Dylan's birth story

Wednesday, Aug 30, I dropped off the boys with Gretchen for my appt with the midwife, CDR Luna (who I knew from the hospital at Pendleton). I had her check me and strip my membranes. My check was 2/50/high. Membranes sweeps had never worked for me in the past but I decided it was worth a try since I really wanted to have him before labor day weekend so that Grant could have a few days off. 

Thursday I woke up and still felt good. Throughout the day I had stronger contractions, but again, nothing unbearable or consistent at all. I only had maybe one or two an hour of varied intensity. Grant went to work like normal and the boys and I had a good day together. We had pancakes per Boden’s request for breakfast, and then we went to Panera for lunch in Olney, where there is a splash pad right next to it where they ran around and played for quite awhile. It was a fun little afternoon. I was starting to feel contractions lower in my belly, instead of at the top like my Braxton hicks. I texted Barb and she said she thought I’d be in labor by that night. I appreciated her confidence, but wasn’t so sure although I said that would be perfect since Grant had an “easy day” on Friday and then 4 days off. I put Boden down for a nap and then started stressing that I hadn’t felt the baby move all day. I had been so obsessed with what I was feeling as far as contractions, etc that I either hadn’t noticed him moving, or he was resting, etc. I sat down for a bit, ate some ice and tried to pay extra attention to him. After about 10 minutes I felt some slight movement, nothing crazy, but enough that I was reassured that he was doing okay. I felt like he was lower than before, but nothing much had changed otherwise. That evening was pretty normal, I painted my toenails a cute baby blue after the kids went to bed, and then headed to sleep myself around 10:30. 

I woke up just before 2 am with a strong contraction. I had downloaded a contraction tracker app a few nights before when I thought labor might be starting. Since the contractions were pretty intense, I decided to start tracking them. It was 10 minutes until my next contraction and from there on out they were all 3-6 minutes apart and quite intense. I got up and went to the bathroom, came back to bed, contracted a little more and then finally woke Grant up and let him know that I wasn’t certain but thinking that things might be getting real. I hadn’t practiced hypnobirthing or relaxation, etc like I did with Boden so I was a little nervous about dealing with the pain, but I knew I had done it before and still remembered some of what got me through it like thinking about a wave filling my uterus and then rushing out and calm deep breaths.

Around 3:15 I decided this definitely felt real and Grant called Alexa to see if she could come over. I knew that she had to work the next day, but she said that between her and Mike they absolutely wanted to watch the boys when we were at the hospital, so I took her up on the offer. She didn’t answer but at that point Grant decided to get up and shower and then try her again when he got out. So at 3:28 we called again, she answered and said one of them would be over soon! A few minutes later she texted and said that Mike was on his way over. I was so grateful as things continued to get more intense and continued to be about 3-4 minutes apart. I got in the shower and sat on the floor with the handheld shower on my belly while we waited for Mike to come over. I also started uncontrollably shaking, which made me a little nervous that I was closer to delivery than I realized. I wasn’t feeling too different than before with no urge to push so that helped ease my mind a little.  I was glad I had washed and straightened my hair the day before, but with the speed of this labor, etc I cared much less about how I looked than the previous two times. I was more concerned with making sure that I got to the hospital still pregnant. I did however continue to question (not sure why I continued to doubt) if I would for sure be far enough to be admitted.

When Mike arrived we headed out pretty quickly. At 4:05 we were on our way to the hospital in Grant’s car. I laid the seat back a bit and hugged my pillow as I breathed through contractions. As we exited our neighborhood, I opened my eyes after breathing through a contraction, and straight in front of us was a big female deer. The drive didn’t seem crazy long, but was also not short (it is about 25 minutes). As we drove on base, Grant asked if I wanted to be dropped off and I decided I would rather just park with him and walk a little farther but have him with me, instead of trying to navigate an unfamiliar hospital by myself in labor. We checked in (Grant talked to the front desk person while I squatted down contracting) and then the triage nurse came out and took us to a triage room. I told them I had been contracting a little over 2 hours, I was 2 cm a few days ago and that I was going to feel especially stupid if I wasn’t far enough to be admitted since I was an L&D nurse. 

They asked me a few questions, 2 residents came in to introduce themselves, get a history and check me. Nurse put monitors on while the resident checked me. She asked if I felt any urge to push. I said not really and the nurse looked at her and asked if we needed to hurry to a room. She said probably pretty quickly as I was 8/75/0 at 0445. They wheeled me to my room, 21, asked what I wanted to do for pain control (at which point I said I was just going to go for it), hooked me back up to the monitor, started an IV (which fortunately they let me be heplocked even though the nurse said that's rare there) and I signed all the consents. I couldn't help but adjust my own FHR monitor as I was listening to his little galloping heart rate and the nurse had to remind me to be the patient not the nurse ;)

Between contractions... :)

During contractions... :(

A few residents came in again as I was getting more uncomfortable. He checked me and I was anterior lip, +1 and the plan was to break my water, but there was really no bag to break so I stayed intact. They joked with the nurse asking who she had to fight to get this awesome delivery.

I continued to contract, I mostly laid on my left side holding on to the bed rail, but I got more uncomfortable so decided to try something different, so got up on hands and knees over the back of the bed. The second I did that I realized it was a good/terrible idea. I got so much more uncomfortable and felt like he was super low. I immediately had to turn back over and the nurse, Kenya, called the team back in. I was complete/+1 and +2 with contractions so we decided to start pushing! This actually helped a ton and although I was still in pain it felt better and gave me somewhere to focus.

