Brett's Birth

We welcomed Brett Matthew Lopez on Wednesday, May 24, 2006 at 12:22am, after 19 hours of labor. He was 6 pounds, 13 ounces, and 20 inches long. We came home on Thursday, the 25th.

Now the long version:
I woke up at 5am with contractions that were 10 minutes apart. Silly me thought that they'd progress nicely and the baby would be born that day. Todd convinced me to go for a walk, so off we went - walking around the neighborhood. We agreed that we'd go walk every few hours while the contractions were bareable... so 4 walks later, around 5pm, we finally decided to call Dr. Maddison. She said to stay at home until they were bad enough that they were difficult to walk and talk through for over an hour. She also advised we eat dinner... it was going to be a loooooong night. We decided to go out to eat at Moe's... I just ate dinner (nachos - yum!) around the contractions, which were about 5-6 minutes apart at this point. We got home, chilled out for awhile (watching American Idol), and decided to call back around 8pm - Dr. Maddison wasn't convinced it was time yet, but said to come on in and check things out...

Well, it's a good thing we didn't wait too much longer! The nurse got me all hooked up and settled by about 9pm... and checked to see how far along I was - 6cm already! I was SOOOOO ecstatic that I was that far along. My biggest fear was that the contractions weren't as bad as I thought they were and that they'd send me home. But nope, I was there for good now! The contractions were getting increasingly more intense, and becoming irregular - some only a minute or so apart, and others a little further apart, but I could definitely feel myself beginning to lose my concentration in breathing through the contractions. Even as great as Todd was in keeping me calm, nothing he said helped enough to keep me calm at this point. The nurse was AMAZING and kept coming in to check to see how the pain was, so about 10:30, I finally caved and asked for the epidural. Dr. Gore (seriously, that was the anesthesiologist's name) had to put it in twice, but once it was in, it was heaven! I could have kissed the doctor that put it in! I still had a hot spot (where the medication didn't take), but the nurse was so good and she worked with me until they finally got the pain at least tolerable in that spot, so then I was unbelievably happy, and talkative! I kept looking over at the contraction monitor and realized how happy I was that I couldn't feel those contractions - they looked horrible! The nurse checked me right after the epidural was finally going, and I was 8cm. My water still hadn't broken yet, which made the nurse nervous because she was just waiting for the big gush of mess to clean up! About 30 minutes later, she checked again, but couldn't tell anything because the bag of water was bulging out, and she couldn't feel past it! So, Dr. Maddison got there, and decided to break my water... I was fully dilated and ready to go! WHEW! They didn't want me to deliver before midnight because it would waste an overnight stay if we wanted it, so they kind of took their time getting me to push since Icouldn't feel it anyway :)

I started pushing just before midnight - with a lot of coaching from Todd and the nurse since I couldn't tell when the contractions were coming. Brett had some pretty big decels (drops in heartrate) that made the whole room a little anxious. Dr. Maddison told me that he was going to be born after the next contraction one way or another. I'll spare you all of the details, but after a cut and a tear to me, I finally came out at 12:22am! It turns out that his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck 3 times... a little scary! He got an 8 and 9 on his apgar scores, which was amazing considering how the cord was wrapped, but he's a tough little guy!

There was a little bit of extra drama here and there... one testical hadn't fully dropped yet, and they weren't totally sure it was even there, but it is, and it did eventually drop, so that's all good! Because of the testicle issue, they would not do the circumcision in the hospital. Once he was a few weeks old, we followed up with a pediatric urologist who did the circumsision in his office. Also, he went down to 6 pounds even by Saturday (day 4), which was more than 10% of his birth weight. Todd and I were concerned because he had not had a wet diaper in over 24 hours, so we took Brett into the pediatrician after talking to the pediatrician on call. They weighed him, verified the significant drop in weight, and gave him a bottle of formula, which he proceeded to chug like a champ! Needless to say, I was not producing enough milk for his man-sized appetite! The doctor had me supplement my breast milk with formula until my milk came in more (it never did). It was challenging to say the least, but Todd and the grandparents all helped out so that I didn't feel like I spent 24/7 feeding the baby!