Landon Landon Landon

My baby boy will be 5 weeks tomorrow. I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. I better document the experience before it becomes more of a blur than it already is. The next few posts will be dedicated to our little boy and our new life as parents.

Labor/Delivery

Our new journey into parenthood all started the night of Wednesday August 19th when I started having contractions. The contractions weren't super painful but they were pretty frequent so Dan and I started timing them around 9:00pm. They were coming consistently every 4-6minutes for 2 hours. Dan thought we should head down to the hospital but I wasn't convinced I was in labor because they were not strong enough. So we went to bed and when I was about to get up and get ready to go to the hospital the contractions stopped and I fell asleep. Around 4:00am the contractions started up again and they were super painful. I decided to get up and watch some TV to see if it was the real deal and as soon as I did they stopped again. LAME!! I eventually went back to bed. When I got up in the morning the weak consistent contractions started up again. I went to the bathroom and had some bloody show and it kinda freaked me out. After talking to my mom I decided to call my nurse. The nurse told me that since I had bloody show and my weak contractions were coming every 5minutes I should head down to the hospital. So around 10:00am we left our apartment and life as we knew it.

The triage nurse got me all hooked up to monitor my contractions and checked my cervix....I was only 3cm. So after monitoring my contractions for a while she called my Dr to see what steps we should take. My Dr happened to be at the hospital that day and told me I could either go home or they could take me up to labor/deliver break my water and hook me up to pitosen to get things going. Dan and I really struggled to decided what to do. I didn't really want to go home because I wanted my Dr to deliver the baby and she was going out of town the next morning......I think Dan and I both really wanted to pick the second option but didn't want to admit to it because it felt like we would be cheating if they hooked me up to pitosen that day. Our triage nurse was really awesome and said "if you decided to have the baby today I will be you nurse."She said it in a way that was like "please decided to have the baby today I want to be your nusre and I want to get out of triage." So we headed up to labor and delivery!!

Around 1:00pm they hooked me up to pitosen. The baby and I took to it really well and the contractions got stronger and stronger. Around 4 my Dr came and broke my water (the most paiful part of it all) and just after I got an epidural. I loved the epidural!! I don't know why people opt to go natural. Around 6:00pm my Dr went home to pack for her trip and said she would come back when it was time to deliver. At that point I was dilated to 6cm. Just before 7:00pm I was talking to Dan and told him I had a weird feeling. It felt like I had to go to the bathroom. Just then my nurse came to check on me one last time before she went home for the night......and I was 10cm!!! It was time to have the baby!!! At that moment I felt so overwhelmed with emotion. I wanted to laugh and cry and be scared out of my mind all at the same time.

Before calling my Dr the nurse had me push one time to see what would happen and his little head full of hair appeared. She had another nurse call my Dr to see what she wanted us to do. My Dr wanted to deliver the baby and had us wait for her. So there I sat for 20 minutes in the birthing position waiting for my Dr. When she finally got there I only had to push through 2 contractions and our baby boy was born at 7:37pm. I remember thinking "Wow! That was a piece of cake!" The Dr and all the nursing staff kept telling me that I was built to make babies.




Recovery

The first night in the hospital was miserable!! Our little boy would not latch on. He would root like a little bird and as soon as he opened his mouth he would stop and sometimes fall asleep. He just wouldn't suck. I felt so helpless not being able to feed my baby. My awful nurse didn't help the situation at all!! She was really rude and would force him on to me when he was screaming and she was yell at him and tell him "NO" when he would start to fall asleep. I wanted to tell her to go away and not to treat my precocious little boy like that. Since Landon wouldn't latch on they had to poke his little foot every 2 hours to make sure his sugars were at an ok level (poor little guy has scars from this). Around 5am they brought in a breast pump and made me give him formula. Luckily the morning came and we got a new nurse and the wost night of my life ended.

The next day and night (Friday) Landon still wouldn't latch on but I was able to pump enough to feed him. I remember feeling so alone and being so scared that night thinking and crying "how can I take this baby home tomorrow if I can't even feed him." It was the worst feeling in the world. I prayed so hard that night and the next morning we had the most amazing nurse. She gave me some pointers and Landon latched on right away. I was so happy!! And thankful to my Heavenly Father for answering my prayers. He still wasn't very good and nursing but at least I knew with some practice we could get the hang of it.