On Tuesday, at 364 days old, Evan choked for the first time. Full on choking where he couldn't breathe. I swiftly took him out of his highchair and did the baby heimlich. He didn't seem phased by it at all.
Then on his birthday, as I was getting peanut ready for bed, his whole chest was covered in hives. Initially I thought it was eczema because he has been covered with eczema most of his young life. I put hydrocortisone on it and then freaked out because it was hives and not eczema. Thankfully the ointment worked quickly and the hives were gone before the doctor could even call me back. Two crises averted in two days.
In addition to the crazy "health" scares, I have been thinking about out birthday last year. We put the birth in birthday because he was actually born on my birthday. With 30 hours of labor (only about 23 hours of active labor) it was the best of times and worst of times so to speak.
Gladly, a year out I do not remember any of the pain. Honestly other than recovering, I couldn't remember the pain a week later. So without further ado, here is what I remember of
I chose to have an induction because I was one of the 2 to 3% of pregnant women with gestational diabetes. It wasn't fun, I had to check my blood sugar 4 times a day and inject myself with insulin at night. I also had to have ultrasound twice a week to check for activity. Because of this, I can't stand moms that complain that they can't tell the sex of the baby with ultrasound. While that may be nice, the ultrasound is for health and grow, not vanity. On a side note, when I had my 20 week ultrasound I laughed the whole time and didn't cry when I found out Evan was a boy. I didn't really care about the sex. Anyway, I chose induction because diabetes can lead to really big babies and the risk of having a stillborn increases. I was scared and I wanted my baby out healthy.
The beginning was really really slow. I had a pill to help induce me and I had to wait a few hours before pitocin. Pitocin sucked. It brings on some unnatural speedy contractions. I went into the whole thing wanting to do it naturally as possible. Five hours of intense labor and some ridiculous bleeding, I got an epidural. One nurse thought I was a baby for doing it, really? Anywho, my awesome nurse told me at the beginning of the epi that you can't pee with an epidural because you can't feel the urge to pee, so I would need a catheter. Well after the epidural went in, all the nurses had to run off to c-section room. (someone had a prolapsed umbilical cord, yikes!) Meanwhile, I was sitting around for a while, someone said something silly. And my water broke. No it turns out I just peed the bed. I kept peeing too, so it turns out you can pee but you can't stop. During this ordeal, I apparently pulled out my epidural. (That is rare too) So I suddenly went from smooth sailing to having 8 contractions in a row. I can't tell you how much it hurt, but nurses and anesthesiologists were needed pronto. Second, epi and a catheter later. I was happy. Until I started to pee the bed again. I told then nurse that I was peeing. You can't pee outside of a catheter. My water actually broke. Funny how I kept mixing those things up. I still had about 10 hours of slow progress to go...
In that 10 hours most of my nurses were great. We had to "fire" one because one she wouldn't let us look at my monitor and two she didn't believe me when my second epidural stopped working. I told her that I could feel my cath and legs and I knew I shouldn't. So the rest was uneventful until my favorite part, pushing.
Shortly after 2 pm I needed to push. Its funny that you suddenly need to push. I believed I pushed for about 20 to 30 min, but I wasn't one of those ladies that got the baby out in 2 pushes and brags. I puked throughout my entire pregnancy so it was no different to puke during delivery, I barfed and Evan's head popped out! Best technique ever. I recommend it to everyone. The doctor said he's gonna tell all his patients. He had the cord wrapped around his neck twice (it was loose) and then he came out and Evan was born at 2:38 pm on my birthday. It wasn't 8-9-10 like I wanted but in the long run, his birthday is just as nice. In addition to the wrapped cord, in utero Evan tied a knot in the cord. The cord was also 3times the length of a normal cord (that was not hyperbole). Cord boy has been trouble since before he was born. He is so mischievous but I can't picture him any other way.
Our First Birthday together.
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