Congratulations to all involved!!! I can’t wait to see more pics!
Congratulations to everyone! Maya Lynn is a beautiful name for a beautiful girl.
Big congrats to everyone involved. 
Did I miss the most important piece of info of all? Namely, did you manage to avoid Dr. F.?!???
Congrats to all of you!
She’s huge! Your wife should get combat pay for her!
Congrats, and I’d love to know just how high M&M are soaring above the moon right now. Get some sleep, and give us the details.
Bless your wife for doing such a wonderful thing.
Maya Lynn is so cute! Congrats to all of you, and a big hug to Linda.
Maya Lynn is going to have a wonderful life being spoiled by her daddies – what little girl could ask for more? Congratulations to all of you!
Congrats to you and yours, Hal. I’m counting on you to be one of those annoying parents who drag out a long string of baby pictures at every “first”.
(“Awww, here’s a picture of when she had her first poooop!”)
I didn’t know babies came that big! Congrats to all!!!
Holy moly, and I thought mine were big! (Well… they were.) My congratulations to M&M and the Briston family, and happy birthday to (not-so) little Maya!
Congrats, what a cutie! Hope everyone is doing well and resting.
Congratulations to you and your wife, and to the new fathers!
Ooh, what a cutie! She does look big, in that tiny crib! Congrats to all of you, and a “job well done” to your wife!
Fantastic! She’s adorable, for a monster-sized baby. I’m hoping the bed’s just really small. Congratulations to you and your wife and the happy daddies.
Mmm, what warm fuzzies! I love happy stories. Congratulations to all!
Ok, I’m starting to get my wits back, so let’s see if I can fill in a few of the gaps in my story. From the beginning –
Friday night we met up with Linda’s parents for dinner, and they took our daughter home with them for the weekend (wouldn’t be a great idea to involve a two-year-old in what was to come). The next morning we called Dr. B on the drive to the hospital, just to make sure everything was still on schedule. He told us that it was, and that we wouldn’t have to lie to the admissions desk – he already told them the deal, which was a relief. He checked Linda out and found that after more than two weeks of being 3cm, she was now up to a whopping 4cm. Time to break the water and see what happens.
What happened was a couple of hours of sitting around watching TV. Myself, Linda and her doula (Ness) just sat around talking and waiting for something to happen. I had run to a nearby Wal-Mart and picked up a few games, so we played a little Sorry! and Uno to pass the time. We wanted to avoid pitocin (a contraction-causing drug) – the contractions they cause can be very painful, and because they’re such violent contractions they’re a little risky when were dealing with a uterus that has already had two surgeries (reconstructive surgery and a previous c-section). But, after a couple of hours of nothing, it became clear that pitocin was the only way this kid was going to come out without a c-section.
Pitocin was administered, and life got a lot worse for Linda. I obviously have no firsthand knowledge, but it seems that stuff makes for some pretty damn bad pain. It was a four hours of Linda standing next to the bed resting her upper body on a big, inflatable exercise ball while Ness and I massaged her. Ness went into her bag of Doula tricks and pulled out a sock filled with rice which we heated in a microwave to add a little heat to the massage. Apparently this was all very good stuff as far as Linda was concerned. The hope now was that her cervix was cooperating and opening up nicely. However, by 6:30 she was only 7cm – good, but not good enough. Linda had had it by that point. She had really, really wanted to try and do this as naturally as possible, but she had had enough pain for the time being – time for the drugs.
The doc (still Dr. B, by the way…he promised to be there for her the whole way through) gave her a choice of IV drugs (“the pain will still be there, you just won’t care about it”) or getting an epidural. Since she really wanted to avoid an epidural (given Linda’s condition there was a risk of uterine rupture…an epidural can completely numb you, so if she did rupture, she might not have even known it until it was too late), so she went the IV route. Unfortunately, that caused more problems than it solved. Once she got the IV drugs administered, she was no longer allowed to labor while standing – a position she found much more comfortable. But hey, if the drugs worked, no biggie, right? Except that the drugs didn’t work. The pain was still there, and she very much cared about it. And now she had to stay in bed. Too much – time for the epidural.
