(I didn't intend on this taking so long to post. My blog has been at a stand still, as I have been battling some pretty intense and debilitating after labor symptoms for the last 3 weeks. but it's time. It's time to officially announce to my blog world, that our little man River James Wilson is here, and that makes us no longer the Wilson 3, but the Wilson 4. We have shortened the blog title to a new and improved "Dub4" (ya know, Dub, as in W, for Wilson).
Well, here he is ...
Of course I am biased, but I think this birth story is quite a fun one … I hope you think so too!
My last blog post "40 weeks - Due date dinner" was posted at 10:00 AM Saturday morning April 13th… It was JUST in time. You wouldn't believe everything that happened in the following 24 hours … Here is a play by play.
10:00 AM: I finished my blog about how I had reached my due date, and spent my last night with my family of 3 in downtown San diego for dinner before my mom was to come into town. I closed up the computer, and jumped in the car to head to the airport, where we picked up my mom around noon.
1:00 PM: Tatum went down for her nap, while grandma got settled in to our place. I was terribly uncomfortable, but I had been for weeks. At this point I had almost convinced myself that I was for sure going to have to be induced on the 20th of April, a whole week later. My mom said to me like 3 different times. "Maybe you will go into labor tonight!" I just rolled my eyes and said "I would never be so lucky, my body doesn't know how to go into labor."
4:00 PM: Tatum got up from her nap as hyper as ever, and Jeremey suddenly stared to feel really sick. He felt nauseated and had little appetite except he was craving vegetable soup, so my mom Tatum and I decided to leave him home to rest while we went out and got him soup for dinner. (I think he was having sympathy pain).
6:00 PM: we ate dinner, and suddenly I started to feel nauseated too, even Tatum sat at the dinner table and said "my tummy hurts." I thought for a second, did we all eat something earlier that could make us all feel nauseated?
10:00 PM: Before bed, Jeremey and I decided to watch a movie together. While laying there staring at the screen, I started to feel what I thought was just another series of annoying and misleading braxton hicks contractions. It started off as intense pressure like it always did, but then started to lead to painful pressure. It perked my interest, but I had had so many "this might be it moments" in the last couple of weeks, that I tried not to get excited. So I causually started timing the span of time between each bout of pressure. Sure enough it was right around 5 minutes apart, lasting around 45 seconds each time.
1:30 AM: I had fought the doubt and denial long enough, and the pain was getting much more intense, so we called the hospital to ask what they thought we should do. I DID NOT WANT TO DRIVE 45 MINUTES FOR A FALSE ALARM. We told them the stats, and they said to come in. Jeremey woke my mom up by saying "Are you ready to be a grandma again?" (I thought that was cute.) Due to the fact that I thought I would have to be induced this time around as well (like I was with Tatum), we of course did not have ANYTHING packed. So Jeremey and my mom began to raid the house for all the items we might need in the hospital. Meanwhile I paced aimlessly around the house, continually saying "I don't want to go in unless this is the real deal," while simultaneously doubling over to fight for breath during another contraction. Looking back now, I can't believe I wasn't convinced I was in labor.
2:00 AM: I went into Tatums room to give her one last kiss, while tears streamed down my face from pain and excitement. I had another contraction while kneeling at her bed rubbing my hands through her hair. It is a moment I will never forget. We loaded up the car, and told my mom goodbye. I must have told Jeremey 15 times "I'm sorry if they turn us down and send us back home. He just kept saying, "it's better to be safe than sorry."
2:45: After having about 15 contractions in the car, that were getting much much more intense and hard to breath through, we found ourselves in the parking lot of the kaiser merino valley medical CLINIC. I told Jeremey that it didn't look familiar from when we visited for our hospital tour, and that there wasn't even one car in the parking lot. To which we both quickly realized that the mapquest had led us to the medical clinic, rather than the hospital. Much to our surprise, I didn't actually panic too much, haha. I think I knew that if I panicked, that getting through the contractions was going to be even harder. Jeremey called the hospital and asked for directions, and we were there within the next 15 minutes.
3:00 AM: Upon arriving in the hospital parking lot, I had us both wait in the car so I could breath through my next contraction before trying to walk in. The last thing I wanted was to double over in the parking lot on the pavement. We prayed, then proceeded to QUICKLY walk into the ER, where they ushered us up to labor and delivery to the triage room so I could get checked to see if I was dilated enough to get admitted. Strangely at this point, I still had doubts, and thought we might get turned away. So dumb.
3:15 AM: The nurse said I was dilated to a 6, and we were IN! We were going to have a BABY!
6:00 AM: 3 hours later, after getting blood work done, being stuck with IV's, and fighting increasingly painful contractions, I was finally given my epidural. Jeremey laid down for a rest, and I laid in bed watching a static TV. Then strangely, the power went out … and I laid there for a second wondering, who turned off my static? Then a bunch of random ladies came into room looking for power outlets and began moving machines in my room. I was too tired to really care much, but then a nurse came in and said that there was a planned power outage that was taking place for the next 8 hours in the hospital. A planned power outage, what does that even mean? They said the room was probably going to be pretty dark, but that the sun was coming up, so there would be enough light to deliver the baby. Imagine the confused look on my face as I imagined giving birth in the dark. haha. I guess they were trying to run power through generators to my room, and were trying to search for more outlets. It was funny, because the nurses kept asking me if I wanted ice chips, or warm blankets, but then would come back to me and say "well there is no ice, because the power is out" or "the blankets aren't heated because the power is out." I guess they weren't used to planned power outages either.
