Bryce William Heath

He's finally here! After stops, starts, and several guesses, Bryce William Heath was born Monday, October 22 at 4:18 pm. He weighed a startling 8 lbs, 11 oz and was 20.5 inches long with lots of thick... blond?!...hair. Lots of surprises about this one. :) He has Mitchell's fingers and toes with huge basketball ready hands and looong skinny legs. No wonder I thought there were twins in there for a while. I'd feel his bum sticking out of the right side of my belly and his feet waaay back around my left side. We reported for the induction at 7:30 am and the pitocin was started about 8:30 am. I was so very nervous about this birth but my nurse, Chris, was fabulous! She just kept telling me I was doing beautifully and everything was going to be fine (my OB had taken the initiative and briefed her on my last birth experience before we arrived and directed her to reassure me that all would be well). Dr. MacDonald (my awesome OB) came in sometime between 8 and 8:30 to check me and break my water. At this point, I was expecting to be somewhere around 2 cm dilated if I followed my previous progression of about a half a cm a week. He was a little surprised as he told the nurse I was a good solid 3 cm and about 50% effaced. SCORE!!! The contractions (and walking up the stairs to Jeff and Tammy's apartment, lol) had finally worked!!

Me and all my ridiculously massive belly...39 weeks exactly

The traditional last-time-we-have-to-hug-bending-over picture :)

The nurse anesthetist came in around 9 to verify I was a good candidate for an epidural (I was, lol) and the anesthesiologist totally surprised us by coming in about a half hour later prepped and ready to go. I hadn't had much time to mentally prepare myself (or psych myself out, for that matter), so I was kind of in a daze as Chris sat me up and arranged me for the procedure. Mitchell opted to sit in a chair and watch since Chris was occupying me so well and he watched the whole thing in rather horrified fascination. I had to stop watching his facial expressions, haha! Within minutes after the epidural catheter was inserted and I was back on the bed, my feet and lower legs started to go numb. Success!! I think the dr was pretty tired of my broken record "thank you!" by the time he left. I had the perfect epidural - I could still move my legs around a bit and had about 5% sensation (I could feel pressure from cervical checks or feel Mitchell tuck the sheets around my legs) but I had absolutely no pain whatsoever. Chris told me to call her if I felt nauseated at all because the epidural might slow down my heart rate a little bit. I called her a few minutes later when I got light headed and my heart rate had a dropped a little. She said I was still in the normal range (just the low side of normal) but ordered some counter-acting drug anyway. The nurse anesthetist came in and things get a little fuzzy for the next couple minutes. I remember puking in a bag (which is really difficult when you're flat on your back) that looked like the shoulder-length gloves vets use to examine large farm animals and worrying that I got puke in my hair while the nurses were putting stuff in my IV and looking a little worried. Very suddenly, my head cleared and Chris was saying she was glad I called her in when I did because it could've gotten worse. I wasn't ever in any danger of coding or dying, but I sure felt like crap for about 5 minutes.

I didn't have any more problems til around 2 pm when progression had slowed down. I'd been at a 7 for about two hours. Chris had me switch to a hands and knees position (which I got into all by my numb-legged self!) and I rocked and swayed for about an hour trying to get Bryce to move lower and dilate my cervix more. After an hour, I had progressed to an 8! Woo!! Only two more centimeters to go! Fortunately, I was a 10 and ready to push within half an hour. Chris actually coached me to push until Bryce started crowning and then Dr. MacDonald came in a suited up in what seriously looked like a HAZMAT suit. I only pushed for 18 minutes and then Bryce popped out all in a rush. Dr. MacDonald suctioned his mouth and nose out a little bit and plopped him on my stomach. I was honestly just so shocked to see him out (and how HUGE he was!) that I just stared at him in disbelief until another nurse handed me a towel so I could help dry Bryce off. He was much "cheesier" than Derek was. I almost couldn't see his face for all the vernix covering him, but after a few minutes (and an enthusiastic nurse), his features began to emerge. The nurse took him over to a warmer as Dr. MacDonald started stitching me up. I had a stage 2 tear (not all that bad) and I actually got to watch him work this time (he was wearing a plastic face shield with reflective properties). I'm still totally amazed that all this happened with absolutely no pain whatsoever. I feel like I was able to focus and enjoy the process and be much MUCH more aware of what was going on around me. I can't wait to have another baby!! The recovery process has been much smoother and far more manageable than I ever thought possible. THIS is how childbirth should be (for me, anyway). I joked with the nurses after delivery and indicated I could have ten kids if this was how the rest of the deliveries went. Chris actually thought I was serious and repeated my statement to the next shift nurse who took over. I loved her look of shock. It always makes me laugh when I tell people I want five kids and they act like that's a huge family. So funny. :) Here are picture of Bryce from the first two days....

Such a sweet little pumpkin baby!

"Stop touching meeeeee! I KILL YOU!!!"

Hee... :)

The nurse who bathed him tried to get his hair in a mowhawk, but it's pretty wavy.

Hey baby, how you doin'?

Frog legs!

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

Meeting Nana, Papi and big brother Derek! (Jeff and Tammy came a little later but we forgot to take pictures :S)

Such a cute roly poly face!

Oh, the sun!

Dad, will you PLEASE get that thing out of my face?

Going home! Mitchell makes me laugh - he's sitting here saying, "Whoa! I don't know what happened in this picture, but you do NOT look that big." Haha! He cracks me up. :)