~Adler's Birth Story~

First of all....isn't this cool =)

Angela Dawn Laub ShanER

ADLER

Adler's Birth Story is for my Journaling. You don't have to read this. If you do...sorry if it's long and boring. =) I want to remember every detail.

The Doctor checked me on Monday, Oct 19 and I was 3 centimeters dialated and 80% effaced. Yay! I was pretty excited that I was progressing and getting close. That night I had contractions pretty much all evening and until about 2 am. I almost woke Artie up a few times but decided to try and just wait it out. It was in the middle of the night and maybe I could just do all this work at home and go to the hospital early in the morning. Well, finally at about 2 am I was able to go to sleep...so the contractions must have stopped. Oh well! Tuesday I had pains thoughout the day but not near as close or strong as they were that night before. I also still had this horrible cough that just wasn't going away. That did not help when I was having contractions or trying to sleep at night. I feel like I hadn't got much sleep in the last couple of nights from coughing so much and then having contractions. I taught piano lessons on tuesday and had music class and went to watch Artie play softball later that evening. Tuesday night was pretty mellow other than all the coughing....argghhh! Around 4:30 am wednesday morning I woke up and was having pretty good contractions. They were about every 2 to 5 minutes apart and were pretty strong. So, Artie called in to work and I called my mom to come stay with the kids and we headed off to the Hospital. Yeah! I knew it was the day! 8 days early, October 21, 2009. When we got there it was 6 am & I was at 4 centimeters and pretty much 100% thinned out. They hooked me up to the IV...ouch! Dr. Ofori came and said he had to go into surgery and would check me afterwards. But, he wasn't coming forever! They got me the epidural, which was horrible! He had to re- thread it about 3 times, it just wasn't going into the right place in my back and I thought I was going to hyperventilate! I was really trying to breath through it, but epidurals freak me out anyway...and then when he just wasn't getting it and could feel him take it out and then in.....aaahhhhh....I just wanted it over with!! (My back is VERY sore now by the way). Whew! Thank goodness that was over and then the nurse checked me again and I was 7 centimeters and my water broke. It was about 11 am at that time. I was starting to feel pressure and I new it was really close. About 20 minutes later FINALLY the Doctor came back and I said I was feeling pressure and he checked and I was ready to go!! Adler was born at 11:35 am. The whole process went so fast and when it was time to push I just felt like I couldn't believe it was happening all so fast! The cord was wrapped around his neck pretty good. He came out and of course we couldn't wait to see what he was. He was peeing as he came out and then they said, "It's a Boy!" and he started peeing again! =) He looked so small. I knew by looking at him that he was going to be our smallest baby. But, I didn't think he'd be that small. 6 lbs 8 oz. The Doctor said he is pretty sure he is so small becuase I was realy sick the last couple weeks & it didn't help his growth at all. I've never had a baby smaller than 8 lbs...haha.

Adler had a rough first couple days. He didn't have the urge to eat at all. I kept trying to get him to eat...he wouldn't open his mouth or do anything. The nurse even tried to shove a bottle in his mouth and he wouldn't even suck, it was like he didn't know how to suck. So, he wasn't peeing or pooping at all. He went on like this for the whole day. That evening he started turning blue and was gagging. The nurse took him and tried to get him to stop gagging and then ended up putting a tube down his stomach and pulled some mucus out. She said usually it's just the normal thin mucus that the baby need to still get out, but she got 2 big very thick chunks of mucus from his stomach. They ended up doing an X-ray on his stomach to make sure there was nothing else blocking things in there. They said on the X-ray it showed his whole stomach was full of GAS. There was no room for anything else, it was COMPLETELY full of Gas. Crazy! Typical Boy I guess...haha. So, that it was he didn't feel like eating, he probably felt so full. But, we had to force him to eat from a bottle to try and push all that out of him. The next day he still had not peed or pooped and wasn't eating much but a little and he finally tried to nurse. Later in the day the nurse came and showed me what had come out of him.....weird. She called it the Meconium plug. It was like a little sausage all in casing and eveything. Gross! That must have been plugging him up and keeping all that gas in. The Pediatrician checked him later and said his stomach felt much softer and everything seemed a lot better, but if he didn't poop soon we were just going to have to stay another night! The nurse ended up doing a little rectal stimulation to get him to go a little bit....nice huh...haha. But, man I just wanted to go home!! And the kids had still not seen him. They wouldn't let them in the Room with all the Flu going around. I was still coughing so much while in the hospital. They gave me a few breathing treatments in the Hospital and I have an inhaler at home that seems to help a little bit. It seems to have gotten better, I just hope it ALL goes completely away soon!! So, anyway, we finally got home at about 5 pm Thursday, Oct. 22nd. Adler started nursing really good and on Friday I was never so happy to change his black tar diaper....and then again, and then again! Yay! He can poop!! And I forget about boys how they love to pee when there diaper comes off. He's already peed on his face....oops! Aren't Boys fun! We are so lucky to have 2 Girls that are close and 2 Boys that are close! What perfect little buddies!! Welcome Home little Adler!! We love you so much and can't wait to watch you grow! I just hope it doesn't go too fast...I'm ready to take in every little minute with you!