He's five months old now and I'm just barely getting around to writing his birth story. Let's just say this sweet little boy is a tad high maintenance. I love him dearly and he melts my heart, but he's doing his best to make sure I enjoy him as much as possible since he doesn't like to be put down for more than about 10 minutes at a time. I know it's time with him I'll never get back, so I try to soak it up as much as I can, but some days are a struggle. Look at this face though. He's absolutely worth every bit of it.
So let's go back a few months. (If you don't want all of the details, just scroll through and look at the pictures. Otherwise, be ready for some details!) My due date was April 22. That was based on an ultrasound I had at 11 weeks. I had originally given them a date for the first day of my last period which was a total guess. When I got pregnant, I had just finished nursing Gabe (or pumping in his case) so my cycle wasn't exactly normal yet. We weren't preventing because I was ok with getting pregnant since I was considering one more baby, and I didn't want to be too much older. The 22 months between Isaac and Gabe seemed to work out well so I wasn't too worried. I don't usually get too sick so by the time I realized I was pregnant, I had no idea when my last cycle started. Why does this all matter? My doctor's office kept my original guess date as my due date. It was 10 days earlier than the date I was given at my first ultrasound. (They did an ultrasound because they couldn't find the heartbeat right away.) Due date's are generally much more accurate when they are based on an early ultrasound as opposed to later ultrasounds and it was just better mentally for me to go by the later date.
At my 39 week checkup they had me do a non stress test which is where they monitor the baby while you just sit there because they had me at 40 weeks. There was no problems. We passed with flying colors. A week later they wanted another NST. I wasn't worried because I was going by my later date. I did the NST and there was no problems. My doctor wanted to schedule an induction for the next Friday. It was Monday so I figured there was no way I'd still be pregnant by then since this was my 6th pregnancy after all. I went ahead and let them schedule that. I love my doctor. This was my 5th pregnancy with him. He hadn't delivered any of my babies yet. With Chloe, I ended up going to Provo because of my Premature Rupture of Membranes. Tyler was born on a Saturday and he wasn't on call. Isaac was born on a Wednesday, which he takes off when he's on call on the weekend. With Gabe, he was there while I was in labor, but ended up leaving 2 hours before I delivered. Not having him there was kind of annoying, but I like all of the other doctors in their office and all they do is "catch" pretty much anyway. (If I hadn't had a c-section, I would probably have gone with a midwife and potentially delivered at home at some point, but fortunately, Lance and I never had to have that argument.) My doctor was on call that weekend, so I thought for sure this would be the one he would deliver.
Tuesday I started having some contractions and getting excited. Then they quit. Same thing happened on Thursday. I had contractions off and on all day and I went to bed hoping things would pick up, but they didn't and I woke up disappointed in the morning. I knew I really didn't want to be induced even though I had the induction scheduled so I wasn't sure what I was going to do. It worked out well though. They called while I was in the shower and said I had 15 minutes to get back to them or they'd have to call the next person. Since they didn't leave a number, I couldn't get back to them if I wanted to. I could have looked up the number I guess, but I wasn't too worried about it. Instead I just went into my doctor. I was at a 3 but my doctor was on the concerned side. I really didn't want pitocin. I wanted an unmedicated delivery and I knew pitocin would not start things out well. I did the NST which took longer this time since he wasn't being very active so I had to drink some apple juice to get him moving. Once he was showing good signs, they let me go home and I continued to wait.
Sunday came around and I really debated going to church. I knew I'd get a million questions, but I didn't want to just sit around at home. In the end I decided to go. I got lots of looks and questions, but it helped get my spirits up talking to all of my friends. About midway through church, my Braxton-Hicks started turning into more regular contractions. By the end of church, it was definitely turning into real labor contractions. This made getting the kids home and fed without Lance (he stays after to help with some things since he's in the Bishopric) a little less than ideal. Our church is 1-4pm. I was having a hard time concentrating on the contractions to be able to determine if the contractions were staying regular so I called Lance a little after 5 to see if he was coming home soon. Fortunately, he was on his way home at that point. When he got home, I sat down for a while and things slowly tapered off. I was so irritated! Lance had already called his mom to let her know it would probably be that night and it was looking like it wouldn't be.
