22.4.11
Oh, you mean the Paso Doble?
So the other day Jeff and I were watching Dancing with the Stars...well Jeff was looking up how to get buff online (he's already lost 35 pounds now!) and I was watching Dancing with the Stars. They were doing a recap of the previous night's dances and showed Hines Ward doing an awesome dance. I was showing Jeff and said, "Wow! He is really good at that dance...oh what's it called?" Jeff: "The Paso Doble." Bah ha ha ha!! I just looked at him and started laughing. I still can't believe he came up with that and I didn't. Clearly I make him watch too many reality dancing shows. I love you Jeff :D
23.3.11
The Hagbergs at the Pediatrician...
I did have a great experience at the hospital and felt very well taken care of, but I couldn't stay there forever and Jeff was anxious to get home. We had the option of staying at the hospital one more day but we made the decision to go home.
Clark in his "going home outfit"
All tuckered out :)
I love his laid back look here
Jeff's mom Michele had hung a banner to welcome Clark home on our mirror. I cried.
Clark's first time in his crib. So tiny!
First time at home as a family, well minus Rupert :( He was still at the kennel, it was weird to be home without his friendly face!
So when we were at the hospital Clark didn't cry that much. In fact, they asked us which one of us was laid back--of course we both said me--because Clark was SO laid back! The night we got home from the hospital Clark cried for hours. We didn't know what to do! It was the middle of the night. We had fed him "20 CC's" which is more than what they told us to feed him at the hospital, his diaper was clean, we did everything we knew what to do! We started to get worried that we overfed him. The thought crossed our minds that he could be hungry, especially since my body was giving us clues that it was time to feed the baby, but we quickly changed our minds to the thought that we must have given him too much. Jeff decided to call the pediatrician for advice. She heard him screaming in the background and asked Jeff if he was hungry. He said that he couldn't be, that we fed him "20 CC's!" She said, "Sir, that's an ounce. He can eat around 3 ounces every 2 hours." Poor kid was starving!! Jeff hung up the phone and we fed our child. He stopped crying and went to sleep. Oh wow, is it that obvious that we are new parents? We were both embarrassed but had a good laugh.
The first week at home was kind of a blur. We were instantly in love with Clark, but we were clearly newbies and were trying to figure out our kiddo. I was also still very drugged up, we were sleep deprived, and I think becoming an instant dad when Jeff had hardly even ever held an infant before was a bit of a shock and a major adjustment for him (even though he was doing a fabulous job), not to mention every time we tried to breastfeed, Clark screamed at the top of his lungs which was a little stressful for all of us. Everyone kept saying to relax because Clark can tell when I'm tense, but it was hard to relax when he was screaming that hard. We went to the point of lighting candles, turning the lights down, putting a heating pad on my back, rocking, closing my eyes, and blaring Enya on my noise-canceling headphones to relax while he screamed. That didn't even do the trick! We decided to go to another lactation specialist.
Clark right before the appointment
We had an appointment with the lactation specialist and an appointment to get Clark circumsized within an hour of each other...on a Monday. Most people know that Mondays are crazy at doctors offices because everyone has been waiting all weekend to get in. They were 1/2 hour behind for our first appointment so Jeff started getting anxious and worried that we were going to miss our next appointment and have to pay for it or at least have a hassle of having to reschedule and come back.
We finally got in there and started with the lactation lady. She wanted to weigh him and check him over, so she told us to take off all his clothes and wrap him in our blanket. Blanket? What blanket? we were supposed to bring a blanket? She looked at us like we were bad parents and were going to freeze our poor newborn in the middle of the winter with no clothes on and no blanket! Note to self: bring blanket next time.
