Harrison Family: Owen's Arrival

I have been meaning to post about Owen's delivery and the hospital all week. However, having two kids and trying to recover from a C-section is a busy job! Luckily I have had Phil home with me and my parents came in town Wednesday night. Without the 3 of them I don't think I would have made it this week!

I'll start from the beginning...

Around midnight on Friday morning I woke up with weird pains. About every half hour for the next 2 hours I was awoken with the same pains. I kept thinking I was constipated (ha- ha). Finally around 3am Phil woke up and said I think you are having contractions. There was the Ahh-ha moment. I hadn't even considered it since I was induced with Wesley I never had contractions at home. Anyways, between 3am and 5am the contractions got closer and closer. We were already scheduled to be at the hospital at 5:30 for a 7:30 C-section. So we just headed to the hospital. By the time we got there my contractions were 3 minutes apart and lasting almost 60 seconds. When they checked me for dilation I was only at a 3 and wasn't progressing much. My Dr said I could try a VBAC but said that he didn't feel good about it and thought I should continue with the C-section. Phil and I had been praying from me to go into labor because it was our only shot of trying for a VBAC before the scheduled C-section. However, when my Dr asked me if I wanted to try I did not feel good about it. And since he didn't feel good about it either it cemented our fate and we prepped for surgery. Even though it was quite painful I feel it was a blessing that I went into labor and that we had to make the final decision. I don't have any what ifs or regrets now. I know that this is how I deliver babies and have come to terms with it.

By 7:30 I was in the operating room and was getting a spinal block. The anesthesiologist was amazing and helped me through this since Phil couldn't be in the room while they prepped for the surgery. Once they had me numb they brought Phil in and at exactly 8am we had a beautiful baby boy. I got to hold him for a few seconds and then they took him to clean and check him out. Phil got to go with Owen and I went off to recovery.

This C-section was very different from the last. I was more alert since I hadn't been in labor for 13 hours like with Wes. I also only had the spinal block and had had an epidural and then the spinal block with Wes. Recovery seemed to go a lot faster as well. I was in there for about an hour and then taken to my room and after they got me hooked up on my IV and everything they finally brought Owen in to nurse.

We had a few scary moments at the hospital. When Phil went to change Owen's diaper he found a ton of blood. After taking Owen's blood and running tests to ensure he was able to clot, we were told everything was normal and that he just had some bleeding from the circumcision. He also had high bilirubin levels and so we had to introduce a little formula which caused him to stop nursing well for 1.5 days (stressful). Despite these two incidents the hospital stay went pretty smoothly and we have a health baby boy.

Heading to the hospital