Happy Birthday

Fletcher Ray Dobson made his debut on June 20th at 1:44 am. He weights in at 8 pounds 13.3 ounces and 20 1/2 inches. He has beautiful dark hair and grey blue eyes. Here is his birth story.

After having another depressing doctor's visit (5 cm dilated, 50 % effaced), I went home and just did the daily stuff. Thinking that this kid was never going to come out and should I resort to using my own vacuum to get him into this world. I'm cooking dinner, Aileen and Lauren are setting the table and Will is trying to do home work when I leaked all over the floor. Now we had had a false water break previously so I said nothing until I left a trail. We ate dinner, took the kids over to Deanna's and headed for Portsmouth Naval hospital. We got there at 730 pm and I wasn't having contractions that I could feel. So we waited 30 minutes before we were called back to triage. They hooked me up to the monitors where it showed I was having contractions, I just wasn't feeling them. Doc came in and examined me and told me that my water hadn't broken. Ummm bull shit doc, It was all over my kitchen floor and the pads I soaked, my water did break. He did the little ferning test and it showed mild ferning. Ok get the damn ultrasound, there can't be any water around that boy unless I was retaining Lake Erie in my uterus. He had that wand on me all of 30 seconds before he said "Good enough for me, there is no water". DUH! Another half hour before they move me to a birthing suite (this is a Navy facility, you have no freedom to move once you are admitted, it sucks).

We get to the birthing suite at 1030 and I am 6 cm and still not feeling the contractions. So we go for the pictocin and the epidural. 1130 the epidural is finally in (after 3 shots to numb me and a lot of poking around). Pictocin is started and holy hell. I learned that I am one of those rare women that epidurals DO NOT work for. I had thought it was a fluke when it only worked on half my body with Aiden. Nope. Epidurals do not work for me. At all. So I am feeling everything now and really quickly wanting to push. But the monitors aren't showing contractions (now that I am actually feeling them, oh the irony) so they were reluctant to check me. I guess I finally made it clear that I HAD to push because she checked me at 120 and I was at 9 cm and his head was right there. So once again, they had to scramble and tell me to not push while they got ready. As soon as that bed was raised and my feet in the stirrups, I pushed. 4 times and his head was out. No crying. 5th time, shoulders got stuck for 1 minute and a half (he now has a dislocated shoulder). 6th we got him out and they took him right over to the warmer. Will didn't get to cut the cord and I didn't get to see him. It took them a few minutes to get him to cry (he was breathing REALLY fast). And then they made me wait 30 minutes before I could hold him. I was pissed off. I still had the cather in from the non working epidural so I could get over to the warmer to see him. His breathing had a lot of people concerned. He was breathing very rapidly. Up into the 100's per minute. It is supposed to be no more then 60. The pediatrician checked him out and deemed it to be from the trauma of birth (real genius we have there). At 6am they finally moved me to post partum. At 7 they finally removed the IV (only because I was starting to take it out myself). At 8 I got a shower, at 9 a nap and then I didn't sleep until we got home. Which I came home a day earlier then they wanted me too. I am very good at bitching apparently. And got really lucky that the doc I usually see was the attending that day so she knew it would be ok for me to go home. All in all I hated my delivery. I was getting really fed up with people who would tell me I didn't know what I was talking about, just for it to be proven that I did. Who knows there body better? Yourself or a doctor you have just met?

Things have been up and down since we have been home. I am not able to breast feed due to my thyroid and PCOS. I am not producing enough milk for him. He is a great baby though. He is a good sleeper and not that big on crying. There have been jealousy issues with Aiden but we expected that. The girls are great and I am so thankful for all there help. I have a pretty bad case of the baby blues so I am trying to work thru that. I hope to be able to update this more once things calm down.