of that, we think it was just from the blood loss and maybe a reaction to the medicine.  They wheeled me to my room and brought him to me.  His birth weight was 6 lbs. 6 oz. which is pretty good for being a month early.  He had some issues trying to eat because he was just so sleepy all the time.  I had a hard time getting him to stay awake long enough to feed him. He also was a bit jauntice. So we ended up staying an extra day at the hospital to keep an eye on him.  He's doing much better about eating now, and his jauntice is going down.  He did lose some of his weight, which is normal, but the doctors have kept a close eye on him since.  Our last check up he was just under 6 lbs. which was 3 oz. more than his last check up 4 days prior.  His next check up is on Friday, and we are optimistic that he has gained some more!