Birth and Beyond

Sorry for the delay!

I left you at the getting ready to push part. It was fast! The new epidural was working well and I was super numb. I was a little worried that I would have trouble pushing, since I have heard several stories of women needing to have some feeling to push. I guess I am not one of those people;o) I pushed four times with the first contraction. She had me rest/let things stretch through the second. I pushed two or three times with the 3rd contraction and he was out! About 5 minutes! They laid GB on my stomach to clean him off a bit and let the blood in the cord stop pumping before R cut the cord. The look of amazement on the guys' faces as they watched their son being born and interacted with him for the first time was priceless and exactly the reason I did this<3 While GB got cleaned up and checked over, the midwife massaged the placenta out, cleaned me up and put in a couple of stitches.

There are no words to describe the happiness I felt as I laid there watching these two wonderful men achieve their dream. I think my favorite part was watching them watch their son get his first bath and check by the nurse. DH got some great pics of the guys in those first moments:o) It brought back memories of the day we met our sweet DD and all of the emotions involved in embarking on the journey of parenthood:o)

The guys did their skin to skin time with the little man and I got lunch. After about 2 hours, the nurse brought in this crazy contraption that she made me stand in to take me to the bathroom to get cleaned up and ready to move upstairs to our post-partum room. It was ridiculous! I totally could have walked, but I guess they want to cover their butts. Ugh! We went upstairs and got our rooms next to each other. They wanted to put me in that contraption again to get from the wheelchair to the bed, but I eventually convinced them I could stand up and turn around. They made me take a walker to the bathroom, which was also ridiculous, but, luckily, my stability convinced the nurse that I didn't need that either. Phewf!

We tried breastfeeding, but GB was too tired from his ordeal and just wanted to sleep, so we eventually went to pumping and feeding via syringe. The next morning, DH went home to take over DD watch, so my mom could go to work. He took her to the park and then to visit me. I didn't realize how much I missed her until I was left alone and had time to think about it. When they came, I took a shower, then the OB came in, talked to me for a few minutes and said she would discharge me. GB and I both did well and were discharged 25 hours after the birth.