We started Saturday with a big breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes - one of mine and Ellie's favorites! Then like a typical dork, I went to Giant to get ingredients for one last freezer meal before I headed to JHU and we combined the trip with an outing to the local playground for mom, Ellie, and grandma. Bryan got the lawn mowed and we then relaxed for a bit before eating a yummy early dinner together as a family. We saved time for a few quick departure pictures and headed down to the hospital.
40 weeks 4 days
Our last picture as a family of 3
We got to our room a little after 5:30, talked to some people, got my IV in and ready, and waited for things to get started. When they checked me I was about 2.5-3 cm dilated and 60% effaced so some slight progress from the day before. Around 7 they started my IV's and I was given medicine to get a bit further along. This started my contractions which were in the 5-7 minute apart range and got me ready for pitocin which we started at about 11. The pitocin worked right away and I was quickly having strong contractions very close together. In fact, it worked so well they actually turned the pitocin off pretty quickly since the contractions were so intense they were stessing the baby a bit. Nothing that a little but of oxygen for me and a side position didn't quickly solve. I had decided during these contractions that I was going to want an epidural and that was quickly administered. It was kind of funny because I could feel one little section of my left side and was numb everywhere else in the middle during the contractions. They checked me again at 1 and I was 4 cm and 80% effaced with the baby in a -2 position. After an hour more, Jean came in to tell me she was going to break my water. She soon realized that wasn't necessary as I was fully dilated with my leaking water bag and the baby's head about to birth themselves. After a quick set-up I started pushing and was holding Kellen within 8 minutes or so. "Officially," stage 2 of his birth took 13 minutes. Since he wasn't immediately crying and had been slightly stressed during some of the contractions, they took him to check under the warmer for a second but as he immediately began wailing there, after a quick suction they gave him to me to feed for a few minutes and then did his stats.
Kellen scored a 9/9 on apgar (much better than his sister's 6/8 - I guess that is the difference between a few minutes as opposed to a few hours in the birth canal). He weighed 8 pounds 3 oz, was 21.5 inches long, and his head circumference was 34 cm. Besides a tiny bit of bruising on the top of his face from his fast departure in to the world he was in great shape. For his first hour he did some feeding, got a bath, and waited for his mom to be able to walk around so we could be transferred to our room upstairs. We moved rooms around 5:30 or so and settled in to our new digs for the next day.
Here are some of our first pictures of Kellen Matthew:
Still a little gooey!
Our new addition!
Baby Kellen Burrito
Over the next 24 hours, Kellen had a busy schedule. First up, a visit from Big Sister Noelle and Grandmom! We'll post about our day in the hospital soon.
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