I fell asleep on the couch that night around 9 or 9:30. I woke up around 10:30 with contractions starting up again. I was able to just doze through them until about 1:30 or so. At that point I got up and walked around for a while. I let Lance sleep as long as possible, because he seems to end up more exhausted after my labors than I am. We made it to the hospital around 3:45 am. As soon as I got there, I could tell my contractions had slowed down. Once again, I was totally irritated! I always think I'm waiting as long as possible but I'm also afraid we'll be on the news after having delivered a baby at a gas station or something. I was at a 5 so they admitted me. I had really hoped I was much farther than that.
I wanted to be up walking around as much as possible, but since I've had a c-section, I have to be monitored constantly which requires a telemetry thing so I can be free of the big bulky machine. I didn't get an IV. I just had a hep-lock in case I needed anything. It took them about an hour before I got the telemetry thing. I was standing up pretty much the entire time, but my contractions were definitely farther apart than they had been at home. While waiting for the telemetry, they brought me the paperwork I had done online beforehand to be be pre-registered so I could double check and sign it. I started going over it and realized they had my name and birth date, but a different spouse and insurance. Immediately, I knew my information had been mixed up with the other Debra Pearson. We have a history together. When I was pregnant with Isaac, the nurses at my doctor's office asked if I knew there was another Debra Pearson after they called us back using our middle names. We had the same doctor and happened to have appointments at the same time that day. Our babies ended up being born the same day, both boys. She had a c-section though. (Every time a nurse would tell me something, I wanted to ask them if they were aware of a thing called the HIPPA laws, but didn't because I was curious. :) Anyway, we were very careful to make sure we had the right baby. Isaac had so much hair that it was pretty easy. If I hadn't been there when he was born, I may have questioned that though!
Anyway, we were also pregnant at the same time when I had Gabe. We were much farther apart though and didn't really cross paths. Now apparently, the hospital felt like we were the same person so they combined our records into one. It took three tries before we had the correct information on the paperwork and wristbands. We joked that it would be great if their insurance paid for our baby! After all of the crazy mix up with the paper work, they still ended up mixing it all up. We got our bill, but later I called the hospital to check on something else and they told me they had billed the wrong Debra Pearson's insurance for Seth. It took months for them to straighten it all out properly.
Back at the hospital, when I was able to walk around, contractions started up again, stronger and more consistent. Around 6:30am I went back to the room anticipating a check around 7am. When the doctor came in (It wasn't my doctor of course.) I was still at a 5. So, so irritated. In hypnobirthing, which I had kind of done, they don't recommend the constant checking. One of the reasons is it can be so discouraging when you're not as far along as you had anticipated. It's so true!
At that point the doctor wanted to break my water knowing it would get my labor progressing faster. I also knew that it would increase the intensity of the contractions, so I was hesitant. (But I also think about how much every hour in that room is costing me!) She gave me some doctor talk on how the longer I'm in labor the harder it is on the scar tissue from my c-section increasing the likelihood of problems. As much as that may be true, I hate it when they use their "scare tactics" on women. It totally works though since I went ahead and let her break my water.
For some reason my nurse thought I'd be able to just walk around with ruptured membranes and not need any time of pad because the "baby's head usually blocks the fluid." I didn't request something and I wish I did because then I just felt uncomfortable even trying to get up to walk around. My contractions definitely increased in intensity and things got intense. Lance was a trooper though and got me wet wash cloths and did whatever he could for me. At one point after at least an hour, I decided to try to get up to walk, but when I tried to get up, I had a nice contraction, then I was sick to my stomach so I threw up. After that Lance said, "That was disgusting." Now, that makes me laugh but I was a little irritated then. As if I don't know throwing up is gross. I'm the one who just threw up! Part of the reason I threw up I think was I was so hungry. I ate a sandwich before I left home, but I was hungry almost as soon as we got there. I could only have clear fluids so I knew that wasn't going to be good. It could also have been because I was definitely in "transition" where a lot of women throw up.
