HE'S HERE!!! Full Birth Story

Hello all, we have big news: Jennings Randall Lesher was born at 10:49pm on Friday, June 22nd at Langley Air Force Base Hospital in Hampton VA. Here's the story:

My doctor had made an appointment with the labor & delivery floor for me to have a non-stress test done. It would monitor his heartbeat and his movements to see how his heart reacted when he moved. So we got there, got hooked up, and Doctor Leis came in to check on me. She watched the monitor for a bit, then told us that she didn't like what she saw. His heartbeat baseline was in the high 110's, and they wanted it to be in the 130's or 140's. She said she wouldn't feel comfortable sending me home. She patted my leg and said, "You're staying to have a baby." We totally didn't expect to be staying when we walked in that morning. We already had the labor and diaper bags with us, but we hadn't made arrangements for our animals. A little while later, the doc came back in and broke my water. I was three centimeters dilated when she started, and four when she was finished. She said she'd come back to check my progress in two hours. So Bryan took that time (after a little reassurance that I'd be fine) to go home and drop off the housekey with the neighbor. He came back shortly after, in plenty of time (we don't live more than 20 minutes away from the hospital). I started feeling much stronger contractions, but they weren't too bad. When my two hours were up, I was 5 centimeters dilated. Doctor Leis said that if I wasn't at 7 in another two hours, they were going to start Pitocin, and chemically induce labor. When those (steadily more painful) two hours were up, I was somewhere between 5 and 6 centimeters dilated. So they started Pitocin, only a small dose, and the anesthesiologist came in and put in my epidural. I started shaking pretty heavily once it started, which made both Bryan and me nervous. But once everyone left, and I was able to relax, the shaking stopped. Now it was just a waiting game for me to dilate. We watched a LOT of tv during that time, and slept as much as we could. I watched the monitor screens a lot to watch JR's heartbeat as well as my contractions. I could feel when I had one, but I wasn't feeling any pain. About 7 or 7:30, the nurse came in and said it was time to start pushing. It took me a while to figure out how to push effectively, but my nurse turned off my epidural so that I could feel my contractions better. She got scolded by my doctor, but I was glad she did it. I still didn't feel any pain, but I could feel my legs more, and was able to feel my progress. It got tons easier when I finally felt his head as he was crowning. Bryan was wonderful the whole time, getting me water and chapstick, and holding the bowl when I had to vomit. That happened when the nurse wanted me to try pushing on my side, but my body didn't agree. Pushing was rough, mostly because it took so long for me to figure out how to push effectively, and because I couldn't feel that I was making any progress, and that was really discouraging. But when Bryan told me he could see JR's head, that was the best encouragement ever! And then Nurse Laurel (awesome nurse) had me reach down and feel his head when it was about halfway out. Between those two, I got the extra mental push I needed. I couldn't feel when his head came out, but I felt his shoulder come out, and could tell when the midwife pulled the rest of him out. When I saw him, I just started bawling, from relief that my work was done, and from the sheer beauty of the moment. Over nine months of waiting had rewarded us with this perfect being. Bryan cut the cord, and they placed him on my chest to clean him off. I remember saying, "He's so heavy!" I kept looking up at Bryan, thinking, We did it, we really did it...

So, 14 hours after we arrived at the hospital, and with three hours of pushing, Jennings Randall Lesher was born. I considered it an easy labor, and a relatively easy delivery. It was a relief, because after such an easy pregnancy, I thought I'd have a horrendous labor and/or delivery. As it was, the lady next door to me apparently had a horrible experience. As JR's head was just starting to crown, the nurses were hedging bets on who would deliver first. I guess she was just as close as I was. But as I got closer and closer to delivering, I could hear her crying. Nurse Laurel said she was panicking, she didn't want to have a bowel movement on the table, so she wasn't pushing right. Even though she had an epidural, she was still crying that it hurt really badly. I also heard her trying to give up, saying she couldn't do it. JR was born at 10:49pm, her baby was born at 1:04am the next morning. I was really proud of myself for never giving up, or even thinking of it. I was determined to get that baby out. I do remember thinking that he never wanted to come out, because he sure was taking his time.

