Byron Gabriel Jarboe: My Birth Story

In the last two weeks of this pregnancy, I thought for sure he would have come on his own. The doctors thought the exact same thing. I almost went to the hospital twice, but as soon I I thought we should go, the contractions stopped. It was a rough last two weeks, waiting in anticipation, but mostly, just uncomfortable. Partly because we're insane and trying to sell our house while having our second son, and house shopping and taking care of a very active 16 month old!

Well my doctor decided to go ahead and induce the little guy as I approached my 40 week mark. I thought maybe, just maybe, he'll come before the induction, but no. I was told that I would go in on my due date (March 19th), but that got moved to Monday. Then, on Monday, it got moved to Tuesday! As my inlaws said, he paid someone off at the hospital and just wasn't ready to come!

Tuesday came and we were to arrive at the hospital at 7:30am. It was a smooth morning as Alex got Devlin over to Bridget's and I took care of some last minute house cleaning. When we got there, my nurse, Carol Perry, gave us the heads up that the actual induction wouldn't start until 11am. That was a bit weird as we got there so early. But, she was really cool. She even let me eat before the induction (well as they started it)! The food actually wasn't that bad. The only thing I really hated was the bed. It was so uncomfortable!  Waiting for the induction was nerve wracking. Carol though, reassured us that she wasn't just going to start at high doses...she'd gradually increase it (pitocin) until I was where I needed to be.

On top of all of this, what I was happy about was the ability to move around and get out of bed during the labor. With Devlin, I was bed-ridden and they wouldn't let me do anything. I had the opportunity to try techniques (swaying, rocking chair, walking around the room, dancing, etc). They broke my water at 11:23am. Now before this, I had pitocin coming in for about an hour which didn't do much at all. It really didn't. Once my water broke the labor went quickly into full force.

I was able to cope with most of the pain, but at 6cm going on 10cm, I wanted to get some relief! So the epidural came, but one tiny problem. This labor was faster than anyone expected. Seriously. While trying to get the epidural in, the pain scale went through the roof. I'm pretty sure this was due to the transition.

Well, because the labor was going so fast, the epidural really didn't work. Carol felt so so bad for me...at that point I was really really not happy...I remember screaming (not screaching, but screaming) as he kept getting lower and lower... The anthesialogist was going to give me a spinal block but he was too far down the canal....and oh, one minor detail, my doctor wasn't here yet!  As he was flying through the canal, Carol tried to express to Dr. O'Neil to get her rear from Farmington over to the hospital, like now, because he was coming. She almost didn't make it. The other doctor (back up) was dressed and ready as I pushed the first time, and as I stopped, Dr. O'Neil walked through the door!! Two more pushes and he was out. If she was just a tad later she wouldn't have made it. Overall the labor was not even 3 hours.

As many know, we do not name our children prior to the birth. We had a list and just needed to figure it out. Dr. O'Neil's girl was out in the hall and she said that she'd give the list to her and see what she would say. We talked it over and it was much harder this time picking a name! We read off the list and the nurses and we agreed that Byron was the name. Also, we picked his middle name, Gabriel. Also, if you haven't noticed, the middle names of our children are after archangels. Devlin Azrael and Byron Gabriel.

Compared  to Devlin's delivery, this one was painful, but also not as bad. My recovery for Byron has been much easier. Partially due to the lack of pre-eclampsia with Byron.  The time in recovery was good, painful, but good. I watched HGTV for the first ime in who knows how long.

Devlin's reaction to his brother was interesting. I think he was more scared of the hospital environment. He tried to touch him and give kissses. He was really sad to leave us that first night...but he did amazingly well. I've noticed that he's really attentive to what's going on...last night, our first night home, Byron was fussing and Devlin pointed over there, just looking so concerned...it was like "hey..what's wrong with him?" It was just adorable. He also has cried when Byron has started criyng. Very cute.

Well, so far, so good. Despite being deprived of sleep and half-sleep writing this post, it's going really well here. Now, we pray that it continues this way and that we sell our house here quickly so we can move on a dream home...