Mason Merritt Ruggles was born October 31st at 3:31 p.m. We got our Halloween baby after all! He was a sturdy 8 lb 13 oz and 20 in!
Tonight I was catching up on the blog of a friend who is ready to have her little boy any minute and it made me realize I need to write down our "experience" before I forget too much more of it. Feel free to close this tab now if you don't want to hear yet another chick's war story. For the rest of you, I guess its more for me to remember than anything, soo...
My original due date was always Nov 5th. The doctor never changed it but my calculations put it a week earlier so I was hoping for a Halloween birthday ever since we found out in March! It's my favorite holiday and we have tons of holiday birthdays in our family so it seemed only fitting.
In all fairness, I feel like I had a realllly easy pregnancy after I stopped puking my brains out for the first 19 weeks or so... but by the end of October, it was getting increasingly difficult to stay positive. The last two weeks got uncomfortable but I tried not to whine because what do you say? "I'm freakin' huge. I can't sleep. My skin doesn't even fit me anymore, much less clothes. My hips, back, feet, ribs, etc. HURT." But the only sympathy you get is, "Oh I know! For me it was..." and then they proceed to tell you just how much more horrible they had it than you. Thanks. No, really. I just kept telling myself not to complain because if I couldn't handle whatever it was at that moment, then I was in trouble because labor pain and sleepless nights with a newborn would be sooo much worse.
I complained anyway.
The Friday before what was to be D-Day on Monday totally messed with my head. I spent all day doing laundry, the last few dishes, packing my bag (because I hadn't yet) and being giddy in general because I just knew we were headed to the hospital that evening. I had been having contractions since sometime that morning and even though it wasn't the 31st, I could compromise if he would just get out of me already! Well, at some point that afternoon, in all the excitement of getting everything ready, I noticed that I didn't notice the contractions anymore. NO!! Wait! Come back!! We're doing this today!
Turns out, Little Dude (as he was known, since we didn't tell anyone the name before) had other plans. I proceeded to pout the rest of the weekend. After all, there I was... Halloween weekend. No decorations put up because, why, really. No plans, due to similar logic. And now, no baby.
I was becoming convinced that he was far too comfortable and that he would never, ever come out. Irrational? Yes. But that's what happens when you have something inside your body that you're supposed to be in love with but you aren't even convinced is human, much less yours, much less cute and cuddly that you might want to keep around. I told several people that I was keeping my receipt until I knew for sure I wanted it! So maternal, I know.
Sunday evening, I went to my mom's (massage therapist!) in desperation. Until then, any time she massaged my back or feet she avoided certain spots that are "dangerous" on preggos because they can induce labor. That time, those were the only spots she hit. If nothing else, I thought, it felt good and I could get some sympathy from my mom. We went to bed that night in an odd frame of mind. Matt just assumed all weekend that he wouldn't be going back to work Monday but with the alarm set for just a few hours from then, it seemed his impression was wrong.
Well, coupled with a few other "techniques," the massage worked. I started having contractions again at 3:30 Monday morning. Instead of getting my hopes up again I just went back to sleep. Around 5:00 I woke up again, annoyed that my back hurt and decided to use the stopwatch feature on my cheapo watch and see how far apart they were, just for grins. Maybe 4 minutes? Then good grief, the kid kicked me so hard I made an audible UGH! Matt was to be waking up any time now so I just stayed perfectly still and quiet until he got up because I know how much I haaaate being awakened just before the alarm.
Alarm goes off. Finally... He's getting up... I think I'll go get in the tub because this kinda sucks all of a sudden...
He hits snooze. WHAT? Man, get up already! I'm in pain and I'd like to be able to move without freaking you out!
Snooze, again! Too bad buster, I'm just going to quietly go to the bathroom. Remember that really hard kick? Evidently that was my water breaking. Just didn't know until I got up. I told Matt through awkward nervous giggles that we were going to have the baby TODAY! I couldn't believe it was actually going to happen on Halloween! Sweet!
Naturally, he wigged out. Totally calm on the outside, panic stricken on the inside.
