Birth Announcement (extremely long)

Michael Mose Gillespie came into this world with a mighty roar Sunday
April
25th at 3:44 am. There was cheering and weeping and overwhelming
gratitude
from his parents and family.

Congrats!!




My water broke at 2 pm Saturday the 24th. I had been feeling funky for
a
few days, and having some symptoms (diahrreah, cramping, nausea, fatigue,
and extreme grumpiness). I sent DH out for a ride on his Harley in the
morning, and sat around the house with my sister (who drove 9 hours to be
with us, she just "knew" she should be here right now...)
We got a call around noon from DH; he had ran out of gas in the middle of
the desert, and we had to take him some. A thirty minute drive out into
no-man's land and we found him sitting by the side of the road. We gassed
him up and all went to our favorite restaurant for lunch. Lucky for me I
knew everyone in the place (I used to work there), because I went to the
bathroom, and after finishing on the toilet, I stood up and felt a large
gush from between my legs. I sat back down. More gushing. I wiped, saw
clear fluid with a little red tint to it. Stood up again, more gushing.
Sat down again. Filled my panties with T.P. and got up again, more
gushing.
Goodness! I opened the door to the bathroom and stuck my head out the
door
and called for my sister. She came in and helped me clean up a little.
We
went out into the cafe and told everyone that we would have to
leave...they
packed up food for us and sent us home with great cheer and good wishes.
I knew I didn't want to go to the hospital right away. We ate some lunch
and called my doula, who said she couldn't advise me to do anything but go
straight to the hospital, but that she herself had stayed home for 12
hours
after her water broke with her second child, and she had no problems with
it. I started having contractions almost an hour after the water broke,
and
the fluid (which continued to trickle out with the contractions) had no
odor, and I felt pretty fine and just generally didn't want to be at the
hospital, so we stayed home for almost 6 hours, and finally went to the
hospital around 8 pm when the contractions were stronger and about 5
minutes
apart. ( A mistake in timing, as we were just minutes late from using the
front entrance, and had to go through emergency).
I was taken to triage with my DH, and my sister had to wait in the
emergency
room. This took almost 3 hours, during which I was repeatedly admonished
for not having come in sooner, even though I had no fever or problems. An
examination showed that I was only 1 cm dialated. Finally they took me to
a
L and D room and my sister could come up. By that time, we had found out
that my regular O.B. was not on call that night, and the O.B. that was had
a
very interventionist attitude. I started getting my dukes up and ready at
that point as I was determined to have an intervention free birth. When
we
finally met, it wasn't pretty.
He was angry with me for having waited several hours after
my water broke before coming in. He basically yelled at me when he first
came stomping into my room. I explained why I had waited, and he stalked
out of the room after threatening a c-section.
The nurse came in an told me that he didn't want to do anything until I
had
another ultrasound, as my records showed (inconclusively) that I was
showing
large for dates and had been for several weeks. The new ultrasound showed
that my baby was around 10 pounds. The tech. said he knew he could be off
by as much as 20 ounces. I knew this too.
The on call O.B. called my O.B. and had him talk to
me. They were both concerned that I still hadn't progressed beyond 1 cm
and
appeared to be carrying a large baby. I told them both that I would think
it over and let them know in a few minutes. During this time, my
temperature was taken, and it was 101 degrees.
The nurse then came in and told me that the Dr. on call said he would not
attend to
me if I insisted on delivering vaginally. He felt there was too much
danger
involved. I talked it over with my husband and called my doula,( she was
going to wait until I had dialated to 5 cm before coming in) and we all
agreed
that a C-section was our best choice at this point, as there were no other
doctors available at that time, and my temp had risen and I still had made
no progress after 12 hours of contractions. I was mightily upset until
this
point, and then I realized that I would be better off just letting go.
This
Dr. also has a reputation as an excellent surgeon, so I trusted that he
would take good care of me in that area. We were all pretty relieved to
have finally made a decision and to know what was going to happen. When
he
returned to discuss the procedure with me, he was much calmer and
apologized
for yelling at me and explained why he was so concerned. We were fine
after
that.
I still had to wait an hour or more before we went to the O.R., and I
continued to have contractions 4-5 mins apart in that time. They were
painful, but
manageable with just controlled breathing.
Got wheeled into the O.R. about 2:45 a.m. and was given an epidural by a
very nice anestegioloist. Then I was wrapped up, and they let my husband
in.
The C-section itself was not unpleasant. It felt as though my tummy was
being massaged. DH kept looking over at the procedure and then at me and
saying "you can't feel that?". I couldn't. The O.R. team knew that we
didn't know the sex of the baby, so at the last minute, a nurse asked us
both what we though it was, and we both said "boy". They pushed on my
belly
and pulled and tugged and finally took out my BOY!!! To hear my DH shout
out "It's a boy!!!" was just a grand moment. We immediately both heard a
giant howling cry and we were looking eachother in the eyes and both just
had tears running down our faces. That was OUR baby!! Finally!! We
heard
the O.R. staff exclaim over how large he was...they took him over to the
table and asked us to guess how much he weighed, we both said around 10
pounds. He weighed, get this

