He’s Here… and Kicking Our Butts

Hello, everyone! I’m blissfully rested after a 2-hour nap (wow, never thought I’d say that) and wanted to just quickly update everyone on our status.

We arrived home Thursday evening with our new bundle of joy/terror, Peyton. I was lucky to have an extremely kind OB who recommended that I stay an extra day in the hospital. She even wrangled with my insurance provider after they questioned it. The extra day really helped. I don’t think I could’ve recovered as well had I gone home after just 2 days.

Peyton was born on Monday at 8:37 pm at 9 lbs 4 oz (!!!!!!!) after a very long and hard labor. Boy, I sure had some delusions about pregnancy and I certainly did about labor. (I’m sure I have some about motherhood too.) Like my OB said to me afterwards, “Well, we didn’t do everything on your birth plan, but vaginal birth.” Apparently, I was an extremely good candidate for a fast labor given my physique (I have a typical “oriental” pelvis) and at one point, they thought it would be over just like that after I went from 4 cm to 7 cm dilated within 15 mins of breaking my water. But, alas, no one expected the baby to be THAT BIG. I pushed for 2 1/2 hours straight — hardly resting — and the OB ended up vacuuming him out with me giving a few heave hos.

I’ll write more details later about the labor itself, but I must warn people who haven’t gone through it and want to remain blissfully ignorant, you probably shouldn’t read that entry. I don’t have pregnancy amnesia, but I definitely have recovered relatively quickly and that kind of makes up (but not completely) for the labor. Here are a few quick thoughts on everything:

• Everyone who told me “It’s not that bad” are liars. OK, I had a large baby for such a petite person, but still… the contractions and inserting the epidural weren’t fun.
• I seriously question whether I’ll ever do this again.
• NO ONE ever suspected that my baby would be 9 lbs. From the OB to the nurse attending, they thought maybe 8 lbs max. There was an audible gasp when he was weighed and maybe a “Holy crap!”
• The nurse attending was awesome. She really helped when I thought I was going to give up and started to lose it.
• My OB (instilling some confidence) later said to me, “I never suspected you’d need a c-section.” and complimented me on my stamina. Then she said, “It’ll be easier next time.” and I laughed in her face.
• My recovery from that night to the 1 1/2 days later was also pretty rough. I never thought I’d walk again or have any bodily functions return.
• You lose all sense of modesty. I think everyone from the food delivery to the cleaning staff at the hospital has seen my boobs. I was always interrupted when breastfeeding and was just like, “Whatever.”
• I thought Jennie McCarthy was exaggerating about the nazi lactation consultant she encountered. Well, I encountered two and they were patronizing, critical, and haughty. You know what, don’t judge me when I don’t have enough milk yet to satiate my 9 lbs baby, so I top him off with some formula.

I lots more that I’ll post some day.

We had a rough first night with Peyton. I think we only slept a total of 2 hours. He tricked us… he was pretty good at the hospital and, at times, we weren’t that tired despite the frequent interruptions. But the minute we brought him home, he was colicky and wailing and we had no clue how to soothe him. We were torn between things we wanted to do to save our sanity and what “experts” at the hospital told us. But since then, I’ve learned that he’s still a newborn and “giving in” isn’t such a bad thing at this point. He’s having a rough journey too. We just need to listen to our gut and not what other people think. After all, they’re not the ones raising our kid, we are.

p.s. Peyton had his first appointment with the pediatrician today and all’s good. She really gave us great insight and she said he’s “really strong” and “good job, Mom!”