It's been quite a week in the McMillan household! We are all adjusting to being a family of 5, and quite well I think.
I wanted to take a few minutes to write the story of Lucas's birth so I could remember it down the road.
Wednesday evening, November 20th (my due date) Jim and I dropped Eric, Jacob and Tyler off at Mom and Dad's and headed for the hospital to start the induction process. Once there I was assigned to Delivery Room #5, which by the way, had NO CLOCK in the room!!! Every doctor or nurse that came in the room over the course of the night and day made a comment about the clock missing. Eventually Jim and I just started announcing there was NO CLOCK whenever someone new came in!
I was first hooked up to the Non Stress test machine to monitor baby for a while. The doctor came in to check to see if I had dilated at all since the Monday before, which I hadn't. I was still only 1 cm. At 8pm I was given Cervidil. The plan was to keep it in for 12 hours and hope that it worked to dilate me enough to break my water the next morning. We spent a sleepless night in the hospital room, hooked up to the baby monitor, contraction monitor, blood pressure machine, heart rate monitor and IV fluids. Every time I had to get up to use the bathroom I had to be unhooked from everything. Jim got pretty good at doing this for me!
There were lots of babies born through the night... one woman in particular apparently waited a little too long to come in to the hospital. We heard her arrive and about 15 minutes later we heard her baby cry. Good thing too because she sounded to be in a lot of pain!!!
8 am Thursday morning the doctor took out the medicine and checked me. Unfortunately I was still only 1 cm. The Cervidil did nothing....needless to say we were pretty disappointed. The new doctor on call, Dr. Cadieux, decided to give me a pill called Cytotec at 9am, which is a little more aggressive than the Cervidil. It stays in for 4 hours and can kick start labor as well as help to dilate. About 2 hours after she gave it to me the contractions started.
By 2 PM I was definitely in labor. Contractions were coming about 2 minutes apart and getting harder to breathe through. Doctor checked me and I was 4 cm. She called for the anesthesiologist to administer my epidural. At 3PM my epidural was in and I was feeling much better! No more pain and I could rest. I was so proud of Jim for being able to stay in the room and hold my hands while I was getting my epidural. He was such a trooper, since just the thought of me getting it makes him a little lightheaded.
By 3:30 I was feeling more pressure even with the epidural and I was so excited to hear the doctor say I was 7 cm. 3 cm in 1/2 hour is awesome!!!
At 5pm I was ready to go! I was feeling a little pain with each contraction and the nurse reminded me that I could push my button to up my epidural but I chose not to so I would be able to feel the contractions to know when to push. I started pushing at 5pm and about 5:30pm they gave me an oxygen mask to help me and the baby while I pushed. I was so exhausted in between and my throat was so dry. Jim was such a great help feeding me ice chips in between contractions.
Once his head was out the doctor told me to stop pushing but there was no stopping him. He slid right out into her arms. At 6:08 pm Lucas Joel McMillan came into the world sunny side up! Normally babies come out face down but he was face up, so he sucked up a little more mucus. The doctor suctioned out his mouth and we heard his first cry. The best sound ever!!!
The NICU nurse who was in the room worked with a thin tube down his throat to suction him out even more and he was breathing great within a few minutes. He had a large red bump on the top of his head from coming out face up, but that quickly went down within a few hours.
Lucas was 7 pounds, 11 ounces and 21 inches long with brown hair. Originally I thought he looked like Jacob, but he has some of Eric's traits as well. He has the longest fingers and toes. The verdict is still out about his eye color. Some days they look brown, other days they look dark blue.
Now I can say that all my boys were born the day after their due date!
All through the day I was emailing back and forth with Mom. Jim and I were picturing her sitting at the island with the computer, home phone and cell phone in front of her....eating cookies (she admitted to eating too many waiting for news!) We had no cell service in the delivery room so we relied on her to update everyone else. I know it was a long day for us at the hospital and for everyone waiting at home for news.
The boys came in first to meet their new baby brother. They were both very excited. Jacob couldn't believe how small he was. Eric just wanted to hold him all night.
I was supposed to be in my delivery room for about 2 hours after Lucas was born but at 7:30 they came in to get me up and moving because they needed my room for another delivery. There were 5 delivery rooms and one operating room for c-sections in the hospital and they were all full. Labor and Delivery was very busy!
Here are some pictures from Lucas's birthday. I am hoping to keep my blog going with updates about our family.
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