What a weekend it turned out to be! My right foot had gone numb as had that side of my face and he had really decreased his movement so I had made a 4:40 appointment to see Dr. Brenner Friday afternoon. The NST showed him to move twice during 40 minutes, but it also showed 6 contractions during that time so she sent me to L & D to be monitored for awhile.
I was actually rather excited as I had hoped to have him Friday evening or Saturday morning because that was when he would be full term at 37 weeks and Dr. Brenner's last on call day until March 22 the day of my scheduled induction. She told me at 37 weeks she couldn't do anything to help labor along until she was sure I was in labor so she wanted to monitor me because Brandon, Katie and Lainey had come so quickly and Harrison was already so low. They wouldn't even let me walk the halls until exactly midnight when he was full term!
Last Belly Pic - after 12 hours in the hospital
Finally at 5:30 am she came in and said I was 5 cm and she could break my water. I then got the epidural because the other three kids had delivered within the hour of their water breaking and I didn't want to miss the chance to have the drugs! Then the contractions stopped. Totally stopped. She ordered pitocin to get things going and I actually fell asleep for a bit, but not for long.
By 11:00 I could feel the contractions through the epidural and knew he was moving down. At 11:35 the nurse checked me and I was 10 cm and he was really low at a +2 (+3 is crowning) she opted to skip the practice pushing as she didn't want to deliver him LOL. Dr. Brenner joined us at 11:42, I pushed literally one time and there he was at 11:47.
The docter, nurse and tech all immediately commented on how big he was especially for three weeks early. That made me laugh as one thing that has never been said about my newborns is that they were big!
They couldn't wait to weigh him. He weighed in at 7 lbs 15.8 oz, which they called 8 lbs even as they were using the NICU scale which goes out to the extra decimal place since he was early and supposed to be little and every little bit of weight is important. Mr. Harrison is our earliest baby and our biggest by more than a pound!
He is quite the nurser. Within an hour of birth he nursed for half an hour and the nurse could hear him swallowing from across the room so he was eating right from the start. His brother and sisters came to meet him that afternoon.
We came home late Sunday evening and everyone is doing great. Grandma Anna will be heading home tomorrow and we will be on our own, but I don't see a problem. Having had so many babysitting kids for so long, having just our own four kids here seems like a vacation. (With the possible exception of my poor engorged chest at the moment..)
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