It wasn't the birth experience I had hoped for, but it turned out for the better. I didn't want an induction, because I knew that inductions make contractions worse. I wanted to try to have him without an epidural as well, because I wanted to prove that I was strong enough. Women have had babies medication-free for generations, and I'd been told that a med-free birth gives us an enormous Superwoman feeling. But at the end, I told Bryan I was really glad I'd had the epidural, because I didn't think I could have dealt with the pain had I not. It would have been really hard to push through that kind of pain. But I knew that if I'd had to be chemically induced, I wanted the epidural. So it did turn out for the better, because I don't think I would have been given much of a choice about being induced. I told the Doctor I didn't want an induction, but if that's what it took to have a healthy baby, I didn't have a problem with it.


I just realized that I forgot JR's stats in the email I sent out. He weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces, and was 20 and 3/4 inches long. He got an Apgar score of 9 at one minute old, and 9 at five minutes old. The highest a baby can get is ten, and it's incredibly rare that it happens that way. So he was doing great. The nurse did note that for being overdue, he still had a lot of cheesy vernix on him. Babies are supposed to lose more and more of that the longer they go past 40 weeks. I've noticed that he has a lot of that lanugo "fur" still yet, too. So apparently, he was right on time for him.

But like I said, Bryan was great, absolutely wonderful the whole time. He got my water when I wanted it, got my chapstick when the nurse advised against drinking any more. He helped me push, his voice was the one I focused on when he was counting for me. He helped me push through contractions when my nurse wasn't there. He was so encouraging, telling me how great I was doing, how proud of me he was. I'd never loved him more.

Here are some pictures:

Picture 1: Just after they got him cleaned up and Apgar scores taken, so he was about five to ten minutes old at that point. Doesn't Bryan just look so proud? :)
Picture 2: Taken with my camera phone while we were in our postpartum room.
Picture 3: These were taken right after we got home, three days after he was born. This was his going home outfit. His hat says Boob Man, though you can't tell. He was hungry when we got home, so I couldn't get a good picture of him.
Picture 4: I love when he's awake and alert like this. I get this after burping, when his belly's full, but he's been woken up. He's all content, but very alert.

That's all for this post. Still to come: JR's first days; My postpartum body

Officially Overdue

Hello all. So here it is, 4:30am on June 14th, and I'm still pregnant. ***Sigh...*** I went for my 40 week checkup on Tuesday, I'd dilated another half a centimeter, and I am 75% effaced, so at least I'm making progress. But at half a centimeter a week, he'll be here in another month... I'd been having a good amount of Braxton-Hicks contractions that I knew were the reason for the progression. After that appointment, though... I've been having lots more, much more regular, and starting to get painful. Sunday night, I was driving home from leading my mom to where she's staying for the week when I ended up in so much pain I was in tears. It didn't feel like contractions, really, but the pain would peak and ebb, so I wasn't sure. I called Bryan to let him know, since I was supposed to pick up dinner on the way in, and told him that if this kept up after I got home, we were going to the hospital. Within ten minutes of getting home, I was perfectly fine. Tuesday night, the night after my appointment, I went to bed at eight (I was SO tired), and woke up at 9:30 from a "I went into labor and was rushing around getting everything together" dream, and having contractions that lasted over two hours. Some were painful, some weren't, and they averaged 7.5 minutes apart. But they went away (darn) and I went back to sleep. I woke up again about 3am from a "My baby's coming, I'm not gonna make it to the hospital, having a home birth" dream, and again having contractions. These didn't last nearly as long, but they were a bit stronger. So I went back to sleep. I woke up at 8am from a "I had my baby in the hospital, all is well and I love him to death" dream. No contractions this time. I let the dog out to use the bathroom, checked my email and pregnancy message board, and went back to sleep at 9. I got woke up at 11:30 by the phone. It was officially my due date, and this was the first "Have you had that baby yet?" phone call. I got two yesterday. My mom got two or three. I'm actually surprised that I didn't get more, or emails. Pleasantly so, of course. I'm impatient, yes, but having reminders like that make the waiting that much worse. Like I told my mom and Bryan, when Junior decides to grace us with his presence is between God and him, and there's nothing we can do about it. I'm just really hoping he comes in the next couple of days. I'm so tired of these false alarms. Yesterday we went to the resort where my mom is staying to hang out with her and my brother instead of them driving here. On the way back, I started getting menstrual-type cramps and lower back pain at the same time. The back pain never really went away, but the cramps would come and go, and most certainly would peak and ebb. It wasn't nearly as painful as the stuff going on Sunday night, but I was definitely having contractions, I could feel my belly tightening up. These were stronger than any I'd felt before, and I got them several times within an hour. Bryan's mom called while we were on the road back, and when he described what was going on with me, she told him that's what his sister did two days before she went into full-blown labor. It kinda made him nervous. But again, shortly after I got home, they went away. I just read that the current theory on what gets labor to start being stress hormones causing muscle tension in the uterus, and that leads to contractions, which subsequently lead to labor. I'm thinking that may be right in my case. It seems that when I get home and relax, all these contractions go away. But Tuesday night's stuff really got me nervous, because Junior shifted his position. I can normally feel his rear end under my ribs on the right side, and that's where he seems most comfortable. That night, he moved to where his rear was right in the middle of my belly, into birthing position. Really got me wondering if it was time to be making phone calls. During the time I was having all those contractions, I got up, moved around, cleaned my kitchen, and when they still didn't go away, I came back to the couch and laid on my side. That's when they stopped. These false alarms are driving me nuts. I really don't want to go to the hospital until I'm fairly certain that what I'm feeling is true labor. I know that if I go in and it's not, I'm going to be SO horribly disappointed. So when these contractions start up, I time them the best I can, and if they last more than a couple hours, and get stronger in that time frame, then I'll get Bryan and head to the hospital. So far, none of my contractions have lasted for longer than an hour, save for the two hours on Tuesday night.

