Reid McGuire Bolton
Born August 6th, 2010 at 430am
Weighing 8lbs 2oz, Length 20.5in, Head Circumference 36cm
38 weeks and 4 days
Mommy butting in to Cooper's regular postings...
Things had been going well at the new job, hanging in there as well as could be expected given my ever growing belly and lack of sleep at night. To top it all off, I came down with a little summer cold. I can handle a cold and I can handle being pregnant, but the two together were not so much fun. I was at work on August 4th, which was a Wednesday, like usual, but by lunch time I was feeling pretty crummy. In addition to my cold, I had a headache, was shaky, light-headed, and a little dizzy. I mentioned it to a few people at work, and soon my regularly scheduled afternoon patients started disappearing off of my schedule. By 230, I was officially kicked out of work to go home and put my feet up. I called the doctor on the way home and was scheduled for a visit at 445. I arrived to the doctor, still feeling pretty crummy, and lo and behold, my blood pressure was 150/100. Off to the hospital I was ushered for further blood pressure monitoring and potential induction, at just 38 weeks and 2 days. We headed home, quickly packed our bags and a bag for Cooper, and stopped by Johanna's house to give him a quick kiss.
We arrived at the labor and delivery triage area, where it was confirmed that my blood pressure was still 150/100's, and they decided to induce labor. Here's where the fun begins...
I had been having regular Braxton Hicks, nonpainful, contractions for several weeks now, and when I was hooked up to the monitor, they were coming every 2-4 minutes regularly. A check of my cervix upon arrival showed no dilation, so they thought they would start the induction with cytotec (an medicine they put on your cervix to ripen it for induction). This is how Cooper's labor started too. Just before the doctor was going to put the cytotec in, she checked me again and thought I had already dilated to 2cm on my own. No need for cytotec she thought. Let's just skip ahead to pitocin, so up to the labor and delivery unit I went.
Around 845pm I get settled into Labor and Delivery Room 10 and the pitocin gets started. Again, contractions are coming every 2-4 minutes and while uncomfortable, definitely not painful.
My hose of an IV. When you're used to working with kids, this thing looks huge. I will be grateful for this IV later.
You're not supposed to be smiling while on pitocin. You're especially not supposed to be smiling after you've been on pitocin from 845pm until 6am. While the contractions are still quite regular and uncomfortable, they are not painful. The doctors' shifts are 12 hours, and so just before change of shift at 6am, the second doctor checks my cervix - and guess what. I'm not dilated at all. Not at all. So I endured (aka wasted) nearly 12 hours on pitocin for nothing. She decides to stop the pitocin, let me relax for a few hours, and then start this induction process all over again, this time starting with cytotec - our original plan.
So, cytotec is inserted around 845am. You have to lie completely still for one hour so that it doesn't come out, then you are monitored for 3 hours. After the total of 4 hours, you can either have another cytotec if you're not contracting too much, you can start pitocin if you're making some progress, or you can just wait it out until the contractions die down enough to do another cytotec. Lovely.
So, the cytotec brings back contractions every 1-3 minutes that are moderate in intensity, but still not painful. My four hours of monitoring is up, and yep, my contractions are too frequent for more cytotec, but I'm not in enough pain to be making any progress with my cervix yet. Lovely, more waiting. Six o'clock comes around, time for change of shift, and my second doctor checks my cervix and thinks I'm finally at 3cm but the baby is still high, and high enough that these cervical checks are way more painful than the contractions themselves. Time to start pitocin. I start my pitocin around 7pm and the contractions don't get stronger; they get weaker and more spaced out.
Third doctor arrives with a new plan. She checks my cervix and thinks I'm at 4cm around 9pm. Her plan: get my epidural now since my cervical checks are painful (not the contractions), break my water, and have a baby before her shift is up at 7am. Sounds good to me. So, my epidural is placed while I'm trying to watch Boston Med at 10pm. Shortly thereafter I am 6-7cm.
Jeff's handling all this waiting pretty well.
