Jack has arrived!

Jack Donovan Bigelow arrived at 5:42am on Thursday, March 12, 2009 weighing 7 pounds 15 ounces and measuring 20 inches long. Despite 21 hours of labor and 1 1/2 hours of pushing, he wouldn't budge so he had to be delivered via c-section.

Labor was interesting, to say the least. We started the induction with a pitocin drip at 8:45am on Wednesday, 3/11 after an experience putting the IV line in that almost had me passing out. As a result, and because of my "orthostatic hypotension", they gave me several liters of fluid throughout the day to keep my pressure up. Anway, the contractions started to come about 2-3 minutes apart pretty quickly and progressively got more painful. I held out for the epidural until about 2:00, at which point I was only 3cm dilated.

Between 2:00 and 9:00, I went from 3-8cm and things looked good to deliver sometime on Wednesday. Even though the times we bet on had passed (we were so wishful thinking choosing times between 3:00-6:00!), we had no reason to think he wouldn't be born late Wednesday night or very early Thursday morning.

However, by 2:00am on Thursday I was only 9cm and somehow the epidural wore off. They had been giving me a lower dose than most people because of my blood pressure issues, but I'm not sure if this had anything to do with it or not. I actually think it was just placed a bit off, as we had issues with it several times thoughout the day/night. When it was working though, it was wonderful, and I was actually able to "enjoy" being with my (entire) family.

So, around 2:00, I was writhing in pain to the point where I was crying and about to tear Seth's hand off squeezing it! At that point, they also told me that the baby's heartrate had risen, he was what they referred to as "sunny side up" (his face was facing up instead of the back of his head) and I was running a fever which they gave me some Tylenol for. The tylenol didn't work however, as my fever had gone up a degree an hour later.

They came in and upped the epidural and about an hour later, I was fully dilated and Dr. Penn decided it was time to start pushing to try and get Jack to move down and hopefully move out! I was exhausted at this point, but just wanted it to be over.

Well, in true form, I pushed and pushed but he wouldn't move. Apparently, his head would move a bit when I pushed, but would go back up again in between. After an hour and a half, he hadn't turned at all, hadn't moved down at all, and I still had a fever. They had also discovered meconium in the fluid that was coming out, which nobody told me at the time. This can be dangerous for the baby, as it is their first poop and can cause lung problems if it gets breathed in right after birth. So Dr. Penn decided to do a c-section and I was totally happy with that decision.
At that point, everything moved quickly. I would say that once a decision was made, we were in the OR in less than 15 minutes. Seth was allowed to come in with me, thank goodness.

When we got to the OR, I had to crawl onto the operating table (this was so not easy) and they lay you down with your arms stretched out like you're Jesus on the cross. For some reason, I developed terrible muscle spasms in my neck and shoulders, and was in unbelievable pain lying in this position. Seth being there talking me through it and rubbing my shoulders was the only thing that got me through this part.

They put up a curtain over my chest so I couldn't see what was going on, and the anesthesiologist was by my head giving us the play-by-play. They say you don't feel any pain, but I definitely had a few moments when I felt more than "pulling and a little pressure" - I could feel actual pain, although it wasn't bad. This is another reason I feel like the epi wasn't 100% correct and effective for me.

Anyway, not even 10 minutes after they started the surgery, Jack Donovan was born! He had a big cone head from trying to be pushed out. He screamed several times as soon as they took him out and suctioned him (the best sound ever!!!). Once they took him to the clean-up area, Seth was with him and says he was totally alert with his eyes wide open, just looking around and taking it all in. Seth got to trim the umbilical cord (Dr. Penn had to cut it initially when they pulled him out) and says he was really peaceful during the whole thing. Then they brought him over to me with Seth holding him and he looked at me with his big eyes opened and I swear he smiled! :) It was a wonderful moment.

After that, they took him off to be weighed and measured, and Seth was able to go with him for that. I had to stay in the OR to be sewn back up, but was able to join Seth and Jack in the recovery room about 20 minutes later. That was a scene I will never forget - being rolled in, exhausted, in pain and in disbelief, and seeing my husband holding my baby with the sweetest, most tender look on his face. It still chokes me up now to think about it. What a beautiful sight after all we'd been through.

We spent about an hour in the recovery room, during which we decided on Jack Donovan for his name. Somehow, after all the research, discarded names, discussions, arguments, it just seemed to fit our little man. Soon after, we went to our room, where we were joined by our family who was there with us through the whole ordeal.

The rest of our hospital stay was eventful, of course. I had a fever on and off for a few days, so had to be closely monitored for that. In addition I was given too much fluid, which went into my lungs and was causing breathing problems and another fever, so they gave me 20mg of Lasix and thankfully after one dose I was doing better - it drained 3 liters of fluid! So we ended up staying in the hospital for 5 days, just coming home yesterday. I am having tons of terrible pain related to the surgery, and am just trying to cope with that using the least amount of medication possible.

We've taken tons of pictures, which are all uploaded on our picasa photo site at http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahandsethbigelow/JackDonovanBigelow?feat=directlink and http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahandsethbigelow/JackSFirstDayAtHome?feat=directlink. I will continue to post our pictures now that we're home - I started a poll to see who you think Jack looks like as well!

Thank you for all the well-wishes, thoughts and prayers. We are so lucky and blessed to finally have our little guy here with us. The crying and the sleepless nights are nothing compared to being able to love on baby Jack...