But I did get another sign of impending labor Wednesday. For those of you who are squeamish, I'd suggest skipping this paragraph. I lost my mucous plug. I thought I'd lost part of it last week. Boy was I wrong. It's hard to describe what I found when I went to the bathroom about noon yesterday. It was long and sticky, looked like snot and moved like jelly. It was clear except for a spot of blood at each end. It came out in two parts. I don't know if it was the entire thing or not, I have no idea how big it is to begin with. But it came up on the toilet paper, and I very nearly took a picture of it. But it was too disgusting. I reached down again, and up came still more! It was smaller, but still had the same consistency and color, complete with the spot of blood at one end. When I told my mom about it, she told me that she never saw hers with any of us three kids. Bryan just asked what it meant. I told him it meant that my cervix had opened up enough for that to fall out, and that it meant I was making progress. From the research I did on it, it doesn't mean labor's right around the corner, but it is something to note and mention to the doctor on the next visit.

Speaking of the doctor, I saw a doctor on Tuesday, not a nurse practitioner. There wasn't really much difference. She was really nice, and gentle with my exam. She asked a couple times whether we had any questions. Almost all of my questions were answered by the nurse last week. Did I write about last week's appointment? I'll check, and if not, I may put up another post. Eh, no need for another post. I'll just edit this one, there wasn't much to tell anyway. Anyway, the doc told me that I had two choices: I could schedule an appointment for next week, or I could be put on the induction book for eight days from Tuesday. I figured, my mom's going to be gone either way, might as well let him come when he wants to come. So I chose the appointment. She made my appointment for the 21st. Most of the time, we are the ones who have to go to the appointment desk and make our own appointments, so the fact that she did it for me was pretty cool. But she came back in and told me when my appointment was, and that if I hadn't delivered by then, she figured I'd want to talk induction at that visit. Who knows? I'm pretty comfortable physically right now. Emotionally, I'm a rollercoaster, but I'm doing my best. Anyway, somehow we got on the subject of helping things along as far as labor goes. And this doctor comes right out and tells us to have sex!!! I was thinking, OH MY GOODNESS, DID SHE REALLY JUST SAY THAT??? No attempt at tact whatsoever, just point-blank, out there, blatantly tells us to have sex. I don't know why I was so shocked, she is a doctor after all, but still, it shocked me. Bryan says I turned beet red. I don't embarrass easily, but for some reason, that did it.

