Jacob William Eichelberger was born on June 2, 2011 at 2:53 p.m., weighing 8 lbs 4.6 ounces. We are so happy to have this little guy with us! He is now 3 months old, but I wanted to go back and write down what I remember from his birth before I let any more time slip away.
This delivery was extremely different than my first experience with Matthew. I had some extra appointments near the end of my pregnancy due to high blood pressure. I was induced 3 days early with Matthew for this same problem. With Jacob, my blood pressure was high, but not quite high enough for my doctor to feel I needed to be sent to the hospital. We were going to hold out and make it to Tuesday so my doctor could deliver Jacob. Dr. Snow went ahead and stripped my membranes and then set an appointment for me that Thursday to follow up. Instead of showing up for my appointment, I showed up at the hospital. Wednesday night I started having contractions. I want to say they started around midnight. I couldn't sleep and I kept watchin
g the clock trying to time them. There were about seven minutes apart for a few hours and then about 5 minutes apart. I was pretty uncomfortable and decided I should finish packing my hospital bag. By the time morning rolled around, I was having some pretty strong contractions. My dad was going to be the one staying home with Matthew while were in the hospital, but I went ahead and sent him to work thinking I would just go to my scheduled appointment and see what progress baby and I had made. No more than 10 minutes after he left I was on the phone with my sister, Kim, asking if she could watch Matthew for the day. It seemed like the contractions were 3 minutes apart now and I was so uncomfortable. We dropped Matthew off and made our way over to the hospital. It took some time for them to call me back into a room but it was exciting news once they did. Turns out I was already 5 centimeters dilated and they were going to keep me there! However, it was a pretty busy day for them and no rooms were available yet so I had to wait around downstairs until one opened up. That was frustrating because I was ready for an epidural but had to wait until I was taken upstairs. By noon I was up in a room and preparing to receive the epidural. I was given the epidural and I felt some of the pain go away. The contractions still seemed so strong but I thought it would all be better in a few minutes. I also had horrible back pain. I was feeling really frustrated and kept asking for them to check my epidural. It was not working. After about an hour or so they finally came back in to check the epidural only to find out it had come out. I knew it wasn't working right, it wasn't even in! So, I told them I wanted to try again. Trying to sit up without moving through 8 or so strong contractions seemed impossible. I kept saying I couldn't do it, but all the nurses, the doctor, and Todd were so encouraging. The anesthesiologist was still trying to fix the problem when I felt that urge to push. There was so much pressure I told them all it was time. So, we gave up with the epidural and started pushing. Within 10 minutes Jacob was out and I was waiting to hear his little cry. It took several minutes for that little guy to cry. His chord was wrapped around his body (twice). I didn't get to hold him right away and I just remember being slightly out of it. Everything was just a blur. I was worried because he wasn't crying right away and they went to work suctioning him out since he had a bowel movement inside. They did let me hold him for just a minute once they cleaned him up but then they had to take him away for 2 or so hours to observe him and make sure all was well. It was hard not having Jacob with us for a few hours. Todd was able to go and see him and let me know that Jacob was doing just fine. I wasn't able to nurse Jacob right away though and we did have some trouble with breast feeding in the beginning. No cluster feeding going on with this little guy. It was pretty frustrating since I thought I'm not going to make milk if he's not trying to get any. Have you seen a picture of this boy lately though. He's definitely not starving:)
After a wonderful hospital stay (the nurses/staff were awesome) Jacob and I were about to be released that Saturday afternoon. I received the go ahead from my doctor and Jacob's paperwork was being put together. The nurse decided to check his bilirubin levels one more time. He was starting to look slightly yellow. Jacob's bilirubin level was too high and he had to stay an extra night in the hospital. I wasn't able to stay because we weren't able to reach our insurance company to find out if they would cover another night for me. Silly weekends. That's also why we couldn't just check out the lights and bring Jacob home with us. No one was at the hospital to take care of that for us. It was so hard leaving the hospital without Jacob. It was only for one night but I was very sad. We went home and I was able to put Matthew to bed. How I missed my Matthew. He was so happy to have mommy and daddy home again. The plan was to try to go several times that night back up to the hospital to feed Jacob but Todd and I never woke up early like we intended. We slept until 6:30, when I woke up crying because we just left our baby at the hospital and how I was a bad mom because I didn't go back up to see him. It was probably good that we got 6 straight hours of sleep that night but I felt so bad. We got dressed and headed over to the hospital. We were able to do his feeding and then went home while he went back under the lights for a few more hours. By lunch time Jacob's biliruben levels were down and we were able to take our sweet little boy home with us. We are so grateful to have our two miracle boys!
