Sandy's Birth

I had always wanted lots of kids and when my first, Kristy, was just a few months old I wanted another. She was a great baby and I loved being a mom. I told everybody that I wanted 12 instead of the 6 I had planned before. They all laughed and thought I would change my mind. They are starting to believe me now as I'm 35 weeks pg with my 8th!.

I had gotten my period back just before my 6 week appt. even though my new baby was totally breastfed. They were regular too. By 6 months I had somehow convinced my dh to have another one and I got pg right away. We had moved since having our first. We were living on campus in the married students apartments so I decided to try a new dr. He was working at the college where we were going to school. He was a partner with my first dr. and I would deliver at the same hospital. Looking back that was a mistake. I really should have kept the other dr.

During the first appt I told him I gained 45 pounds with my last pg and he said don't gain more than 25 this time. I tried to tell him that I lost 29 pounds within 6 days of delivering my first but he didn't care. My due date was March 17.

I had a u/s around 18 weeks and all was fine. I gained lots of weight. Since I gained 45 with my first so I wasn't surprised. The dr. had a real problem with it though. He keep bugging me about it. I started trying not to gain weight. He sent me for a glucose test and a 2nd u/s because I was gaining so much weight.

We found out we were having a boy! We named him Réjean Alexander. Réjean after his father and Alexander after all the men on my side of the family. We call him Sandy for a nickname like my grandfather. Sandy was a big boy too! I was 34 weeks and 5 days and according to the u/s he was over 8 pounds! I tried to reassure myself that he just had long legs so the u/s would estimate a large size but dh had a big head. The idea of having a baby with a large head bothered me too though.

The dr. was still very bothered by my weight gain but my tests were normal. My blood pressure started to go up a bit and he put me on bedrest. Kristy was 14 months and thought it was fun that I would just lie on the couch all day and watch her. I was of course bored and frightened.

On March 9 I went in for my appt and I had gained over 50 pounds. The dr. flipped and told me to go to the hospital to be induced. I was going to be 39 weeks the next day and of course I wanted to have the baby! We went home and got everything ready and brought Kristy over to a friends house. We got on the bus and went downtown to the hospital. It was an hour trip. We would have taken a taxi but I wasn't in labor.

It was early evening by the time we got there. I was admitted and then they started the pit drip. My first labor had been natural and I was not prepared for those pit contractions! My husband was putting hot wash clothes on my back. They worked well for my first labor but as things progressed the water needed to be hotter. This time we brought a kettle and that worked well for a while. The nurse was not impressed as we were making the bed wet. It was my bed, no? Here is a picture of me. Boy I look younger than the 22 I was.

Soon Reg just couldn't keep up and I started to scream. The asked if I wanted an epi and I said yes. The turned down the pit but the contractions continued. The anesthesiologist was in an emergency surgery and couldn't come up. Just as a nurse came in with a shot of demerol the anesthesiologist said he would do the epi down in the OR. My husband wasn't allowed to go so the nursed rolled my bed down to the OR. I was holding my pillow crying by this point every time I had a contraction. I got the epi and felt another contraction and started to groan and the nurse said isn't the epi working. Oh yes, it didn't hurt!

I went back up stairs with a smile on my face. Reg was relieved to see me back to myself. They turned the pit back on while Reg and I talked to past the time. Not long I started to feel pain again and I started to worry. The nurse came in and I told her. She came in because the heartrate was dropping. She checked me and I was 10 cms! I had been 4 and hour earlier when I got the epi. Everything started happening really fast.

I was transferred to the delivery room and put on the wonderful steel table with my feet up in stirrups. Reg got into his scrubs. A dr. I had never seen before was called into the room. I had a med. student who was suppose to deliver. My dr. had been called but hadn't arrived yet. Since I was frozen it didn't hurt to push so I told Reg to go ahead and take some pictures. I pushed a few times and out he came!. From the pictures I could see that he was born with the cord loosely around his neck and his hand up beside his head.

They put him on my tummy and then my dr. arrived. I still remember shaking his hand. Just before I had just grabbed the baby because he felt like he was slipping so my hand was all sticky. He was slipping off me. It just felt that way since I was frozen and couldn't feel him. They clamped the cord and Reg cut it. They put him on a warming table beside me and checked him out. His apgars were 9 and 9.

Meanwhile the dr. who I had never met started chewing out the med. student while the 2 of them were standing between my legs! I would have found it funny but they were ruining a special moment for me. The med. student had never done stitches before. Oh great I thought what a time to learn! And with a grumpy teacher. I only needed 3 stitches (one of which fell out after 2 days). After I was stitched up the placenta came out. Time saving to do the stitches first? Well, at least, he didn't pull it out before it was ready. I was still frozen so didn't mind.

They bundled the baby up and gave him to me. I nursed him for a while. He was a good nurser right away. They left us alone for a while. The epidural wore off and I felt my first afterpain! Ouch! Here is a picture of Reg in his scrubs holding Sandy.

They came to take the baby away and put me in recovery. The nurse came back and told me he was 9 pounds 5 ounces! Well at least he wasn't 11 pounds like the u/s tech predicted. His head was 14 3/4 inches. That's over the 95 percentile line. Glad I was frozen. He was also very tall at 22.5 inches. I'm glad, too, that I had him a week early.

I was soon transferred to my room. It was very late in the night and my husband went home and I tried to sleep. They next day I was told that he was in the special care nursery but not why. I got very upset. Finally someone told me he was "too big" and that they were keeping a watch on him in case I had gestational diabetes. I weighed 9 pounds 4 ounces so I thought it wasn't very surprising he was big. Besides I had a glucose test while pg and it was normal.

I asked to leave early again and went home after 2 days. This time we weren't surprised at my lack of colustrum. We gave him water after every nursing. My milk came in and once again I had too much.

Sandy was a good baby and gained well. He was 20 pounds by 5 months. He wasn't as easy of a baby as my first but he made up by being a very sweet 2 year old.

Sandy is close to being 12 as I write this. I regret not writing when it hapened but I seem to remember the whole thing pretty well.

Catherine (mabear)

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