Theo's Birth

I just took a stroll down memory lane and looked at my posts about the girls deliveries and I have to admit I am very very lucky... my deliveries get easier with each baby I have.  Granted I had a bit more pain this time round with Theo compared to Sloan as I felt the contractions but the time I was in labour was considerably shorter.  Here's what happened.....

Saturday 23rd July - just before 4pm we loaded the girls in the car to go to the Kelly's house for their daughters 3rd birthday celebrations, kiddie pool and BBQ.  My mum had flown in from England the night before so we were all set for whenever baby decided to come.  Ryan had been predicting this weekend would be the weekend but now that I was getting close to my due date (sometime between July 28th-30th) I had stopped thinking about it.  In the car I felt the first of what I believed was a contraction but I didn't take it too seriously.  As the evening progressed though I continued to feel the cramping pains, not bad enough that I was in great pain but good enough that every so often when they occurred I felt uncomfortable.  We came home and put the girls to bed and that's when I began to think that maybe the contractions were to be taken more seriously than I had been taking them.  I went and packed my hospital bag, made myself a big bowl of fruit and yoghurt and went to that basement to watch some 'King of Queens' with Ryan.  I had my watch and timed my contractions, they were lasting about a minute but they weren't exactly 5minutes apart, it still varied.  Because of my experience with Sloan's labour though I felt that the fact that I had been feeling something for a few hours meant that there was a possibility that I was further along than I might think I was.  So at 10pm I told Ryan that I thought we needed to head to the hospital. Secretly I was worried that I was over-reacting and that we would be sent home to just wait some more and Ryan told me later too that he wasn't sure how serious it was either as I wasn't showing to be in a lot of pain!

We got to the hospital about 11pm and just beat two other ladies who were wanting to be admitted.  (The hospital was really busy so the fact that we beat the others is significant!)  They took me into a room after a waiting period and hooked me up to monitor my progress.  My contractions were now 5minutes apart lasting for at least a minute and I was 6cm dilated which meant it was time to be admitted!  So at 12.20am I was taken into my room and had my IV hooked up.  My nurse was fabulous, got my IV done the first try!  I had to have some blood work done before they could give me my epidural to check that my platelets weren't too low and at about 1.30am everything came back great and the anaesthesiologists were in the room straight away.  I received my epidural and the nurse said she would come back in 10 minutes with the doctor to break my water.  After about five minutes I realized I was going to have to let the nurse know the embarrassing news that I had peed.  I peed again and then again and was just trying to tell myself not to worry it's not my fault, I have no feeling from the epidural to control my bladder when I realised that I hadn't drunk that much and maybe I hadn't peed at all.  Maybe I was experiencing my water breaking on it's own.  I asked Ryan to go find the nurse but luckily she came back in the room.  She confirmed my water had broken and that I was 10cm.  We did a few practice pushes and she could see baby's head so she called for the doctor.   Not even 10 minutes later Theo was born with only superficial injury to me (pretty much nothing).  He is absolutely gorgeous, looks just like a little boy and looks just like a member of our family.  He was born at 2.12am and we were taken to the maternity ward at around 4am.

Ryan probably had the biggest adventure as he went to go home and found the car battery was dead.  He came back up to the room called his parents and arranged to meet them at the car at 7am which meant we got to have family cuddles and nap for a few hours.

The nice thing about having had three children is the nurses in the hospital leave you alone so Theo and I got to rest undisturbed pretty much the whole time we were there.  He wasn't interested in feeding until about 6pm on Sunday night which meant I got to have a lot of rest that day, catching me up and helping me the next night when we were awake for feedings.  He caught on really quickly and it's wonderful as he feeds in about 15minutes.  There were a couple and their baby in the room with me and Theo and we weren't disturbed  by them too much but they had a very fussy baby and panicked a lot over little things (like what if baby can't breathe while she's breastfeeding.  Come on, women have been doing this for all time, babies were made to be breastfed!) and due to a fussy baby and the husband sleeping in the room (I'm assuming upright in the chair as there's no room for anything else!) they both weren't getting any sleep and by Monday morning they were really crabby with each other and swearing and I wanted to shake them both and say "he needs to go home and get some sleep and then come back and be useful!"

Because Theo and I were in such good health we were given the ok to go home late Monday afternoon. The only thing we have to keep an eye on is for a strep B infection.  I had tested positive and I was given antibiotics when in labour but because I needed to have the antibiotics for four hours before he was born (and my labour was a lot quicker than that) he could still get it.  He did have blood work that came back fine but it could show anytime in the first three months. (He's had check ups since being born and is doing amazing, it doesn't look like it's going to be an issue at all).

Ryan and I left the hospital at about 4pm Monday night.  When we got home I told Ryan to bring Theo in so I could give the girls my full attention.  We went round to the back garden and Sloan came running up to me arms in the air and just wanted lots of cuddles.  Paige on the other hand ran right past me straight to  Theo.  She just loves having a baby brother and wants to give him lots of kisses and cuddles.  Sloan, that first day was cautious and just patted him on the head like a little dog but from the next day onwards has been very comfortable with him and loves to give him kisses and stroke his head and face.  This little boy is just surrounded by love!

Theo is proving to just be a dream baby.  He eats really well, he sleeps really well, he only cries to let us know he's ready to eat.  At a week old I'm already mourning that my baby is growing so fast and trying to remember everything.  He loves to be wrapped up and cuddled and the last two nights has only woken up twice during the night.  We absolutely love having him in our family and Ryan is just over them moon to have a boy in the family, his enthusiasm is fun to watch!