I'm sure all of you followers have been waiting for an update. Well here it is! It might be a long one, so bear with me.
As you all should know by now, our beautiful little boy, Kane Griffin, decided to grace us with his presence on Thursday, June 10, 2010. He was born at 3:53pm and weighed in at 7 lbs 5 oz and was 19 inches long. Just a perfect little boy!
Kane wanted out and he wanted out quickly much to the surprise of pretty much everyone involved. I was scheduled to be induced on Thursday morning due to some high blood pressure issues I had been having for a couple weeks before hand. I was 39 weeks and 1 day along so Kane was born 6 days before his official due date. Thursday morning we went to the hospital, checked in and I got hooked up to all the fun monitors. Dr. Lo came in and explained the plan. He was guessing that Kane would be born by 9am the next day (Friday) so I was not getting my hopes up about a fast delivery. Dr. explained that he would induce me with a prostoglandin gel first in order to get things started. I would have to lie flat for 2 hours and then I could get up and move around but would still have to let the gel work for another 4 hours. After the 6 hour period he would check me progress and would probably have to do that whole thing again. Then after that he would start pitocin and I would be on my way to labor which could take a while anyway.
Well.....it turned out that all I needed was the first round of gel! I started feeling contractions during the first 2 hours of lying flat. I was making some progress so I was allowed to get up and walk round, trying to let gravity help but the contractions kept coming stronger. At that point I was about 3.5 cm dilated and the nurse told me I could now have an epidural which I happily agreed. The contractions kept getting stronger as I got the epidural but once it was in I was feeling pretty good. Dr. Lo checked me again and changed his guess that I would have Kane by 10pm that night but the nurse said she guessed before dinner time. I could still feel the contractions slightly so the nurse checked me and said I was making great progress. At that point I think I was up to 8cm dilated already and my water had broken. Finally, I felt the urge to push so the nurse gave me the go ahead and I started pushing with just her and Cory in the room with me. She had to call down for the Dr. two times so that he would come up because I was going so fast. I started pushing around 3:20pm or so and Kane arrived at 3:53pm! Everything happened so fast and Dr. Lo was very surprised. He told us the next day that it just goes to show you that no matter how long you are in a profession there are always surprises!
It was truly an amazing experience and I was so glad that I was lucky enough to have a good induction experience after all of the horror stories I had heard! Cory was an awesome coach and did such a great job getting me through everything. It still amazes me when I think about it! I was glad to have the nurse I had too. She stayed with me past her shift change to help me through the delivery.
We got to come home from the hospital on Saturday. It was nice to get home and I know Cory was glad to sleep in our own bed since he had to sleep in a hospital recliner for 2 nights. My mom stayed with us for the first week which was very nice and very helpful. She left yesterday and I know she really didn't want to. My sister came and stayed for a couple days as well so Kane got lots of attention. He's had lots of visitors! So now it's just Cory and I, but Cory's mom is coming to help us out during the days next week so we are getting a little bit spoiled.
Kane is doing great! I still can't believe that he's finally here, it just amazes me that he's OUR baby! The first couple of nights he kind of had his days and nights mixed up be he has settled into a pretty decent routine for us. He really likes to sleep. I had to frequently wake him up to eat but he's also a good eater! Right now he's eating about every 2.5-3 hours. He's had a couple 4-5 hour stretches of sleep at night but that hasn't happened every night...I wish! He doesn't wake up screaming to eat, just gets a little bit fussy when he's hungry or wet. Once he eats he's usually pretty content and will fall back asleep. Now I just need to work on my ability to fall back to sleep that easily! Cory is a huge help at night too. I can wake him to help burp or change Kane while I try to catch a few extra minutes of sleep before he needs to eat again. We took Kane in for his for his first check-up with Dr. Evans yesterday. He is already up past his birth weight at 7 lbs 14 oz and he's 20.5 inches already too! Growing boy! Dr. told us it was ok to just let him sleep now instead of waking him for feedings since he's obviously getting what he needs. He called this "sanity mode". When he's hungry, he'll let you know so just go ahead and let him sleep....that was awesome to hear, but of course now he's waking up pretty regularly to eat...go figure! =)
Anyway, I suppose this is getting too long so I better sign off. Thank you to everyone for the well wishes, gifts, visitors, etc. We really appreciate it and couldn't be happier to finally have our little guy here with us. He is such a good little guy already and is changing every day! And I know Cory is happy to celebrate his very first Father's Day tomorrow! =) Stay tuned for more updates, pictures, etc.