You see, I had this plan all along that I was going to have a natural birth, at home until the last possible minute I could get away with. I didn't want all those unnecessary hospital interventions, most especially, they were NOT cutting this thing out of me. I had watched too many documentaries and decided things would happen a certain way. But now my water had broken and that was one of the 2 scenarios my Dr. gave for "...then you'd need to head to the hospital."
Dang.
So I showered, dried my hair, straightened it, packed a few more things, talked to Mocha for a bit, said goodbye, and finally got in the car. Matt was trying to be patient. I told him I needed a Dr. Pepper since all I'd get once there would be ice chips and I was not okay with that. We went to Sonic. : )
We got to the hospital (10 min away) about 2 hours after the water thing... I hadn't pre-registered. Did I mention I had a serious case of denial? Serious. So they checked me out, called my Dr. and admitted me. (I've always thought it was strange to casually discuss the status of your cervix in normal conversation, but hey, its my blog. I can TMI if I want to.)
I was at 2cm. That's all?! The Doc decided they would start me on pitocin to get things moving along. Dr. Rising, you sell out! This was not in the plan! Suddenly my head started spinning with phrases from all those darn documentaries! All I could think was, "Great. Now I'll have artificial, artificially painful contractions that are going to be so bad that I won't be able to handle it on my own and I'll freak out and get the epidural then labor will slow down because I can't feel anything and it will take forever and they'll start getting worried about the baby then he'll go into distress which is just a catchall for 'I've got plans tonight so we need to get the baby out now' and the only way is a c-section so we're taking you back now blah blah blah..." AHHH!!! I might have over reacted to the pitocin proposal a liiiiittle bit.
They started it at 10:00. I wouldn't even sit on the bed for them to start the IV because I was so mad about being there and having to have a needle in my arm. Grr.. My nurse (angel that she was, more about her later) let me sit in the rocking chair instead. We watched a little TV. I continued pouting.
By 12:00 Dr. Rising had come in and I resisted the urge to kick him in the shin. He said I was now 5 cm and seemed pleased. I was sure they kept upping that stupid pitocin but they swore they didn't. I won't lie, that crap hurt. I was to the point that I couldn't really get my head straight after a contraction before another one was coming. So I decided I'd have a little hit of nubain in the IV... suddenly I forgot all the reasons I was opposed to pain meds... Matt says I didn't open my eyes for 2 hours after that. : ) zzzzz.....
I only remember snippets during that time. Flashes of the bathroom... Matt texting... the nurse trying to kill me... the Doc coming in... then leaving! the NERVE!
When he finally came back it was go time, and the nubain had just worn off. Fantastic. All my you-tube, google, and TLC-guided research told me that it wouldn't be long now. Riiiight. It was a few hours of go time, not merely 10 minutes. Since I was med-free at that point, I remember that part quite clearly. Gory details aside, Matt did awesome. I've always wondered if he could handle it since he nearly passed out once when *I* gave blood. He was a pro. Leg-holding and all. Go Matt is all I can say.
Eventually, that gooey little pointy-headed giant was plopped in my arms and I was in complete awe. He was so big! And so tiny! And so human! And so, so perfect...
Matt cut the cord (he wasn't sure about it), the Dr. collected the cord blood (maybe the topic of a future post), and off he went. Dude... I just had a baby. What? The next few days were filled with the same thoughts mixed with overwhelming love for this little person I had just met. I honestly didn't think I'd be one of those love-at-first-sight people. I was keeping the receipt, remember? When we got home I couldn't even listen to music for about a week because even the dumbest stuff on the radio sent me into a sob-fest over the little guy. I totally blame hormones. Matt got to stay home with us the entire first week and it was so surreal. I've never felt the Spirit in my home as much as I did then. Pretty sure I've never even felt it as strong in the temple as I did in our home. We had a real, live angel in our midst. Not only could I see this one, but I could snuggle and kiss him all over, all day and night!
And we did.
And we do.
Mason is the coolest. We are so completely smitten and have sooo much to share with everyone about him. I am now officially an obnoxious mommy blogger who will gush about their kid non-stop because I get it now. So if you've made it this far down this ridiculously long post, I assume you'll probably read all the ones to come about our new life as a family of 3! Wow, you need a hobby!
: ) This is my newest --->
