Thursday, April 21, 2011

New Baby Neil

Well... my mom says I need to update this blog again so I'm going to attempt to find the time. It's easy in the hospital with a sleeping brand-new baby but when I'm home with a toddler and baby it might be a totally different story!

Neil William was born at 4:05am on April 20.
6lbs, 11oz, 19inches, and a head full of dark hair!

He's just beautiful, and except for the dark hair he looks a lot like little A, who is that he has a new baby brother (who he still calls 'pipsqueak' - our in-utero nickname for him!). Yesterday when he was here baby Neil sneezed and little A says "did my baby brother bless you'd?" and when he sneezed again "my baby brother blessed you'd again."



Okay - the rest of this is the birth story, so there's a forewarning if it's TMI for you! I went into this having read books about natural birth and planning to not have any drugs. It takes a lot of mental preparation, but it's SO worth it.

I had some bleeding and contractions all afternoon, they got more regular and painful about 11:30 or so at night, I made Adam get up and call his mom at 2am, we got to the hospital at 3am and had Neil at 4:05! By the time the nurses checked me (they did a bunch of other stuff and then were calling the dr first because they were concerned about the bleeding) I was at 9cm! The nurse that checked me goes "well THAT'S why you're bleeding - you're about to have a baby!" Then they kept saying that it was a race between the Dr and the baby as to who might arrive first - the water sac was the only thing holding the baby in.

I had the head of the bed reclined way up and I labored and delivered upright on my knees, with my back to everyone, holding onto the the top of the bed. I really believe that, rather than laying down, made it all move fast - plus Neil was originally sunny-side-up and he turned as he was coming out, it only took 3 or 4 pushes to do that and they said it would have been a LOT longer and harder (and maybe impossible) had I been laying on my back.

The nurses here were amazing, and SO encouraging and supportive of natural labor and the position I was in (not that they had much choice - there was NO way I was moving!). It was awesome.

It was a hellava tough hour, but it was only one hour!! I got one tiny tear they didn't bother stitching and it already feels better today. It's interesting how many people (including nurses) are amazed at how good I look and feel 'just hours after giving birth' and I so want to say to them that completely natural labor must make all the difference.

Baby is doing great, he's already a pro at breastfeeding.

by yellowgirl at 7:30 AM |