How do I have a 2 week old already? Where has the time gone?

September 6, 2021 will forever be my new favorite day. That’s the special day we brought our beautiful son into this world. At 7:46am our little bundle of joy was born weighing 9lbs 6oz and measured 21in long. In case you didn’t catch on, his birth date matches his measurements perfectly – what are the odds of that happening? He has been the most perfect thing in the world since that moment.

Labor

We went into the hospital Sunday 9/5 at 11am to start the induction process. Before starting the medication for the induction my OB checked my cervix and I was already dilated 3cm – I was so excited! This made me think that the induction process would be super quick, but as you can tell it wasn’t as quick as I thought. Brandon and I were extremely ready to meet our little guy at this point. I was ready to not be pregnant anymore!

My OB gave me 2 rounds of an oral medication to help kickstart labor before he started the Pitocin IV drip. Each pill had a 4-hour duration before they could recheck my cervix and decide if it was time to start the drip or break my water. My OB came in at 6:30pm and broke my water then started the Pitocin drip… contractions and horrid back pain started within 30 minutes. I had so much back pain that they thought he was sunny side up (head facing ceiling instead of facing floor). It wasn’t long until I asked for an epidural just so I could feel like I could breathe again.

Thankfully the epidural worked really quick and my pain subsided. Then it was a waiting game until we reached the magic 10cm. Throughout the middle of the night the nurse was coming in about every 30 minutes to reposition me, her ultimate goal was to flip the baby the correct way for delivery. Due to constant repositioning, I was hardly able to get any rest before we started to push. 4:20am rolled around and it was game time!

Game Time

Pushing in real life is definitely not like the movies…. at all. For me at least, there was no pushing for 5 minutes and then BAM, baby. I pushed for 3+ hours and then needed assistance with the vacuum. Pushing with every contraction for that long was exhausting, utterly draining. It got to the point where I didn’t even believe that we were making any progress and I had them bring a mirror in just so I could see that he was crowning. Once I was able to see the top of his head I had the energy to push, push, push.

Unfortunately my determination still wasn’t enough. At 7:40am we called the doctor in for assistance. Once the vacuum was in place it was constant pushing until he was out. Then within a minute or two we heard the beautiful cry of our baby boy. The best noise in the world.

Pushing With an Ostomy

While I was pushing I was very worried about my ostomy. I was extremely concerned about herniating or causing any damage to my stoma. Especially after pushing for so long. I think what really helped protect my stoma was having my legs in the stirrups and leaning forward. This provided enough support and pressure in my abdomen to protect my ostomy. I changed my bag after delivery and my stoma was already back to it’s original size from pre-pregnancy. This was a major relief.

I only had a 2nd degree tear, which means that there wasn’t any damage to my sphincter or anus area. Had there been damage then I wouldn’t be able to have get a j-pouch in the future. Although I’m not interested in going the j-pouch route, that was the biggest risk with a vaginal delivery and having an ostomy.

Life At Home

Adjusting to our new normal is hard – to be expected. Our baby seems pretty perfect to us. He isn’t overly fussy, he sleeps pretty well, and he takes to his feedings. In fact, we often call him hungry, hungry hippo because of how much he eats! We are only up 2 times in the middle of the night and then he goes right back down and he loves to nap on our chests during the day. He gets some sleep and we get all of the baby snuggles! It’s a win-win.

Trying to figure out his cues was hard at first. Especially when we were trying to put him down for bed. For the first week and a half it took us anywhere from an hour-two and a half to put him down. We would change him, feed him, rock him, then lay him down… in about 5 minute he would cry again. Whether it was due to a dirty diaper or he was hungry for more he just wasn’t satisfied. We have discovered he hates having pee in his diaper and sometimes he just needs that extra ounce of milk to calm him down. Regardless, it’s still a learning curve and that’s perfectly fine!

I cannot believe it’s already been two weeks. It seems like time has really flown by. Brandon was able to spend the first 2 weeks at home with baby and me, family has come and helped out, things have been great. Our baby boy is beyond perfect. Yes, I know… every parent says their baby is perfect, BUT IT’S TRUE. He isn’t very fussy, he eats well, he smiles when he sleeps, and he loves snuggles. I’ve been enjoying adjusting to our new normal and learning the rollercoaster of parenthood. I know we are just dipping our toes in the water when it comes to exploring parenthood, but we are ecstatic for the journey ahead.

#FindBeautyInEverything

– Bon Mom