We started to try breastfeeding so she could observe us. Clark was screaming, per usual, and we were trying to talk to her and work with Clark and the pediatrician came in to tell us about the circumcision. The lactation lady slipped out of the room after our unsuccessful attempt and the pediatrician took over. She was talking a mile a minute in a really excited tone and I couldn't understand anything she was talking about. I suddenly felt like I didn't know a thing about the male anatomy and it all became very complicated. She even drew a picture to explain where things were. I still felt clueless and was still in a haze from the pain meds and lack of sleep and suddenly panicked that this was all so rushed and this lady who I couldn't understand and seemed to have 10 too many cups of coffee that day was the one that was going to be slicing my baby boy. I could feel tears coming. She wisked him away without time to have a second thought about it. As soon as they left and we had an empty room, Jeff said, "should we pump?" I was totally in another zone and said "sure." So Jeff got the parts out, I tried to use my discreet nursing tank top and nursing bra and couldn't even figure that out, so whipped them both off and started to pump.
All of a sudden my face felt red and I couldn't believe what we were doing! Here I am topless in the pediticians office pumping and I couldn't imagine if someone walked in and I was in that state. I told Jeff I would totally be embarrassed if someone walked in and he said "no it's good, we're multitasking!" Then Jeff looked like he had a realization. He said, "wait, is that lacation lady coming back?" I said, "yes!" he said, "oh we shouldn't be pumping!" I said "exactly!" so he pulled off the pumping gear and milk is flying and I'm frantically trying to put my clothes back on before someone comes back in the room. We started laughing hysterically and we needed that! We both couldn't believe what we were just doing. I took a big drink of water and started laughing again and snorted it out my nose all over me and the floor.
Moments later, the Pediatrician came back in with Clark! He had his hands behind his head and had a "cigar"--a rolled up paper towel dipped in sugar water--sticking out of his mouth. She told us he slept through the procedure! I couldn't believe it! I guess the sugar water cigar really worked! She said she put a diaper on loosely and she was going to check on him again in a few minutes. I held Clark for about a minute before he pooped all over. I mean all over. I said, "Jeff, it's really warm on my lap right now." He got up and looked and there was poop all over Clark, me, the bench I was sitting on, the floor...everywhere. He started grabbing paper towels and made a dam with them and started cleaning everything up. Just then, the lactation lady came back. Jeff said, "oh we can't really do that right now,"and she said, "oh, ok." Then the pediatrician came back in and was explaining how to care for Clark's owie while the lactation lady was talking to me at the same time. I was half listening to both of them and not really listening to either of them as a result.
Suddenly they both left, I didn't know how to care for Clark and didn't have any help with breastfeeding. I couldn't believe Jeff would send her away when I really needed her help! I started crying. He explained he wasn't trying to send her away, just that the diaper situation needed to be taken care of first! It was a sad car ride back home. We drove into the garage and Jeff had set up a tennis ball for me in the garage so I have a target to hit (Not the best at spacial awareness) so he hit the tennis ball slowly, then turned his head and kept driving right into the wall! And I was laughing hysterically again. I think he was a little worn out from the experience...we all were. I began to realize I was feeling very unstable--laughing hard one minute, bawling the next...at least there were laughs among the tears!
More to come on the adventures of the Hagberg family :)
So when we were at the hospital Clark didn't cry that much. In fact, they asked us which one of us was laid back--of course we both said me--because Clark was SO laid back! The night we got home from the hospital Clark cried for hours. We didn't know what to do! It was the middle of the night. We had fed him "20 CC's" which is more than what they told us to feed him at the hospital, his diaper was clean, we did everything we knew what to do! We started to get worried that we overfed him. The thought crossed our minds that he could be hungry, especially since my body was giving us clues that it was time to feed the baby, but we quickly changed our minds to the thought that we must have given him too much. Jeff decided to call the pediatrician for advice. She heard him screaming in the background and asked Jeff if he was hungry. He said that he couldn't be, that we fed him "20 CC's!" She said, "Sir, that's an ounce. He can eat around 3 ounces every 2 hours." Poor kid was starving!! Jeff hung up the phone and we fed our child. He stopped crying and went to sleep. Oh wow, is it that obvious that we are new parents? We were both embarrassed but had a good laugh.
