Thursday, September 22nd, Stella, Pat and I await the arrival of Baby F.
Friday, the 23rd, Pat and I went to the hospital at 9 am for a heartbeat & ultrasound test. When you are 41 weeks they require both tests to assure that the baby is healthy and the mother can carry for another week. Our heart rate monitoring went great, but at the end of our ultrasound we were only given a score of 6. I knew from our doctor that we needed to have an 8-10 to go another week. We were asked to go back to the labor and delivery floor and wait for a call from our doctor. At 1 pm we spoke to our doctor who asked if we knew what was going on, we said no, but based on the fact that we'd be given a room and the nurses had ordered lunch for Pat we figured she had a plan. Dr. Burner told us that the placenta was beginning to give out and that I had hardly any water left around the baby and it was safest to induce. In my ideal birthing scenario the word induction did not belong, but we knew that the risks were too high.
By 3 pm I was hooked up to monitors, given an IV, pitocin & penicillin. At 6 pm Dr. Davis came by to break my water. I was 3 cm along which was great news since I’d been 2 cm for the past month, After breaking my water my contractions started to move along at the same time the pitocin was being bumped up. Between 8:30 pm and 9 pm my contractions went from a 6 to a 9 on my pain scale. At 9 pm the nurse checked me and I was still only 3 cm. At this point I was using Pat’s whole body to stand up and try and rock through my contractions, which were coming every 2 and a half minutes and getting stronger. Trying to even imagine another 5 minutes of this pain I opted for an epidural.
By 10 pm the epidural was in place and by 10 :30 pm I was 4cm dilated. From 10:30 pm and midnight I relaxed, took a small nap and when the nurse checked me again I was 8.5-9 cm and they called Dr. Davis. By 1 am I was ready to push, but had to take a 10 minute break while Dr. Davis delivered another baby who had crowned just moments before. At 1:15 am we were ready to push and at 1:48 am Sofia Makena Flanagan came into this world.
The last photo of the Flanagans as a family of two (obviously I've had an epidural).
My first time meeting Miss Sofia.
Our first family photo.
Proud Papa Pat.
Our big little girl, weighing in at 7 lbs, 5 oz and measuring 20 inches long.
1 comment:
Princess Sofia! Your Aunties and Uncles LAOOOOOVE you! And I suppose that goes for Mariah and Pat too ;) Just Kidding. I'm so excited to meet you! We can have long philosophical discussions about Plato's Symposium, Grandpa Dyen (hehe) will participate too, I'm sure.
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