Labor and Delivery

(Disclaimer: I realize most people won't care about the details, but this blog is as much of a journal as it is a way to keep our family and friends"in the know." So, for my purposes, I'm including this post about the arrival of little Nolan.)

Sunday morning around 3 am I woke up to go to the bathroom, when I realized my water had probably broken.  It was just a slight trickle and I didn't notice any strong contractions, so I went back to bed.  (Keep in mind that I was not full term--only 36 weeks, 3 days = we weren't expecting to go into labor yet.) At 5:30 am my contractions became more regular, and realizing that I was (probably) in labor, Justin started packing our bags.  Eventually the contractions came every 6 minutes and quite painful--so we headed to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital, but weren't exactly sure where to go (our hospital tour was going to be that coming Wednesday) and no one was in the lobby at 8 am on a Sunday morning to help us out.  We followed the directions to the 5th floor to Labor & Delivery, only to find out that all the doors were "Badge Access Only."  We headed back down to the lobby, called the hospital back and learned that we were in the right place, we just had to hit the intercom button to be "buzzed in."

Once in the room, they confirmed that my water had broken, I had dilated to 4 cm, and was in active labor.  In the next hour, the contractions became much stronger and I decided that I didn't need to go naturally anymore and asked for an epidural.  The anesthesiologist on call was apparently one of the best and and quickly put in the magical epidural.  At that point I had dilated to a 7, but with the epidural we were able to slow things down--I took a nap and Justin went to the cafeteria to get breakfast.

The rest went really smoothly--especially since I wasn't in much pain.  Once completely dilated, I pushed for an hour and 15 minutes and the little guy was born at 3:44 pm.  Justin cut his umbilical cord, we fed him a bit, and then they rolled him off to the nursery for his little tests.

The next two days Justin had finals, so he went back and forth from the hospital and school.  We both thought it would be better to get the tests done with, rather than making them up in the subsequent week. I had excellent nurses throughout my stay and was very comfortable in our room.  In general, the whole experience was exactly what I wanted it to be--although nothing like I expected.

First Family Photo

 Definitely not my best picture (in fact, possibly one of my worst), but very accurate.  The last few weeks of my pregnancy I was very swollen--especially in my hands, feet and legs, but also in my face and neck.  And, I was exhausted. So, although I don't look like a movie star, I like the picture.

These pictures are for my sister, who is a clinical dietician at a hospital.  They gave us special cupcakes and sparkling white grape juice to celebrate. On the right is my breakfast and my lunch before I was discharged--it may look like a lot of food, but I could down it all.  Having a baby is hard work!

Our Room

Because I'm a graduate student ("employee") at UT Southwestern and St. Paul's Hospital is a part of our campus, I got a free upgrade to the suite. The couch turned into a pull-out bed for Justin, which he appreciated.

 Little Nolan in his hospital attire