The first week at home was kind of a blur. We were instantly in love with Clark, but we were clearly newbies and were trying to figure out our kiddo. I was also still very drugged up, we were sleep deprived, and I think becoming an instant dad when Jeff had hardly even ever held an infant before was a bit of a shock and a major adjustment for him (even though he was doing a fabulous job), not to mention every time we tried to breastfeed, Clark screamed at the top of his lungs which was a little stressful for all of us. Everyone kept saying to relax because Clark can tell when I'm tense, but it was hard to relax when he was screaming that hard. We went to the point of lighting candles, turning the lights down, putting a heating pad on my back, rocking, closing my eyes, and blaring Enya on my noise-canceling headphones to relax while he screamed. That didn't even do the trick! We decided to go to another lactation specialist.
We had an appointment with the lactation specialist and an appointment to get Clark circumsized within an hour of each other...on a Monday. Most people know that Mondays are crazy at doctors offices because everyone has been waiting all weekend to get in. They were 1/2 hour behind for our first appointment so Jeff started getting anxious and worried that we were going to miss our next appointment and have to pay for it or at least have a hassle of having to reschedule and come back.
We finally got in there and started with the lactation lady. She wanted to weigh him and check him over, so she told us to take off all his clothes and wrap him in our blanket. Blanket? What blanket? we were supposed to bring a blanket? She looked at us like we were bad parents and were going to freeze our poor newborn in the middle of the winter with no clothes on and no blanket! Note to self: bring blanket next time.
We started to try breastfeeding so she could observe us. Clark was screaming, per usual, and we were trying to talk to her and work with Clark and the pediatrician came in to tell us about the circumcision. The lactation lady slipped out of the room after our unsuccessful attempt and the pediatrician took over. She was talking a mile a minute in a really excited tone and I couldn't understand anything she was talking about. I suddenly felt like I didn't know a thing about the male anatomy and it all became very complicated. She even drew a picture to explain where things were. I still felt clueless and was still in a haze from the pain meds and lack of sleep and suddenly panicked that this was all so rushed and this lady who I couldn't understand and seemed to have 10 too many cups of coffee that day was the one that was going to be slicing my baby boy. I could feel tears coming. She wisked him away without time to have a second thought about it. As soon as they left and we had an empty room, Jeff said, "should we pump?" I was totally in another zone and said "sure." So Jeff got the parts out, I tried to use my discreet nursing tank top and nursing bra and couldn't even figure that out, so whipped them both off and started to pump.
All of a sudden my face felt red and I couldn't believe what we were doing! Here I am topless in the pediticians office pumping and I couldn't imagine if someone walked in and I was in that state. I told Jeff I would totally be embarrassed if someone walked in and he said "no it's good, we're multitasking!" Then Jeff looked like he had a realization. He said, "wait, is that lacation lady coming back?" I said, "yes!" he said, "oh we shouldn't be pumping!" I said "exactly!" so he pulled off the pumping gear and milk is flying and I'm frantically trying to put my clothes back on before someone comes back in the room. We started laughing hysterically and we needed that! We both couldn't believe what we were just doing. I took a big drink of water and started laughing again and snorted it out my nose all over me and the floor.
Moments later, the Pediatrician came back in with Clark! He had his hands behind his head and had a "cigar"--a rolled up paper towel dipped in sugar water--sticking out of his mouth. She told us he slept through the procedure! I couldn't believe it! I guess the sugar water cigar really worked! She said she put a diaper on loosely and she was going to check on him again in a few minutes. I held Clark for about a minute before he pooped all over. I mean all over. I said, "Jeff, it's really warm on my lap right now." He got up and looked and there was poop all over Clark, me, the bench I was sitting on, the floor...everywhere. He started grabbing paper towels and made a dam with them and started cleaning everything up. Just then, the lactation lady came back. Jeff said, "oh we can't really do that right now,"and she said, "oh, ok." Then the pediatrician came back in and was explaining how to care for Clark's owie while the lactation lady was talking to me at the same time. I was half listening to both of them and not really listening to either of them as a result.
