The Labor and Delivery Story

Here's the story in short:

I was in pain all over and having random contractions all day on the 20th of December, so at 9:30pm Brandon and I went to the hospital. I was still not far progressed so they had me walk around for an hour. An hour later my water broke, they called the doctor and he said to have me sleep there and he would come check on me in the morning. The next morning at 5am I was officially checked in and I was induced. I was in labor as long as I could stand with the contractions - and then got an epidural (or rather an intrathecal - which is a shot that wears off in 4 hours). I went to sleep that night and early in the morning I started with the pushing. I pushed for an hour until the shot wore off - but then I could feel what I was doing and started progressing with the delivery. I didn't get another shot, and pushed for an0ther hour and a half - and then he was born! At 5:50am on Dec 22, 2008.

As Lincoln was being born, the cord was wrapped around his neck and when the doctor took it off his neck - it snapped in half spraying blood everywhere and, causing the baby to lose 20% of his blood, so they put him on my stomach for a brief minute and then took him to the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit). At the time I didn't know that the cord snapped. I also lost a lot of blood and tore a lot. When the doctor was stitching me up was the first time I looked at him and saw the blood on his coat and, assuming it was my blood I told him that he looked like a butcher - he was not amused. I was SO exhausted. The pediatrician then came in and told me that the cord had "ruptured" and that Lincoln had lost a lot of blood. In the NICU he was stabilized by adding 8oz of saline solution to his blood until about 6 hours later they were able to get some blood sent from San Francisco to him. They gave him about an ounce and half of blood. After he had the blood he was TONS better, but we still couldn't take him home for 5 days. I had to keep going back to the NICU to feed him every few hours - it was VERY hard. We got him home on Dec 26th.

The next ordeal was with breastfeeding. I started getting really sore (or so I thought) I was really getting torn up because Lincoln was born with a very tight frenulum - which is when the piece of skin under the tongue goes all the way to the tip of the tongue, aka tongue-tied. When I found out this was the problem, I started pumping and feeding him bottles and supplementing with formula while we looked for someone to clip his frenulum - and it was finally done on Monday, Dec 5th. Now I am exclusively breastfeeding - but with a shield, so I can still heal.

Now everything is going pretty well. I'm healing well and Lincoln is doing great!

I would like to say how blessed I am for friends and family who are so supportive to me - Thank You!

I also have to say how grateful I am to my wonderful husband for all that he did for me. He was with me, supporting me the last 2 weeks 24/7. He made me feel so comfortable, loved, protected, and taken care of. I am truly blessed for him and for his service and love for me. I have an even greater love and respect for him now and am so grateful that he is in my life. I love you sweetie!