Belated Birth Announcement & Details

Well, I was close. Our little guy didn't officially enter this world on 5/19 (as my last blog post suggested he might), but he started his journey then. See below for our birth story and some of our favorite pics from labor and delivery. But first, stats on the love of our life.

Daniel "Danny" Scott O'Connor
Born Sunday, May 20th at 10:56am
Weight: 7lbs 10oz
Length: 21 inches
Danny is named after his proud grandpas - Daniel O'Connor and Scott Heintzelman.

Friday, May 18th
Friday I had plans to do dinner and a movie with Brittany and Jenny from work. All day I had belly "tightening", but it was sporadic and nothing even close to painful, so I didn't think anything of it. By 7 o'clock though, it was a little more intense. The change in intensity was enough that I saved my movie ticket stub thinking, wouldn't it be a coincidence if tonight was the night? The movie we were seeing was What to Expect, as in "...when you're expecting." When I got home nausea ensued for a couple of hours, but I was eventually able to fall asleep.

Saturday, May 19th
Saturday morning I had another bout of belly "tightening", but this time it was even more intense, so I got in a hot bath and Jimmy and I began timing the contractions. Did you know there is an app for that? After 45 minutes, the pain subsided. Then all morning and early afternoon I had more of the painless tightening, but by late afternoon I felt like I had the flu - super achy and feverish. Unfortunately we had to cancel our shrimp boil plans with Mike and Brittany. The sporadic nature of my contractions was so frustrating. I must have googled "real vs. fake contractions" 20 times in hopes that I could gauge whether I was in real labor or not, but I never felt confident. As a result, we had to leave family hanging as the evening winded down. Jimmy ordered us subs from a local pizza place. After a 2 hour wait and multiple "my wife is in labor and starving" threatening calls, our food finally arrived at 9 o'clock. I ate a chicken parmesan sub with jalapenos thinking maybe the spice will help?? At 10 o'clock I finally laid down to sleep and the second my head hit the pillow - no joke - I had my first legitimate, no questions asked, real labor contraction. I let Jimmy sleep as I timed the extremely painful contractions for 45 mins. They were 4 minutes apart and getting worse with each one, so I roused Jimmy. Luckily the prospect of labor all day inspired us to get 100% packed and ready, so we were out of the house by a few minutes before 11pm. By the time we were on our way to hospital, the reality set in that what I was experiencing was back labor...and boy did it hurt.

Stage 1 - Saturday, May 19th- Sunday, May 20th
First step at New Hanover Regional Medical Center is Triage to ensure you're really in active labor. If my writhing in pain wasn't enough of an indication, my 4 cm dilated and 100% effaced cervix and monitored contractions was, so we were admitted and finally in our room by around midnight. I suffered through terrible back labor for 3 1/2 more hours and 2 1/2 more cm with my mom and Jimmy by my sides doing everything they could to encourage me and make me comfortable, but I ultimately decided I had to have an epidural at 3:30am. Though I was disappointed I wasn't able to do it naturally, I was very happy to have the relief and lucky that the epidural didn't slow things down at all. I continued to dilate consistently and at 6am, I was 10 cm and it was time to push! Oh and Alex had arrived by then to provide additional support. All was well! My first doctor (with me until her shift change at 7am) was Erica Cunill - coincidentally the doctor who predicted at my last appointment that I'd go "by my due date if not sooner." I did the first practice push at a little after 6am, but because I didn't have the urge, Dr. Cunill advised we turn down the epidural a notch. By 6:30am, I was starting to feel the urge, so full-on pushing began.

Stage 2 - Sunday, May 20th
Lucky for me, the new nurse who walked in at 7am was none other than Karin, our amazing Lamaze coach (woman in pink above). It was so unbelievably nice to see a familiar face and have someone who truly seemed vested in our birth.  I was told that pushing, for a first time mom, is usually between 1-2 hours. For me, it was a little different. Danny was caught in my pelvis, which extended pushing to 4 1/2 hours and caused terrible pressure pains (that the epidural couldn't take away) in my back and lower abdomen and, unfortunately, medical intervention. Our new doctor, Rachel McLean, proposed a vacuum or c-section after about 2 1/2 hours of pushing, but Karin and another nurse consulted with Dr. McLean and they agreed to allow me to keep trying. Danny's heart rate was great and, despite being exhausted, I was holding up okay. After a couple more hours, however, Dr. McLean made the executive decision that a vacuum was necessary. It's all kind of a blur to me - I think I was nearly in and out of consciousness between contractions - but I'm told Dr. McLean went through 3 vacuums with 4 contractions before she dropped the dreaded c-word. We had reached the limit on vacuum attempts per contraction and Danny remained stuck. That's when I lost it. I was so exhausted and felt so defeated - after all that work, I thought, I am still going to end up in an OR. That's when Dr. McLean said she was giving me one more push. I gave it all my might and out he came. Loud cheers and tears ensued. It was the most difficult, amazing, emotional, memorable experience of my life. Our sweet boy had arrived! There was a last minute meconium episode, so Danny had to be cleaned up before I finally got to hold him for the first time. It's funny how you almost immediately forget the trauma of labor and delivery when you see and smell your sweet baby. We love you baby Danny!