Unfortunately, it took the anesthesiologist quite awhile to arrive, so Linda had a rough time while waiting. Eventually he showed up, and unlike when my daughter was born (I was told I had to leave the room that time), I got to stay watch the procedure which I found fascinating as all hell. Since Linda was feeling no pain, I zipped back home to let the dog out and post a quick update. Back in the hospital room an hour later, and it was time for more waiting, more Sorry!, more Uno.
Finally, at about 11:30pm, the doc declared that she was 10cm – time to start pushing! Contractions came at roughly 3-4 minute intervals – Linda pushing for four 10-counts each time, and then flopping back in utter exhaustion. I was holding one leg up and Ness held the other while we tried encouraging her. Between contractions I kept running to the bathroom sink and rinsing washcloths under cool water, then putting them all over Linda’s head and neck. Anything to try and make this a little more bearable for her.
I had assumed that the pushing would be maybe a half-hour, an hour tops. We were all making bets on what time the baby would arrive. My hour came and went. Then another one. The doc kept checking, and while Maya was very, very close, she wasn’t getting any closer. Finally, after three hours of pushing, it was clear – she was going to need a c-section.
This is something Linda very much wanted to avoid. Another c-section would mean there will probably not be a second surrogacy down the road, which was an option we wanted to keep open. But that was going to have to be a concern for another day. Unfortunately, what had been a nearly deserted maternity wing earlier in the day was filling up, so the anesthesiologist’s services we’re becoming more and more in demand – other epidurals and such. Thus, it was well over an hour before she was wheeled into the OR.
I was given position next to Linda’s head. She was conscious, but doped up enough that she was only marginally aware of what was going on at any given time (although afterward, she was able to describe just about every moment of the procedure in perfect detail). M&M were stationed in an adjoining observation room. At 4:22am, Maya Lynn finally made her debut into this world (as long as you don’t mind seeing a baby all covered in blood 'n yuck, we have her very first pic here – NOT FOR THE SQUEEMISH: Link). Her troubles in coming out vaginally were revealed – an even 10 lbs. and 22" of bouncing baby girl.
There was a little more in the follow-up, but this is probably my single-longest SDMB post ever, so I’ll save more for next time. We’ve got more pics (of the non-gory sort) available here.
Thanks much to everyone for their comments and congrats. I’ll wind this up tomorrow.
I know someone who doesn’t just have pics of her son’s first poop, but also of his first poop on disposables, of his first poop of each year, of his first pee without diapers, of… :smack:
Should be grounds for divorcing your parents, that.
Okay, so I’m enjoying this thread, but I’m pretty sleep-deprived myself right now, for reasons unrelated to babies … and I go look at the first picture of Maya, who yeah, looks like a VERY big baby. So I’m thinking about size.
Then I notice the little dialogue box thingy under the photo to the left that says “Adjust size” and I’m thinkin’ “Huh, whah…? You can adjust the size of the baby? I never knew that.”
I need sleep.
Oh, and congrats to everyone involved!
Congratulations, Hal and Linda and Maya’s Daddies!!
Whoops…kinda let this fall by the wayside, without the promised update. Well, just for completionist sake:
After delivery, I bounced back and forth between being with Linda, peeking in on the new arrival, and calling family to let them know Maya had arrived. I got home around 7:30 that morning and grabbed about two hours of sleep. Then it was back to the hospital where I spent the day making sure Linda was as comfortable as possible.
The next few days are a bit of a blur. Very little sleep, and eventually I had to pick up Shayla from grandma and grandpa’s which didn’t help matters. Linda came home that Wednesday, and it took quite a bit to make Shayla realize that she couldn’t just climb on Mommy as she lay on the couch (we finally got it through that “mommy has a bad boo-boo on her belly”). But, things are getting better with that. The incision is healing pretty well – there was a little bit of an infection early on, but that was knocked out without too much effort.
Linda has been pumping breast milk for Maya, which we ship to M&M. Fortunately, her supply has been really good – she’s cranking this stuff out!
So, we’re almost back to normal now. Linda goes back to work later this week, and then it’ll be just about time to close what has been a very interesting chapter in our lives.
I gotta say, I still can’t get over what she’s done for these guys. The things she put herself through in order to create a family for them – geez…I love this woman. 
And, of course, the most important thing for this post – updated pictures!