Suddenly they both left, I didn't know how to care for Clark and didn't have any help with breastfeeding. I couldn't believe Jeff would send her away when I really needed her help! I started crying. He explained he wasn't trying to send her away, just that the diaper situation needed to be taken care of first! It was a sad car ride back home. We drove into the garage and Jeff had set up a tennis ball for me in the garage so I have a target to hit (Not the best at spacial awareness) so he hit the tennis ball slowly, then turned his head and kept driving right into the wall! And I was laughing hysterically again. I think he was a little worn out from the experience...we all were. I began to realize I was feeling very unstable--laughing hard one minute, bawling the next...at least there were laughs among the tears!
More to come on the adventures of the Hagberg family :)
10.3.11
Our hospital stay
I follow a few friends blogs and I'm particularly impressed with my friends who have small children who blog often! It's inspiring me because I have been wanting to blog a bunch about Clark and I just don't feel like I have the time, but I need to make time because the reason I started this blog in the first place was to document life. I don't have the best memory and I just really love going back and seeing pictures and reading about memories, so I really want to document my little guy's first moments!
First of all, back to the birth of Clark, I had an AWESOME experience at Abbott, where we delivered. We had wonderful nurses and I felt well taken care of, and my doctor, Dr. Gibeau, was fabulous. I would recommend Women's Health Consultants and Abbott to anyone! We were blessed with a huge room for my recovery which made a big difference in our experience, too. A friend of ours who is a nurse there said that they try to give the bigger rooms to the moms recovering from a C-section because they stay longer, so that was awesome. I even had great food! I guess I just didn't expect to love my experience as much as I did, which makes it easy to think about doing this again :) Don't worry, not RIGHT away!
It was so fun having our parents get to meet their grandson for the first time at the hospital. I wish I wasn't in such a fog and could remember it all a little better, I do remember my eyes were shutting the whole time they were there! All that really mattered was that they got to meet him, though. What a feeling!
Our parents are such a huge part of our lives and we are so excited for them to be a significant part of Clark's life as his grandparents. Each one of them is so unique and brings so many good qualities that I know Clark will appreciate and learn from, as Jeff and I have. What a special thing it is to have loving grandparents, we feel so blessed and are so happy for Clark.
Jeff was so helpful in the hospital. I had a hard time doing much at first because of the C-section, so Jeff was helping me get up to go to the bathroom, making sure I ordered my meals on time, keeping double track of my pill schedule with the nurses to make sure I didn't have pain, and of course, taking care of Clark! Here is Jeff changing his first diaper :) I love this picture.
We had all this lead up with Rupert (our other baby) and making sure he was prepared for the baby to join him in the house...we even took a 6 week course on how to introduce your dog to the baby! We had a plan to have Rupert be taken care of at home by friends and family while we were in the hospital for the short stay so he would be in his own environment and comfortable before the big change. That was the plan before we had the C-section and the short stay in the hospital quickly turned into a long stay. We couldn't have someone let him out 4 times a day for several days, so we decided to send Rupert away to "sleep away camp," the breeders where he came from.
I cried when that decision was made because he was going to be there for a week after we got home too so I wouldn't see him for pretty much 2 weeks! But it was for the best. So Jeff had to go home from the hospital (already exhausted himself from everything), pick up Rupert and drive him to the kennel which is an hour away from our house and drive all the way back home. It was all later in the evening so he wasn't going to be able to come back to the hospital until the next day.
I realized how much Jeff had been doing and how supportive he had been when I had the thought of him not being there for the evening. I almost panicked. How would I do this on my own? I simply couldn't ask the nurses to do everything Jeff was doing because they would be in my room constantly and they have other patients!
It was an aweful night, I have to say. At one point, I tried to get out of bed on my own because Clark was crying. I had to change his diaper (my first one since we had him!) and I couldn't figure out how to put his outfit back on (hadn't done that yet either). Oh no, suddenly I had to go to the bathroom and Clark was crying and he was cold and he was pretty much naked, not to mention I was very slow moving still from my incision and probably from being drugged and tired, so just the simple act of going to the bathroom was an event. Before I had an emotional breakdown, I called the nurse and had her hold him while I went to the bathroom so he wouldn't cry! She looked at me like I was crazy, but I didn't care...I probably was a little at that point.
