The Roods: November 2007

Donovan Asher was born at 10:22PM on November 14, 2007. He was 7lbs 10oz and 19 inches long. He's very quiet, a good eater, and extremely adoreable.

I was in labor for about 24 hours, but for the most part it was quite easy, thanks to an epidural. My contractions at first weren't painful, just constant. After finally being admitted to the hospital (we were in triage from 4am to 9am) my contractions practically stopped. I was given Petocin, which brought the contractions back, but the nurses said that I wasn't in enough pain, and my water was broken. Almost instantly my contractions intensified, and I promptly signed the epidural consent form. The most pain I went through was that half hour to forty five minutes that we had to wait for the anethesiologist. The epidural was relatively painless compared to the contractions, and almost instantly I enjoyed the sweet bliss of pain relief. I received an epidural around four in the afternoon and within a few hours I was 7 centimeters and around 7PM I was 9 1/2 centimeters. We waited as long as we could, for Donovan to descend on his own, and at 9:30 PM I vomited (signaling transition) and we were ready to push! Through the whole delivery I was pain free, only feeling the pressure and the need to push, but I was able to talk between pushing. I was aware of when the contraction was starting and usually started pushing by myself, alerting everyone else that it was time to push. Jeff helped hold my left leg while pushing and gave me a play by play of what was going on. Jeff's Aunt Alice was present through the whole delivery since Jeff and I were by ourselves and there was no one else to share in our experience. She was our stand-in/surrogate grandparent, since the real ones are out of state. When he was finally crowning, we had to wait for the doctor and Donovan didn't really want to, I was forced to use a breathing technique that I learned in Child Birth to try and stop him from coming out, because the contractions were pushing him out without my help.

Finally at 10:22PM he was born, (still no pain) and he only cried a little, and he had a full head of dark brown hair! He was taken to the table to be cleaned and I was cleaned and sewn up. Finally I got to hold and feed my baby boy for the first time, and then I got to eat!! I hadn't eaten in more than 24 hours and I was starving!! There were very few side effects from the epidural, just some nausea (a little vomiting) and then the itching, but all of it was worth it when I got to see my little boy. (I'm now a huge advocate for epidurals. I thought I was a wimp at first for choosing it so quickly, but in the long run, it was one of the best decisions we made during this whole process.)

The first night he was taken to the nursery so we could get some sleep but he would be brought in to be fed in a few hours. I woke up before he did at 5am but he was in soon after for another meal. The whole second day was filled with nurses, visitors, more room service (I ordered each meal as soon as it was available), and I also was given a complimentary massage. Unfortunately halfway through the day we had to be moved to an overflow suite because the labor and delivery unit was filling up quickly. We were bummed, and the new room, although larger, wasn't as nice. We no longer had a DVD player, and the heating and air were out of whack. There was more room for guests, and Jeff had an actual bed, but overall I missed our original room.

Friday morning we met Donovan's pediatrician, who took him upstairs to the nursery for a check up and to be circumcised. My doctor came in and we asked when we could leave. She said as soon as we were ready, so at 9am I was up and getting things packed and having the nurses start our discharge papers. We were out of there soon and home by 11am! It was nice to be home and we were relieved to see that the house was in one piece since we had left in such a hurry and animals were left behind! We hung out all day, took naps, got the house back in order and overall had a chill day. Our first night was pretty uneventful. I didn't attempt to go to bed until 1am and Donovan and I hung out and I fed him again and put him down at 5am. We didn't get up until at least 9:30!! I was so surprised that we were allowed to sleep that long!

Today we just hung out and enjoyed each others company. My milk came in today and Donovan is now receiving some serious meals. He is a great eater, he latches on like a pro, and I feel amazing. I felt so great that this evening we went to WalMart and picked up some necessities that we have discovered we needed. We bought some smaller onesies and more receiving blankets, some burp cloths and a pack of socks. We have a lot of clothes for when he puts on a few more pounds, but he is just small enough where a lot of things are not fitting well at all.

So far we have had little drama, fussiness and we're still getting a hang of mess-less diaper changes, (he'll soon be winning peeing distance contests). We're excited for the holidays and the first of the grandparents will be showing up on Tuesday. We are enjoying our little bundle of joy and I'm finding that I do have patience, I just needed the right motivation.

Mommy after having her epidural, she was VERY HAPPY!

The last picture of Mommy and Daddy before I was born.

My first picture, I'm getting cleaned up.

CLOSE UP! I'm too precious for words!

Calling all grandparents! Daddy calling all my grandparents to tell them the good news.

Proud Papa! He's been waiting a long time for me!

Love at first sight! My Mommy finally gets to hold me for the first time.

Eyes wide open!

The cause of Mommy's heartburn. It's supposed to be an old wives tale, but it's proven to be true. If you have bad heartburn, your kid is going to have a lot of hair! Mommy and Daddy were both surprised that I had hair at all, let alone dark brown!

Mommy made this sign the day after I was born before all of our visitors showed up.

Going home! This was the outfit Mommy brought for me to wear home, but NOTHING fit. Oh well, I was still cute!

Finally home! Showing off Mommy's swaddling skills and her hospital bling.

Me with Aunt Alice aka Grandma Parker. She was my first visitor at home, bringing Mommy and Daddy pizza for dinner. She has been very helpful and we don't know what we would do without her.