Dean Markus Aronson, A Birth Story

I can't believe I have been a mom now for 2 weeks! Mark and I are just IN LOVE with our little bundle of joy.

 How did he arrive?

6/5/2014 6:30 pm A sick mark and a nervous Sandy leave for Methodist
Hospital in St. Louis Park, MN. The plan is to be induced at 8pm. We arrive and are brought into the first room of the night. We later find out that shortly after we arrived THEY CLOSED the hospital to any one else giving birth. They had run out of rooms, boy were we relieved we made it!


8pm Dr. and nurse discuss possible induction methods with us and we
find we will try the must natural, starting with a med-free induction
by inserting a balloon catheter into the cervix. We decide to go to sleep. I
spend the next 3 hours tossing and turning through minor contractions
thinking that it's not fair that it's not real labor, and that my body
is doing "Nothing" according to our nurse.


6/6/2014
2 am Contractions become too much for me to even pretend to try and
sleep. Luckily Mark has been resting this whole time. I decide to
bounce on the labor ball and my water breaks!

2:45 Nurse comes in and confirms that my water has broken and we
remove the balloon catheter. She informs me that at this point it
appears I am "in labor" (What was I in before?) And that they will
continue to keep me and baby on the monitors for a little while but if
his heart rate continues to look good I will be taken off and we will
be no longer an "induced" labor (which is high risk) but a natural
labor! I am so excited at the prospect of not being tied to a monitor
anymore!


2:45-6 am I continue to labor through ever-increasing contractions
with the help of Mark and the birth ball and constantly changing
positions.

Keeping Everyone Updated

6 am Things start to get hazy here for me but we move into a new room
(nurses magically whisk all our things away) and I immediately jump
into the huge whirpool birthing room. I know at this point my labor is
hitting the "transition" phase. Which is considered the hardest phase
of labor. At this point I am exhausted and need a break. I found it in the 1-2 minutes
between contractions in which I started to doze in the tub (THAT is
how tired I was!) At one point I was dozing and a contraction began
and I tried to move my head slammed it into the tub and my doctor and
Mark just looked at each other. I don't even remember it happening. I
do remember looking at everyone watching me labor and saying "Gosh
this must be boring for you guys! Just waiting for me to finally do
something!" They just laughed. As painful as it was I tried to stay
calm and I remember continually apologizing for things and people
telling me I was doing just fine and to continue the way I was.


10:30 I'm finally told I can start pushing. I get excited thinking
that I will have relief to the incredible pain I've been feeling and
that by 11 am I will get to meet my little man. Boy am I wrong.
Pushing goes on FOREVER.

11am I'm still pushing.

11:31(ish) I give a HUGE push and they say this is it HE IS COMING! I
look down and he's put in my arms. A mix of love,
relief, exhaustion and excitement are washing over both of us. It's
such an incredible experience to have my baby finally in my arms.

Proud Papa

Our new Family

 Turns out that the rest of the day would be hard for me. Labor was
exhausting, hours upon hours of pain, no food, no sleep my body was
shot. We end up getting to stay in the birthing room a bit longer than
anticipated because I pass out on my way back from the bathroom. I end
up passing out one more time that day. Of course this happens when our
parents are all visiting and gives everyone a scare, but turns out,
doing the hardest thing of your life on no sleep can really take a toll on your body!

Weighing Baby

Lucky for Mark and I, Dean decides that he is exhausted too and pretty
much sleeps through the night. Our 2nd day in the hospital is much
more pleasant and we find that I appear to be healing ok, my blood
levels are ok, no signs of fever, and Dean passes all his newborn
screenings. He is feeding well, having good diaper habits :) and I am
able to walk to the bathroom on my own. We become a favorite of some
nursing staff because of our cute baby with "soo much hair!" and the
individually prepared bags of cookies I give out to anyone who helps
us. We are appreciative of the time we had in the hospital and the
help of the nurses but are more than ready to go home the next day.

Visitors

With Nana

Day 2

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