He's still kicking! But now we can see his cute little feet and his tiny little legs :) Truman Alexander was born on August 16th, 2011 at 5:22 am. He was born at the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne Australia. As I'm writing this he is 14 days old and has totally stolen our hearts. I seriously can't get enough of him. He smells so good, I just wish I could bottle up that smell and save it for later. He's a really good baby (crossing my fingers that it lasts)- he only cries when there's a reason and he sleeps and eats really well. What more can you ask of a newborn?
As for his birth, I'll start at the beginning. On Monday the 15th we picked up my mom from the airport. She was here for 2 weeks to help out, the plan was for her to arrive just as we were coming back from the hospital. Keep in mind I was due on the 8th of August (though I thought he'd come on the 10th- being 2 days late like my other 2 kids). When Wednesday the 10th came and went I started saying he'd be there by Friday. Then, to keep my sanity I said there was no way I'd make it through the weekend.
When we picked up mom I had to hold back the tears because I NEVER thought I'd still be pregnant! I had an appointment the next morning to monitor the little guy's heartbeat and check the fluid levels and talk to the doctor about the possibility of induction. Needless to say I did NOT want to go to that appointment. That night Chris said I should just take a little castor oil and see what happened. I had done this with Ellie as well and was in labor 4 hours later. I decided it was worth a shot, but because I had read some possible bad consequences of castor oil I only took a tablespoon (to induce labor they recommend 4 tablespoons). But it was enough to do the trick- yeah! I took it just before bed, hoping that if it did work I would at least get a few hours of sleep (kind of essential, since I had slept all of 45 minutes the night before).
I climbed into bed at about 8:30pm and woke up at 1am with contractions. I started timing them right away and they were about 3 minutes apart. Chris woke up and we laid there talking an timing and analyzing whether they felt "real" or not. I had been having contractions for the last 2 weeks, so I was all too familiar with the unreal ones. They started to space out to 5 minutes apart and I said, "this must not be real, otherwise they'd be getting closer together". Then 15 seconds later my water broke! No mistaking it, a big old gush. It was for real! I was so excited, these had been the longest 8 days of my life and I knew that pretty soon I'd have my little boy!
I had planned to stay at home as long as possible, so I got in the shower and took my time getting ready. Contractions were totally manageable at this point, so I wasn't too concerned. I woke up mom and told her what was going on, sent an email to my family in the U.S. and called my sister to tell her that it was FINALLY happening. While I was on the phone with her my contractions started getting bad enough that I couldn't concertrate and we decided it was time to head to the hospital. We left at 3am, and Chris just kept saying, "whatever happens I do NOT want to deliver this baby in the car". The drive to the hospital took about 20 minutes and everything got more intense as we were driving. For the past week I'd been telling Chris to drive fast over the speed bumps to get labor started, now I was telling him to go as slow as possible, because every bump was torture!
We got to the hospital and I started to feel nauseated as Chris filled out the paperwork. It was about 3:30am now and contractions were getting really intense already. They walked us up to our delivery room and we met Caitlin, who was our midwife throughout the whole labor. Because Truman had done a little poop she had to strap me to a fetal monitor, just for a minute. But once I laid down on that bed I knew there was no way I was getting back up again. As much as I had read that staying upright and walking around would help things go faster I couldn't bear the idea of moving around. Caitlin checked me and said I was 5 cm. I immediately looked at Chris and said I didn't think I could do it without an epidural. Halfway there seemed way too long to go. He reminded me that epidurals wear off and that I was already doing so well. I also remembered reading that 7-10 cm usually goes real fast so my last thought about it was "if I can just make it to 7 cm I'll be okay". After that I didn't really have a chance to think much about it, all I could think about was surviving the next minute in front of me. It seemed to go: 1 minute of contraction, 1 minute of back pain, 1 minute of rest, repeat. The midwife put a heat pad on my back, which seemed to help with the back pain, then I just had to worry about contractions. I'm not going to lie- They hurt...BAD.