Everyone was very encouraging that I was pushing great and although it seemed unnecessary and a little crazy that there were 4 residents to deliver my one little baby, they were all quite enthusiastic and I had my own little cheering section. The nurse asked if I wanted her to count or if I just wanted to do my own thing. I decided to have her count and I’d let her know if I wanted her to stop. I think it actually helped me a lot so I had her continue. During the second contraction, I think on my second push, my water broke. This was the first time I have SROM’d. I had my water broken with my 2 previous deliveries. It was kind of a weird sensation, almost like I could feel it pop. By the end of that contraction, his head was crowning and while I waited for the next contraction, I reached down and felt his little head. I was shocked that he was right there and I actually wasn’t that uncomfortable. As we waited for the next contraction, his heart rate dropped a bit, which I also noticed, so we decided to just get him delivered. I pushed as hard as I could and it was definitely a weird feeling of having to push through the pain. It felt counterintuitive to push hard when it made it hurt so much worse, but I knew that it was what needed to be done and would be over quickly! There was a slight relief when his head delivered, and then I had to push through the pain again to get his shoulders and then body delivered. Just like with Boden’s delivery, I had that immediate adrenaline high with the complete relief of pain as he came out. As they handed him to me I began tearing up. I was overcome by emotion of this perfect new baby joining our family as well as the relief of labor being over and the accomplishment of pushing a baby out, and knowing that he came out without any problems. Grant said that he also teared up, feeling very similar emotions. He was a little more involved in this delivery since I didn’t have my dream team with me and I told him I didn't need pics of me pushing :) I was so grateful to have had such an uncomplicated delivery. I just cuddled him tight while we waited for my placenta to deliver (which was a different resident than the one who delivered Dylan). A few minutes later, placenta delivered and I again felt such a great sense of relief and comfort. They checked to see if I had torn and I didn’t, yay! After that, the room cleared out and I got to enjoy my new little guy. He took right to nursing with no problems at all which I was also very grateful for.

It took us a lot longer to choose a name this time around, and we even went through our list a few times after he was born, even though we were pretty certain it would be Dylan. Dylan (aside from being a name I really liked) means "son of the wave, born near the sea", which was going to be perfect when he was supposed to be a San Diego baby, so being born in Maryland, a little farther from the sea, made me question it a bit..but maybe that'll be his pull to love the ocean too ;) Kent is my mom's maiden name, so we were excited to incorporate a family name.

Dylan Kent Layton

Born Sept 1, 2017 at 5:57 am

7 lb 5 oz (biggest baby by almost a pound!) 20.5 inches

The view from my labor room, which I got to enjoy once the sun came up :) I just pretended that sky on the horizon was ocean, haha. The green here is pretty awesome though.

Recovery was good, I got a day shift nurse who knew Andrea (my midwife friend from Okinawa) so it was fun to have a common bond with that. And of course everyone kept talking to me about working there...I said I'd think about it in a few months.

Such a perfect little man! And even though everyone thought he looked just like Grant (like everyone said with the other 2 also), I felt like he looked different than both other boys.

Mike and Alexa brought the boys up to meet Dylan late in the afternoon, which I was so excited about. I had wondered how they were doing, since they woke up that morning with Mike there and us gone. Apparently they were totally fine with the fact that we were gone and had a great morning with Mike and afternoon with Alexa. We took a video when they came in to see Dylan for the first time and it was adorable. They were both so excited that the “baby” had finally arrived.

Ready to meet his brothers!

Rowan especially had been looking forward to having a baby in the family...and that enthusiasm did not fade with birth. He wants to hold him constantly and is very cute with him and excited about him (and now wants "16 more babies").

First family of 5 photo!

Thank you Mike and Alexa! You made this day even better with our total confidence that Rowan and Boden were happy and having fun. (and thank you for being on call in the middle of the night!)

After hanging out for awhile, Mike and Alexa left to go to their lake house for the weekend (again, the timing of his delivery was perfection) and the kids hung out with us for the evening before Grant took them home to go to bed. They were sad that Dylan and I were staying at the hospital, but I assured them that we would all get to be home the next day together.

My first night with Dylan was a good one. I was kind of bored because even though I should have been exhausted I didn't really feel like sleeping until pretty late. My nurse that night was a guy and was the only postpartum nurse that I felt like actually did a good job. My labor nurses and care was great, postpartum I was very underwhelmed but luckily I had no issues!

Dylan and I spent time getting acquainted. He was starting out to be a great little buddy. Nursed well (except I noticed he was a bit tongue tied so was nervous to see if that would cause any issues) and slept great. I love just holding and staring into that tiny cute face.

The next morning I was really ready to get out of there, but they said it would take awhile to get paperwork, etc all done. I know discharges take awhile, but it sounded like with so many residents on different services, etc that it took even longer than I was used to. Luckily, I was able to get out around lunch time. The boys came back to pick us up around noon.

Rowan was jealous of Dylan's photo shoot and wanted in on the action. And yes, it just made me realize how enormous he looks compared to my new little baby!

Someone is EXCITED to be going home!!!

The timing could not have been better and we were excited to have a 4 day weekend to spend together at home! Welcome to our family Dylan, we love you!