Anyway, so here I sit, 40 weeks and 1 day pregnant. I just know I'm going to be fielding phone calls for the next couple days until he comes, "Are you still pregnant?", "Is that baby here yet?", "You STILL haven't delivered?" I just tell myself, they say first time moms are late the majority of the time, and boys tend to be late, too, so I get a double dose, he'll come when he's good and ready, apparently he just wants to cook a little longer. Physically, I'm pretty comfortable. The worst part right now is trying to sleep. I can't seem to sleep any longer than four hours, no matter what time I go to bed. I went to sleep at ten last night, and lo and behold, I was awake just after 2am, with contractions. If I go to bed at midnight, I'm awake at four. This morning, I laid in bed counting contractions. They weren't really timeable again, the same crampy pain with lower back pain, but I counted how many I had over a certain period of time and averaged it out. This morning, it was nine contractions in 45 minutes. They didn't last any longer than that. They were five minutes apart, so if they'd lasted two hours or more and gotten stronger, I would have been waking Bryan up. As it is, all my moving around trying to get comfortable woke him up anyway, so I got up and went downstairs. He really needed his sleep. But another issue yesterday and lingering into today is my swollen feet. They got pretty swollen yesterday afternoon, and at eight last night, I couldn't walk on my left foot without pain. So I propped my feet up on my mom's coffee table, and we talked about watching a movie, but Bryan was SO tired, and we needed to let the dog out anyway, so we went ahead and went home. I have a couple blankets on the bed that are folded up to where I can put my feet up on them, so I went to bed shortly after we got home. I think the swelling went down overnight, but now that I've been up and around again, they've swollen back up nearly to the same degree as they were. I know my left foot's starting to hurt. I may end up calling the nurse's line to see if Epsom salts will hurt me any. I'll stick my foot in ice water first, see if that does any good. I'll probably end up bringing my blankets downstairs onto the couch, so I'm not stuck in bed all day, bored out of my mind. I could sleep, but I made up a lot of my sleep Tuesday night. It was heavily interrupted, but I still got more than four hours. Oh, I think I feel more contractions coming on, so I'd better end this.

Oh, last week's doctor's visit, if I already posted about this, just disregard. The nurse was really nice, she answered all my questions, didn't rush me at all, and asked plenty of her own. She checked my cervix, I was a "solid" one centimeter dilated. She didn't tell me if I was thinning out or not. That's basically the majority of what happened.

Anyway, I need to get another bottle of water, put my feet up, and see if these contractions decide to continue. They seem to have gone away just in the short time I've been writing. Five minutes never seemed so long... I keep thinking the contractions have stopped, and I'll look at my watch and realize it's only been four minutes since the last one. It's crazy.

TTFN!!!

Full Term Today!!! Only 3 Weeks Left!!!

Hi, all! Today is Wednesday, May 23rd, and at 37 weeks today, our baby is considered full term. Of course, I've been telling him that he doesn't need to come anytime soon, he needs to wait until his grandparents get here. :) Things have been going well, besides sleeping. I think, as time draws ever nearer, I get more and more anxious. I don't know how I'm going to know when I'm going into labor, I am most certainly nervous about the pain, and until a few days ago, we didn't have everything we needed for our little man. I'm most worried that he'll be late, and I won't have my mom with me during labor. If he's early, she can come as soon as she finds out that he's on his way, but there's still no guarantee that she'll make it on time. I feel like a little girl again, wanting to hold my mom's hand as I walk into kindergarten or get a shot for the first time. But those are the mental things keeping me awake at night. Then there's the heartburn. Last week, I had a 3-day reprieve from the heartburn, barely had any at all, was even able to sleep on my side like I prefer. After that, though, it seems to never end! I feel it nearly all the time, and the worst part is that nothing seems to work. Tums just aren't cutting it anymore. I try milk, as a natural antacid, but I can only drink so much, and lately I really haven't been wanting it. I had been eating ice cream about an hour before I went to bed, and that had helped for a while, but that stopped being effective as well. I could handle it during the day, because I could change positions pretty easily to lessen the impact. But at night, I didn't want to be moving around all the time and disturbing Bryan. Lying on my back was the best for the heartburn, but it was getting to where that wasn't comfortable for some reason. Lying on my side was more physically comfortable, but that let the heartburn flare up in a big way. I found myself cursing my childhood gastroesophageal disorder that made it to where my heartburn gets this bad. The sphincter at the end of my esophagus, which regulates what goes in and out of my stomach in that direction, is dysfunctional. Normally, it doesn't bother me, I get a little acid reflux now and again, but otherwise, it's fine. But with pregnancy hormones relaxing my muscles and my uterus pushing up on my stomach, it's a recipe for disaster. I say this so that the people reading this who have yet to have kids realize that my heartburn is more severe than normal, and not to expect to experience it like I have.

But anyway, my mental worries and the heartburn have been keeping me awake. My lack of sleep has been turning me into a major grouch. It got so bad that I decided I was going to start sleeping on the couch. It's incredible comfortable, because I can sleep in a reclined position with the back support I don't get in the bed. But when it came time for Bryan to go to bed, we both realized that we really didn't want that. Neither of us wanted him to go to bed alone. I told him there was one more thing we could try. We had to simulate the couch sleeping position. He jumped on it, because he had been contemplating how he could sleep on the couch, or bringing blankets and pillows down and sleeping on the floor next to me. I wanted to cry, he was being so sweet... But we put my body pillow up against the wall, and piled blankets and pillows behind my head. I brought one of the pillows from the couch to add to the pile. After a few adjustments, it was pretty close. After a few more, it was great. It wasn't like the couch as far as where my rear was, you can't make your mattress softer unless you have one of those Sleep Numbers or something, but it was good enough to where I was comfortable. And it worked! I got more sleep that night than I had in a week. But I still had heartburn. So yesterday, I went to see my doctor for some Zantac. And last night, I slept through the night for the first time in two weeks! It was really nice.