The few things I did to deal with the pain and get through each contraction are kind of a blur. I tried really focusing on breathing, I know it was not calm, deep breaths like I had been practicing, they were pretty frantic, but it gave me something to focus on. Chris turned on my yoga video on my iPhone and I have to say, having that familiar voice playing was really calming in between contractions. During contractions I didn't hear anything, but it helped me calm down and regain my strength after each one was over. At one point the midwife pointed out that I was tensing up my legs during every contraction and as soon as I tried to really relax them, I felt like I needed to push. She said that was fine and I should just do what my body was telling me. Well it was telling me to push!
I have to admit I was that lady, the one who wouldn't stop screaming every time she pushed. It was just such a different feeling than when I had an epidural with my other 2 kids. It's like I had to release the pain somehow and screaming just made sense. I pushed just a few times and then one of the doctors said "Rachel, you need to stop screaming and really start pushing. It's really important that you push." I thought I had a second to take break, but apparently I was wrong. A few more pushes and he was out. Only then did they tell us that the cord was wrapped around Truman's neck 3 times. He was born at 5:22am after only 4 1/2 hours of labor and weighed 9 lbs 2 oz.
I only got to hold Truman for a minute because they had to take him away and check to make sure he was okay, luckily all was good and after giving him a bit of oxygen they passed him on to Daddy. Chris got to cuddle him for while because I was shaking so badly I couldn't even hold him. I was bleeding a bit more than expected so they kept us down in the delivery room a bit longer than normal. I was able to feed Truman and give him some extra snuggles to warm him up.
Grandpa called on Skype and was able to see Truman just hours after he was born- amazing that someone across the world was the first one to see him. The hospital phone rang and I guess Ellie was so excited that her teacher was able to track us down so she could talk to us. She wanted us to come pick her up early so she could see her baby brother.
After some lunch (I was famished! Even though it was hospital food I think I ate more food over those next couple days than most days of my pregnancy) they took us up to the maternity ward. Sadly, we were in a shared room (which is why I left the hospital less than 48 hours after Truman was born). After getting settled, Chris went to pick up Grandma, Caleb and Ellie. They were beside themselves with excitement! So happy to finally have them here, Caleb said that when we left for the hospital he was so excited he almost cried. What a sweetie! Here are pics from the hospital so you can see how adorable Truman is!
As for his birth, I'll start at the beginning. On Monday the 15th we picked up my mom from the airport. She was here for 2 weeks to help out, the plan was for her to arrive just as we were coming back from the hospital. Keep in mind I was due on the 8th of August (though I thought he'd come on the 10th- being 2 days late like my other 2 kids). When Wednesday the 10th came and went I started saying he'd be there by Friday. Then, to keep my sanity I said there was no way I'd make it through the weekend.
When we picked up mom I had to hold back the tears because I NEVER thought I'd still be pregnant! I had an appointment the next morning to monitor the little guy's heartbeat and check the fluid levels and talk to the doctor about the possibility of induction. Needless to say I did NOT want to go to that appointment. That night Chris said I should just take a little castor oil and see what happened. I had done this with Ellie as well and was in labor 4 hours later. I decided it was worth a shot, but because I had read some possible bad consequences of castor oil I only took a tablespoon (to induce labor they recommend 4 tablespoons). But it was enough to do the trick- yeah! I took it just before bed, hoping that if it did work I would at least get a few hours of sleep (kind of essential, since I had slept all of 45 minutes the night before).
I climbed into bed at about 8:30pm and woke up at 1am with contractions. I started timing them right away and they were about 3 minutes apart. Chris woke up and we laid there talking an timing and analyzing whether they felt "real" or not. I had been having contractions for the last 2 weeks, so I was all too familiar with the unreal ones. They started to space out to 5 minutes apart and I said, "this must not be real, otherwise they'd be getting closer together". Then 15 seconds later my water broke! No mistaking it, a big old gush. It was for real! I was so excited, these had been the longest 8 days of my life and I knew that pretty soon I'd have my little boy!
I had planned to stay at home as long as possible, so I got in the shower and took my time getting ready. Contractions were totally manageable at this point, so I wasn't too concerned. I woke up mom and told her what was going on, sent an email to my family in the U.S. and called my sister to tell her that it was FINALLY happening. While I was on the phone with her my contractions started getting bad enough that I couldn't concertrate and we decided it was time to head to the hospital. We left at 3am, and Chris just kept saying, "whatever happens I do NOT want to deliver this baby in the car". The drive to the hospital took about 20 minutes and everything got more intense as we were driving. For the past week I'd been telling Chris to drive fast over the speed bumps to get labor started, now I was telling him to go as slow as possible, because every bump was torture!
