Nolan Justin Palmer was born on 1/6/2011 at 3:44am. Weight: 7lb 14oz. Length: 21 3/4 (i knew my ribs hurt for a reason!)
Here's the story...
I woke up on Wednesday morning, 1/5, and had contractions (i could clearly sleep through them to start with). John started timing them and after a few hours, our dr told us to head into the hospital as they were consistently 4 min apart. Once there, they said i wasn't making any real progress with the contractions and if it was "real" labor, they would continue and i would be back later that night. Our dr was actually at the hospital that morning for a delivery, so we got to talk with him for a while and he said the contractions were good, but needed to get stronger. They gave me some "relaxing" pills so i could go home and get some sleep. So off we went....back home around 2pm. at about noon, my mamma was convinced she needed to make the 7 hour trek up to Minnesota....smart woman! (notice later in the story how long it actually took her to get up here...)
Once we were home, my contractions started getting so much worse where i couldn't move, talk or breathe...sounds wonderful huh?!? needless to say, the "relaxing" pills did not give me much sleep as i was up every 3-4 minutes in pain. around 6:30pm, we had enough and knew this was real labor. back to the hospital we went. every bump made the trip seem longer, traffic seemed to be at it's worse (although it really wasn't) and i felt like we needed to re-arrange the hospital bags...what if something was missing??!!?? john just put the bags in the car because we needed to go!!
once at the hospital, i was barley in the "assessment" area, and my mom walks into my room...a mere 6 hours after leaving lincoln...or was it even 6 hours?? let's just say she somehow skipped about 100 miles and made the trip faster! :) i need to find that shortcut...
in the "assessment" room, they said i still hadn't made progress, but the contractions were definitely real....my face doesn't just get sun burnt red for no reason!! well, they called the dr to debate if they should even keep me...seriously! the dr said to keep me overnight, give me a shot of morphine and more "relaxing" medicine and see what happens. so around 8pm or so, i was checked into a delivery room. mom and john were closely monitoring my contractions and reminding me of "wow, that was a big one!" or "that was the worst yet!!"....like i didn't just experience it myself :) they were great to have with me though! at one point, it was late of course, they had a fashion show since mamma had some new Nebraska apparel on. john was the judge and mom was pacing the delivery room. not sure if they were a distraction, but between every 2-3 minutes, i was able to enjoy their "show". it didn't last too long as john broke the entertainment by saying "oh lindsey, that wasn't a very strong contraction..."....seriously...you are really going to tell me that when i feel like i could die!! by 1am, they had decided i could have an epidural since they could see some very slight changes (dilated to a 1...means not really much has happened). but still...i wasn't going to complain...i was exhausted! baby didn't want to drop, so my dr wasn't going to leave me in labor more than 12 or so hours anyway. we had a ways to go before we hit 12 hours...
the epidural did not hurt one bit and was like dreaming of heaven!! it was wonderful. i would hear the "ooohhh that was a really bad one" and "wow the worst yet!" from the support crew and i felt NOTHING. lovely! however, the little man decided labor just wasn't for him and his heart rate dropped to 90, but then went back up. the nurses said, they would just monitor closely and i would know if they were worried because 1o people would run into the room. from there, they broke my water to place a heart monitor on baby's head to make sure they were recording the correct heartbeat. not long after that was done, there was 1 nurse, then 2, then 3, then the dr in my room. mom and john were off to the side staring at each other with big worried eyes...one on the heart monitor machine and the other on each other...enough was said with their expression that i didn't need to look myself. the babes decided to put everyone into a bit of a panic and drop his heart rate to 70. by that time, i couldn't count the number of people in my room. one of the nurses grabbed all of the cords hooked up to machines with one hand and pulled them out of all the machines in one swift yank. the anestelogist said "normally i would tell you what is about to happen, but i don't have time". off to the operating room to get this little guy out!
on the way to the operating room and once in there, one lady kept saying "we need to get him out now"...over and over...once would have been enough! i promise! no need to make mamma's heart rate go UP! there were about 15 people in the room. they gave me tons of epidural med's...felt lovely...until i couldn't feel my fingers anymore. i was numb from head to toe...literally! crazy feeling. i then heard someone say "oh, they started cutting!". i could have lived without hearing that, but at least i couldn't feel it. it just felt like someone sat on my ribs at different points....but it was over fast! john got to watch everything and be right there when our baby was born! we were INSTANTLY in LOVE at 3:44am on Thursday morning.
the recovery room was just for the mom and dad, but i told them that my mother drive all the way from Nebraska and would be there also. since it was 3:44am, one of the nurses said to another nurse, i know i am breaking the rules, but it's the middle of the night. so proud grandma was right there also!
the hospital say was great...wonderful nurses...but i was ready to go home! we stayed until Sunday and were allowed to leave 1 day early. Nolan had jaundice, but it started going down after a few days. he wanted to go home also! he weighed 7lb 5oz when we left the hospital. my mamma stayed for a week and a half. Nolan LOVED to sleep with her and wants grammie to come back!
Nolan is really a wonderful baby! he isn't making it too hard for us to say "yes" to a sister someday :) he had one "cranky" night where we were up almost all night. other than that, he slept for 6 hours (midnight to 6am) on the 2nd night home. other than that, he is good about sleeping 4-5 hours in a stretch at night. we love him sooo much! every day we tell each other how big he has gotten!!
Nolan stats:
1 week appointment...weight: 7lb 13oz (up 8oz from "going home" weight)
2 week appointment...weight: 7 lb 14.5oz (not so great...so this didn't end up counting as a 2 week appt). they found out he doesn't like to swallow when he nurses. he likes to fall asleep or soothe himself. tricky little guy! he will start to have some formula to get calories.
below are a few pictures...but you can see all of the pictures we have posted so far at the following link:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30672014&l=31efa97161&id=173800135
daddy and nolan right after birth...LOVE this!
nolan on the way home from his first dr appt
meeting nolan for the first time...he is my favorite!!!
day 2 of life...our little man!
mamma made it (in record time!) :)