At about 8:45 the nurse checked me and told me I was fully dilated and she'd call for the doctor to come over. That was such a relief to hear. I had totally lost focus and was just whimpering and complaining through the contractions. She got there just before 9 am and did her own check and felt like I wasn't fully dilate so I couldn't push yet. That was extremely frustrating. I kind of wanted to scream or cry at the point. I managed to make it through another 20 minutes of contractions then I finally felt like I needed to push. This was the first time in all of my deliveries I had ever felt that. The doctor came back in checked again and agreed that I was ready to deliver. Since I've had episiotomies with all of my babies, I asked if she planned to just do one since that's what the doctor who delivered Gabe did. She said she'd wait and see how big he looked. (We had talked earlier about the size of my babies and how big I felt like I was. I really thought I was a little smaller with Seth than with Gabe, although others had told me I was bigger.) It was such a relief to push and I hardly felt the contractions at all. I was totally out of focus at that point. After a couple of inefficient pushes, a nurse finally reminded me what I needed to do to push- things like chin to chest and hold the the breath in. After that I was pushing much more effectively. After a few good pushes the doctor said, "Ok. Stop pushing so I can do an episiotomy." I was more than irritated at that point. I was ready to be done! It didn't take too long though and when they do the episiotomy they do a local so I've never felt the infamous "ring of fire" when the baby crowns. I don't feel bad about that at all. Then at 9:38 am Seth Carter Pearson was born.
All the nurse kept telling me was "his head is so huge!" and, "Look at his eyelashes. He already has eyelashes!" I was more excited about the second comment. She could hardly wait to measure his head. It came in at 38 cm. I have no idea how that compares to my other babies because it's not a measurement they ever gave me before. I'll just take her word for it. He was huge all over though. He weighed 9 pounds 8 ounces and was 21 inches long.
She also told me that I was the most composed unmedicated delivery she'd ever seen. I have to think she was exaggerating because I definitely was not composed. I was much more calm with Gabe than I was with Seth. It was much more intense and after he was born, I told Lance I didn't want to do that again. Now that it's been a few months, I've changed my mind. I could do it again, but it's not something I'm planning.
Look at those cheeks! His fingernails were super long too.
They are really good at giving your baby to you right away now. My nurse was very good at asking my permission to take him as well. I've always hated how hospitals think it's their baby until you're discharged. Things seem to be slowly changing. (That blue bag is another throw up bag. I was feel nauseated again during the delivery, but fortunately didn't have to use it.)
Of course Seth looks most like his dad, with the chin dimple and everything.
I couldn't believe the weather that day. It was April 28th and it was snowing, windy and cold.
Seth was sucking his thumb pretty quickly. He's not much of a thumb sucker now, which has surprised me. Around three months old he developed an interesting habit of sucking his thumb while nursing though. It's so weird, but it doesn't seem to affect his ability to latch on at all.
Before Seth was born I read a lot about what we could opt out of at the hospital as far as the Hepatitis B vaccine, the vitamin K shot and the antibiotic ointment in the eyes is concerned. I decided to opt out of the Hepatitis B shot and the eye ointment. The nurse was very good about it and just got me the paper work to sign. I was expecting more of a fight, but she didn't even try to convince me. Instead he got the Hep B shot at his 2 month check up. I understand the reasoning for the eye ointment, I just decided he didn't need it. It's to protect against blindness from an infection developed after being exposed to certain STD's during delivery. Since I know I don't have any STD's I knew he didn't need the ointment. It was so nice to see nice clear eyes instead of foggy, goopy eyes.
He was born on my grandma Marva Heiner Rix's birthday, so Carter comes from her side of the family. We had to go back a few generations to find a name we liked. Her dad's name was Lafayette, which although unique, was not exactly appealing to us. (Interestingly enough, while I was looking for names, I realized my grandma's sister must have been named after her dad since her name is Faye. It's quite popular in Utah to name girls after their dad. Apparently, it's been around for a while.) Carter is the last name of the first group of my family on my grandma's side that came to Utah from England in 1860.
