I hope you will forgive me for the late introduction....
Kaiden Nathan John
Born June 24, 2009 at 8:59 a.m.
Weight 7 lbs. 4 oz.
Kaiden arrived a few days late but that really is par for the course with my children. I had worried about having to have another c-section due to a previous one and some scarring on my cervix. I am so happy to say that I had a successful VBAC.
My labour started with contractions every 20 minutes apart at around 5 p.m. while Nathan and I were trying to have a nap. By 8 p.m. I called my parents to tell them that the contractions were only a few minutes apart and that we were going to head to the hospital.
At the hospital I was checked and found to be 2 cm. I was not excited about that. When they hooked me up to the machine my contractions slowed down. I was not excited about that either. On doctor's orders I wandered the hall of the hospital for an hour while the girls sat in the family room waiting for something to happen. It was getting late and they had school the next day. They were excited about the thought of not having to go in the morning. At least someone was excited at this point.
To make a long story short(er), I was sent home from the hospital, after refusing drugs, only to return with contractions less than a minute apart within 2 hours. Once I returned to the hospital I was found to be 4 cm. I got a little excited at this point because I was dilating. I was not sure if this would happen or not and it did. I screamed for my epidural and my favorite person of the evening arrived and hooked a Momma up!
After a long night, well, more so for Nathan and my Mom, trying to get some sleep in very uncomfortable delivery room chairs, at 8:56 am (as marked down by the nurse) I started to push. Kaiden was delivered in 3 pushes at 8:59 am. My doctor had stepped out of the room to give the nurse some room to get everything set up and missed the delivery. I could not believe how fast he came. It was wonderful. Everything looked great with him. We went home the next day but had to return for night to put Kaiden under the lights due to jaundice.
That in a nutshell was my delivery story. It has been a rough month though. I think that I lulled myself into this false sense of This-is-my-4th-baby-how-hard-can-it-be-itis. Kaiden is 5 weeks old and we are still struggling to really see eye-to-eye (or eye-to-boob, however you want to think about it) with breastfeeding. It has been 5 weeks of sore, cracked, raw nipples, low supply, weight loss (his, not mine....because if it were mine it would be a good thing), supplementation, city wide searches for supplemental nursing systems and tears. Lot and lots of tears.
My new boss is calling....I apologize if this doesn't make sense!!