After my last post, I went to the doctor and she decided she would let me go to 40 weeks but no further. Technically I turned 40 weeks on a Sunday, but she was going to be out of town. We decided on the following Tuesday, December 20th, as an induction date if I hadn't gone into labor on my own at that point. Well, of course I didn't! So Clayton and I headed to the hospital Tuesday evening. We got all settled into our room and waited for my doctor to decide what our plan of action was. I was STILL a 2 and 50% effaced (same as I had been since 35 weeks). They decided to do Cervidil that night, which takes 12 hours. I won't go into all the details about how that went...but let me just say, if you're going to be induced, try to avoid Cervidil if at all possible! It was not enjoyable. After that, they gave me an Ambien and I slept like a rock! At about 9 Wednesday morning they took the Cervidil out and I had progressed to a 2.5 and 70% effaced. Really? So they went ahead and started the pitocin and came in every 30 minutes to turn it up. I started having contractions pretty quick, but they were really mild. All of a sudden mid-morning they started getting a lot more intense really quickly. They finally gave me some pain medicine which totally knocked me out. Clayton said I would wake up and have a really intense contraction and immediately pass back out. I honestly hardly remember it. Sometime after lunch they checked me and I had FINALLY made enough progress to get my epidural. I don't know why anyone would ever choose to give birth without one. It is seriously the most amazing thing ever. Between that and the pain medicine, I spent most of the rest of the afternoon sleeping! About 3:30 I woke up and was feeling quite a bit of pressure so I had my mom call the nurse. She came in and told me I was ready to start pushing! They got everything all set up and just a little before 4 I started pushing. Knox's heart rate kept dropping, so my doctor really made me work hard to get him out quickly. I had in my head that I would be pushing for a loooong time because most people I know have had to...especially with their first. Well, at 4:20 he made his debut with a head full of hair! I don't know how people push for hours and hours. I was exhausted after 30 minutes! They took him over and cleaned him up and got his lungs cleaned out and I just remember Clayton saying "Do you hear him?! That's him crying!" I was so out of it that it took me a minute to really take it all in. Pretty quick after they came and laid him on my chest and it was the most amazing thing I have ever felt. I knew I would be completely overcome with love the second I saw him...but it was just indescribable. Never in my life had a felt anything like it! He immediately became the most important thing in our lives.
After everything was done, the nurse told me to spend about 30 minutes trying to nurse him before we let people start coming in to see him. After hearing everyone's horror stories about breastfeeding, I wasn't too optimistic but I knew I wanted to give it a shot. Well, this little man took to it like a champ and we haven't had a single problem since! After that his grandparents came to meet him and then his aunts and one of his uncles and all of his favorite people (okay, maybe my favorite people...but they will be his too I'm sure!).
After about two hours of visiting it was time for Daddy to take him to the nursery to be weighed and measured and cleaned up. The doctor (the one who wasn't sure I was going to be able to deliver this baby in the beginning) had estimated he would be about a seven pound baby. She even did an ultrasound the night we got to the hospital and she still thought he was probably right around seven pounds. WRONG! He was 8lbs 1oz and 20 inches long! Big baby boy! We all thought he was a little bigger than seven pounds, but none of us thought he was THAT much bigger!
He did great eating and sleeping the night we stayed in the hospital. The nurse would bring him to us when he would wake up but not once did he come in crying. He was always just wide awake and looking around! My doctor came first thing Wednesday morning and discharged me, but Knox had to stay a full 24 hours before he could be discharged. Thankfully the nursery nurse was a long time family friend who did her best to get us out of there as quickly as possible. A little before 5 she called the room and said if we'd come to the nursery we could get all of the paperwork done and head home! So by 5:30 we were on our way! I absolutely couldn't wait to get that sweet boy home and it was so surreal thinking that he was going home with us.
My mom stayed with us the first night and Clayton's parents brought dinner for both families. It was nice to have everyone out there to hangout for a little bit before we went to bed. My mom was absolutely our saving grace that night. Knox was a little fussy and she would just take him and rock him and walk around with him and let us sleep. I was afraid that was how the next few weeks would be but we have truly been blessed with an amazing baby! Since that night he has slept at LEAST 4 hours at a time at night and goes right back to sleep after he eats.
He had his first doctors appointment first thing Friday morning just to check on him and do his circumcision. His doctor is the doctor that basically raised my sisters and me. We grew up next door to his family and he has been our doctor our whole lives. It is so neat to see him now taking care of MY baby! He said Knox looked great and his circumcision went perfectly (he was almost back asleep by the time we got back in the room). He was down to 7lbs 14oz which wasn't bad at all.
That's about it for the first few days of life for Knox! Next up will be Christmas (if I can get around to it)! We are loving life with this precious boy and soaking up every second of him because he is already changing so much and so quickly!
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