After she left I got my phone and called Jeff sobbing and said through tears, "I can't do this without you! Please come back?" He said he couldn't keep his eyes open to drive back to the hospital and that everything would be ok. I felt so helpless, so tired, so weak and yet filled with joy to realize how good I do have it. The whole 'you don't realize what you have until it's gone' thing, well I was definitely realizing and I missed it...I missed him. It was a bitter-sweet moment that I probably won't forget.
And you can imagine how excited I was to see this face again :) Oh, did I mention he came back to the hospital at 5 am so he could be with me again as soon as possible? What a guy!
Man, I love those men :)
And here is my Grandma, Bama, with Clark!
Something that was very special for Clark was meeting his great-grandma, "Great Bama." Great Bama has been waiting to add the "Great" to her name for quite sometime now, so was VERY excited for Clark's arrival, which was so fun!
Bama and my mom and I took a road trip this fall while I was pregnant with Clark so we talked about it a lot then, and she also came to MN for Christmas before I had Clark. She also helped host a shower for me, so it was SO fun having her be part of the lead up to Clark and for her to be so excited about him.
When Bama was in MN for Christmas, she unfortunately fell and broke her shoulder. We were so bummed about it for her because it meant surgery and therapy and recovery, but we were so happy to have her here in MN for a couple extra months, something that wouldn't have happened otherwise, and what timing! The birth of Clark! It was so special and meaningful for her to be there to meet him at the hospital and see him a few times before she left to go back to Michigan. He loves his Great Bama already! We are looking forward to her return in a few months to see a slightly older baby Clark :)
First of all, back to the birth of Clark, I had an AWESOME experience at Abbott, where we delivered. We had wonderful nurses and I felt well taken care of, and my doctor, Dr. Gibeau, was fabulous. I would recommend Women's Health Consultants and Abbott to anyone! We were blessed with a huge room for my recovery which made a big difference in our experience, too. A friend of ours who is a nurse there said that they try to give the bigger rooms to the moms recovering from a C-section because they stay longer, so that was awesome. I even had great food! I guess I just didn't expect to love my experience as much as I did, which makes it easy to think about doing this again :) Don't worry, not RIGHT away!
It was so fun having our parents get to meet their grandson for the first time at the hospital. I wish I wasn't in such a fog and could remember it all a little better, I do remember my eyes were shutting the whole time they were there! All that really mattered was that they got to meet him, though. What a feeling!
Our parents are such a huge part of our lives and we are so excited for them to be a significant part of Clark's life as his grandparents. Each one of them is so unique and brings so many good qualities that I know Clark will appreciate and learn from, as Jeff and I have. What a special thing it is to have loving grandparents, we feel so blessed and are so happy for Clark.
Jeff was so helpful in the hospital. I had a hard time doing much at first because of the C-section, so Jeff was helping me get up to go to the bathroom, making sure I ordered my meals on time, keeping double track of my pill schedule with the nurses to make sure I didn't have pain, and of course, taking care of Clark! Here is Jeff changing his first diaper :) I love this picture.
I cried when that decision was made because he was going to be there for a week after we got home too so I wouldn't see him for pretty much 2 weeks! But it was for the best. So Jeff had to go home from the hospital (already exhausted himself from everything), pick up Rupert and drive him to the kennel which is an hour away from our house and drive all the way back home. It was all later in the evening so he wasn't going to be able to come back to the hospital until the next day.
I realized how much Jeff had been doing and how supportive he had been when I had the thought of him not being there for the evening. I almost panicked. How would I do this on my own? I simply couldn't ask the nurses to do everything Jeff was doing because they would be in my room constantly and they have other patients!
It was an aweful night, I have to say. At one point, I tried to get out of bed on my own because Clark was crying. I had to change his diaper (my first one since we had him!) and I couldn't figure out how to put his outfit back on (hadn't done that yet either). Oh no, suddenly I had to go to the bathroom and Clark was crying and he was cold and he was pretty much naked, not to mention I was very slow moving still from my incision and probably from being drugged and tired, so just the simple act of going to the bathroom was an event. Before I had an emotional breakdown, I called the nurse and had her hold him while I went to the bathroom so he wouldn't cry! She looked at me like I was crazy, but I didn't care...I probably was a little at that point.