8:00 AM: We decided to call my mom to see how Tatum was doing. She said she was fine, and that she had a hard boiled egg from our refrigerator for breakfast. This is where I began to panic. That hard boiled egg was sitting in a bowl in the back, and had been accidentally left there from before Easter. Over 4 weeks old. Instantly I saw visions of my little Tatum having to be rushed to the ER to have her stomach pumped from food poisoning, (but my mom didn't have a car with her.) Which meant Jeremey would have to drive 45 minutes home to get her, then 45 minutes back to the ER, and hope that I hadn't given birth already. As honest and as serious as I can be, this was the most stressful moment of the whole birth experience. Jeremy proceeded to call around to get info on what happens if something is consumed under our conditions, and my mom called poison control ….
8:15 AM: my water broke … i heard a "pop" over the heart monitor, and also felt a pop. but still wasn't sure what happened so Jeremey hurried out of the room to tell a nurse. She came back in to check and then things began to get really interesting. It was if there was this silent panic that swept through the nursing staff, as more and more Drs and nurses began entering the room. (Meanwhile in my head all I could think about was Tatum, and how she more than likely had food poisoning and no way to get to the hospital. I was a mess.) (ps the power is still off at this point too, the few machines that we had in the room were running off generators.)
9:00 AM: After much closely watched fetal monitoring, I was checked for dilation and was at a 10. The Dr came to my beside and told me that the baby was turned the wrong direction, and that the labor was going to be much harder if I wasn't able to flip him around, and that that could lead to having to suction him out or an emergency c-section. They suddenly covered me with an oxygen mask, and asked me to get in this strange position to help flip him. Meanwhlie my husband had basically been pushed to the wayside while at least 6 medical staff surrounded my bed. All I wanted to do was hold his hand, but he was too far away.
9:15 AM: The panic in the room continued to heighten, as one of the Drs said they thought the umbilical cord was wrapped around the neck or shoulder of my baby because of the position he was in. They needed to get him out quick, and asked if I could feel the pushing sensation. If I didn't they would have to get him out on their own. I told them I could try, and they gave me the go ahead. The pushing process this time around compared to Tatum's was much more intense. They were giving me very little time to breath, and basically just telling me to hurry. The Dr looked me straight in the eyes and said "you have to put every once of everything you have into these pushes, I want to see popped blood vessels in your head or we are going to have to take him out." Scared out of my mind, I was not going to hold anything back, I DID NOT WANT A C-section or anything to happen to my baby …
9:30 AM: River James Wilson was born April 14th, with much excitement filling the room. He weighed 8 pounds 3 ounces, was 19 3/4 inches long, and had a head full of hair. All I kept hearing was "wow he is a big boy, where was he hiding inside of you?" I finally had my son in my arms, and he was perfect. It wasn't till one of the nurses said to me "Brynn you almost gave me a heart attack" when I realized that it wasn't just my heightened senses and emotions that made me feel like the labor was intense, but that it really was. Thank you Lord for protecting my baby boy!
It was almost exactly 24 hours, from the time I posted my blog post about being overdue, to the moment I delivered River … oh how a mere 24 hours can change your whole life.
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River will be 3 weeks old tomorrow. He came home the following morning from the hospital, and has been rocking at life ever since. So far he is a calm gentlemen, who sleeps most of the time, and only cries when he gets his diaper changed (so far). In my opinion he looks nothing like me, and really not too much like Tatum did either. hahaha, that only leaves one option … yes he looks identical to his daddy. Through and through he is his fathers son. Tatum ended up being ok with the whole "egg" situation, the poison control told my mom that more than likely she would just throw it up if she needed it out of her body, which she never even did. My little girl loves her brother. Her favorite thing to say is "my baby brother is cuuuute." His first couple of days home, she acted just a tad strange, as if she was a little nervous, but she is back to normal now and loving her big sister roll. Jeremey is doing great as a father of 2. He spent the whole first week of Rivers life at home with us which was such a blessing, but he is now in the final stretch of the end of this semester and is super busy as usual.
I am … well I'm alive… but I have had 3 of the hardest weeks of my life. We don't really know what caused it all, but I have had extreme fatigue (not to mention a million other strange symptoms) since the birth. To the point where it's been even difficult to hold River at all or even stand up without feeling like I'm going to pass out. We have been to the ER, urgent care, OB, and primary care in just the last week, and nobody is quite certain why I am still feeling this way. We are just praying for the Lords supernatural healing. For those that may think I'm probably just fatigued form having a newborn, thats not it, River is a great sleeper so far, and I have gotten way more sleep since he's been born than I did the last 4 months of being pregnant (I hardly got any sleep then). Besides all that, I feel much more comfortable with a second baby that I did with a first. I'm not so much of a fish out of water this time around. Being a mommy of 2 is such a surreal feeling, its wonderful, and exciting, and overwhelming, and a bit scary, but I couldn't be more thankful. The Lord has overfilled my cup … our cups. Let the Wilson 4 begin!
And finally, if you haven't seen it already on facebook, here is a video Jeremey put together of Rivers birthday and of Tatum meeting her brother for the first time.
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