Perfection

Well, I spoke too soon. I accused my due date of teasing me, so I have to take it all back. My water broke at 11 PM after a full day of what I thought was another bought of false labor.

There's not much to say about what happened. It was textbook perfection. My water broke, I started having hard contractions, I got an epidural, and had the baby. Apparently, my doctor actually took a nap while I was in labor.

I pushed for 5 minutes. From the time my water broke to the time I was holding him in my arms was 8 hours, almost to the minute.

Silas was born at 6:58 AM, weighing 8 lbs 8 oz and measuring 21.5 inches. We had an hour of skin-to-skin after he was born and they delayed his cord clamping as per a new hospital policy. He was fat and healthy, and he latched on perfectly the first time we breastfed.

They took him to a 'transition' unit in the NICU for about 8 hours because his blood sugar was borderline and he had some respiratory inflammation. His sugar normalized very quickly, and his breathing didn't show any more issues after that first hour or two.

At first, I felt a surge of frustration and upset that they took him from me, but I decided that I would not allow it to mar an otherwise perfect delivery. It was eerie to visit my son in the same NICU where I practically lived for almost 4 months. The receptionist actually still remembered us, as did all the security guards. I guess we made an impression to still be remembered after a year and a half.

We were reunited around 5 in the afternoon and continued living our fantasy of having an absolutely perfect birthing experience. Perfect breastfeeding, perfect bonding, perfect health.

The only annoying thing (besides our brief 'visit' to the NICU) was the sudden onset of a spinal headache which has lain me flat... literally. They think it's probably because I had to have two epidurals before I got relief. The anesthesiologist felt so horrible that the first hadn't worked that he spiked the second one with something WONDERFUL that made it work in a couple of minutes instead of another half hour. I have to say, even with the headache, I would have done it again. At least the headache doesn't make me pray for death, and it goes away when I lie down.

In the meanwhile, I am cuddling with my perfect newborn all day while my mom and mother-in-law take care of my sweet Elijah. Our little family has gotten a little bit bigger, and our lives are so much richer for it.