After she left I got my phone and called Jeff sobbing and said through tears, "I can't do this without you! Please come back?" He said he couldn't keep his eyes open to drive back to the hospital and that everything would be ok. I felt so helpless, so tired, so weak and yet filled with joy to realize how good I do have it. The whole 'you don't realize what you have until it's gone' thing, well I was definitely realizing and I missed it...I missed him. It was a bitter-sweet moment that I probably won't forget.
And you can imagine how excited I was to see this face again :) Oh, did I mention he came back to the hospital at 5 am so he could be with me again as soon as possible? What a guy!
Man, I love those men :)
And here is my Grandma, Bama, with Clark!
Something that was very special for Clark was meeting his great-grandma, "Great Bama." Great Bama has been waiting to add the "Great" to her name for quite sometime now, so was VERY excited for Clark's arrival, which was so fun!
Bama and my mom and I took a road trip this fall while I was pregnant with Clark so we talked about it a lot then, and she also came to MN for Christmas before I had Clark. She also helped host a shower for me, so it was SO fun having her be part of the lead up to Clark and for her to be so excited about him.
When Bama was in MN for Christmas, she unfortunately fell and broke her shoulder. We were so bummed about it for her because it meant surgery and therapy and recovery, but we were so happy to have her here in MN for a couple extra months, something that wouldn't have happened otherwise, and what timing! The birth of Clark! It was so special and meaningful for her to be there to meet him at the hospital and see him a few times before she left to go back to Michigan. He loves his Great Bama already! We are looking forward to her return in a few months to see a slightly older baby Clark :)
We also had our best friends Kate & Mike and Matt & Lindsey come visit us right after Clark was born which was so fun, but again, a bit of a blur for me! ;)
Jeff's Uncle Dan and Aunt Becky also visited our little Clark!
Dr. Lauren and Dr. Kelly visited too!
And my friend Ana!
My other friend Beth and her adorable daughter Sophia visited too but I didn't get a picture~bummer!
Well this blog has gotten quite long, so more to come later :) I'll leave you with a picture of a cute kid I know...
Night!
17.2.11
Clark Jeffrey is born!
We had our appointment for Sunday, January 30th, 2011 to get start the induction process. This is my last picture before leaving for the hospital! 41 weeks pregnant. Definitely enjoyed being pregnant, but ready to breath normally again and meet our little one!
We had heard great things about Abbott Northwestern Hospital, so I was excited we were going there to have our baby. We had taken classes at Abbott as well so we were somewhat familiar with the place, which was nice. Jeff took a picture of me in the lobby when we arrived. I was so nervous, but mostly excited and definitely didn't know what to expect. I've wondered about this day, not just since being pregnant, but my whole life of hearing about people's birth stories. What is mine going to be like? We were about to find out.
When we got up to the labor and delivery area, everyone was expecting me. It was like I was a celebrity! There were not many patients in at the time we arrived, so people seemed focused on us. It was 6:30 pm. "Oh, you're Rachel Hagberg. We're expecting you. Your room is over there." So they told me right away to slip into something more comfortable, aka hot hospital gown...ow ow! ha ha
I know. I look good. ha! This was the beginning of many hospital gowns, I actually didn't mind them at all because they were comfortable and easy on the tummy!
Jeff, excited to be a daddy! He got real used to hospital rooms and sleeping in them. So this was the beginning of our journey that was about to take place over the next couple days.
Some of these pictures are not super flattering, but I don't really care because its just how I looked! :) They checked me and I was still 1 cm dilated and 70-80% effaced. I got the Cervidell put in at 8:40 and then baby and I were hooked up to monitors and checked on all night long (ended up being a less than restful night because of it!) They did give me Ambien to help me sleep, thank goodness. It turned out that I was having contractions already when they hooked me up to the monitor. They said I probably would have come in that night even if we weren't scheduled! Funny thing was that I didn't feel the contractions. I thought I was just really tough, but I'm sure there is another explanation.
Jeff and I waiting to start feeling the contractions...
