Tristan's birth story

Regular contractions began at 35 weeks. NOT fun. They weren't always painful, but they were annoying and tiring. Tristan hated contraction almost as much as I did, knowledge that one was on it's way came through him pushing against them before I could even feel their onset. Something from the first time I had given birth was off in my pelvis, so there was a lot of pain from that as well, which limited what exercises I could do as I didn't have a pool available to me. I still was in the healthy range of weight gain, but 27lbs, healthy range or not, is a lot for a shortie like me to carry around. I only gained two tiny stretch marks toward the end of the pregnancy, not that I mind them- I thought there would be more as that was a full 9lbs more than I gained with Gabriel.

My 38 week appointment, I was over being pregnant, just wanted him out and in my arms. We were all shocked when Feb rolled around and I was still pregnant. We had one false alarm where things progressed until we arrived at the hospital. When we left they told me not to come back until I couldn't talk and breathing was difficult. That panicked both Shaun and I, because when I hit that point with Gabriel, I went from being dilated at a 3 to a 9 1/2 in less than half an hour! Thankfully my Dr was amazing and calmed us, just adding a second hour to how long she wanted contractions to be going on unless the pain was intense. 

I enjoyed lots of mini "dates" with Gabriel as we paced isles of stores while I contracted along for weeks. I had a manager of one store I visited jokingly ask me to hurry my shopping along so my water wouldn't break there in the store. It's a good thing he was as nice to Gabriel as he had been and such a help to me, or I might not have taken that as well as I did. January and February are known in Omaha for being months of a lot of snow, but we hardly had any, so we joked that the first snow storm would be when the baby decided to come. The exercise ball was one of the only things that helped some of my pelvic pain, so I bounced, rolled and stretched lots of miles on it.

Super Bowl Sunday arrived, inspired by the commercial of Arron Rogers catching a baby in a commercial,  we decided to try to get things rolling. I had my membranes stripped (for the second time), took primrose oil, ran stairs, bounced on the exercise ball, and kept those contractions moving. When we hit two and a half hours I called my Dr, who said to go to the hospital. We put Gabriel to bed and called his godmother to come over and stay with him. Off we went, continuing to time things- I was nervous that things would slow down again and I would have pulled a Father of the Bride Part 2 on everyone with lots of false alarms. 

Back to room 15 of Bergin Mercy's Labor and Delivery Ward. We were monitored for an hour and allowed to stay! Things did calm down a bit, but we were ready for Tristan to be born, my body was ready, so we went ahead.

Here is the timeline I kept throughout his birth. Just facts so I could come back and write in detail the actual story. But it kind of tells the story even without embellishment.

7pm started bouncing on exercise ball, ate a whole pineapple
8:00 put Gabriel to bed
8:10 ran stairs with Shaun
8:30 started timing contractions
10:12 had Dr Pakiz paged
10:18 spoke with Dr Pakiz
10:20 called Beth to come over, when she arrives Shaun tries to get sympathy and attention from her talking about how much his hands are going to hurt from needing to rub my back for hours on end. I almost leave him behind. Almost.
11pm arrive at hospital
11:30 they officially check us in
12a iv and antibiotics begin, shaun attempts sleep
2am cervix at 5 80% (shaun throws up)
3:15a epidural applied (shaun almost faints, lays on floor till four or five nurses help him to bathroom via wheelchair. He keeps saying, "it's not the needle" and how sorry he is to me while I have one nurse holding me in the right position and the anastesiologist helping me and helping him calm and rest instead of getting back up on his own)
3:30a pitocin started
3:49 allowed to sleep!!! Yay!
4:30 soooo nauseated,  threw up a little. shaun helped like a rockstar even while sick. Tristan's heartrate dropped. I was moved to my left side and put on oxygen until it rose.
5:30 nauseated again, not as bad however. Checked me, at a 5. still .
5:30 back on left side, peanut ball between legs to try to help him move down into my pelvis more

Rested, dozed a little.  Nurses in and out, machine kept misreading and going off. Legs hurt from being numb and cold with that fell asleep needles feeling.

6:50 woke up, moved peanut ball away, checked- at a 9 and they see his head!! They started getting things ready. Called Dr and nurses without leaving my side just in case.
7am Shaun wakes up mid snore with nurses in and out and all the busy activity that I remember being much slower last time. Overheard nurse say I was at a 9 and shot up into sitting position and had nurse confirm he heard right.
7:30 dr arrives, checks me, confirmed we're ready to go (at a 10!) and gets scrubbed up, shaun dresses.
7:45 in position, everything in place. Bag of waters and baby's head already coming out. Broke my water and pushed for two contractions/5pushes- after one contraction of pushing she said, "okay, this next contraction you'll have your baby!" Cord wrapped around neck once, no complication from it however.
7:51am Tristan Raphael McAfee is born! Slid out so fast all at once that the Dr had to catch him and passed him to Shaun right away who was ready to catch him sitting next to her but already said he would need her help this time. He held him for a minute and gazed at Tristan laughing at how fast he came out. placed him on my belly for skin to skin.

New policy dictated 1 hour skin to skin, everyone guess weights. Dr. Said 6.5lbs. He is beautiful! Rubbed him down, squeezed out the fluids and got to stare at him. He has brown eyes! I had to confirm it several times, couldn't believe it! He nursed both sides- really did pull himself army crawl style until he was in position. I handed him to shaun for a bit too and broke the one hour rule when no one was there.

9am nurse comes in to get stats and tests on Tristan and clean me up. 20in 7lb 4.8oz brown eyes perfect and calm. Loved the heating lamp.

Hold him a little more, Shaun holds him, we all 3 sleep sleep- finally!

Dr. Dulak comes to visit, no concerns- does mention T has big feet ;) but no concerns!!

11am I get really sick. Lightheaded, throwing up, have to use the bathroom almost pass out.

Noonish we are moved to room in recovery. Meet our nurse become an official "fall risk"

Everything hurts. Cramping so much worse than last time. Taking tylonal 3 after they were convinced I wouldn't throw it back up (everything hurts!!!).

Tristan is a rockstar nursing and so sweet. Exhausted but so happy and thrilled not to have had the NICU mentioned even once. Healthy and sweet little newborn.

Snowstorm we predicted for his birth begins and doesn't stop for days. Gabriel is with his godparents loving his "vacation" but isn't able to see us. Shaun visits him once but is so sick they send him home and keep Gabriel another night. Gabriel doesn't seem to miss us with all the love and attention he is getting as we do him. So grateful for Mike and Beth in our lives and how they love our little man and send me pictures to calm my momma worries of how he is doing.

Taken at exactly 24 hours since birth, watching the snow and enjoying his little grins and newborn smell and noises. Sweet and content little newborn, and a good little eater!