Before I start the birth story I have to explain something first. During this pregnancy I had what is called Cholestasis of Pregnancy, which I didn't have with Hank. (My mom had it with all five of her kids) The formal definition of Cholestasis: Pregnancy hormones affect gallbladder function, resulting in slowing or stopping the flow of bile. The gallbladder holds bile that is produced in the liver, which is necessary in the breakdown of fats in digestion. When the bile flow is stopped or slowed down, this causes a build up of bile acids in the liver which can spill into the bloodstream. Basically all it does is make the mom super itchy, I'm talking digging holes in your hands and feet trying to get the itch out. Scratches and scabs all over your body and not really being able to sleep. Luckily it doesn't show up until the third trimester and there is medicine to help out a little. The only affect it has on the baby is that it has been linked to fetal death if the mom goes full term. Because of this Doctors induce at 36-37 weeks or whenever they feel the baby is okay on its own.
Now with the story...because of the Cholestasis I was scheduled to be induced on Monday April 30th. Susan got in on Sunday night and Tyson and I took off to the hospital early Monday morning. We got the the hospital about 8:00 am and got settled in. They checked me and I was barely dilated to a 2 so they started me on pitocin about 9:00 and the journey began. My contractions never got very strong no matter how high they turned up the pitocin. My midwife checked on me through out the day but not much was happening. This little guy didn't want to come. By 6:00 pm my midwife was doing her final rounds and I was not quite a 4. (Seriously I was so beginning to get frustrated at this point) My midwife decided to leave me on pitocin through the night and told me to walk the halls and bounce on the ball to try to get things started. So I started walking. My day nurse was great and encouraged me and helped me try different things to try and get things moving along. When the night nurse came in things changed. Whenever we walked the halls she would stop us after one lap because the monitor went out of reach so she'd make us stop until she could find the baby again. It was so frustrating because I would just start to feel the contractions getting stronger and then she'd stop us. She actually ended up telling us we couldn't walk laps anymore. So by about 9:30 or 10:00 we decided to just go to sleep because we knew the next day was going to long. Well our night nurse had a different idea. She was in our room about every 30 minutes for something or other. It was so frustrating, I just wanted to scream at her. My midwife came in about 8:00 the next morning and checked me. No surprise here, still at a 4. My midwife gave me some options at this point. I could choose 1) go home and try again next week or see if things happen on there own. 2) break my water and see if that helps but with this I risked not progressing and having to get a c-section 3) keep using pitocin and see if it does anything or 4) try using a balloon to help open and dilate me. We choose option 4 and before 9:00 am I had a very uncomfortable balloon inside me. The midwife did say that once it falls out I would be at a 5 or 6 so I very excited when just before 10:00 I got up to go to the bathroom and out comes the balloon. Midwife checks and I'm barely at a 5. She did feel comfortable breaking my water at this point so at 10:00 she broke my water. Instantly my contractions were much stronger. At 11:00 I was at a 6 and I got my epidural. Things went very quickly from that point forward. At 12:30 my midwife came in and suited up. It was time to push. Less than 30 minutes later baby Luke was here.
To be fair this picture was taken at 10:30 pm after over 12 hours of pitocin.
Hank came with Grandma Susan later that day. He didn't care that much about Luke, he just wanted to play with the chair and push buttons.
Pointing out Luke's two ears
Kisses for baby brother
Hugs for brother
A Family of Four
Going Home
Just for kicks here is Hank before we took him home
It was a long and exhausting two days but I was so happy that Luke was there healthy and happy. Luke weighed 7lbs 1oz and was 20 3/4 inches long. Just a little bigger then his brother Hank that was 6lbs 14oz and 19 inches long. Luke had tons of really dark hair where Hank had very little blond hair. Luke also has a butt chin and curved pinkie fingers (which he gets from Grandma Susan).
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