Benjamin's Birth Story

Well. . . .  

*drum roll* 

HE'S HERE!!!

So, as some of you may know, on June 17th at 33 weeks, I was admitted to my hospital for pre-term labor. I was dilated to a 3 and 90% effaced. But as my hospital is not equipped to deliver babies before 36 weeks, I had to be transported to the nearest hospital with a NICU. In our case, that happened to be 2 hours away. Once we got to the new hospital, they had me admitted and I remained there on bed rest for 5 days. I was given Nifedipine to stop my contractions and when they checked my cervix that Friday even though I had progressed, they didn't see a need to keep me in the hospital any longer since I was no longer having active contractions. 

At that point, we had 2 options. 

1) I could go home and be put on bed rest, but if I delivered before 36 weeks, they would have to Life Flight my baby back to the city (without me). I could follow in 2 days if/when I was discharged. 

OR 

2) I could be discharged and be on bed rest at my sister's house in Ogden either until I hit 36 weeks(then I could go home) or until I delivered. 

It was a tough choice, but after we were told that there was about an 80% chance that we would deliver before 36 weeks, the choice was pretty obvious. I didn't like the option, because I didn't want to be without my husband so close to "D-day" but we had to do what was best for the baby. That meant choosing option number two, and it looks like we chose well! 

After 6 days of being at my sister's house, I started to feel some really uncomfortable contractions. Nothing debilitating...just uncomfortable. I went to L&D at the new hospital, and SURPRISE! I was dilated to a 6+ and I was 100% effaced with my membranes bulging. 

They told me point blank that at 34w5d I would not be leaving the hospital. I was going to have my baby! They gave me a minute to call my husband who had gone home (2.5 hours away) to work. He jumped in the car and raced towards us. This all happened at about 5:00 pm. 

After I was transported from triage to a labor room, they had my epidural placed. The contractions weren't that bad, but they wanted to place it before it was too late. At 6:00 the doctor came in and broke my water. After that, I progressed about 1 cm per hour. My husband made it at 7:30 pm with plenty of time to spare. And by 11:00 pm I was ready to push. After 1.5 hours of pushing, our son made his appearance. 

Benjamin David was born at 12:27 am on June 29th. He was 7 lbs 7 oz and measured at 19.5 inches. 

He had a full head of hair and looked just like his daddy. He came out crying and for being 5 weeks early, he did so well! He never had to be assisted with his breathing and while breast feeding remains a challenge, he's doing well with bottle feeding. I have been pumping from day one and he has my milk with only limited supplementation from formula. I wish I could breast feed exclusively, but at his age, the suck/swallow reflex is not usually developed fully. But, that's okay. As long as he's healthy, I can deal with not being able to breast feed quite yet. Maybe he'll get the hang of it in a couple weeks. We're not giving up! 

He was never in the NICU (I'm seriously amazed) and we were discharged from the hospital (as a family!) on July 1st. We've been home for 6 days now and he's doing so great! Aside from a little jaundice (which we hope is now resolved!), he's just as healthy as can be!

Anyway, thank you to everyone who has been following our story and watching for updates. 

And now, if you've read this far, here's your reward! PICTURES! 

My sweethearts 

Going home! 

All dressed up for our first Pediatrician appointment

First day home!

Yawning

Mr. Grumpy Face

So it looks like now my blog will be about being a Mom instead of being pregnant! Thank you all for reading, and I hope you'll continue to read. I'll be updating as we go. I promise they won't all be boring braggy mom posts (just some of them!).

-K