I guess Baby Myles’ birth story starts back with my doctor’s appointment Wednesday, February 27. I had my appointment and the doctor was (as always) telling me how absolutely horrible my sugar numbers were when I said, “Well I’m being induced Sunday so I guess it doesn’t really matter anyway!” Then the doctor threw me for a loop, “Oh I think we aren’t going to induce until Wednesday.” When I reminded him that at my last appointment we had set up the inducement for Sunday, he said, “I don’t think you have progressed enough [I was 2 cm and 60%] to be induced Sunday.” He went ahead and stripped my membranes but then sent me home. Well I was INCREDIBLY upset! He had told me the whole time that he thought I would go into labor by myself at around 37 weeks. And then when I didn’t, he said he wouldn’t let me go past 39 weeks because of the gestational diabetes. Well Sunday WAS 39 weeks and now he was pushing me BACK when my sugar numbers were getting higher AND my blood pressure was shooting up?!? I went home and cried myself to sleep!
On Thursday I woke up feeling horrible! I had quite a bit (TMI) of bloody show and was cramping like crazy. By 10 am I was having painful contractions that were 3 minutes apart and lasting for a minute each. I didn’t know what to do because Austin was in surgery all day. I finally called him and told him to come home in between surgeries and take me to the hospital because the contractions were so painful and consistent that I didn’t think I could make it to the end of the day. So after his morning surgery, he picked up our friend Becca to come and watch the kids and picked up me and dropped me off at the ER and then went to his next surgery! I was quickly checked in at L&D and they saw I was having contractions at 3 minutes apart. However, when the doctor came and checked me I was still at 2 and 60, just like I had been the night before. The doctor was just going to send me home then (even though the nurse kept saying she thought he should admit me because my blood pressure was so high and I WAS having significant contractions), but in the end decided to have me walk the hospital for a little while and see if that did anything. Well that was fine with me—I couldn’t go home anyway because Austin was in surgery and I was ready for that baby to come!!! The next two hours were incredibly painful. Here I was, absolutely huge anyway and having painful contractions every three minutes, trying to walk around the hospital! After two hours I went back to be checked again—still no progress and I was sent home (well, after waiting in the lobby a couple more hours for Austin to get done). For the second night in a row I went home and cried myself to sleep. Only this time I was in major pain—the contractions lasted all night!
Friday was more of the same—contractions all day but these weren’t consistent at all. I was just really tired and achy and felt pretty bad. That night I was up at least every twenty minutes (sometimes more than that) because I felt like I had to go to the bathroom all night! It was so crazy. I would feel like I was about to wet my pants and no matter how many times I went the feeling never went away! So once again, no sleep!
Saturday—same thing again. Cramping, contractions, and feeling like I had to go to the bathroom. I was miserable and absolutely exhausted so I spent my day either in bed or the bathroom. The poor kids just watched tv all day (Austin was at work). Around 10 pm that night my contractions were more consistent and I started timing them again. Once again, they were three minutes apart—just like they had been on Thursday. Austin got home at about 11 pm and by then I was walking the floor and getting in and out of the bath and just bawling because I hurt so much! My contractions were between 1 and 3 minutes apart, but I was afraid to go to the hospital because I didn’t want to get sent home again. Finally I decided to go to the hospital anyway. I told Austin they would either have to admit me or give me some medicine to stop the contractions because I couldn’t take anymore! So Austin woke the kids and we bundled them up and set off for the hospital.
Random picture that I took of myself on Saturday. Absolutely huge and miserable!!!
We got to the ER a little after 1 am. Austin dropped me off at the door (he and the kids just waited in the waiting room until we found out if I was going to be sent home). This time they RAN me back to L&D and quickly checked me. I was dilated to a 5 and 80%. They were definitely admitting me! Before 2 am, I was already up to a 6 and going fast! They quickly ordered my epidural but apologized in advance if I didn’t get it in time—I was going that quickly! I sent Austin a message and he called Becca and Derek and asked them to come and get the kids. By the time he made it up to the room, I had already had my epidural and was starting to feel better. The doctor came in and said that the feeling I had that I had to go to the bathroom was because my water was bulging so much. He said he could break it then and the baby would be born quickly, or we could wait a little while. I chose to wait a little while because I wanted to make sure my epidural had me good and numb! So for the next couple of hours, Austin slept and I tried to relax (IMPOSSIBLE when you know you are about to have a baby!). Finally at around 6 am I called him and said I was ready to have him break my water. He broke it and I was dilated to an 8. He started to leave the room and I immediately told the nurse I was ready to push. The doctor said no way was I ready to push already and left. However, the nurse believed me and started getting things ready. At 6:30 I told the nurse I could not wait anymore—I HAD to push. She called the doctor in and he checked me and said we were good to go!
