Today

Today is my first day by myself with G. No family, and no Jason. I think I've slept about 30 minutes. But I did eat, so that is something. I started off with a bang when Gabriel immediately peed through his onsie and I knocked over his bottle all over the bedroom carpet. I've rallied since then. Gabriel is getting bigger every day and reaching more milestones. He turned his head from one side to the other yesterday. It was so exciting! I think later I am going to try to do some stretching. I try to do one thing a day just for me (even if it is just brushing my teeth) to keep my sanity. It definitely helps. The fact that he's off the charts cute helps too. :)

Interlude

Here's my favorite photo so far, at the pediatrician' s office. We had to wrap him loosely while we waited for the doctor.

Day 1- Gabriel's birth story continued

At this point Dr. Morales came into the room. She checked in with the nurses and sat at the foot of my bed. I think she had me push for a bit, and wasn't happy with the results. She told the nurse that I needed to have the baby drop some and then finish pushing. What followed was the most intense pain I have ever been in. I thrashed around on my side through each contraction. Jason held my hand. At that point I thanked him for helping me. Then my parents came in. Dad gave me a kiss on the cheek and mom sat on a couch in the delivery room. Dad went outside. (This was what I wanted) The nurses double checked to make sure that was what I wanted. I tried to manage the pain the best I could. The nurse explained to mom who asked why I was hurting so much that the epidural could not get ahead of the pain like with most people- it basically didn't have time to work well. It did seem to help a bit when it finally kicked in. My water Then Dr. Morales came back in and it was time to push. She asked me if I was ready to have the baby and I said yes. My water broke. I probably pushed about 15 times. She asked me if I wanted to have his head vacuumed out or have a C section. She told me I could do it, have a vaginal delivery. So that's what I went with. An oxygen mask was placed on my head and after each contraction I had to take a deep breath and push as hard as I could. Through two contractions, it didn't work. Before the third one, the nurses explained how to push and encouraged me to have my baby. So, I did. I pushed, Jason told me I was almost there. Then I heard his head was out, and then the rest of him. I heard him let out a big lusty cry. Dr. Morales stitched me up while people cooed over the baby. I looked down at gauze pads soaked with blood. The stitches hurt quite a bit and Jason stayed with me while mom cooed over the baby. Then they put the baby on my skin and asked me what his name was. I told them he was Gabriel and smiled down at my baby. Dad came back in and gave us both kisses. I thanked Joanna and she told me I took years off her life!

Day 1- Gabriel's birth story

My due date came and went Sunday, January 26th, and I felt the same as I had for several weeks. Not terribly uncomfortable, but with pressure on my pelvis that would come and go. Monday morning I had a checkup at my OB office at 8:30. I woke up at 6:00, and could not go back to sleep. By 6:30, I told Jason who was still in bed that I felt different that day. We arrived at my checkup, and I weighed and gave a urine sample. That's when I noticed I had a little bleeding. I told the nurse practitioner that I thought things were happening. She told me I was not dialated when she checked, but they were going to monitor me and the baby to see how things were going. She told me it would help them decide if I needed to walk some and come back or not. I got strapped into a machine and it started making readings. Then I started having contractions. They started every ten minutes apart, and I wasn't sure what was happening, but Jason would tell me based on what the machine was reading when they would peak and when they would get better. It helped me breathe through the pain. And he held my hand. I went to the bathroom. The nurse checked and discovered I was 1 cm dialated. I started having contractions 4 minutes apart. The nurse checked again and said I was 1.5 cm dialated. She started talking to Jason about admitting me to the hospital. I was wheeled down to the bottom floor of the doctor's office complex by a nurse and waited for Jason to bring the car. The contractions were about 2 minutes apart at that point and I felt out of sorts. Jason brought the car around and drove across the street to the hospital. I told the woman as Jason was parking the car I was in labor and needed a wheel chair to labor and delivery. She kind of freaked and had a hard time getting my feet in the chair. I remember Jason telling the woman to leave it and just push me. So we checked in at labor and delivery and they said they were expecting me. I got pushed into a room and told to change into a hospital gown. At this point Jason left, I think it had something to do with admitting me into the hospital, and I crawled into the bed. A nurse came in and said her name was Joanna. She would be helping me while I was there. I was hooked to an IV that she needed two tries for. She asked me a bunch of questions which I don't remember and then checked my cervix as Jason came back in. Her check resulted in a "wow" which scared me a bit. She told me at that point I was 9 cm dialated. I thought to myself "well, that explains how incredibly crappy I feel right now." And also, "this is NOT how they explained things would go in the labor and delivery class we took!" First babies are supposed to take a while to come into the world. The nurse asked me if I would consider natural child birth, and I said if I could get it I would prefer an epidural. A rush was put on determining my platelet count. People sprang into action all around me. I ended up getting the epidural sitting up in between contractions. By that point I was in such intense pain from the contractions the epidural didn't worry me at all. I just did what they said. To be continued....

Gabriel Remy Papadopoulos

I created this blog to fill with pictures and memories from early in Gabriel's life. It has been quite an exciting week so far. He's one week old today. It has been the most challenging, most amazing week of my life.