Mason is here!!!

Our baby boy, Mason Jeffrey arrived on Sunday, January 24th at 3:15pm. A lot of people have asked about his birth story, so I thought I'd post it here. So, if you don't want to hear anything too "graphic", change the channel now ;).

I woke up at 5:15 Sunday morning to what I thought was my water breaking. It turns out, it wasn't my water, just a loss of bladder control (a pregnancy symptom I won't miss). Since I thought it was my water, I called labor and delivery and they told me to come in, but that I had time to shower and eat breakfast. Contractions hadn't started yet, but Jeff and I proceeded to get ready. Not even five minutes later the contractions started, and they were hard and fast. They were immediately five minutes apart, and they hurt like hell!!! I took a shower while Jeff ate breakfast, and by the time I got out of the shower my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart. I was in so much pain, that Jeff bypassed the shower and we went straight to the hospital.

Once we arrived (6:40am), they checked my water, which hadn't broken, but saw that I was five centimeters dilated and 90% effaced. I was having a baby...today! We got settled into our labor and delivery room, and I got my epidural at 8:10am. It was such a relief considering the amount of pain I was in, but it took four tries for the anesthesiologist to get the epidural in the right place. I dilated to ten centimeters by noon, at which point, they broke the flood gates (my water) and I began to push. The nurse thought it would take about an hour and a half to push him out based on how quickly I dilated, and they estimated he would be 7 1/2 pounds. Three hours later, I was still pushing, and Mason wasn't any closer to joining us. He actually had his head turned sideways, and despite the doctor's efforts to turn him twice, he wouldn't turn. After a daunting three hours, we decided to use the vacuum since I was so tired, and he was not coming. The vacuum delivery was horrible!!!! It was the worst pain I have EVER felt, and Jeff said it was the most horrible thing to watch. He actually had to look away. The vacuum helped and Mason arrived at 3:15pm. I wasn't able to hold him right away since they had to check him quickly due to the vacuum. In the meantime, I was getting stitched up. I tore really bad in EVERY direction. I asked the doctor how many stitches I needed, he said it was too many to count. I asked the doctor what degree tear I had, he said they don't "score" them in these directions because it wasn't a common tear. I was so nauseous from the blood loss, and I just wanted to see and hold our baby.

Mason did great after being born. He weighed in at 9lbs. 3oz. (not the 7 1/2 pounds they thought). He was 20 inches long, and had a head circumference of 14.5 cm. No wonder he couldn't come out. He scored 8 and 9 on his apgars. And, he is the most beautiful baby ever! He looks just like his dad! He has blue eyes, and brown hair with frosted blond tips! When I finally got to hold him, I instantly fell in love! It was so amazing to see this little man that had been in my belly for nine months!

The doctor told us that had we not done the vacuum, I easily would have been pushing for another few hours, and it was doubtful he would've come after that. After Mason arrived, and I was "repaired" they moved us to the recovery room. We had to stay in the hospital for two days because of the severity of my pain, and Mason had a jaundice level they were monitoring. We had to supplement with formula in the hospital to help lower the jaundice level since my milk hadn't come in yet. I was devastated by this because I wanted to breast feed exclusively. But, we gave him the formula, and his level went down enough for us to be released. The day after we were released, we had our first doctor's appointment, and his jaundice level went back up despite supplementing with formula at home as well. Due to the incline in his jaundice, he has had to be on a photo therapy lamp at home for the past five days. We've had to take him back to the hospital everyday to have his blood drawn, and his levels checked. His levels have been going down, and today they were finally low enough for us to take him off the lamp, but we have to get his blood drawn later this week to make sure the jaundice levels continue to drop. We have been breastfeeding at home since my milk finally came in. It has been a rough transition, but it is worth it to be able to nurse our son.

Mason is a very sleepy baby, and we have to wake him up to feed him. He doesn't cry too much, and loves being held. We are so excited to have him here!

Here are some pics of Mason, as well as some postpartum pictures of me (40 week pics to be exact, good thing he came early, or he would've been ten pounds...yikes!) Also, and please don't hate me, but I'm actually back to my pre-pregnancy weight! I haven't been dieting at all. I guess when your baby is a third of your weight gain, it makes it easy to lose those extra pounds. My clothes still don't fit right, and my tummy sticks out, but exercising right now is the last thing on my mind. I need to heal and take care of our baby!