The next thirty minutes were so horrible. I felt like I had to push—nothing to be done about it, I HAD to push—but I was just so, so exhausted! I hadn’t slept in days and I was just honestly too tired! Everyone around me was telling me to push and all of a sudden I was crying and screaming and throwing a fit basically and saying I could not do it. Haha, I was absolutely ridiculous! I can remember yelling that the doctor had to get that baby out because I could not do it!!! I can also remember being SO annoyed because they were going to let Austin deliver the baby and I thought them getting him ready was taking way too long! I’m pretty sure several people wanted to smack me before it was all over! But all over it soon was, and at 7:02 am Myles Austin Matthews was born!
After he was delivered the doctor asked me if I wanted to cut the cord—umm no. That grosses me out! So he did it. I mostly think he was trying to distract me from the fact that they did NOT give me the baby right away. I didn’t hear him cry and I kept asking what was going on and no one would tell me. Turns out he wasn’t breathing right when he was born. However, he was totally fine and the nurses said sometimes when delivery is so fast the babies just have a hard time adjusting at first. His original APGAR score was only a 5 but after ten minutes he went up to a 10. Finally after about half an hour they gave him to me and he immediately started nursing and he nursed for a full hour until they needed to clean him up and check his blood sugar (because of my gestational diabetes his blood sugar had to be checked every few hours).
He wasn’t nearly as big as we thought—he was only 8 pounds, 1 oz and 21 inches long. He weighed exactly as much as Max and Max was born at 37 weeks when Myles wasn’t born until 39 weeks!
The proud Daddy with his new little baby:
Austin was actually on call, so a hour after Myles was born, he had to leave to go and do rounds and was gone until after lunch time. So the whole morning it was just me and cute baby boy!
He was VERY sleepy, but also nursed quite a bit!
At about 3, Becca and Derek came and brought the big kids to visit their new baby brother.
I had only been away from them for the day, but boy did I miss my big kids!
Becca and Derek left after a hour or so, but the kids stayed with us to have our “Celebratory Dinner” with us. Finally a little after 7pm, Austin took the kids home for the evening (only they didn’t make it home until much later because Austin kept getting calls about patients!). Then it was just me and little man! That night was pretty rough. I hadn’t been able to sleep all day and I was SO tired, but baby Myles did NOT want to sleep. I also had a huge scare: I was changing his diaper when he spit up and it went up his nose and all of a sudden he stopped breathing! I couldn’t find the nose thing (what’s that called?!?) anywhere and I started freaking out so I had to call the nurse in. She ran and got a new one and we cleaned out his nose and he was good to go. But seriously that freaked me out. At that point the nurse offered to take the baby until the shift change at 7 am (it was about 4 am then). I was so tired I eagerly agreed and fell asleep—only to be awaken at 4:30 am by a resident who was there to discharge me. Who gets discharged at 4:30 am?!? Anyway, after the resident left I tried to sleep again but finally got up for good at 6:30 am.
The rest of the morning was spent doing check-out things—paperwork for medical records and the birth certificate, taking pictures, etc. I was ready to go by the time Austin got done with work at around noon (once again, Becca was watching the kids), but we were waiting for the pediatrician to come and discharge Myles. They finally came in and we left the hospital a little after 1 pm.
I wish I had taken pictures—Becca and the kids made a “Welcome Home Mom and Myles” banner that was too, too cute! But I was just so happy to have my entire little family home together safe and sound! It is SO great to finally have our little Myles! We absolutely love and adore him already!!!
Special, special, special HUGE thanks to Becca and Derek for EVERYTHING! Becca spent SO much time watching our kids and straightening things up and left us a yummy dinner that first night. They were (and are) truly amazing and we are so grateful they took care of us and the kids during this time!!!
