Introducing

Ian Scott Worthington

November 8, 2014   2:21am

7lbs 14oz    19 inches

I like to keep a record of each of my birth experiences, so here is Ian's.  Earlier in the day, Friday, November 7th, the nurse I talked to from labor and delivery said to arrive at the hospital at 5:30pm.  I wanted to be there by 5:15 to get things moving along as soon as possible.  Scott was trying to finish up some work though, and he had to stop by the post office on the way to the hospital so we actually didn't get there until 5:40 or so.  They checked us in and the pitocin was started around 6:20pm.  It seemed like it took forever for the contractions to pick up.  The pitocin can be turned up every 30 minutes but the nurses didn't come in that often to do it.  Scott and I watched a movie while we waited for things to progress.  Dr. Harris came in and broke my water at 9:10pm.  At that point I was still only dilated to a 2.  I was uncomfortable enough at 11pm to ask for my epidural.  It took forever for the anesthetician to get it done.  It was probably one of the most painful too.  It kept sending shocks into my hip and she didn't get it in far enough the first time so she had to do it again.  It was really heavy too, so my left leg was so dead I had no control of it.  At 11:30 she was finally done placing the epidural and at that point I was dilated to 3cm.  It's kinda a bummer being in labor in the night.  Scott was tired so he was just sleeping and I tried to sleep but it was hard.  I listened to a Dr. Laura podcast for a little while.  The nurse came and checked me at 2am and I was dilated to an 8.  The nurse went out but on my next contraction I felt tons of pressure and like I needed to push.  I waited for one more contraction to be sure then called the nurse back in.  She called the doctor and I had to wait through several more contractions before he came.  It looked like he had been sleeping soundly.  :)  He looked a little groggy.  I pushed twice and Ian's head came out but the cord was wrapped around his neck twice.  They told me to stop pushing and Scott said Dr. Harris unwrapped the cord really fast.  I pushed one more time and Ian was born!  It was 2:21am.  I said we should have waited one more minute and it would have been 2:22.  We didn't get as many pictures of him right after he was born as we did of our other babies.  I'm a little sad about that.  Scott was holding my dead leg and Ian was a little blue so the nurses called for NICU to come in just in case.  It made Scott nervous and he said there was nowhere for him to stand by where they had Ian.  I really didn't like my hospital experience this time compared to all my other girls' births and hospital stays.  Ian started to pink up just fine so the NICU nurse wasn't needed.  They gave me Ian and I nursed him a little bit.  His latch wasn't perfect at first but he's improved now.  I'm still really afraid of getting thrush.  I'm taking tons of probiotics to try and prevent it.  I also started taking Diflucan as a preventative measure.  That doctor I saw when I had thrush with Lucy said that would be a good thing to do, so I'm doing it.  The nurses left us alone for quite a long time before they put ointment in his eyes and gave him the hepatitis vaccine.  By the time they came to give him his bath Scott was sound asleep.  They bath the baby in your room.  I took a picture of him from my bed, but it was far away and Scott didn't stir at all even though Ian was screaming. 

 My mom brought the girls to visit on Saturday morning.  They were all so excited.  Kate had a hard time leaving us.  They came back in the evening to visit again and then on Sunday after church too.  They were all really cute and well behaved.  Ian had his biliruben tested at 2 a.m. Sunday when he was 24 hours old.  It was slightly high so he had to have it tested again at 2 p.m. to see if we could go home that afternoon.  He passed, so we were good to go.  On the way out, Scott asked the nurse what Ian's weight was now.  The nurse said, "oh, I dont' know.  Do you want me to go check?"  We said no, it was fine.  We shouldn't have though because they didn't even weigh him at discharge.  They also forgot to do his hearing test.  We had to go to an appointment with the audiologist on Friday to have his hearing checked.  On Saturday, during the day I really didn't love my nurse.  I only saw her about 3 times.  I had to ask for everything from basic things like ice and things for basic postpartum care and they never asked me if I needed any pain relievers until I asked for them.  I'm just glad this wasn't my first baby so I knew what to ask for.  They rarely even checked Ian's vitals - which was really lame because they are supposed to keep good tabs on him since I tested positive for group B strep.  I was happy to leave the hospital and come home.  We are just happy to have a healthy baby boy!