Wednesday, April 11, 2007

9 days/ birth story




Max has been in the world 9 days. He is getting cuter and cuter every day!

Our birth story, in a nutshell.

Saturday morning March 31 I woke up thinking I had dreamt about having contractions. Turns out, they were 8-10 minutes apart and they had been waking me up. Saturday I rested between contractions and made lasagna. Saturday night they picked up in intensity and frequency, to about 5-8 minutes apart. I was up all night with them, and I watched Borat to distract myself. I let Ty sleep because I knew I would need him later on! Sunday they got really regular, to about 3-5 minutes for hours... I knew they wouldn't feed me in the hospital so I made a delicious smoothie around 2:30 and promptly threw it all up. Ty and I looked at each other and said, okay, time to go.

At 3 pm we got to the hospital and I was 3 cm dilated, 90% effaced (baby comes at 10 cm, 100%). We labored until 10 pm, by which point (48 hours in!) I was delirious and exhausted. Too bad I didn't ask them to check me then, I just broke down and asked for the epidural. Turns out I was in transition -- 7 cm and counting, with the bag of waters bulging so much that Ty could see it. Oh well, there's always next time for a natural delivery! :) (I'll post my anti-epidural rant later) Anyway I took a much needed nap and when I woke up I couldn't feel my legs. So I asked them to turn the epidural down. Much better! I could actually feel the contractions a little better, be more in tune with my body and the task at hand. Then it was time to push. They turned the epidural off and I could feel what I was doing. I pushed him out in 5 contractions. Ty didn't tell me until two days later that his cord was wrapped around his neck and he was blue form the neck up. They put our boy on my stomach and tried to make him breathe. Ty pronounced him Max Theodore Malloy at 4:17 am. They had to take him to the warmer for a minute to drain his lungs of fluid, but he was fine -- APGARs were 8 and 9. Then we got to hang out for the 2 postpartum hours till they took him to the nursery. Max got a clean bill of health and we got to keep him in the room with us while we were in the hospital.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow, Melanie - Congratulations! You're a champ, kiddo! Max is beautiful - he looks a lot like his Momma. Take good care of yourself and Max. I hope to see you both soon. Jordana:o)

Jon and Kate said...

Holy crap.

Tante Darly said...

Salut Mémé,
Max est vraiment un beau garçon. On peut dire que tu réussi ton bébé. Bravo. Il semble bien éveillé déjà.
Félicitations à Ty et à toi.
Mille bisous à MTM

Natachka said...

Adorable!

maria said...

beautiful story! thanks mama y papi

and this is from your aunti maria, maxi
i just finished my first 24hour call delivering babies like you in my new hospital. waiting for mamacita to join me in the hospital here!

Tasha said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
darly said...

Salut Mémé,
Merci de nous donner des nouvelles de Maxou. Les photos sont magnifiques! Tous les matin à mon réveil je pense à lui pour positiver et bien commencer ma journée. Je me souviens de son visage, de son regard, de sonsourire, de la chaleur de sa petite tête au creux de mon cou. Je suis amoureuse de ce bout de chou. Prend bien soin de ce cadeau du ciel et de toi. Bonjour à Ty. Oncle Roland vous embrasse tous. Tante Darly