The Parham Family: April 2010

And in April we started the weekly doctor's appointments! We also started having serious discussions with our doctor about how & when this baby was going to come! Due to the fact that he was looking like he might end up being a big baby, plus the fact that we live over an hour away from the hospital, my doctor wanted to schedule an induction during the week of April 26 (about a week before my due date). We were happy about that because it helped ease some of our fears about that manic rush to the hospital in the middle of the night that you always hear about! However, as we got nearer to my due date, things were still up in the air because this little baby didn't care too much about cooperating with our plan! At my 4-d ultrasound that we had at the end of March we found out that Mitchell had turned and was now in the breach position. So I let my doctor know and she ordered another ultrasound at the Medical Center the 2nd week of April and luckily he had turned back into the head down position. But, in all this moving he was doing (and how he was moving around in there I have NO idea because he was taking up every bit of space inside my huge belly!!), he shifted back up (in March he had dropped down into position to come out). So until he dropped more, my doctor said she wouldn't induce me because he just wouldn't be ready to come out before then! Her suggestion was to walk every day and boy let me tell you, I wore out a path going up and down our street in the next week!! Finally at my appointment on April 20, she said that he had dropped, I was starting to dilate, and we could schedule an induction for the following Tuesday, April 27!!

So bright and EARLY (3 a.m.!) April 27,

Allen and I got up (neither of us actually slept a wink that night!), called into the hospital to make sure they had room for us, and then drove to Columbus and checked in. Around 6 a.m. after all the prep and paperwork was done, they started my IV of pitocin and told me to settle in and get comfy!

sun coming up, April 27th

Dr. Aranas came in around 9 a.m. to check my progress and she also broke my water (OUCH!!!). She also attached two monitors in me, one on the baby's head to monitor his heartbeat and another in my uterus to measure the contractions. And she gave me the REALLY good news that I had her go-ahead and could have the epidural whenever I wanted it! I gave it about another hour (I was having pretty strong contractions according to the monitor) and then I started to feel some pressure so I asked my wonderful nurse (Brooke Thompson, I actually went to school with her when we were younger!) if she could go ahead and call the anesthesiologist. I must say, damn good thing I asked when I did!! Literally in the 10 minutes it took for the doctor to get to my room from the time I asked for the epidural, I went from "Oh, there's some pressure and I can feel when I'm having a contraction, but no biggee," to "holy crap--WHERE the HELL are those drugs???" I have to say, I'm kind of glad that I got to feel what "labor" pains feel like, but oh my goodness, I am SO glad I didn't have to feel them for more than a few minutes!!! :) Once the doctor put in the epidural IV, I was good to go!

a few hours into labor and feeling good!

few more hours...feeling good but sort of tired of this!

luckily I had Allen (plus a bunch of visitors!) to keep me occupied

Things continued to progress slowly throughout the day. The good news was that every time they checked me, I was making progress. The bad news (to me!) was that it was SLOW progress!! Around 5:00 that evening Dr. Aranas called for an ultrasound just to double check that he hadn't turned breach again. Everything looked fine, so we kept on with the slow progress. Then around midnight, the nurses FINALLY declared that I was 10 cm dilated and we were ready to push!! I pushed about three times and then the nurse said "hmm, I'm not sure about this".....NOT exactly what you want to hear when you're in labor!! Luckily I think I was so exhausted by this point and the drugs were probably making me a little woozy because I normally would've freaked out, but I managed to stay calm while they brought Dr. Aranas in and she checked things out. She and the nurses agreed that even though we knew he wasn't breach, he still wasn't in the correct birthing position. They thought that either he had his head laying over to one side on his shoulders or that he might be upside down, meaning that his face was up which wouldn't allow him to slide under the bone and come out the way he's supposed to. So, after 18 hours of labor (EIGHTEEN HOURS!!!! I will remind him of this for the rest of his life! :) ) Dr. Aranas looked at me and said, "we're going to have to do a c-section." Ugh. :(
So, about 15 minutes later I was in surgery and very shortly thereafter I heard the sweetest, most amazing sound in the world, my baby's first cries! There are just no words to describe that emotion you feel when you hear that cry
Here are some pictures from the delivery (skip over them if you can't handle the sight of blood!!)

Allen cutting the cord!

putting a cap on his little ET head!

he was pretty beaten up and mis-shapen from being in the birth canal for so long--Allen actually said when he first saw him "he looks like something from Star Trek!" I know this because my doctor thought it was hilarious and has repeated it several times since then! I don't think she'll ever forget my husband!