11 pounds, 6 ounces!!!! 22.5 inches long!!
(guess that ultrasound WAS off!!!)

They called DH over to the table to see him, and he called out to me "He
looks like Jeremiah, honey!" (Jeremiah was his oldest son, who died
tragically in January this year). "He's perfect, honey". The staff kept
marvelling at how big he was. I couldn't wait to see him! A couple of
minutes later, they brought him all wrapped up for me to look at, and I
saw
my sweet baby's face for the first time. One of those moments that take
your breath away and you remember forever. He had pink skin that was the
softest thing I ever put my lips on, and his little breath smelled so
sweet.
I turned my head, and DH was on the other side looking at us, and he was
weeping. He just said to me "thank you honey, thank you so much". Then
DH
and baby went to the nursery and the O.R. staff gave me something that got
me REALLY high while they cleaned me up and stitched my belly.
I then went to a recovery room for an hour or so, and DH visited me there.
He said that the baby actually was perfect, there were no problems at all.
He was so relieved. He had been keeping it inside, but had been very
worried that there could be something wrong with the baby because of some
of
my early blood work (positive AFP screening) and my age. He looked
completely drained, and I was just a little miserable with shivering and
extreme thirst, so I told him to go home and get some rest.
After I was done in the recovery room, they wheeled my gurney into the
nursery to see my son again, and there he was, crying away. They picked
him
up and put him face down on my chest, and I wrapped my arms around him and
stroked his back. He immediately settled down and started making those
little grunting rooting sounds that babies make. I never felt anything so
good in my whole life, and the tears started running down my face AGAIN!
Sigh.
I was put into my room, and they brought him to me just an hour later or
so
and we started nursing right away. I got to keep him with me the whole
time, he just basically slept on my chest or in the crook of my arm,
nursing
occasionally. Someone finally brought me some water. (I asked everyone
who
came near my bed, dammit, I was so thirsty!) I was on self-administered
morphine for around 12 hours, but I asked them to take me off of it (even
though I REALLY liked it) because I threw up a few times, and also because
baby and I were so sleepy all the time. I did much better on Tylenol 3
after
that.
Baby had to be monitored for low blood sugar for the next two days, which
was unpleasant for both of us, as they kept waking us up to take little
blood samples from his heel. I kept waking him up and feeding him
constantly, and they finally got enough good readings that they left us
alone.
It was extremely hard to get any rest in the hospital. The staff kept
offering to take the baby so I could "get some rest", but they were the
ones
keeping me from resting. Every couple hours someone would come along to
poke me or take some sample or examine me. There was a particularly
annoying 21 year old nursing student who would ask me questions about my
discomfort and fatigue and then say sarcastically "welcome to motherhood!'
She needs to work on her people skills.
We had a few difficulties with breastfeeding in the hospital. This is my
first baby, so even though I had done a lot of reading, I knew I would
just
have to learn by doing. Also the fact that he was so large was a problem
for us until my milk came in, as the colostrum just wasn't enough to
satisfy
his hunger. The last night I was there, after him crying inconsolably for
over an hour, a nurse suggested that I breast feed him one more time, and
then supplement him with a little formula, then she would take him to the
nursery and give orders that I wasn't to be disturbed for 3 hours. She
assured me that his latch was good enough that we wouldn't have any
problems
with nipple confusion. She was right. A little less than 1/2 ounce of
formula, and he was out for almost 3 hours, and I finally got some sleep.
We did this two more times before my milk came in, and haven't had to do
it
since.
I did have to pump last night, just about 2 ounces seemed to relieve me,
and
baby has taken up the slack today.
So, baby was born early Sunday morning, and we were finally discharged
Wednesday evening around 8 pm, an exasperating wait for us.
We got home and turned the phone off for a day and a half, and spent all
yesterday bonding with our little one. He seems to be a pretty mellow
fellow, although I know it's too early to tell. He loves to be held, and
will stare at you for hours while you do it, but is also perfectly content
to be set down on my ottoman and will lie there quietly. He cries when he
is hungry sometimes, but I have to wake him up at night to nurse (got
engorged yesterday, yikes!) and he doesn't like diaper changes very much.
He peed on grandma when she gave him his first bath last night (good
boy!!).
Also, he is simply an excruciatingly beautiful child.
Just see for yourselves... : )
http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?...asWziQ&notag=1 please
ignore
the subject line, I messed up when creating the link.
These are some pretty wonderful days for all of us. It's such a pleasure
to
be able to share them with all of you. To all who have given me advice
over
the past several months, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I
couldn't
be happier with the way everything turned out.
We got a beautiful healthy baby and our house is filled with joy.
God bless you all!
Cheers,
Alexis