The next morning, January 31 at 6 we woke up and snuck in some breakfast (the nurse let me even though I wasn't supposed to eat. How in the world would I have been able to go through everything without at least something in my stomach? Thank you nurse!!) At 9:30 they took out the Cervidell and checked me again, and broke my water. The contractions started getting stronger shortly after and I was feeling them...in my back. Bummer, back labor. So I put on a cute hospital robe and we took a walk down the hallway. When we got back, I tried the birthing ball for a bit, and Jeff got to help me breath through my contractions which was kind of fun even though they were painful because we had practiced this, and he was so ready to do his job. It was adorable. And I love that we got to be a team and he was there to help me through it as an active participant! Jeff and I watched the Office while we were breathing through the contractions, but I don't think I really paid attention to much of the Office. Eventually it was getting pretty painful and my contractions were so close together that I wasn't coming down from them, they were going into one another, so I said bring on the epideral. My back was killing me.
This must have been post-epideral? Let me just say I was probably more terrified to get the epideral than to give birth. I don't know why, but I just was. At 12:15 I got the epideral. We had a great anesthesiologist who was so great at explaining every single step to us of what was happening. "Ok, now I'm going to just feel your spine. Now I'm going to clean your back, this will feel wet and I'm going to clean it three times. One, two, three. Now I'm putting a piece of plastic over your back, you will feel that now." He was very calming and reassuring and I appreciated him so so much. I definitely had the right guy for being so terrified. I wasn't totally numb, but my back pain went away. It was like the medicine knew exactly where I needed it! Fascinating.
Now I just had to lay here and wait to progress.
I told Jeff to take a picture of himself to show he was a part of it. ha ha
So this is the last of the "happy pictures" for a while because after this, I started having a little less fun. No one said birth was easy, right? I was well aware that things might get tough, and they did. The back labor continued, and although I was feeling it less due to my friend the epideral, my body was reacting to it. I got a fever and my body was shaking all over which was causing my back to tense up even more. We also found out that the baby was head down, but facing the wrong way--hence the back labor, and baby was now jammed in my pelvis, more specifically up against my tail bone. My tail bone was in a lot of pain and my back and neck were killing me. The shaking was making everything worse and my back and neck were having spasms. We had them put more meds in me but they could only do so much and I was stuck at 8 cm, and baby was stuck in me. We tried to go on for several hours and at a certain point, I couldn't even turn over from side to side because the pain was so bad, I couldn't stand to be flat on my back even for a slip second while switching sides.
The monitor on my belly wasn't reading contractions well enough so they tried to put an internal monitor in. I think 4 different people put it in me and took it out of me and it just wasn't working, and it was very uncomfortable adding that to the mix. At one point, they even got "the nurse with the long fingers" to try and put it in! So funny. But even ol' long fingers couldn't get it in, and I was still at 8 cm.
Finally at around 11pm after my body had been through a lot, the Doc came in and broke the news that we really should have a C-Section. I had prepared for this reality during my pregnancy because 1/3 of births are C-sections, and many of my friends had them and had positive things to say about them. I was not against it, but after going through everything I went through already, I felt like I had done it for nothing and felt defeated. Jeff helped me work through that momentary disappointment and then I was relieved because at that point I don't think I had the energy to push anyway! Good choice, Doc!
But then the reality set in how C-Sections are performed. The patient lies FLAT on her back. No way, I couldn't even do that for a second with out hyperventilating. How was I supposed to lie still for an hour of major surgery flat on my back? I warned the Doctor that I didn't know how I was going to get through it, and she seemed to think I would be fine. But fine I was not. Jeff was taken to another room as I was wisked away to surgery. They moved me to the flat operating table and I had to hold my head up with my hands so I would not lay flat. I kept trying to put my head down and I couldn't, my back and neck were having spasms and I was in the worst pain I have ever felt. I started bawling in front of about 10 strangers I hadn't even met yet. I think it was clear how much pain I was in and I was terrified and Jeff was not there yet. I was on a ton of meds at this point and exhausted so everything was fuzzy, like a non-reality, but my pain was very real. All of a sudden I was flat on my back. How did that happen? How was I not feeling it? Without telling me, they injected something into my catheter in my back and it must have been strong because the pain was gone and it was gone quickly. I thanked that man who put that in me a million times...I think too many times. ha ha I was beyond grateful. Jeff came in and we were ready to start cutting me open! I was ready. Scared, and exhausted, but ready to meet our baby.
