Welcome to the World Trent Skyler
As the title says, Trent Skyler is here. I’m kind of going to make this a birth story post, but there isn’t a lot to tell because everything was very quick and we didn’t experience any complications (thankfully).
Tuesday night I tried to go to bed around 11:15/11:30 with Randy and Gracie but I just couldn’t sleep so I stayed up playing around on the Internet. Around 9ish or so we had sex in an attempt to encourage Trent to make his appearance. I started having minor contractions around 1:30/2am. It could be sex, could be coincidence. Who knows. I tried laying down and they got more intense and were only about 4-5 minutes apart. My moving around constantly woke Randy up and I told him I was feeling contractions but not to get up just yet because I didn’t want to go to the hospital if it was a false alarm. At about 3:45am I got up and told him that I was pretty sure Trent was on his way so he got up while I took a shower. We gathered up some last minute stuff for me and baby and packed Gracie a bag so she could go to my mom’s. We went to his mom’s about 5 minutes away and waited for my mom to come pick up Gracie. When all was said and done we got to the hospital a little after 5:00am and my contractions were getting more intense and about 3-4 minutes apart.
They checked when I first got there and determined I was 3-4cm dilated. My doctor didn’t show up until about 7:45ish. From the time I got there until my Dr. showed up I dilated to 8-9cm. I completely admit I am such a baby when it comes to pain. Some contractions I was able to breathe through while others I screamed that I couldn’t do this and started breathing really heavy. This got me a lecture from the nurse’s who warned me I’d end up hyperventilating if I didn’t calm down. :-\ I asked for something for the pain at around 7:15 and they actually came in to administer the epi shortly after 8, but it didn’t end up going in until 8:25/ish. I’m not sure WHY I still got it when I was so far dilated at the time. It hadn’t even kicked in by the time Trent arrived.
My Dr. checked my cervix again around 8:30 or so and told me to push on my next contraction so he could break my water and my cervix could finish dilating. 5 minutes after that I started pushing to get him out. It took 3-4 pushes and he made his entry into the world. One to push him down, 2 to get his head out and 1 more for his shoulders. It took less than five minutes for me to be all set with delivering the afterbirth and to get cleaned up. There was no tearing or anything. He was born at 8:50am weighing 8lb 1 oz and measured 20.5 inches long. I breastfed him shortly after he was born. It took a few tries to get him to latch, but once he got the hang of it he was good to go.
Randy asked about a vasectomy about 2 minutes after I delivered. He is completely, 100% certain that he never wants to watch me go through pregnancy and delivery again. At this point I’m not in a place to argue with him. I don’t think I could go through this all over again. I guess we’ll see how things go.
We went to our room and Randy and his mom left so I could get some rest since I hadn’t slept all night. During my nap the LC came to see me and we had a chat about breast feeding. I take 150mg of Lamictal for epilepsy and have for the past few years. If I don’t take it, I have wicked seizures in my sleep on a regular basis. She said the pediatrician recommended that I don’t breastfeed while taking it because of how it transfers to breast milk (50-60%). There have also been no long-term studies done on the effects. She said she looked it up herself and, still not satisfied with an answer, called the breastfeeding hotline at the much larger hospital in the close-by city to discuss it. She ultimately said she feels that it isn’t safe to breastfeed while taking it and handed me a bottle of formula.
I was crushed at the news and it didn’t help that Randy had already left to go do some mechanical work on our vehicle so I was sitting in the room alone to digest this news. My family knew how strongly I felt about wanting to breastfeed. I turned to my lovely Internet support system through Twitter and Facebook and got some amazing words of encouragement. I’m still coming to terms with this though, I won’t lie. I could go against recommendations, but I’d never forgive myself if something happened to him as a result of a choice I made. I’m also nervous because Gracie has a very VERY sensitive stomach and we ended up needing to try 5-6 types of formula to find one that worked for her and it was $28/can. She had horrible constipation and stomach problems on anything but Similac Alimentum. Right now he’s on Enfamil Newborn and doesn’t appear to have any issues yet. I’m crossing my fingers it stays that way.
Our hospital stay was uneventful really. He slept, ate, peed and pooped as usual. Randy came back and spent the night with us. We were released at 6pm yesterday. I was going stir crazy in there though b/c Randy left at 7:30 that morning to go finish up the work he started on our vehicle. I used my phone and laptop to entertain myself when Trent was snoozing away and took a nap here and there myself. Last night was a little overwhelming with both Gracie and Trent. He obviously wakes up often, but she wanted to play too until her daddy put a stop to that by putting her in her crib around 1:30am. Trent and I did a lot of cuddling when he woke up, then when he fell asleep I transferred him to our pack & play which has the newborn sleeper on top of it.
My MIL asked if she could take Gracie today so it’s just Trent and I hanging out today while daddy is working. I need to get the house organized and have a few deadlines for schoolwork that is due this week. Fun stuff. Off to go clean while Trent is still snoozing.
