A New Adventure

On Wednesday, December 19, at 8pm I checked into McKenzie Willamette Hospital for an induction.  My Dad (Bill), Shawna (step-mother), Madison (little sister), and Billy (brother) drove up from Medford to see me in the hospital on Wednesday night.  Billy was an awesome help with our dogs and stayed at the house.  During the night, I was given a medication that ripened my cervix so that at 7am the pitocin drip could start.  My Mom (Charlene) arrived from Talent in the morning.  My water was broken around 8am.  Contractions ensued.  I had an pain medication given through my IV to sustain me until the epidural could be inserted around 10am.  The epidural was inserted at 10:30am and I am so glad I had it!  By 11am I was dilated to a 4 but there were some problems.  My blood pressure kept dropping which made the baby's heart rate plummet.  I was immediately placed on my side and his heart rate recovered very quickly.  For the next 5 hours, there was a debate as to what was causing my blood pressure to tank and what the effects were to the baby.  With each blood pressure plummet, a slew of medical people rushed in and kicked my family out which led to them being very stressed out and ease dropping by the closed door.  The fam was kicked out 4 times.  Due to my excellent care and calming doctor, I am thankful that I never got too worried. I LOVE my nurse (nurse Hydee) and my doctor!  Hydee continued to monitor and stabilize my blood pressure.  Dr. Reilly was certain my blood pressure was the cause and that the baby was not in any distress, especially based on how quickly his heart rate recovered.  Around 3pm, the anesthesiologist came back and added a medication to stabilize my blood pressure.  The pitocin was turned back on and contractions started up again by 4pm.  Around 4:45pm-ish, I was feeling the pressure from the contractions and uncomfortable so I asked my family for privacy.  By 5:30pm I was fully dilated and ready for pushing.   All of a sudden, my hospital gown seemed clingy and choking so I pulled it off.  Dan was an amazing coach and helped count to eight for each push and encouraged me to push in threes.  He was very calm and very assuring.  There was only one point in the end when Dan got a bit too loud and into the pushing mantra.  I meant to put my hand on his mouth to quiet him because I was in mid-push and getting tired.  I accidentally slightly choked him which now gives us a funny story...oops!  I tried lots of pushing positions and found several that worked well.  I had Dan, Hydee, and Dr. Reilly in the room with me.  The atmosphere was just what I had hoped for; calm. quiet, intimate, and full love love.  We were serious when needed but also joked around a lot.  Dan surprised himself by watching the delivery.  I found it very helpful to watch the delivery progress in a mirror.  I sure did not except to watch but was amazed to watch the progress.  After a long time of hard pushing in sets of three, sometimes four or five, our baby came into the world.  Bebe Claric was born at 7:09pm, weighing 8 pounds and 7 ounces, and was 20.75 inches long.  He was perfect and placed skin to skin with me.  Dan cut the umbilical cord.  We had some family bonding time and I breastfed for the first time before family came in to meet the little guy.  I am not sure where it came from but I started calling the little guy Bubba (Bubba Boo) and it stuck.  Dan's parents came up from Roseburg to meet the baby.  Our visitor left by 11pm-ish.  I took a shower,  which felt like pure Heaven, and watched Dan give the baby his first bath with the nurse before falling asleep.  The baby allowed me to sleep for 5 full hours that night and I was extremely thankful!

First bath

On Friday, I was shocked at how sore my body was, especially my hips when attempting to walk.  We had many visitors while we were at the hospital including family members on Dan's side and good friends to both of us.  Our family is definitely loved!  We continued to toss around names for Bubba from Thursday until Saturday morning.  We narrowed the chooses down to Vincent James and Jacob Daniel.  I finished the paperwork for the birth certificate and SSN card on Saturday morning.  We named our baby boy Vincent James Claric.  By Saturday, I was feeling overstimulated and like a zoo animal.  I was tired of being in the hospital and on display which meant that it was a good time to venture out of the hospital and into the real world!  The hospital took Vincent's picture, family helped pack up the car, I learned how to do self care while my body continued to recover, Dan and I put the baby in the car seat, the car seat in the car, and drove home. We left the hospital on Saturday, December 22 by 4pm.  Driving home with our new born son felt wonderful, scary,and bizarre!  Sunday was fairly calm.  Keith (step-father) and Lilly (grandmama) came up from Talent on Monday.  Vinny had his first doctor appointment on Monday.  He weighed 8 pounds even.  We had a lovely Christmas Eve dinner with both sides of my family.  The family went back to hotels around 9pm so we were able to get to bed early.  Everyone was back over at 8am on Christmas morning.  We opened presents and had a lovely breakfast.  There were lots of hugs and loves before everyone got on the road by noon.  I quickly bolted to a nearby catholic church to attend Christmas mass.  The only mass that late was at a parish I have never been to and in Spanish.  Even though I am sure God would understand, I did not want to miss Christmas mass.  I am so thankful that Dan took Vinny and encouraged me to go.  The rest of Tuesday was calm...eerily calm.

The rest of week had a steep learning curve.  Dan was back to work on Wednesday so Vinny and I started to figure out our new life.  I struggled to learn how to care for a newborn while taking care of my recovering body on a lack of sleep.  The hardest lesson was figuring out how to eat.  I realized the hard way that eating for the first time at 2pm was not acceptable for my well-being or Vinny.  I had to allow myself to eat, even if Vinny cried.  By the end of the week I was feeling stir crazy in the house.  I did not want to venture out into the world without help.  Dan and I had a good weekend.

 
The next week, we had visitors again and I had a list of to-dos!  My good friend Leslie came up from Medford with her mom to do a photo shoot of Vinny for us.  I wanted to capture his newness and she did a great job!  Check out her blog for more details and pictures!  Shawna and Madison came up on Monday and stayed through Friday.  Shawna helped me get out into the world, taught me how to use the car seat on a shopping cart, use the stroller, and more.  I greatly appreciated the help and a chance to rest my arms.  Bubba had his second doctor appointment on Wednesday.  He weighed 8 pounds 5 ounces.  Bubba was circumcised and he was a champ!  The procedure was fascinating and Dr. Lash did a great job.  Thankfully, Bubba healed very quickly and the after care only involved putting vaseline on his diapers for a week.  On Thursday, we went over to our friends' new home to watch the Ducks play in the Fiesta Bowl.  Vinny wore his Duck outfit and cheered on the team to victory.  It was great to have Shawna and Madison help us!  After a particularly tough night, I ventured to church for the first time with Vinny.  He was awesome and slept  the entire time.

The next two week went very well.  Vinny and I started to figure out a loose routine.  I got dressed every morning, including doing my make up, so that I felt human.  I was better able to eat.  I accepted that there are times that the little guy is going to cry and that's okay.  We continued to venture out of the house on errands and lunch dates.  We had lunch with Adele on both Wednesdays and had Dan lunch on the first Friday.  Vinny had his third doctor appointment on January 16.  He weighed 9 pounds 6 ounces and grew an inch!  My little man is getting big!

I said many times throughout my pregnancy that pregnancy is hard work and not for the weak or faint of heart; however, none of that mattered when I held my perfect baby boy for the first time.  He looked at me with such sweet big eyes that were unable to focus.  I was amazed that he knew and trusted me from the very beginning.  His beautiful big eyes would wander and search while unable to focus or see more than a few inches.  He perfectly bundled into my chest and completed me in a way I did not know I needed.  His soft, delicate skin was perfect to snuggle with, touch, and smell even before his first bath.  His perfect little hands and feet were purple and wonderful.  I am perfectly in love with my little man and sometimes overwhelmed to tears.  God is good!

PS Pictures are on my Shutterfly site.