So, I have some more pictures and some more details about my little man. I figured, now that my mom has the girls at the zoo and the house is quiet and I'm feeling not quite so tired, it's a great time to write it all down before it goes too far out of my memory.
WARNING: If you don't like birth details - don't read this. I'm using this as my journal, so you can skim or just not read if you don't want too many details.
Wed October 15th I had a doctors appointment. I had been having contractions all Thanksgiving weekend (in Canada it's the 2nd Monday in October) and was sure that things had progressed and I'd be having this baby soon. I was trying to tell myself not to get excited and I'd probably only be at a 1 still. It obviously didn't work too well since the doctor told me that I was barely at a 2 and I was super disappointed. He asked if I'd like my membranes stripped and (as a true Mullen) I didn't know what to say. All I knew was that I wanted to go into labour naturally (I'd been induced every other time) and I didn't want a huge baby. He said that he'd recommend getting it done so that I would be able to go in by my due date. So I did. I said a prayer that my contractions would either pick up and start doing something or stop completely so I wouldn't keep getting my hopes up. It was amazing.....my contractions completely stopped. I was SO bitterly disappointed, but it was an answer to my prayers - kinda. Then, I left, made an appointment for the following Tuesday (sure that I would be there for it) and was sure that this baby would never come (I'm sure this sounds very familiar to many of you mothers).
Monday night came around and Jarett and I started to finally agree on a name (this is the most horrid part of pregnancy for me. Jarett will not be serious until the last minute and it drives me up the wall.) It must have been what needed to happen because we went to bed at around 11 and at 1:40 I woke up having contractions every two minutes and needing to breathe through them. Because I had had so many contractions before, I was sure they'd go away, but they kept on coming. After getting up and walking around......going to the bathroom, having a shower etc. I realized they weren't going away, if anything they were picking up and they were getting really sore. I decided to call my wonderful cousin and ask if she'd come over because, if this wasn't labour, I couldn't think of what it would be. When she got there (around 3ish) we took off to the hospital and Jarett finally got his dream of being able to run red lights and speed on the way to the hospital. (He's felt quite ripped off this way since we've only had inductions.)
When we got to the hospital, I went up to the 4th floor and they admitted me slowly analyzing me (come on, this is my fourth time, I know what contractions feel like). They decided to take me to the assessment room (I hadn't had a contraction for at least 4 minutes which was the only break I got). On the way there, I had another contraction....the nurse (who was quite experienced) just looked at me and said, "You know, I don't think we'll need the assessment room, why don't we just go right to labour room 5." It was the first time I'd been to a hospital where I didn't have a stupid intern or nursing student decide to talk to me for half an hour first to decide whether or not I knew what I was doing. SO refreshing.
They hooked me up and admitted me at 3:45 and, after about 40 minutes, measured me at 5-6 cm. They let me go for another 20 or so before asking me if I wanted an epidural. I figured if I still wasn't progressing I would really want it and so I caved in. After about 10 minutes, they came back and said that the anesthesiologist wouldn't be able to come after all because she was needed in the C-Section, so it'd be a little wait. They gave me laughing gas (so named because it's a laugh that anyone thinks it eases pain) and then asked if I wanted any morphine. Since I had already caved with the epidural (which was coming.....) I said that would be great. They said it would take about 5 minutes to work through the IV and then things would pick up. It took about 5-10 minutes to get it to me. They put it in and about 10 seconds later (to my recollection) my water broke, I was bearing down and screaming my head off. (My 2 clearest thoughts at this point in time was, "Oh no......I'm not going to get that epidural and I have almost 2 hours of pushing ahead of me" and "Oh, this is why my kids scream.....it actually is a logical thing to do".) I've always thought that I'd be a good labour person because I'm really quite in control of anything that comes my way. I never over react or scream or get too exited because I'm just a really laid back person. Unfortunately, I didn't prepare properly for natural child birth and it freaked me out that I was suddenly going to have to do this. I screamed bloody murder (at one point 4 nurses came in to make sure I wasn't dying). The room all went white and I don't remember anything until my nurse had me by my shoulders and was speaking quite pointedly reminding me to breathe and then things came into focus. I could hear the two interns (the doctor was also away at the C-Section and I HATE interns - lots of bad experiences) who were now delivering my baby telling me not to push for a minute. I just thought, what the heck do you know.....all my babies heads are enormous and I have to push for hours. What I didn't know was that the head was already out and they were trying to get things lined up for the shoulders. It was maybe 3-5 pushes and he was here. I couldn't believe it. He was born at 5:14 after only 3 and a half hours of labour - total.
