We are parents! Yeah for babies! Our world has been turned upside down, but in a very good way. Here's the story of our newest adventure:
Little Jasper Lawrence Egbert arrived on March 25th at 6:27 am. He was 7 lbs 13 oz., and measured 21 1/2 inches long. He's a healthy, hungry little babe and has already gained almost two pounds already.
The labor part was pretty tough. It was 32 hours, officially beginning around 10 pm on the 23rd, with my contractions at 7 minutes apart and painful. I labored all night long, not sleeping at all,
throwing up, and with diarrhea. So, I started out the labor thing on the wrong foot and with little energy. We went to the hospital the next morning at 10 am when my contractions were consistently 4-5 minutes apart for about two hours. When we got to the hospital I was between 3 and 4 centimeters. I was still really, really sick. The smells of everything were just disgusting to me. Rob put some chapstick on and I told him to wipe it all off immediately. I labored all day long with Rob helping me every step of the way. He was an AMAZING doula. My nurse and midwife told him that he should put himself up for hire, they thought he was so great. By around 7 pm, I was at a 7 and remained there for 4 1/2 hours. I was in so much pain and my body was so fatigued, that I couldn't progress to the next step. My midwife, Mary, discussed with us that to intervene would be in my best interest to help me and the baby, who was showing signs of distress and my uterus was so tired it wasn't progressing at all. An epidural was administered along with pitocin around 12:30. I was still in quite a bit of pain until around 2 am. At that point, the dose was increased and I slept for about 3 1/2 hours. When I woke up, I was full of energy and ready to finish the labor. Mary checked me and told me I was ready to push! I pushed for 45 minutes, and little Jasper popped right out! I LOVED the pushing part. It was incredible! I could do that over and over again!
I had all these plans to do the labor a certain way, but I feel just fine about the decisions I made. All that matters at this point is that Jasper is safe and healthy. I'm very thankful that I didn't have to have a C-section and that we had such a great midwife who helped us through it.
Little Jasper is such a little angel. This whole experience has been miraculous. Settling into parenthood is going pretty well, although Rob and I are pretty sleep deprived. Last night, though, Jasper had a four hour chunk of sleep! Every night is different, though. As soon as we think something works to put him to sleep or keep him from crying, he throws a wrench in it! We love him so much. Can't believe he's actually ours and here to stay.