(((((Alexis))))),
What a wonderful story! Both the Dr and the student nurse could have done
with improving their bed manners! You managed anyway to have such a
wonderful experience. And Michael looks so beautiful.
Congratulations to all of you and welcome to Michael Mose!

Love

--
Nicky

Proud mamma to Alexandra (03/22/2004)

Congratulations!

Donna

What a beautiful Baby!!
Congratulations.
Sunshine and the baby bean- It's a boy!
edd 7-4-04

snip
What a gorgeous looking boy!
Alissa
EDD now 8th June "nicholas"

On Sat, 01 May 2004 01:13:48 GMT, "Auntie Bubbles"
wrote:

Michael Mose came into this world with a mighty roar Sunday April
25th at 3:44 am.

Congrats!!!

--
Daye
Momma to Jayan and Leopold
See Jayan and Leo: http://www.aloofhosting.com/jayleo/
Updated 28 Feb 2004

Thanks everybody for all the good wishes! We are doing fine here, baby is
still a sweetie, and we even have nice weather to get outside sometimes!!
Cheers,
Alexis
Michaels Mom

Congratulations! I had tears in my eyes when reading about your husband's
reaction. How sweet!

--
M~Elizabeth

To thine own self be true

Congrats! Your baby boy is absolutely gorgeous. SO glad that you have
found such happiness with your son...esp. since you hadn't planned the
pregnancy. I'm just one month shy of 39 and my husband and I are also
expecting our first baby (also a boy and also unplanned but very much
wanted).

Debbie
EDD 10-May-04


"Auntie Bubbles" wrote in message
...
Sigh. I thought I would live my life out without ever having told a story
like this, and I also thought I was just fine with that...
I was never going to have children of my own. My DH had 4, and even
though
they don't live with us, I get lots of love from them, and it's been
wonderful being part of their lives. We've been married for 11 years this
weekend, and never used birth control. We had a miscarriage 2 years ago
at
only 8 weeks gestation, and I thought it was all over after that, after
all,
I am 39 years old....So when my period was a few days late last August, I
denied it for as long as I could (well, just a couple of days anyway) and
then bought a HPT, and got a BFP right away. I was totally freaked out!
So
was DH. We didn't want a baby. We just got our lives set up the way we
liked them! I lost 100 pounds over the last few years and was feeling and
looking great, and we had bought a Harley and were out riding every
weekend
and generally having a great time. We were both making good money. I had
just gotten some cool leather pants for my 39th birthday, and they looked
HOT! I was so upset with the idea of having to change my life COMPLETELY
to
accomodate this new "intruder".
We sat down together and talked over it. Termination was not a option for
either one of us, so we determined to get our minds around the whole
notion.
Well, together,we did, and this is what followed:

Michael Mose Gillespie came into this world with a mighty roar Sunday
April
25th at 3:44 am. There was cheering and weeping and overwhelming
gratitude
from his parents and family.
My water broke at 2 pm Saturday the 24th. I had been feeling funky for
a
few days, and having some symptoms (diahrreah, cramping, nausea, fatigue,
and extreme grumpiness). I sent DH out for a ride on his Harley in the
morning, and sat around the house with my sister (who drove 9 hours to be
with us, she just "knew" she should be here right now...)
We got a call around noon from DH; he had ran out of gas in the middle of
the desert, and we had to take him some. A thirty minute drive out into
no-man's land and we found him sitting by the side of the road. We gassed
him up and all went to our favorite restaurant for lunch. Lucky for me I
knew everyone in the place (I used to work there), because I went to the
bathroom, and after finishing on the toilet, I stood up and felt a large
gush from between my legs. I sat back down. More gushing. I wiped, saw
clear fluid with a little red tint to it. Stood up again, more gushing.
Sat down again. Filled my panties with T.P. and got up again, more
gushing.
Goodness! I opened the door to the bathroom and stuck my head out the
door
and called for my sister. She came in and helped me clean up a little.
We
went out into the cafe and told everyone that we would have to
leave...they
packed up food for us and sent us home with great cheer and good wishes.
I knew I didn't want to go to the hospital right away. We ate some lunch
and called my doula, who said she couldn't advise me to do anything but go
straight to the hospital, but that she herself had stayed home for 12
hours
after her water broke with her second child, and she had no problems with
it. I started having contractions almost an hour after the water broke,
and
the fluid (which continued to trickle out with the contractions) had no
odor, and I felt pretty fine and just generally didn't want to be at the
hospital, so we stayed home for almost 6 hours, and finally went to the
hospital around 8 pm when the contractions were stronger and about 5
minutes
apart. ( A mistake in timing, as we were just minutes late from using the
front entrance, and had to go through emergency).
I was taken to triage with my DH, and my sister had to wait in the
emergency
room. This took almost 3 hours, during which I was repeatedly admonished
for not having come in sooner, even though I had no fever or problems. An
examination showed that I was only 1 cm dialated. Finally they took me to
a
L and D room and my sister could come up. By that time, we had found out
that my regular O.B. was not on call that night, and the O.B. that was had
a
very interventionist attitude. I started getting my dukes up and ready at
that point as I was determined to have an intervention free birth. When
we
finally met, it wasn't pretty.
He was angry with me for having waited several hours after
my water broke before coming in. He basically yelled at me when he first
came stomping into my room. I explained why I had waited, and he stalked
out of the room after threatening a c-section.
The nurse came in an told me that he didn't want to do anything until I
had
another ultrasound, as my records showed (inconclusively) that I was
showing
large for dates and had been for several weeks. The new ultrasound showed
that my baby was around 10 pounds. The tech. said he knew he could be off
by as much as 20 ounces. I knew this too.
The on call O.B. called my O.B. and had him talk to
me. They were both concerned that I still hadn't progressed beyond 1 cm
and
appeared to be carrying a large baby. I told them both that I would think
it over and let them know in a few minutes. During this time, my
temperature was taken, and it was 101 degrees.
The nurse then came in and told me that the Dr. on call said he would not
attend to
me if I insisted on delivering vaginally. He felt there was too much
danger
involved. I talked it over with my husband and called my doula,( she was
going to wait until I had dialated to 5 cm before coming in) and we all
agreed
that a C-section was our best choice at this point, as there were no other
doctors available at that time, and my temp had risen and I still had made
no progress after 12 hours of contractions. I was mightily upset until
this
point, and then I realized that I would be better off just letting go.
This
Dr. also has a reputation as an excellent surgeon, so I trusted that he
would take good care of me in that area. We were all pretty relieved to
have finally made a decision and to know what was going to happen. When
he
returned to discuss the procedure with me, he was much calmer and
apologized
for yelling at me and explained why he was so concerned. We were fine
after
that.
I still had to wait an hour or more before we went to the O.R., and I
continued to have contractions 4-5 mins apart in that time. They were
painful, but
manageable with just controlled breathing.
Got wheeled into the O.R. about 2:45 a.m. and was given an epidural by a
very nice anestegioloist. Then I was wrapped up, and they let my husband
in.
The C-section itself was not unpleasant. It felt as though my tummy was
being massaged. DH kept looking over at the procedure and then at me and
saying "you can't feel that?". I couldn't. The O.R. team knew that we
didn't know the sex of the baby, so at the last minute, a nurse asked us
both what we though it was, and we both said "boy". They pushed on my
belly
and pulled and tugged and finally took out my BOY!!! To hear my DH shout
out "It's a boy!!!" was just a grand moment. We immediately both heard a
giant howling cry and we were looking eachother in the eyes and both just
had tears running down our faces. That was OUR baby!! Finally!! We
heard
the O.R. staff exclaim over how large he was...they took him over to the
table and asked us to guess how much he weighed, we both said around 10
pounds. He weighed, get this

11 pounds, 6 ounces!!!! 22.5 inches long!!
(guess that ultrasound WAS off!!!)

