IT's A . . . . . . .

BOY!!!

Mike and I are so proud to have our little boy, Alexander Mellon Abernethy!!!

It all started on Monday, September 6 (Labor Day) at about 9:30 in the morning when I starting leaking. I wasn't sure that was what was happening, but at around 1:30 I decided to call my doctor. Mike had just picked up his Mom from the airport, so we were lucky she was here to be with Kate since the nurse told us to go ahead into the hospital. Mike and I both thought that we might be coming right back home, but we grabbed the suitcase and off we went.

We arrived at the hospital at about 2:30 and checked into a triage room. I had a positive test for amniotic fluid and was a tight 2 cm dilated. We were then moved to L & D room 6 and my doctor was called (Dr Culter was on call). I was having irregular contractions that were about 4-5 minutes apart and I couldn't feel them. I couldn't believe that it was happening!!

By 5:00 I was still at 2 cm and had started to feel the contractions. Dr Culter was called and she said that if I hadn't progressed by 7:30 then to start Pitocin.

At 7:30 everything was the same so Pitocin was started at 8pm and I was really starting to feel the contractions! I had a big gush of fluid, which I thought was my water breaking (but it wasn't--I was just still leaking)

At 9:30 my epidural was put in. I was still at 2 cm dilated and I was feeling my contractions which were 3 minutes apart.

September 7 at 12:30 I am already 6 cm dilated.

At 1:30am I am 8 1/2 cm dilated so the nurse calls Dr Culter to come in! She also breaks my bag.

By 2:00 I am fully dilated and the nurse is telling me NOT TO PUSH! I was feeling painful contractions and wanted to PUSH!!! We were just waiting on Dr Culter.

Dr Culter arrives and I push for 3 contractions and Alex arrives at 2:16!! Mike and I are so excited to have our boy!! He had apgar scores of 8 & 9 and was 8 lbs, 1 oz and 21 inches long.

After delivering Alex, I had some problems!! I started to hemorrhage and the Dr had trouble getting out my placenta. Also, my uterus was not contracting as it should have been. This went on for about 30 minutes of the Doctor pushing on my uterus and scarping inside of my uterus. It was scary and painful. Anesthesia was called to give me more meds and the nurse gave me something to stop the bleeding. There was talk of taking me to the OR for a DNC. Thankfully, the bleeding slowed down and my uterus started to contract again. It was a long and painful 30-45 minutes!! Then I was able to breastfed Alex and then I started throwing up! What a mess. I was given an anti-nausea medication that made me feel drunk and then also a blood clotting medication.

Alex was taken to the nursery to have a bath and we moved to room 220 around 5:00am. The nurses were checking my uterus and my bleeding many times, so I was still awake. By 6am I was ready to go to sleep, but then my epidural wore off and I was in pain!!I was given oral pain meds and was impatient for them to work.

Alex had trouble warming up in the nursery before his bath and then after his bath he took a while to get his temperature back up. Finally at 8am we had him back in our room.

I had been up for over 24 hours by now and I was really exhausted. Our families and Kate came by to meet Alex. I don't think Kate really knew what to think about Alex. But she did give him a kiss!!

Most of Tuesday I tried to sleep and I was still throwing up off and on. The pain medication I was receiving was keeping my pain away (thankfully!!) Alex is great at nursing and like Kate, we had to work hard at waking him up to feed him. He stayed in the nursery most of the day so I could rest.

Wednesday I continued to rest and then Thursday we headed home.

All in all, if I hadn't had the complication after labor, it would have been a great labor experience.

Mike and I could not be happier with our little boy!