I heard him cry right away, it was so fuzzy because of all the drugs I suppose, but he was here and he was breathing and he was crying and he was a BOY! The doctor said it was a boy and Jeff said it was Clark! 12:19 am on Tuesday February 1st, Clark Jeffrey Hagberg was born. I could not have been more proud of my son, and I hadn't even seen him yet!
My little cone head :) Even though we had a C-Section, he was stuck for hours already! Poor guy had been through a lot too!
Daddy got to cut the umbilical cord. I wish I could have seen all of this, but I was being stitched up behind a big curtain. I'm glad someone was taking pictures!
Daddy gazing at his little boy. Precious.
And Mommy, mascara everywhere, being stitched up waiting to meet her boy!
Clark thinks this world is really bright.
Getting checked out
Just under 9 pounds.
Laying flat on my back like a champ. Thank you drugs! Wow I do not remember all of those tubes and gadgets.
Seeing my boy for the first time!
Love at first sight :)
I love this picture.
Kisses from Clark
Smiles!
Love.
My boys :)
Proud Daddy!
Love my Clark!
Little Munchkin
22 1/2 inches long
Holding Daddy's hand
Holding Clark for the first time. I loved every second of it, even though my eyes were literally shutting. It was surreal.
I still don't know how I got to this room!
Clark's hospital uniform, all bundled up!
My perfect little man. I love him so much. More pictures to come...
The monitor on my belly wasn't reading contractions well enough so they tried to put an internal monitor in. I think 4 different people put it in me and took it out of me and it just wasn't working, and it was very uncomfortable adding that to the mix. At one point, they even got "the nurse with the long fingers" to try and put it in! So funny. But even ol' long fingers couldn't get it in, and I was still at 8 cm.
Finally at around 11pm after my body had been through a lot, the Doc came in and broke the news that we really should have a C-Section. I had prepared for this reality during my pregnancy because 1/3 of births are C-sections, and many of my friends had them and had positive things to say about them. I was not against it, but after going through everything I went through already, I felt like I had done it for nothing and felt defeated. Jeff helped me work through that momentary disappointment and then I was relieved because at that point I don't think I had the energy to push anyway! Good choice, Doc!
But then the reality set in how C-Sections are performed. The patient lies FLAT on her back. No way, I couldn't even do that for a second with out hyperventilating. How was I supposed to lie still for an hour of major surgery flat on my back? I warned the Doctor that I didn't know how I was going to get through it, and she seemed to think I would be fine. But fine I was not. Jeff was taken to another room as I was wisked away to surgery. They moved me to the flat operating table and I had to hold my head up with my hands so I would not lay flat. I kept trying to put my head down and I couldn't, my back and neck were having spasms and I was in the worst pain I have ever felt. I started bawling in front of about 10 strangers I hadn't even met yet. I think it was clear how much pain I was in and I was terrified and Jeff was not there yet. I was on a ton of meds at this point and exhausted so everything was fuzzy, like a non-reality, but my pain was very real. All of a sudden I was flat on my back. How did that happen? How was I not feeling it? Without telling me, they injected something into my catheter in my back and it must have been strong because the pain was gone and it was gone quickly. I thanked that man who put that in me a million times...I think too many times. ha ha I was beyond grateful. Jeff came in and we were ready to start cutting me open! I was ready. Scared, and exhausted, but ready to meet our baby.
I heard him cry right away, it was so fuzzy because of all the drugs I suppose, but he was here and he was breathing and he was crying and he was a BOY! The doctor said it was a boy and Jeff said it was Clark! 12:19 am on Tuesday February 1st, Clark Jeffrey Hagberg was born. I could not have been more proud of my son, and I hadn't even seen him yet!
Getting checked out
Kisses from Clark
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