They called DH over to the table to see him, and he called out to me "He
looks like Jeremiah, honey!" (Jeremiah was his oldest son, who died
tragically in January this year). "He's perfect, honey". The staff kept
marvelling at how big he was. I couldn't wait to see him! A couple of
minutes later, they brought him all wrapped up for me to look at, and I
saw
my sweet baby's face for the first time. One of those moments that take
your breath away and you remember forever. He had pink skin that was the
softest thing I ever put my lips on, and his little breath smelled so
sweet.
I turned my head, and DH was on the other side looking at us, and he was
weeping. He just said to me "thank you honey, thank you so much". Then
DH
and baby went to the nursery and the O.R. staff gave me something that got
me REALLY high while they cleaned me up and stitched my belly.
I then went to a recovery room for an hour or so, and DH visited me there.
He said that the baby actually was perfect, there were no problems at all.
He was so relieved. He had been keeping it inside, but had been very
worried that there could be something wrong with the baby because of some
of
my early blood work (positive AFP screening) and my age. He looked
completely drained, and I was just a little miserable with shivering and
extreme thirst, so I told him to go home and get some rest.
After I was done in the recovery room, they wheeled my gurney into the
nursery to see my son again, and there he was, crying away. They picked
him
up and put him face down on my chest, and I wrapped my arms around him and
stroked his back. He immediately settled down and started making those
little grunting rooting sounds that babies make. I never felt anything so
good in my whole life, and the tears started running down my face AGAIN!
Sigh.
I was put into my room, and they brought him to me just an hour later or
so
and we started nursing right away. I got to keep him with me the whole
time, he just basically slept on my chest or in the crook of my arm,
nursing
occasionally. Someone finally brought me some water. (I asked everyone
who
came near my bed, dammit, I was so thirsty!) I was on self-administered
morphine for around 12 hours, but I asked them to take me off of it (even
though I REALLY liked it) because I threw up a few times, and also because
baby and I were so sleepy all the time. I did much better on Tylenol 3
after
that.
Baby had to be monitored for low blood sugar for the next two days, which
was unpleasant for both of us, as they kept waking us up to take little
blood samples from his heel. I kept waking him up and feeding him
constantly, and they finally got enough good readings that they left us
alone.
It was extremely hard to get any rest in the hospital. The staff kept
offering to take the baby so I could "get some rest", but they were the
ones
keeping me from resting. Every couple hours someone would come along to
poke me or take some sample or examine me. There was a particularly
annoying 21 year old nursing student who would ask me questions about my
discomfort and fatigue and then say sarcastically "welcome to motherhood!'
She needs to work on her people skills.
We had a few difficulties with breastfeeding in the hospital. This is my
first baby, so even though I had done a lot of reading, I knew I would
just
have to learn by doing. Also the fact that he was so large was a problem
for us until my milk came in, as the colostrum just wasn't enough to
satisfy
his hunger. The last night I was there, after him crying inconsolably for
over an hour, a nurse suggested that I breast feed him one more time, and
then supplement him with a little formula, then she would take him to the
nursery and give orders that I wasn't to be disturbed for 3 hours. She
assured me that his latch was good enough that we wouldn't have any
problems
with nipple confusion. She was right. A little less than 1/2 ounce of
formula, and he was out for almost 3 hours, and I finally got some sleep.
We did this two more times before my milk came in, and haven't had to do
it
since.
I did have to pump last night, just about 2 ounces seemed to relieve me,
and
baby has taken up the slack today.
So, baby was born early Sunday morning, and we were finally discharged
Wednesday evening around 8 pm, an exasperating wait for us.
We got home and turned the phone off for a day and a half, and spent all
yesterday bonding with our little one. He seems to be a pretty mellow
fellow, although I know it's too early to tell. He loves to be held, and
will stare at you for hours while you do it, but is also perfectly content
to be set down on my ottoman and will lie there quietly. He cries when he
is hungry sometimes, but I have to wake him up at night to nurse (got
engorged yesterday, yikes!) and he doesn't like diaper changes very much.
He peed on grandma when she gave him his first bath last night (good
boy!!).
Also, he is simply an excruciatingly beautiful child.
Just see for yourselves... : )
http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?...asWziQ&notag=1 please
ignore
the subject line, I messed up when creating the link.
These are some pretty wonderful days for all of us. It's such a pleasure
to
be able to share them with all of you. To all who have given me advice
over
the past several months, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I
couldn't
be happier with the way everything turned out.
We got a beautiful healthy baby and our house is filled with joy.
God bless you all!
Cheers,
Alexis

Congrats! I am so happy for you! I can't wait for my turn.