Robbie's birth story
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Here’s the story (in long version, of course … would you expect brevity from me?) of Robbie’s arrival…
On Sunday (3/29) afternoon after Jocelyn and I woke up from naps, we decided to head over to Marbles (the local kids’ museum). We needed to renew our membership before the end of the month so we could get an extra month for free while they were still running that special. And, of course, Jocelyn enjoyed it!
As we left just after 5pm, we decided to wander around downtown because the weather was beautiful. At about that time, I started having contractions and was pretty certain that this was the real deal, but they only seemed to be about 10 minutes apart, and I knew from a false alarm on Saturday that took us to labor and delivery that I had only been 1.5cm dilated the day before, so we continued to walk around with Jocelyn and enjoy the weather. They definitely hurt, but I remembered having the walk the halls to progress a little more before they would admit me with Jocelyn, and I would much prefer to walk around the park than to roam Rex!
I had Lee check the time on his cell phone after I had been having contractions for a while, and I realized – since it was only 5:32pm then and since I had had at least six or seven contractions – that my guess at them being about 10 minutes apart was wrong, so we headed back to the car to go home. (They were actually five minutes apart while we were walking around and would be four minutes apart by the time we got home.)
Once we got home, I called the doctor who said we should come on in, and then I called Derek and Jenelle to come watch Jocelyn. Almost immediately after I hung up with them, I felt a pop and a gush … yep, water broke. More like flooded, actually! We did a few more things around the house, made a few more calls, and then headed to the hospital. (Actually before we headed to the hospital, Derek teased me during each contraction because I was unable to talk during them, thus I had no way of giving any sort of snappy comeback. Before you think poorly of Derek, please understand that he and I have a brother-sister kind of relationship in which teasing is a show of affection. He teases because he cares … right, Derek?)
All checked in and in labor (pretty sure this shot was pre-epidural, but I'm not certain)
When we arrived at the hospital around 7pm, I was 3-4cm dilated, but Robbie was still pretty high. The nurse guessed that I would deliver before midnight, which I thought was ridiculous since I was in labor for 19.5 hours with Jocelyn! I got some Stadol to take the edge off the pain as soon as I could while we waited for the labs to clear me to get the epidural. (I thought contractions were bad with Jocelyn last time, but I never felt any of them after my water broke since I had already gotten the epidural before that … and, holy moley, contractions after my water broke were WAY worse than any I experienced before!) Around this time, after running some more tests to confirm this after they realized that I had a lot of protein in my urine when I arrived, I was diagnosed with mild pre-eclampsia … but considering that the cure for that is delivering your little one, they weren’t too concerned! I suppose the best possible time to be diagnosed with pre-e is when you’re already in labor, huh?
I got the epidural around 8:30 or 9pm when I was 5cm. When the anesthesiologist (the same one who did my epidural with Jocelyn) told me to let him know when and where I felt pressure, our nurse Vickie (who was AMAZING!) said, “Oh, don’t worry. She’s very verbal. She’ll let you know.” Hmm, not sure I’ve ever been described as “verbal” before (other synonyms, certainly, though!).
I stayed at 5cm for about two hours but my cervix progressed from being pretty thick to completely thinned out during that time, and then I jumped from 5cm to 10 in less than an hour as Robbie dropped! At that point, I felt a lot of pressure and wanted to push, but the nurse told me the doctor was coming and to please try to wait. Since I spent thirty minutes pushing last time, I thought, “Who are you kidding? Even if I started pushing now and the doc was just leaving her house, I’d still be fine.” (Clearly, it still had not sunk in that this delivery was not going to be the same as my first!) Well, my doctor (the same one who delivered Jocelyn!) showed up after two more contractions, I pushed twice, and Robbie came out. He was actually twisting as he was born, corkscrewing a full 360 degrees as he emerged. My doctor had to physically stop him from continuing to twist, and she and my nurse said they had never seen anything like it!
As I mentioned in an earlier post, he was 7 pounds and 5 ounces in weight and 21.25 inches in length … just as long as Jocelyn was, but nearly a pound and a half lighter! He’s a long, skinny fellow with itty bitty chicken legs and a bunch of dark hair (especially compared to his sister, who was pretty much bald until she was one … though you can’t tell that now by her mop of unruly blond hair!). He was almost two weeks early (actually, a little over two weeks early if you go by the ultrasounds and the dates I think are more accurate than the ones my doctor used), but the timing was just perfect!
He is doing well, as am I, and Jocelyn is loving her role as big sister! I think she was most thankful that we came home, considering that she kept being passed off. The plan had been to have either our neighbors or Derek and Jenelle watch her for the three hours until Lee’s parents could get here, but Lee’s parents had just come for the weekend and left at 2pm, so they would have had to get back in the car to return here literally moments after they returned home in Charlotte from here! So instead Derek and Jenelle watched Jocelyn Sunday evening and put her to bed … and then passed the baton to our neighbors after she was in bed, who stayed with her through the night and Monday morning, putting her down for her afternoon nap … and then passing the baton to Lee’s dad who arrived during Jocelyn’s nap and watched her until we came home Tuesday afternoon. So she kept going to bed with one person there and waking up with someone different … crazy, crazy!
Lee's dad with Robbie
We’re now adjusting to life as a family of four … so far, so good!
Our first family pic, taken at the hospital, is below ... not the best shot, but that means our family photos can only get better from now on, right? :) With the dark hair on me, Lee, and Robbie, Jocelyn sticks out like one of those "one of these things is not like the other" images, huh?
On Sunday (3/29) afternoon after Jocelyn and I woke up from naps, we decided to head over to Marbles (the local kids’ museum). We needed to renew our membership before the end of the month so we could get an extra month for free while they were still running that special. And, of course, Jocelyn enjoyed it!
