These are from before and immediately after Alex's birth. Alex was born at 6:08 PM on March 28, 2007. He weighed 5 lbs even and was 18 inches long. My water broke at 1:42 AM the morning of March 28. I got to the hospital by about 3:30 AM and was checked into this room by 4 AM. I didn't get painful contractions until 8 AM when I was at about 3 cm. This room has a large bathroom in which half the room is a shower. I spent from about 8:30 AM to 9:30 AM in a hot shower, which made the pain more tolerable, but the contractions started coming too quickly for me to stand it. (Every 3-5 minutes, but they were lasting 90 seconds each.) I was given an epidural at about 10:30 AM when I was about 5 cm. I was confirmed to be fully dialated by about 3 PM. I was placed into a holding pattern and not coaxed into pushing until 4 PM because the doctor had other deliveries going on, including an emergency C-Section. My pushing went very slowly from 4-5 PM because my contractions had slowed down to 5-7 minutes apart. I was given Pitocin (to speed up contractions) at about 5 PM and then it moved more quickly. At around 5:30, the nurse asked me to NOT push any longer and went to get the doctor.
This is the labor and delivery room. These rooms were amazing. I was checked into this room and stayed there. The doctor comes IN to the room instead of bringing me out of it to a separate delivery room. The lower third of this bed is removable. When I got to the end of transition (pushing), they just removed the edge of the bed and the doctor could simply sit at the edge of the bed for the delivery. As you can see from my relaxed state, I'm under the influence of heavy drugs by this time.
Alex, minutes old and being checked by the Nurse Practitioner called in for preemie care. Newborns are assessed on a scale called "APGAR". The scale is in five categories, with scores ranging from 0 to 2 in each. The total comes to a score of 0 to 10, 10 being the best. The assessment is given at 1 minute after birth and again at five minutes after birth. Alex scored a 9 both times. Outstanding for a preemie.
Another plus for a preemie: He's crying here and continued to howl until I held him and he heard my and Dan's voices. Dan said that the first yelp I heard was when he had been sunctioned and was not yet entirely out of me. Only his head was.
Alex being weighed right after being scored and cleaned. 5 pounds even. We were told that it was a good weight for a 35 week preemie.
I got to hold him after he was assessed, cleaned up and weighed. He couldn't see much because an antibiotic soultion had been placed in his eyes, but he went suddenly quiet when Dan and I spoke. The nurses and doctor said it was because he recognized our voices from in vitro.
In the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) the next morning. Dan could not come in because the night I went into labor was the first night that Dan had come down with a flu-like virus. He was running a fever of about 103-104 the very night my water broke. He wasn't able to come into NICU for two days. Alex was in NICU for four days for feeding issues. He didn't need any oxygen or breathing help, but he had immature eating habits and occasionally had to be fed through a tube in his nose.
Alex, after the first feeding I gave him the morning after he was born. Since he's a preemie, he had to be given formula in regular feedings right away. I could only pump colostrum at the time and delivered it to the NICU on a regular feeding basis where it was put into the forumla for him. It would be another day or two before I had enough real milk to feed him. He was released from the hospital on the morning of April 2 and has been fed on only breastmilk ever since.
He was last weighed in NICU at 4 lbs 14 oz on the night of April 1 (Sunday). By Tuesday, April 3 at his postpartum check-up, he weighed 5 lbs 2 oz. By Monday, April 9, he weighed 5 lbs 7oz and had also grown from 18 inches to 19. He's no longer a "low birth weight" baby.
March 29, 2007
