ender greyson: a birth story

i know i've been neglectful of the blog for the past couple months, but i swear i have a very good excuse! that excuse is a tiny, little man named ender greyson tumminaro! the newest addition to the tumminaro family!!

he was born september 17th at 8:15pm! and although he is baby #3, everything about him has been so vastly different from the other two. from the health concerns we faced during pregnancy, to the delivery itself, to the fact that even though he was 8lbs 3oz, this kid looks like he doesn't have an ounce of baby fat on him! (unlike the other two who were little chubba bubbas). also, this time around, we had a decent camera in the delivery room, so adam took the reigns and acted as leaqd photographer for 11 of the 15.5 hours of labor! yep...15.5 hours of drug-free, natural labor! (my other 2 deliveries were also drug-free, but they were each only about 5 hours)

here's the slideshow of the delivery:

the full birth story:
i woke up shaking uncontrollably at about 3:30am, and noticed a few irregular contractions. then, at around 4:45am, i noticed that those irregular contractions were now regular and timable. so i woke up adam, and told him that if this time around was anything like the last 2 times, we should probably get showered/ready, and drop the kids off at my in-laws and head over the hospital. we all started getting ready, and hopped in the car for the hour-long drive.

when we got to my in-laws, the contractions were mild, but still regular.  i gave my dr. a call, and they said to come on down to the hospital. after another 30 minute drive, we finally arrived at the hospital at around 9:00. they did a quick check, and said i was about 5cm dilated, which sounded like good news to me! they were going to contact my midwife, and if all went according to plan, she'd be here, and we'd be having a baby soon!

unfortunately, things weren't exactly according to plan! for one, my midwife wasn't able to come to the hospital, so i was going to have one of the OB's (whom i'd never met) be my doctor, and she wouldn't be able to arrive for another couple hours. luckily that wasn't a huge setback, just a little speedbump.  adam and i stayed in the room, and i kept on laboring.  i had arranged (with my midwife) to NOT have any IV's, so i was able to walk around the room, and walk around the delivery ward. the only drawback, was that they still had to sit me down and hook me up to the monitor once an hour.

at 1:00 the doctor arrived. after another check, she said i was STILL at 5cm! this was quite shocking, because i hadn't progressed at ALL after 4 hours of labor! (to be fair, it was 4 hours of manageable pain, but it was still 4 HOURS!!) so, the doctor decided to "break my water", in an effort to help things progress.

hours passed, and the pain did begin to intensify. but, it was still not even close to what i experienced with lucy (with lucy, they gave me pitocin from the start, and that was absolutely EXCRUCIATING!!! that was the reason why i became so adamant about no IV's and limited interventions)  a few hours later, they came and checked me again...and i was STILL at 5cm! so, in an effort to help with pain management, i hopped into the shower, and that was a huge relief!

finally, at about 7:00, after another check of 5cm, the nurse told me that the dr. said that with my water broken, the longer we go the higher the risk for infection, and that i need to be put on pitocin. i was very apprehensive, but the nurse said that they would start it at the lowest possible dose, and hope that it would create enough of a "whiff" that it would get the baby in gear to come on out!  after a private discussion with adam, i reluctantly agreed to an IV with a LOW dose of pitocin.

with the IV started, it did mean that i was a little restricted in my movements, but i was able to stand, at least, next to the bed. after about an hour of painful contractions, i started to fear my ability to make it to delivery, since i had been laboring so long, barely had food, and very little sleep.  just then, i suddenly felt it was time!   i told adam "i feel like i need to push", and he immediately rushed out to grab a nurse. but instead of just 1 nurse, a whole fleet of nurses rushed into the delivery room! i was still standing at the time, so in between contractions, i made my way onto the bed as quickly as i could...which ended up being quite difficult!

once i was on the bed, the nurses told me that i was ready, but that i need to NOT push!  (since there was NO doctor around to catch the baby!)   they called my dr., as well as the hospital's on-call OB. and basically, whoever got there first would be delivering my baby!  unfortunately, what the nurses may not understand, is how impossible it feels to hold off a push when the baby is COMING!! it probably only took the hospital's on-call dr. about 5 minutes to get to the room, but it felt like hours! finally he got there, and i got the green light to start pushing.

after about 2 minutes, and 2 pushes, he was born!!! my hospital does this thing called "kangaroo time", which means, they put the baby directly on mommy's stomach, under her hospital gown, for immediate skin-to-skin contact.  and they do all the checks and things during that time, instead of whisking the baby away. (that was the main reason we chose that hospital.) unfortunately, kangaroo time was cut a little short, because he needed some heavy-duty suctioning.  luckily it was brief, and he returned to my tummy.  then he stayed with me during the transfer to my post-partum room, as well as the rest of the night.  (that's another reason we chose this hospital)

lucy, elliot, g'ma t. and g'pa t. all came to see me/him while i was still in the delivery room.  and when adam ran into the waiting area to get them, i looked at my new baby boy, and that's when i decided that of the couple name options we still hadn't decided on, that he was definitely an...

ender greyson tumminaro!!!

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