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| From March 2009 |
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| From March 2009 |
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| From March 2009 |
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| From March 2009 |
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| From March 2009 |
As we left just after 5pm, we decided to wander around downtown because the weather was beautiful. At about that time, I started having contractions and was pretty certain that this was the real deal, but they only seemed to be about 10 minutes apart, and I knew from a false alarm on Saturday that took us to labor and delivery that I had only been 1.5cm dilated the day before, so we continued to walk around with Jocelyn and enjoy the weather. They definitely hurt, but I remembered having the walk the halls to progress a little more before they would admit me with Jocelyn, and I would much prefer to walk around the park than to roam Rex!
 |
| From March 2009 |
 |
| From March 2009 |
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| From March 2009 |
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| From March 2009 |
I had Lee check the time on his cell phone after I had been having contractions for a while, and I realized – since it was only 5:32pm then and since I had had at least six or seven contractions – that my guess at them being about 10 minutes apart was wrong, so we headed back to the car to go home. (They were actually five minutes apart while we were walking around and would be four minutes apart by the time we got home.)
Once we got home, I called the doctor who said we should come on in, and then I called Derek and Jenelle to come watch Jocelyn. Almost immediately after I hung up with them, I felt a pop and a gush … yep, water broke. More like flooded, actually! We did a few more things around the house, made a few more calls, and then headed to the hospital. (Actually before we headed to the hospital, Derek teased me during each contraction because I was unable to talk during them, thus I had no way of giving any sort of snappy comeback. Before you think poorly of Derek, please understand that he and I have a brother-sister kind of relationship in which teasing is a show of affection. He teases because he cares … right, Derek?)
All checked in and in labor (pretty sure this shot was pre-epidural, but I'm not certain)
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| From Robbie's early days |
When we arrived at the hospital around 7pm, I was 3-4cm dilated, but Robbie was still pretty high. The nurse guessed that I would deliver before midnight, which I thought was ridiculous since I was in labor for 19.5 hours with Jocelyn! I got some Stadol to take the edge off the pain as soon as I could while we waited for the labs to clear me to get the epidural. (I thought contractions were bad with Jocelyn last time, but I never felt any of them after my water broke since I had already gotten the epidural before that … and, holy moley, contractions after my water broke were WAY worse than any I experienced before!) Around this time, after running some more tests to confirm this after they realized that I had a lot of protein in my urine when I arrived, I was diagnosed with mild pre-eclampsia … but considering that the cure for that is delivering your little one, they weren’t too concerned! I suppose the best possible time to be diagnosed with pre-e is when you’re already in labor, huh?
I got the epidural around 8:30 or 9pm when I was 5cm. When the anesthesiologist (the same one who did my epidural with Jocelyn) told me to let him know when and where I felt pressure, our nurse Vickie (who was AMAZING!) said, “Oh, don’t worry. She’s very verbal. She’ll let you know.” Hmm, not sure I’ve ever been described as “verbal” before (other synonyms, certainly, though!).
I stayed at 5cm for about two hours but my cervix progressed from being pretty thick to completely thinned out during that time, and then I jumped from 5cm to 10 in less than an hour as Robbie dropped! At that point, I felt a lot of pressure and wanted to push, but the nurse told me the doctor was coming and to please try to wait. Since I spent thirty minutes pushing last time, I thought, “Who are you kidding? Even if I started pushing now and the doc was just leaving her house, I’d still be fine.” (Clearly, it still had not sunk in that this delivery was not going to be the same as my first!) Well, my doctor (the same one who delivered Jocelyn!) showed up after two more contractions, I pushed twice, and Robbie came out. He was actually twisting as he was born, corkscrewing a full 360 degrees as he emerged. My doctor had to physically stop him from continuing to twist, and she and my nurse said they had never seen anything like it!
As I mentioned in an earlier post, he was 7 pounds and 5 ounces in weight and 21.25 inches in length … just as long as Jocelyn was, but nearly a pound and a half lighter! He’s a long, skinny fellow with itty bitty chicken legs and a bunch of dark hair (especially compared to his sister, who was pretty much bald until she was one … though you can’t tell that now by her mop of unruly blond hair!). He was almost two weeks early (actually, a little over two weeks early if you go by the ultrasounds and the dates I think are more accurate than the ones my doctor used), but the timing was just perfect!
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| From Robbie's early days |
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| From Robbie's early days |
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| From Robbie's early days |
 |
| From Robbie's early days |
 |
| From Robbie's early days |
He is doing well, as am I, and Jocelyn is loving her role as big sister! I think she was most thankful that we came home, considering that she kept being passed off. The plan had been to have either our neighbors or Derek and Jenelle watch her for the three hours until Lee’s parents could get here, but Lee’s parents had just come for the weekend and left at 2pm, so they would have had to get back in the car to return here literally moments after they returned home in Charlotte from here! So instead Derek and Jenelle watched Jocelyn Sunday evening and put her to bed … and then passed the baton to our neighbors after she was in bed, who stayed with her through the night and Monday morning, putting her down for her afternoon nap … and then passing the baton to Lee’s dad who arrived during Jocelyn’s nap and watched her until we came home Tuesday afternoon. So she kept going to bed with one person there and waking up with someone different … crazy, crazy!
Lee's dad with Robbie
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| From Robbie's early days |
We’re now adjusting to life as a family of four … so far, so good!
Our first family pic, taken at the hospital, is below ... not the best shot, but that means our family photos can only get better from now on, right? :) With the dark hair on me, Lee, and Robbie, Jocelyn sticks out like one of those "one of these things is not like the other" images, huh?
 |
| From Robbie's early days |