I started to cry. I couldn't believe he was here and I couldn't believe I actually was done labour (I forgot about after pains for a few minutes). He was so perfect and Jarett had been so wonderful and at least I hadn't sworn or yelled at anyone. I had just been screaming like an idiot. As soon as I started to comprehend things, I noticed that Doryta Foote (my Bishops wife) was in the room assessing the baby. She works in the NICU. It was so awesome to have her there. A familiar face is sometimes all you need to see when you're having an emotional and draining moment. She came and said that he looks really good, she just thought he might have a hernia that the pediatrician might be concerned about. Boy that was the truth.
We were moved to postpartum and things seemed to be going well. The pediatrician came by and was indeed so concerned about the hernia that they didn't tell me any of his measurements or anything. (He was, I found out later 7 lbs 12 oz (only 50th percentile) and 21 1/4 inches long (97th percentile). The truly shocking measurement was his head: 36 cm (25TH PERCENTILE).) Anyway, his hernia is so massively huge that it is larger and longer than my pinky finger and because of its placement, it had prevented the dropping of one of his testes. She called the pediatric surgeon on call (in a different hospital since there's only one hospital in Edmonton that performs surgeries on babies). They had no beds available, so they recommended that we just were discharged and went over to the other hospital and waited in the emergency room until they could get us through to the surgeon where he could do it with one of those beds. (Oh the joys of socialized health care). So there we were. Within 12 hours of birth, we had our first emergency room visit. We went through and about 5 minutes before we saw the surgeon, Jaymeson had a bowel movement which flattened his hernia and therefore the surgeon did not feel like this was emergent enough to operate on so soon. It would be better to wait for a couple of weeks. We were sent back to the hospital.
Jaymeson had a rough night coughing up so much mucus. He really didn't nurse enough. He's a good eater with a good latch, but he just would get tired so fast or he just wouldn't be interested. Once again no one believed me.... They said that he was just tired which is normal for a newborn. We went home on Wednesday morning and by Friday, the home nurse was so concerned about him that she sent us back to the hospital (emergency room twice in 3 days is quite impressive, don't you think?). Poor guy was super dehydrated. They couldn't get a urine sample through the catheter or even start an IV. Finally after they flushed the needle enough times, they could start the IV and they pushed 150 mL of fluid into him before they could get his blood fluid enough to draw. He didn't even flinch when they tried twice to put the IV in he was so tired. The response was amazing though. He was suddenly eating and responsive and he would cry when they would try to take the catheter out or draw blood (more normal). It was during this ER experience (which was quite a fun Friday night with Jarett if it wasn't for the fact that we were worried about Jaymeson - we had boggle there and his computer with a bunch of Seinfeld episodes on it....plus we got a couple frosty's etc.) that I finally convinced the other pediatrician that Jaymesons surgery needed to be moved up. He wrote an email right then and there to Dr Lees (the best surgeon in Edmonton) and told him to move up the date.
So here we are. I'm now in Calgary. I've called the surgeons office and they've told me, "too bad". I hate catty receptionists who think they are better than everyone else. Anyway, she's going to "talk" to the doctor and see if they can move it up, but she doubts it. This surgeon, after all has to work one whole day a week.... Anyway, so that's where we're at. We are waiting to hear back and see if this date can be moved up. Otherwise, we are waiting until the 18th for his surgery. Other than all the hernia drama, things are going really well. Jaymeson has woken up more and is eating quite regularly. At first he only ate once every 10 hours or so.... He is now eating almost exactly every two hours (which isn't THAT wonderful in the middle of the night, but I am grateful, because I don't want it the other way around). He is already growing and is just as sweet as can be. I don't let him cry hardly at all because it aggravates his hernia, but it isn't that hard because he very rarely does cry. He is such a beautiful little boy and he is SO wonderful. I just can't get enough of him. Anyway, this is why I said in my first post that he's created a few fun doctors visits etc. At least it is all stuff that can be fixed. I am very grateful for that.
I apologize for the length of this post, but I did need to write it out somewhere where I could remember. Thank you for your interest (to anyone who may still be reading this)!!
The only jealousy I see around my house right now is the jealousy of whomever is holding the baby. The biggest and cutest example of this is shown in the picture of Saryn holding Jaymeson. If you notice, he has a blanket in that picture that most people wouldn't have on a boy. This blanket is affectionately known as "Bankey Wowers". Saryn takes this blanket EVERYWHERE. She received it as a gift from my Granny and Aunty Beryl when she was a baby and is practically inseparable from it. In fact I might just do another collage of all the pictures with "Bankey Wowers" in it. Saryn LOVES this blanket. However, tonight as I put the kids to bed, Saryn said, "I share with baby" and she wrapped him in her favorite blanket. It literally moved me to tears. She was so willing to give the baby her very favorite thing because she thought it would make him happy. Whenever she holds him she looks at me happily and says, "He likes me!!" and she is so proud. What great older sisters she and the other girls are. I am so happy that they love the baby so much.