g the clock trying to time them. There were about seven minutes apart for a few hours and then about 5 minutes apart. I was pretty uncomfortable and decided I should finish packing my hospital bag. By the time morning rolled around, I was having some pretty strong contractions. My dad was going to be the one staying home with Matthew while were in the hospital, but I went ahead and sent him to work thinking I would just go to my scheduled appointment and see what progress baby and I had made. No more than 10 minutes after he left I was on the phone with my sister, Kim, asking if she could watch Matthew for the day. It seemed like the contractions were 3 minutes apart now and I was so uncomfortable. We dropped Matthew off and made our way over to the hospital. It took some time for them to call me back into a room but it was exciting news once they did. Turns out I was already 5 centimeters dilated and they were going to keep me there! However, it was a pretty busy day for them and no rooms were available yet so I had to wait around downstairs until one opened up. That was frustrating because I was ready for an epidural but had to wait until I was taken upstairs. By noon I was up in a room and preparing to receive the epidural. I was given the epidural and I felt some of the pain go away. The contractions still seemed so strong but I thought it would all be better in a few minutes. I also had horrible back pain. I was feeling really frustrated and kept asking for them to check my epidural. It was not working. After about an hour or so they finally came back in to check the epidural only to find out it had come out. I knew it wasn't working right, it wasn't even in! So, I told them I wanted to try again. Trying to sit up without moving through 8 or so strong contractions seemed impossible. I kept saying I couldn't do it, but all the nurses, the doctor, and Todd were so encouraging. The anesthesiologist was still trying to fix the problem when I felt that urge to push. There was so much pressure I told them all it was time. So, we gave up with the epidural and started pushing. Within 10 minutes Jacob was out and I was waiting to hear his little cry. It took several minutes for that little guy to cry. His chord was wrapped around his body (twice). I didn't get to hold him right away and I just remember being slightly out of it. Everything was just a blur. I was worried because he wasn't crying right away and they went to work suctioning him out since he had a bowel movement inside. They did let me hold him for just a minute once they cleaned him up but then they had to take him away for 2 or so hours to observe him and make sure all was well. It was hard not having Jacob with us for a few hours. Todd was able to go and see him and let me know that Jacob was doing just fine. I wasn't able to nurse Jacob right away though and we did have some trouble with breast feeding in the beginning. No cluster feeding going on with this little guy. It was pretty frustrating since I thought I'm not going to make milk if he's not trying to get any. Have you seen a picture of this boy lately though. He's definitely not starving:)
After a wonderful hospital stay (the nurses/staff were awesome) Jacob and I were about to be released that Saturday afternoon. I received the go ahead from my doctor and Jacob's paperwork was being put together. The nurse decided to check his bilirubin levels one more time. He was starting to look slightly yellow. Jacob's bilirubin level was too high and he had to stay an extra night in the hospital. I wasn't able to stay because we weren't able to reach our insurance company to find out if they would cover another night for me. Silly weekends. That's also why we couldn't just check out the lights and bring Jacob home with us. No one was at the hospital to take care of that for us. It was so hard leaving the hospital without Jacob. It was only for one night but I was very sad. We went home and I was able to put Matthew to bed. How I missed my Matthew. He was so happy to have mommy and daddy home again. The plan was to try to go several times that night back up to the hospital to feed Jacob but Todd and I never woke up early like we intended. We slept until 6:30, when I woke up crying because we just left our baby at the hospital and how I was a bad mom because I didn't go back up to see him. It was probably good that we got 6 straight hours of sleep that night but I felt so bad. We got dressed and headed over to the hospital. We were able to do his feeding and then went home while he went back under the lights for a few more hours. By lunch time Jacob's biliruben levels were down and we were able to take our sweet little boy home with us. We are so grateful to have our two miracle boys!
2 comments:
Jacob is looking so much older and so so cute! :)
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