Yes it has been some time since I have been on, between finding time to get away to blog and wanting to, it just didn't pan out. Today is Ezra's 1 month birthday every morning I wake up to a happy, healthy baby I find I am beyond exponentially grateful! There will be a lot of uncapitalized I's and probably horrific punctuation and grammar, this is going to take me forever to put together as is and i dont really have the extra time to proof read and look like a scholar much less a tired momma with a couple degrees so bare with us all and grasp the gist.
The days leading up to the night we had to check into the hospital were very very full as i scurried around town and our home like a tweeker, battening down the hatch, tieing up loose ends, and psycho nesting. we had an appointment to be @ L&D by 11pm on Friday September 16th. They had to soften my cervix before they could induce me. i cleaned and cleaned right up till about 9:45 then i took a long shower washing my hair taking care of unwanted hair in the event that a C-section would arise, and blow drying my hair strait so i wasn't rocking it ruff and stuff with my white girl afro puff! Who knew when I would have this baby! On the way to the hospital i downed a huge iced tea and a 6" turkey bacon avocado sandwich that took about 5 min! ha ha! We finally get to L&D with all out belongings and the stuff we wanted to take Ezra home in. Once hooked up to monitors i was already in full blown labor from my non-stop cleaning and running around. However i was only 1cm dialated, or should i say 1cm locked down!
so they slip me the drug and the cramping begun it was painful but ask anyone there, I was cracking jokes the WHOLE time. The only time i swore was to myself when things got a little intense and even then it was to emphasis some crude enuendo or joke. I basically had the nursing staff and my family in stitches or shaking their heads laughing through out my stay! I wasn't one of those lunatic, lamaz breathing freak preggos you see on tv or hear about through the grapevine!
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| 4 hours in and still smiling! |
By 5am the following morning (saturday) i was 4cm and my contractions were 2 min apart lasting over a minute. I called my mom to let her know the progress because she was having a hard time getting out of work for the day. She was immediately flipping out, irritated that she was stuck going to work. By 7am I called my mom back and she was sobbing at work scared she would miss it all, i assured her everything would be fine. Meanwhile i had sent mike home to sleep a couple hours, take care of the animals and wait for my dad to show up at 10a. My dad, and my best friend Nikki were up in the Antelope Valley getting up and ready to come out here to Ventura for the birth. My mom by 8am was able to leave work and her and Nikki showed up at the same exact time in the hospital parking lot, my dad and mike got here at 9:45am. So by 10am everyone that needed to be here was. I was almost at 4.5cm and had seemed to platue, they gave me more cervix softener and started my pictocin to induce me. the doctor at one point told the nurses that i wasnt dialated enough to starve me so they said i could have whatever i wanted, I sent mike to Del Taco for chili cheese fries with sour cream knowing full well i would either barf it up or lose it during birth on the table but i didnt care! I grubbed it like it was my only meal for days! By 3pm i was in so much pain and everything started to go slower because of the pain the epidural was ok'd. The epidural was the only time i cried dangling my feet off the bed unable to touch the floor for stability, haunching my back to the point where i thought id pass out because ezra was so big and still pretty high into my stomach and i was so bloated nothing would bend. All of me hurt and ached, i wanted to vomit and i had a migraine, the joking lessened by that point. after the Epidural took effect they put in a catheter. Once i didnt have massive pain i was back to crackin jokes and finally able to sleep some. Shortly after the Epidural Dr. Ramirez came in to check on me and broke my water. Things began to progress well after that and he predicted that we could have a baby by midnight. he came back one other time to attach a fetal monitor to Ezra's head so they could have a more accurate heartbeat, it was at that point that he told me Ezra had hair! Midnight came and went i could still feel my contractions but they didnt make me want to take a hostage any longer. My Dad and Mike went home around 9:45pm, my Mom took the couch in the room and Nikki the floor or in the hospital bed with me. @2am (sunday) the nurse came in a little worried because my temp had been between 101 and 103 steadily for over an hour and they started to do what they could to keep it down, it was at that point that i was approaching 12 hours ruptured and it became a little scetchy especially since i had a fever, antibiotics were immediatley started. At 4am i had this crazy urge to push like fighting it made me want to cry i like NEEDED to push! i called the nurse in and she checks me I was 9cm dialated, she tells me what ever i have to do to keep from pushing do it, so i started to hit the epidural button over and over again! i called Mike at 4:30, L&D started to call the Doc at home and that is when it all started, mike and my dad got to the hospital about 15 - 20 minutes later. Dr. Ramirez showed up about 5:30a checked every thing out he informed me that because i had a fever in the night the NICU nurses would be in the room on stand by in the event that something had gone wrong in the womb. He then went to catch up on report with the nurses.
