Wow. My pregnancy journey ended four weeks ago already. Theo Conner just didn't want to hang on until his due date so he joined the world on 3.15.18 at 1:13pm. And boy have the last four weeks been a whirlwind. Here is the story of Theo!
On Wednesday March 14 Matthew and I went to work like any other ol' day. Around 3pm I called Matthew and told him I had reached my max for the day and was going to head home early. Matthew said he had a terrible headache and was also going to head home early. Wrigley needed his heartworm pill so I contemplated stopping on the way home, in the end I did stop. When I got home I took a short nap and when I woke up I had a rush of energy and was restless. I asked Matthew if he wanted to get out of here so we went to Jason's Deli for dinner. I was in a cheerful mood and joked and giggled the entire time we were out. On the way home my mom called me and when I answered I said "no mom, there is no baby yet!" She laughed and told me that's not what she called for. When we got home we did our nightly routine of getting ready for bed and watching a show. We had been working our way through the last season of Mike and Molly and were on the last couple of episodes where they are adopting a baby and then (spoiler alert) Molly finds out she is also pregnant. Around that time (9ish) I looked at Matthew and said "I either just had a contraction, or I have to poop." It wasn't the latter but it didn't happen again, until an our later. Matthew was sleeping by then so I laid in bed contracting every 20 min or so, wondering if this was the real thing or not. They eventually got worse and more frequent. I woke Matthew up at 3ish, and told him "I think this is it, I think I'm in labor." He hopped out of bed and exclaimed "but I don't have my bag packed!!" and threw the rest of his things together before writing down my contractions. We turned on Roseanne while I fought through the pain as long as I could. At 5:00 am we called the doctor. He confirmed that it was most likely active labor (as apposed to false) and we should get to the hospital. I was on the floor fighting the pain while Matthew was on the phone and I remember saying "this better be real labor, because I'm not doing this again!"
We grabbed our bags, went to the car, and made our way to the hospital. We checked in and as I laid on the triage bed in pain while the nurses got their shit together, Matthew went to move the car and it felt like he was gone forever. Once they decided to finally check me, I was at a 5. Yep, this was the real thing! We happened to get there right before shift change, which slowed things down and I swear if I would've had to wait even 30 more minutes for the epidural I would've murdered someone! Getting the epidural was exactly like they explained it would be at the birth class we took. And it. was. amazing. I will never understand why anyone would chose to give birth without one! I can't imagine going through the rest of my labor having to feel that pain. I had nothing to prove to anyone so I went the epidural route without even a second thought. Once the epidural took over and the doctor came in to see me I was already up to an 8. I knew it wouldn't be long so instead of catching a quick nap I was wide awake talking to the nurse and Matthew until a couple of hours later the doctor said it was time to push. I had no idea that the doctor leaves and the nurse does the coaching on when to push, etc. It was odd to be pushing so hard and not feeling anything! But alas, an hour later in came the doctor and his reinforcements and out came my sweet baby boy, at 1:13pm. They put him on my chest and the tears just started flowing. There he was, the little boy who started out as a bean inside my belly was now 6 pounds 14 ounces with a head full of hair, and in my arms.
The next 48 hours while we were in the hospital were kind of dreadful. As you can imagine there wasn't much sleep, the bed was not comfortable, breastfeeding hurt and was hard, and our nurses weren't exactly the most friendly. Oh, and then there was the physical pain of labor that made actually getting up a chore. I was so happy when they discharged us, I was feeling so cooped up inside of that small hospital room. The first few nights home were a real test. I think it was night two when Matthew and I looked at each other and asked "why do people do this more than once?!" ha! When he slept, he slept good. It was getting him to nurse that proved to be the hard part, which while absolutely normal, is not something anyone talks about.
I am happy to say that things have gotten better as the weeks have passed. I have so much more about this new adventure to write about, but I wanted to keep this one to the birth story. Theo came early, and he came quick! The complete opposite of what everyone was telling me would happen with my first babe!
On Wednesday March 14 Matthew and I went to work like any other ol' day. Around 3pm I called Matthew and told him I had reached my max for the day and was going to head home early. Matthew said he had a terrible headache and was also going to head home early. Wrigley needed his heartworm pill so I contemplated stopping on the way home, in the end I did stop. When I got home I took a short nap and when I woke up I had a rush of energy and was restless. I asked Matthew if he wanted to get out of here so we went to Jason's Deli for dinner. I was in a cheerful mood and joked and giggled the entire time we were out. On the way home my mom called me and when I answered I said "no mom, there is no baby yet!" She laughed and told me that's not what she called for. When we got home we did our nightly routine of getting ready for bed and watching a show. We had been working our way through the last season of Mike and Molly and were on the last couple of episodes where they are adopting a baby and then (spoiler alert) Molly finds out she is also pregnant. Around that time (9ish) I looked at Matthew and said "I either just had a contraction, or I have to poop." It wasn't the latter but it didn't happen again, until an our later. Matthew was sleeping by then so I laid in bed contracting every 20 min or so, wondering if this was the real thing or not. They eventually got worse and more frequent. I woke Matthew up at 3ish, and told him "I think this is it, I think I'm in labor." He hopped out of bed and exclaimed "but I don't have my bag packed!!" and threw the rest of his things together before writing down my contractions. We turned on Roseanne while I fought through the pain as long as I could. At 5:00 am we called the doctor. He confirmed that it was most likely active labor (as apposed to false) and we should get to the hospital. I was on the floor fighting the pain while Matthew was on the phone and I remember saying "this better be real labor, because I'm not doing this again!"
We grabbed our bags, went to the car, and made our way to the hospital. We checked in and as I laid on the triage bed in pain while the nurses got their shit together, Matthew went to move the car and it felt like he was gone forever. Once they decided to finally check me, I was at a 5. Yep, this was the real thing! We happened to get there right before shift change, which slowed things down and I swear if I would've had to wait even 30 more minutes for the epidural I would've murdered someone! Getting the epidural was exactly like they explained it would be at the birth class we took. And it. was. amazing. I will never understand why anyone would chose to give birth without one! I can't imagine going through the rest of my labor having to feel that pain. I had nothing to prove to anyone so I went the epidural route without even a second thought. Once the epidural took over and the doctor came in to see me I was already up to an 8. I knew it wouldn't be long so instead of catching a quick nap I was wide awake talking to the nurse and Matthew until a couple of hours later the doctor said it was time to push. I had no idea that the doctor leaves and the nurse does the coaching on when to push, etc. It was odd to be pushing so hard and not feeling anything! But alas, an hour later in came the doctor and his reinforcements and out came my sweet baby boy, at 1:13pm. They put him on my chest and the tears just started flowing. There he was, the little boy who started out as a bean inside my belly was now 6 pounds 14 ounces with a head full of hair, and in my arms.
The next 48 hours while we were in the hospital were kind of dreadful. As you can imagine there wasn't much sleep, the bed was not comfortable, breastfeeding hurt and was hard, and our nurses weren't exactly the most friendly. Oh, and then there was the physical pain of labor that made actually getting up a chore. I was so happy when they discharged us, I was feeling so cooped up inside of that small hospital room. The first few nights home were a real test. I think it was night two when Matthew and I looked at each other and asked "why do people do this more than once?!" ha! When he slept, he slept good. It was getting him to nurse that proved to be the hard part, which while absolutely normal, is not something anyone talks about.
I am happy to say that things have gotten better as the weeks have passed. I have so much more about this new adventure to write about, but I wanted to keep this one to the birth story. Theo came early, and he came quick! The complete opposite of what everyone was telling me would happen with my first babe!
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