MJ's Birth Story

I was so relieved when my birthday past and I didn't go into labor. I didn't want to spend the day at the hospital and I didn't want to have to share birthdays, I wanted our baby to have his own special day. After that though, I was ready. I had been having false labor contractions almost every day since the previous Friday and I was totally in gear to have the baby out! Wednesday night before we went to bed I had another false labor for about and hour and half, I kept telling JP that I thought I might be able to give him a baby that night. Once the contractions stopped I was pretty disappointed and we went to sleep. My water broke at 3:00am and we called L&D to find out what they wanted us to do. I had discussed with the doctor laboring at home for as long as possible before coming in but they wanted me to come in right away because I wasn't having contractions. When we got to the hospital they hooked me up to the monitors and we waited for contractions to start with our fingers crossed that I wouldn't have to be induced. I was 3 cm dilated when we arrived. By 7am my contractions were in full swing and I was throwing up in between everyone. When the nurse checked me and I had made no progress at all I decided to have an epidural so I could get some rest. The anesthesiologist was there by 8:00, he had me hooked up by 8:30, and I was feeling a ton of relief by 9:00. I was actually able to nap between 10:00 and noon! The doctor came in around 2:00 and told me I was fully dilated but he wanted me to sit up and let gravity do some of the work for about an hour. He was back at 3:00 and I pushed for almost an hour and a half before MJ made his first appearance. The nurses and photographer were split right down the middle on what the sex of the baby would be. DH said boy, I said girl, and the doctor said he never guesses! They laid him on my belly and he just stared at me with those beautiful eyes. DH and I both teared up as we took in our son. I was able to hold him and bond with him uninterrupted for more than an hour before they asked to take him for his measurements. It was a truly wonderful experience. The labor and delivery went unbelievably smoothly. Everybody at the hospital was great and I felt both MJ and I were very safe in their hands. After he was born the Doctors became concerned about his weight loss. He lost over 10% of his body weight in 48 hours and because of my breast reduction surgery they couldn't be sure he was getting enough to eat from me. They kept us an extra two days to monitor him and they had us begin supplementing his feedings with SNS and formula. It was excruciatingly devastating knowing that I was incapable of feeding my own baby and keeping him healthy. We're home now and the doctor told us at his check up that we halved his weight loss in two days! The doctor said to keep and eye on his diapers but it seems like I'm producing plenty to cut back on the formula for now. His next appointment is on Friday and if the scale looks good hopefully we can move to BFing exclusively on demand. He's so perfect. JP and I are totally in love with him.