18 weeks utero
37 weeks pregnant
Midwife team
Daddy with Damen
Mommy with Damen day #2
Brothers :)
The Birth Story:
Damen was my by far toughest delivery yet (and his pregnancy was pretty rough per previous posts as well). The 5 days leading up the 16th I would experience cramps and painful braxton hicks, which was super annoying because I would get excited that maybe it was 'time'. Then Saturday the 15th I teased michael that that would be the night because he had a bunch of friends coming over for a UFC fight night. Low and behold as I was hanging out with my friend Kim playing games I started to get mild contractions every 20-30 mins - but I didn't know they were officially contractions yet because of all the pre-cramps I had been experiencing.
Once all of Michael's friends left around 11:30 I went to bed, but was only able to sleep for 30-60 mins and then I was up the rest of the night from there. I was definitely having contractions. Starting at 1am I started timing them. I was having them every 2-6 minutes and they lasted roughly 30 seconds each wave. They were painful enough that I had to breath through each wave but not excruciating. At 2:00 I called my midwife and she said when the contractions are lasting 1 minute in length to call her back. So I did everything to get comfortable (I even tried sitting in a bath) and by 4 they were every 2-3 minutes apart but not 1 minute in length - still 35-45 seconds long. However! I called her because I was now reaching "I can't do this" phase and I was completely exhausted because it'd been over 3 hours of "painful" contractions. She said she would pack up and be there within the hour. So the team arrived at 5am and I was completely and utterly wasted, lying on my bed in fetal position trying to cope through each contraction. By 6:00 I plain just gave up. That's when they broke my water. I was fully dilated by 5 but they wanted to see if my water would break on it's own. So they broke my water and an hour and 20 minutes later I was -finally- able to push Damen out. I once again could not get my head wrapped around pushing, so he was very beat up and cone headed when he finally came out. He also got a little jammed up on the way out. We think he was a little bit twisted, and apparently I had some cervix in the way (I still don't know what that means but they had to push it out of the way) and it took about 7 solid good pushes to get him out. ...which was unfortunate because by this time I had almost no strength left so each push was completely exhausting. And BOY did he hurt! I about jumped out of my skin during those final 20 minutes.
But then! out he finally came! My big 9lb 10oz, 22 1/2" long baby boy. They laid him on me while the cord pulsed out and I basically fell right to sleep. My placenta (which funny thing all the midwives commented how huge my placenta was haha) basically came out with him so they took it right away (one 'final' push). They kept trying to give me the baby but I just told them to give him to Michael. I was so tired I couldn't even think straight.
Funny story though: they kept having to listen to the babys heart rate with the doppler thing, and I would get so angry at them LOL, it was driving me completely crazy because they'd have to apply some pressure to my stomach each time they listened and I was like 'just get that thing away from me!' haha, not sure why but it just drove me mental.
Logan woke up at 7:30am and we sent him downstairs so we could get everything all cleaned up. And Carter slept til 8am. I have NO idea how they slept through everything because I was LOUD, all night long. Moaning, groaning, screaming, whining lol...and they were in the room next to ours! The most precious moment for me was when Carter sauntered in I said "look carter, your baby is here" and his eyes truly lightened right up and he gasped and said "is it mine?" - I almost cried right there it was so sweet.
And that was it! Midwives tidied up and got everything in order and were gone by 10am (maybe sooner even?) and I basically slept the rest of the day away. My mom arrived at roughly 7:15 and I told her not to come up cuz I didn't want anyone else in the room, but she heard the final moments leading to his birth. She and my dad then took the boys to church and they all held the baby the rest of the day while I slept - just bringing him to feed every so often.
How we picked his name:
Numerous people have asked me where we got his name. And to be honest, I have no idea! I had an ongoing list of boy and girl names in my phone on a list that over the past 6 months whenever I thought of or heard a name I/we liked, I wrote it down. We had Damen, Riley and Cooper on our list, but when we looked at him he was 100% a Damen. We let the little boys pick his middle name. So its just a name we liked :)
Damen's First Week:
And now here we are, one week later! Damen is a wonderful baby. He definitely suffers from tummy issues - has a hard time passing his bowel movements. I have taken him to my chiropractor and it has done wonderful things for him, and I have eliminated wheat and dairy and processed sugar from my diet best I can. If by end of next week he's still suffering I will add a few veggies/starches to the elimination list. But other than that he is doing fabulously! He hasn't lost weight (my babies never have), he sleeps fairly well through the night - every 3 hours I feed him, which some may not think is sleeping well but for me since I've had insomnia my entire pregnancy, sleeping 3 hr intervals has been heavenly :) And the boys LOVE their baby brother. It is so sweet actually, they are just darling with him. I haven't had to worry about leaving Damen in their presence while I run to the bathroom or throw some laundry in, etc. We are one happy family and I am loving our laid back life right now - having little to no obligations and just being home with my children has been incredibly satisfying. I haven't even wanted to out much (which is odd cuz I usually get quite stir crazy).
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