After a hellacious 35 hours of labor, including 16 hours of unmedicated back labor, culminating in a C-section yesterday, my beautiful boy, Bennett Thomas arrived healthy and happy and perfect. We both had some issues that kept me from seeing him for five hours, but everyone is doing great (and I’m in a hospital with Wi-Fi that allows me to get some pics out while he naps in the nursery for a little while:)).
Nothing about my labor went as planned or anticipated, and almost everything was completely the opposite of how I’d hoped, but he is worth every bit of surgery and back labor and I would do it all again in a heartbeat for him.
He was 8 lbs, 6 3/4 ounces and 20 and 1/4 inches long:). Bigger than we anticipated and the main reason I ended up with a C-section - his head was just not going to fit.
I have never had a baby so I have to ask…what is back labor? Trying to deliver your baby through your back? Trying to go back in time to deliver the baby when he was smaller? He is very cute!
Back labor is labor where the worst of the pain is in your lower back. It’s usually caused by the baby facing up (that is, head down, but his face towards the inside of the belly, instead of facing towards the back). It is excrutiatingly painful, and there’s really very little short of an epidural that can be done about it. Sometimes being massaged on the sacrum helps during a contraction, or rolling a rolling pin or tennis ball over the back - basically, trying to overwhelm the neurons with sensory input so they just stop hurting so darn much.
Congratulations, Elza B, from a fellow back labor survivor. He looks so alert and adorable! Take care of yourself and that little cutie.
Woohoo! Go Elza B, and welcome Bennett! Very cute kid, and I gotta say, it’s amazing how non-newbornish he looks. Not in a bad way at all, he just has a look on concentration on his face that you usually don’t see for quite awhile.
Sure looks like a thoughtful, centered little cat…I’m sure you’ll be snapping away as soon as there’s a spare moment, but we eagerly await more babypix.
Congratulations, both for the wonderfully beautiful baby and for being a such a good Doper. Who but a True Doper would post - complete with a picture - from her hospital room the day after giving birth? You’re a trouper!
The first few weeks until you learn what his different “cries” mean are going to be nerve-wracking; but it feels SO good when you finally start to figure the little critter out… they oughta come with a manual!