Around 1am, people start scurrying about and I can hear slowing down of the baby's heart rate on the fetal monitor that corresponds to when I am having contractions. He is no longer tolerating labor. Who could blame him? It was now 1am on August 6th, and he had been here in the hospital getting squeezed through artificial labor since 9pm on August 4th. The pitocin was shut off, allowing him time to recover. I mentally prepared myself for a C-section after all this time, as I was only about 8cm dilated at this point. I called my parents and told them of this possibility. He started to feel a little better after an hour or so of the pitocin being completely off, and another check at around 3am showed that I was now 9cm. Everyone grew a bit more hopeful, and the pitocin was restarted. Around 4am, I really started to feel a lot of pressure and told one of the nurses. She told me to just let the baby move down on his own and when I felt the urge to push, just to let them know. I could feel him moving down low, super low, so when the doctor came in to check me at 4am, I let her know too. One look at me and she could already see the top of the baby's head. Time to push! One contraction and three pushes later, my baby was born at 430am! Finally!
The doctor put him on my chest immediately. She seemed quite surprised to find out the reason why he was not tolerating labor. Not only did he have the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck once, but he also had a true knot in his umbilical cord as well! Having trained in pediatrics and working in a NICU, I know just how dangerous a true knot could be. We were extremely lucky!!!
As I'm cuddling and getting to know my new little one, I noticed lots of scurrying about the room again. They take the baby from me to get him weighed and checked out, and I start to get a little woozy and light-headed. Just to complicate an already complicated labor, I then had a post-partum hemorrhage, losing about 800ml of blood in a very short period of time. Everyone was quick acting and got that settled down, got me some fluid, and I felt better within the hour.
Reid McGuire Bolton didn't seem to mind all the excitement surrounding his birth. He was just perfect at 8lbs and 2oz, 20.5 inches, born at 38 weeks and 4 days on August 6th. Imagine if he'd made it to his due date!
Another blonde addition to the Bolton family - this one with a little more hair, chubbier cheeks, less eyebrows, and a bigger chin.
See, I'm feeling better already.
Daddy has to get his cuddle time in too. Reid is just perfection.
We made it upstairs to the post-partum floor before 7am (before we actually had to meet our fourth set of doctors and nurses on the labor and delivery floor). They took Baby Reid away to the nursery to get him bathed. After three days in the hospital with no sleep, the nurses wouldn't give him back to us until we took naps. Reid came back to our room about 930am.
Shortly after 10am on August 6th, big brother Cooper arrived with Gigi and Bubba to meet his new little brother. Gigi and Bubba were in Richmond house hunting, and jumped in the car after hearing we were going to be induced. Because the process took so long, they were here in plenty of time to take care of Cooper. Cooper arrived ready to hold baby Reid in an outfit he picked out himself - a t-shirt inside out and swimming trunks.
He instantly wanted to hold his new brother and showered him with lots of love and kisses.
The three Bolton boys.
With Gigi and Bubba here, we could finally get some family photos.
Me and my boys. Notice Cooper's thumb pressed oh-so-gently (not) into Reid's cheek.
Me and Reid.
Lots of kisses.
Putting his hat back on.
More kisses.
More cuddles.
And more cuddles from the grandparents Gigi and Bubba.
We noticed right away all the similarities between Cooper and Reid. Let the comparisons begin-- Cooper @ 2 days old. They definitely look alike but have their differences too.
Reid @ 1 day old
Cuddle time with Mommy.
Love my little guy, who is all checks and chins.
After being in the hospital since August 4th and not delivering until August 6th, we sure were anxious to get out of there. Our OB's and pediatricians agreed to discharge us just after 24 hours on August 7th. Reid, unlike his brother, was breastfeeding like an old pro, and had only lost 3 oz, with a discharge weigh of 7lbs and 15oz.
In the car seat and ready to go home by 1pm on August 7th. Hooray!
At home, we were greeted by big brother Cooper who was again eager to do more holding.
What a great big brother. Notice Reid is keeping one eye open. Smart kid.
I'm watching you.
So now here we are, settling into our new family of four. We have the help of Gigi for a couple weeks and then the Evans Grandparents are reporting for duty. Cooper is adjusting to life as a big brother. He is in love with his brother, always kissing, hugging, and asking to hold him, helping change his diaper, and yelling Super Cooper to the Rescue when Reid cries. He doesn't appear to like the decrease in attention for him and is doing a little more yelling and rebelling. Reid is a model baby so far - breast feeding like a rock star, only fussing when he is hungry or having his diaper changed, and sleeping in 2-3 hour stretches at night in his pack and play (as opposed to his brother Cooper who stunk at feeding, fussed a lot, and would only sleep when he was held). Let's all hope this lasts.