We got to the hospital and I started to feel nauseated as Chris filled out the paperwork. It was about 3:30am now and contractions were getting really intense already. They walked us up to our delivery room and we met Caitlin, who was our midwife throughout the whole labor. Because Truman had done a little poop she had to strap me to a fetal monitor, just for a minute. But once I laid down on that bed I knew there was no way I was getting back up again. As much as I had read that staying upright and walking around would help things go faster I couldn't bear the idea of moving around. Caitlin checked me and said I was 5 cm. I immediately looked at Chris and said I didn't think I could do it without an epidural. Halfway there seemed way too long to go. He reminded me that epidurals wear off and that I was already doing so well. I also remembered reading that 7-10 cm usually goes real fast so my last thought about it was "if I can just make it to 7 cm I'll be okay". After that I didn't really have a chance to think much about it, all I could think about was surviving the next minute in front of me. It seemed to go: 1 minute of contraction, 1 minute of back pain, 1 minute of rest, repeat. The midwife put a heat pad on my back, which seemed to help with the back pain, then I just had to worry about contractions. I'm not going to lie- They hurt...BAD.
The few things I did to deal with the pain and get through each contraction are kind of a blur. I tried really focusing on breathing, I know it was not calm, deep breaths like I had been practicing, they were pretty frantic, but it gave me something to focus on. Chris turned on my yoga video on my iPhone and I have to say, having that familiar voice playing was really calming in between contractions. During contractions I didn't hear anything, but it helped me calm down and regain my strength after each one was over. At one point the midwife pointed out that I was tensing up my legs during every contraction and as soon as I tried to really relax them, I felt like I needed to push. She said that was fine and I should just do what my body was telling me. Well it was telling me to push!
I have to admit I was that lady, the one who wouldn't stop screaming every time she pushed. It was just such a different feeling than when I had an epidural with my other 2 kids. It's like I had to release the pain somehow and screaming just made sense. I pushed just a few times and then one of the doctors said "Rachel, you need to stop screaming and really start pushing. It's really important that you push." I thought I had a second to take break, but apparently I was wrong. A few more pushes and he was out. Only then did they tell us that the cord was wrapped around Truman's neck 3 times. He was born at 5:22am after only 4 1/2 hours of labor and weighed 9 lbs 2 oz.
I only got to hold Truman for a minute because they had to take him away and check to make sure he was okay, luckily all was good and after giving him a bit of oxygen they passed him on to Daddy. Chris got to cuddle him for while because I was shaking so badly I couldn't even hold him. I was bleeding a bit more than expected so they kept us down in the delivery room a bit longer than normal. I was able to feed Truman and give him some extra snuggles to warm him up.
Grandpa called on Skype and was able to see Truman just hours after he was born- amazing that someone across the world was the first one to see him. The hospital phone rang and I guess Ellie was so excited that her teacher was able to track us down so she could talk to us. She wanted us to come pick her up early so she could see her baby brother.
After some lunch (I was famished! Even though it was hospital food I think I ate more food over those next couple days than most days of my pregnancy) they took us up to the maternity ward. Sadly, we were in a shared room (which is why I left the hospital less than 48 hours after Truman was born). After getting settled, Chris went to pick up Grandma, Caleb and Ellie. They were beside themselves with excitement! So happy to finally have them here, Caleb said that when we left for the hospital he was so excited he almost cried. What a sweetie! Here are pics from the hospital so you can see how adorable Truman is!
What a doll! We just love him!
5 comments:
Congratulations! That is so exciting he is here! He is darling!
WOOO HOOO!! He is so beautiful! Congrats. I hope you are recovering well and getting enough sleep. Give him some sugar for me!
He's such a cutie; it's making me sad thinking how fast the past 7 months with Ethan have gone by. Congrats...I wish I could meet him in person!
What a little cutie. Why do you live so far away??? I just want to kiss those cheeks and give you a big hug. Congratulations!
Congrats Rachel! He's such a cutie:)
Post a Comment