He’s here! Nolan James Comer arrived, definitely not voluntarily lol(!!!), on May 11th, at 11:50 am– at 8 pounds 4 oz, via 18 hours of unsuccessful induced labor, finally ending in a C-Section (whew!!!! ) He is healthy as can be, eating VERY well, sleeping well, and seems to have a pretty chill little personality so far– Tim and I are feeling extremely lucky, while admittedly waiting for “the other shoe to drop”, so to speak– like do we really have a “good” baby? Or is he waiting to show his true colors like HA! GOTCHA! I’m actually a colicky wailer! He’s pretty awesome so far, and as is evident above, has a penchant for wearing his pants Urkel-style.
If you’re interested, here’s his birth story:
After a full week of being overdue, our doctor and we decided to induce labor on Tuesday, May 10th. We checked into the hospital at 4pm, and they got us settled into our delivery room right away. Now, I’ll admit, I’m pretty used to having a combination of good luck and the ability to usually make things work out how I want them to, so my expectations for this induced delivery were pretty unrealistic, needless to say– If there’s one thing I learned from this experience, it’s that you cannot control nature! I packed and planned for a quick in and out hospital stay– Tim and I figured hey we’ll be at the hospital by 4, they’ll start the induction at 6, and we’ll have a baby by midnight!
LOL.
First, they started me on a drinkable medication (forgot what it’s called, but tasted like and had the texture of saliva) to start mild contractions ; I was on this from about 5pm until early the next morning, maybe 1 am. During this time, I was bed bound, and Tim was next to me the whole time in a semi-comfortable chair– we watched the Mets game, tried to relax, although it was a pretty steady stream of random doctors, nurses, PAs, etc parading in and out of the room, poking, prodding, testing, asking questions etc. Thank god I had my good friend working the night shift in Labor and Delivery that night– she comforted me, kept us sane, educated us on exactly what was going on every step of the way, and the fact that we had a familiar face in an extremely unfamiliar setting was EVERYTHING.
Once I was dilated to about 3cm, the doctors decided to start the Pitocin– a much stronger drug that REALLY gets the contractions going. At this point, I hadn’t asked for the Epidural yet– my nurse friend advised me to put it off as long as possible to move the dilation process along as naturally as possible. But at around 5am, after the contractions got way intense, I finally got it. I think the idea of a needle in my spine was waaaayyy more scary than the actuality of how it felt– it really didn’t hurt much, but I was terrified nonetheless. Mostly like a cold pinch and pressure. Once it was in, my whole bottom half went numb and tingly and I didn’t feel the contractions any more.
They broke my water (way weird, kinda feels like you are peeing on yourself for about an hour straight!), but by 10 am I had stalled at dilating further than 4 cm– a loooongggg way to go to 10cm, and baby Nolan was showing signs of distress– scary! Within minutes, the doctors decided on an emergency C-Section– in fact, in the five minutes they were debating it, Tim ran down to the cafeteria to grab coffee, and when he returned, they were handing him Dad -Scrubs and rushing us to the operating room.
I was so scared.
I’d never even been in the hospital before, let alone had major surgery, let even more alone, completely unexpectedly! I burst into tears, crying pretty much straight through the entire procedure. I was scared of the pain, scared to be cut open, scared to heal, scared I wouldn’t be able to take care of my baby or function normally for weeks (I have zero patience!), scared I wouldn’t be able to return to work when I wanted to– pretty much just terrified of the whole thing. Once I was in the OR, they numbed me again, put up the curtain so Tim and I wouldn’t see the horror show, and before I knew it, I could feel lots of tugging and pulling on my body behind the curtain, but really no pain. I was REALLY, REALLY out of it, and the whole thing feels like a foggy, hazy dream– I just remember Tim sitting by my head, holding my hand and me asking him to tell me a story, any story…I think he told me something about a documentary series he wanted to watch.
Then we heard the crying.
A brand new person had entered the room and our lives.
My nurse friend quickly showed us the little guy, then he was whisked to the corner to be cleaned up, checked and then was handed to Tim while I was sewn up and put back together (yuck). I first got to hold my little Nolan James in recovery, about a half hour later ❤
It was the most surreal experience; still seems like a dream that never happened!
We had to stay in the hospital for four days, because of the C-Section– which was fine by us, because I really couldn’t function for the first three days after- couldn’t walk, shower, barely could stand– plus I was on so many drugs that I was in a complete haze! It was like a weird, mini vacation– the nurses and doctors took amazing care of us; Tim, Nolan and I bonded in our little room, as a steady stream of friends and family came to visit our little family.
And now, almost three weeks later, here we are! Settling into our new routine, our new “normal”– not gonna lie, not a super easy adjustment, not all sunshine and rainbows– the hormonal readjustment post-partum was CRAZY!!!! After about 10 days, I finally felt like myself again! Now, we’re just enjoying my maternity leave, savoring the time Tim is home with us, taking trips to the beach and trying to maintain the sense of exploration and adventure we treasure as a couple, and want to continue to enjoy as a family (#squad!).
xo, ❤
Christine, Tim, and baby Nolan
thelittlegoldmix 