Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Introducing Orion

Ok, so I'm really sorry it has been a while since I last updated my blog. Things have been very busy of course, but I have no excuse....oh....except for the birth of my beautiful son Orion Alexander!!! Orion was born on March 4 at 7:11pm. He weighed 8lbs 9oz and was 20 inches long (with a 15 inch head!). He is perfect in every way imagineable...or maybe I'm just a bit biased. The process seemed to be a long one, but the end result was definitely worth it. I suppose I can explain with my birthing story:

At my last Dr. appointment, they decided that induction should happen in order to prevent preeclampsia or anything like that from happening. I went into the hospital at 8pm on 3/3/09 to start the process. They started with a low doseage of a medicine that I can not remember the name of no matter how many times they tell me. They let the stuff go overnight with me strapped to a couple monitors, which meant nearly no sleep for me. Every time I would get comfortable the monitor for the baby's heartbeat would get moved and sound an alarm since no heartbeat was found. Between that and the nurses coming in pretty consistently I was up almost all night. After about 10 hours, no progress had been made and I was still only 1cm dialated so they decided to step it up a bit with pitocin. They started the pitocin, and the contractions picked up according to the monitor, but I still could feel nothing. The monitor looked like I was in labor, but I could barely feel the contractions or anything else. The doctor came in and checked me a few different times, with no changes at all...they even tried to break my water 4 times with no luck whatsoever. After another 10 hours of treatment with no changes, the doctor said we would do an ultrasound and that would give us one of three options....1. Go home and wait 5 days to try again (which I informed her was NOT an option. I had already been there for almost 24 hours and was not going home without a baby), 2. the baby would be head down and compliant so we'd start another round of the medicine for 24 hours and then do a c-section if there was no result or 3. The baby would be large or not in place and they would just do the c-section. The ultrasound tech came in and after 30 minutes of silent contemplation she left without a word, but not before I caught a glimpse of the paperwork she was carrying....which said my baby was 9lbs 15oz!!!! I was a bit frightened at that point, but still had to wait another 20 minutes for the official results from the Dr. When they came in, the word was that baby was a big ol guy and not actually dropped into the birth canal even though he was head down, so we went for a c-section. They dressed Seth up in a beautiful blue outfit, with his goatee hanging out of the bottom of his mask, and he kissed me and told me he loved me as they paraded me down the hallway to the sterile operating room where I would have to face the epidural all by myself. Honestly I was terrified of the epidural since I had decided I wasn't going to get one and had heard many bad things about them. However, the lady that did mine was great...I didn't feel hardly anything, and it kicked in almost immediately. They laid me out on the table and then brought Seth in at 7:09pm when they started the procedure. At 7:11p I heard "That's a big head...that's a big body....that's a big BOY!" The baby immediately started crying and his head peaked over the surgical curtain. I bawled like a baby and the look on Seth's face was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Seth was told he could go over and watch his son, so he scampered over, camera in hand so he could videotape all of the things that I was missing. They weighed and measured him, the entire time Orion cried up a storm. By 7:25pm I was completely stiched up and holding my newborn son in my arms. I have loved many people in my lifetime...and I loved my husband the moment I first saw him and love him more each and every day...but I never knew that you could love someone so much and so completely from the very second that you meet. Sometimes just watching him sleep it feels like time has stopped and my heart may explode. He is so beautiful and perfect that sometimes I find myself sitting here holding him and holding my breath, because I'm afraid that he'll blow away if I breath too loudly. I know it probably sounds insane, but I also know that I will do everything in my power to give him the best life I can. I am blessed with great friends and family who love and support us....but mostly I am blessed with the gift of being a mother. I know in my heart that this is the most important thing I have ever done or ever will do. I only hope that he will love me and his amazing father as much as we love him. Ok, so at this point I really feel like I am rambling...so sorry about that. I just had to get some things out there. I wish you all a blessed and fabulous day, and will continue to update as my son grows and changes. Believe me, this story has just begun.

Orion Alexander Doty