Now to talk about the doctor's visits. Monday was my 36 week visit with the OB. I was due for my Group B strep test. If they found the strep bacteria around my vagina, the baby would need antibiotics for it when he was born. So the doctor got one of those gigantically long Q-tip things and took a swab of the outer rim of my vagina. It hurt at first, because my body didn't produce any natural lubrication. Once it did, it was fine. She asked questions about the baby's movements, if I was having any Braxton-Hicks, and birth control postpartum. The baby's been moving like crazy, I haven't been having Braxton-Hicks very much in the last week or so, and I was planning to use the three-month supply of my Evra patch for birth control. The doctor said that if I'm breastfeeding, I shouldn't use anything with estrogen at least until my 6-week postpartum checkup, because it could interfere with milk supply. She actually suggested the Nuva-Ring that I'd been hearing about on TV. She showed me how it was used, and said that out of all the estrogen birth control methods, it has the lowest amount. I still have some questions about its use, but I might go ahead and look into getting it. It still seems a bit messy to me, especially putting it back in after the week without it is over, but I have plenty of time for that. I asked her about elective induction, where I would have labor induced when I wanted. She told me that they don't do that at that hospital, mainly because they are really busy. But induction when the body's not ready increases the incidence of needing a C-section, and can actually make labor longer and worse than it would be normally. Of course, she asked why I wanted to know. I wanted to know about doing that so that if Junior doesn't want to come when my mom's here, I can be induced to make sure that he does. But that's not a good enough reason for the hospital to do that for me. Can you tell that I want my mom here?

Bryan's starting to get nervous, too. He doesn't know what he's supposed to do in the labor room besides hold my hand. So I had him read the section about labor and how the coach can help in the pregnancy book the hospital gave us. I also looked up information on www.babycenter.com and www.americanbaby.com for him to read. I know he read the book, but I don't know about the websites. I may still stop by the library and get him something to read through. I told him we could practice if he wants to. I've been practicing some breathing techniques here and there, but there are still some things I want to go over with him, like relaxation options he can help with, and what my focus or focal point is going to be. I don't even know that yet. I've been trying to think of one. I could use a memory or visualization of a peaceful place, I could use a picture of someone I care about, some object that makes me feel relaxed or peaceful like a stuffed animal. There's infinite possibilities. I have no idea.

Another worry on my mind is that I still don't have my labor bag packed! Part of that is knowing I need to get a nightgown that buttons in the front for nursing purposes, and that I don't have any idea what my focal point is going to be. I also need to find my CD player and either burn or buy a classical music CD. I used to go to sleep to that stuff, especially the Native American flute music. I know that would help me relax. And we still don't have a diaper bag for Junior. Bryan wants this thing that looks like a tool belt that goes over the shoulder. I want something more traditional. I showed him a few websites with diaper bags, hoping he'd pick a more traditional one that didn't look too babyish or girly, and he picked this Baby Bandolier thing. I just worry that it won't have room for everything we need. I'm still going to order it, but I may go ahead and get a different one for me. I don't know yet. We picked out a stroller, but haven't bought it yet. And we don't have a baby carrier. We're not getting any of that stuff until after payday, which is a week away. I know we're getting it, but I worry that he'll come early and we won't have any of it.

And Bryan and I still have to talk about our birth plan, what I want done, what I don't want done, things I'd like to have with me, etc. Lots of stuff still to do, and I haven't finished cleaning the house, either. I had made a list of all the little things that needed done, and decided we (think "I") needed to do two things on the list each day to get everything done in time. I've been seriously slacking off for the last four days, haven't done anything. I've just been too tired. No energy. Even now, I'm dragging. I keep misspelling words. I slept til ten after taking Bryan to work at 5:30, and it's only noon, but I am so wanting to go lie down and take a nap. I probably will, because I know I need the rest. But it just drives me crazy because I don't feel like I'm doing anything productive.

This post has gone on long enough. Time to quit griping and go take a nap.

TTFN!!!