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| between pushes |
@ 6am my nurse came in to check my dialation and i was at 9.5cm, she then went to let Ramirez know. He walked through the door at about 6:15am to "check me" i had my dad step out of the room as i had every time i had to spread the glory, Ramirez says to him it will be real quick. so my dad stood right outside the room and waited. Ramirez in regular scrubs, and a baseball cap still rubbing the sleep from his eyes, says "ok amanda we are gonna check you" he checks me and then he says "you know what? Why dont you give me one good push" so I did, he says "wow" lets do another one so i did... he says "ok hold on" next thing i know he starts to gear up, i look at the nurse and say what about my catheter, she says "oh yeah ill remind him we need to get that out when he is done" took Ramirez less than a minute to gear up, everyone is called in. He says "ok amanda Push" so i push again I say "the catheter", he says "oh ok, i felt the urge to push" he said "push a little bit" i pushed A LOT and the inflated catheter came flying out at the Docs face he catches it in the air stunned! my nurse was like "whoa" and my mother "good pushing!" ha ha it was pretty nuts, so we resume our pushing... i pushed and pushed. Ramirez got the vacumm extractor out he looks at me and says "im only gonna try this 3 times if it pops off his head 3 times we are doing a c-section" i agreed... i pushed and pushed and i could never catch my breath when he said breath so i started to kinda do it on my own timing, the vacumm popped off 2 times. I knew if i didnt get it on this last one it was cut the muscles time which scares the crap outta me! i push with everything in me (while nikki is screaming "you dont want a c-section, this is your last chance"), i felt Ezra crowning and i also felt tugging on my upper uterus, all the nurses from the night shift were in there cheering me on with my family it was a weird feeling to feel that immense support. Ramirez busted out the scissors to give me an episiotomy and next thing i know Ezras head was out Ramirez in a very stern voice says "stop pushing" I feel his hand go inside me, his glove squeaking around as he was turning Ezra and then i feel him tugging with incredible torc and pushing on Ezras head, it was at that point i knew the chord was around Ezra's neck and my Doc was working intently on getting it off, i felt it snap back more than once and we all saw the intensity of the situation in the doctors eyes, he finally unwraps it at least once, it all took about 30-45 seconds and it felt like forever. that also explained the fact that Ezras head was never as deep as it could have been, and with every push i was choking my son out! Finally i am able to push again and in one good push i felt him break through i could feel every part of him squeaking out of me, shoulders, chest, belly butt, legs, feet, such an odd feeling but totally a cool experience. I ripped from the point where my episiotomy ended to my anus they call it a level 4 tear and 4 is the highest you can go. He came out chord around his neck, i dont know how many times it was wrapped exactly but it wasnt pretty. It took 20 minutes from the time i started pushing till Ezra emerged into our world.
Ezra was blue and lifeless rushed to the warmer where luckily the NICU had been standing by and they started emergency resucitation on him, sucking fluids from his lungs, throat, and nose, and rubbing down his body for circulation and warmth. this all took about 10 minutes before he was stable. My father on the outside of the door who was shocked that the quick check up turned into pushing which was over relatively quickly with cheering and clapping turned to silence and no baby crys, he listened for something anything then he heard the hustle and bustle of the emergency and those cheers turned in to "oh god, come on Ezra, come on baby" he was standing out there sobbing beside himself and praying, Mike was freaking out, my mom even started to panic and at one point opened the door to find my dad and told him "if you aren't already praying, start"
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| part of the cord they cut from around his neck |
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| Ezra finally crying |
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| They finally let me touch him, for a brief 15 seconds before they took him to the NICU |
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| I began to cry. |
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| the doc letting me know what was going on... |
Once Ezra was stable they took him to the NICU aside from the not breathing episode his right arm wasnt working at all and they were worried his collar bone was broken. Mike and My dad followed him to the NICU to make sure everything was ok and Mike had his first moment with Ezra where he began to cry, he and my dad sobbed together grateful for Ez being alive. My mom and Nikki stayed back with me, i had to wait for the epidural to wear off before i could stand up. when i finally was able to see him in the NICU my mom and I tried to get him to latch on. He was definitely in shock from the whole ordeal and he would remain that way for a couple days. It wasnt till that night when Mike and I were in there visiting Ezra that he cried for the first time and it was so raw and emotional for him it was almost as if he was telling us all about it, like he heard our voices together and was immediatly unloading his heart to us. i held him that night and it was the first time i was able to feel the reality of it all the first real moment i had with my son ever and i was sobbing and crying into his little neck.
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| moments after getting to the NICU |
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| that night, the bruise on his neck from the cord |
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| our first family photo in the NICU |
Luckily His clavicle wasn't broken but he had nerve damage in that arm from the cord pinching so tight it pinched off the signal to his brain and he had a lot of pain from it, called Brachial Plexus Palsy, he was assigned a physical therapist. He also developed a little jaundice while in the NICU and had to go under a UV light. In total Ez was in the NICU 5 days.
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| In the NICU |
Our entire stay there went pretty good the Doc gave me an extra day in the hospital and then when it was time to be discharged I got to board in for free because Ezra was there and I was breast feeding him, which by the way is the most painful part of everything, labor, delivery nothing compared to the feeling that at any moment one of my boobs would explode. Also from friday to thursday i had only got like 10 hours of sleep, that didnt help anything. I had a melt down at one point after getting the run around from the NICU nurses and finally wednsday one of them said to me that my milk wasn't good enough for Ezra and he would have to stay there longer unless i let them feed him formula... the crap hit the fan at that point and finally I spoke to a doctor that was able to take care of stuff! boy was the NICU kissing our butts at that point. we finally took him home thursday afternoon and it felt awesome!
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| car ride home from the hospital |
since then we have been super busy not sleeping and trying to catch up on sleep... but so far its been the best experience ever. Mike and I are extremely blessed and if it weren't for a cysts expelling all the hormones needed to sustain this pregnancy we would have never become pregnant to begin with. a series of things going wrong and being turned around to go right, one miracle after another and we have our son. Its been a long road and im so glad he is here!
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| 1 week birthday |
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| a boy and his tiger |
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| 3 week birthday |
~Mandi
