Flashback: Landon's Birth Story

So, I recently realized that pretty soon I'll be posting the birth story of our Little Miss, but because I didn't start this blog till Landon was almost 3 months old I never posted his. So for the sake of him not feeling left out, and for the sake of me remembering as much as possible before I start to forget things, I decided to do a few "Flashback" posts about those first couple of months with Landon so that they are documented too! And to start with, the birth story of my firstborn, my little punkin'!

Landon's birth story actually begins at my 34 week doctor appt. It was just a routine check up, except that the doctor said my uterus was measuring big - it should have been 34 cm but was 37 cm instead. So she scheduled us to have a 2nd sonogram at our 36 weeks appt in order to see how big Landon was getting. We were so excited to get to see him again on the ultrasound, and according to the measurements by the machine he already weighed about 6 lbs. 10 oz.!! That appt was also the first time my doctor checked my cervix, and at 36 weeks I was already dilated to 3 1/2. Wow! We definitely weren't expecting that one!

Then the doctor said the worst thing you can say to a pregnant woman - "He could be born any day now, or it could still be a couple of weeks." So the suspenseful everyday anticipation started early!! We had already planned to travel a couple of hours to Kyle's parents' that labor day weekend for a baby shower as well as our retreat for our student leaders, and decided to still go, which turned out to be just fine. I just prayed the whole time I wouldn't go into labor while we were there; I wanted to be at home :)

A week later at my 37 week appt I was dilated to 4 1/2, so our suspense grew! At that appt our doctor said she didn't want to let us go till my due date (Oct. 1st) so she scheduled us for an induction on Sept. 22nd. The appt was on a Wednesday and we had my final baby shower that weekend here in town with all of our students, so I was just praying to make it through that Sunday. Then as soon as the baby shower was over on Sunday Kyle and I went for a loooooooong walk (like, 3 or 4 miles) including climbing stairs in an effort to induce labor! We continued taking walks all that week - Kyle even gave me orders to go on a walk by myself one day when he couldn't go! Two different times we thought I was in labor because I was having regular contractions - once we even went to the hospital only to be sent home. At the time I thought my Braxton Hicks contractions were the real deal - now that I've been through labor, I know that those were definitely NOT legit labor contractions!

We kept hoping and hoping for Landon to be born, and finally on Saturday Sept. 18th we gave up and decided we would just plan on him being born on the 22nd. So we decided to use a gift card we had to the fanciest restaurant here in town to do one final just the two of us date on Sunday night. Plans changed!

Sunday morning I woke up feeling totally normal - we went to church and at church I even told a friend that I could bring snacks to our staff meeting the next morning because "I don't feel like I'll go into labor today!" We drove home from church and instantly when we got home at 12:45 my water broke. We both freaked out a little bit, put a few final things in our hospital bag and headed over to the hospital (conveniently only 5 minutes from our house). We got checked in, they verified that my water had really broken, and things got underway!

At this point I still wasn't really having regular contractions - in fact, hardly any at all. I had to have the on call doctor since it was a Sunday (sad! really hope I get my dr this time around!) and she had them start me on a little bit of pitocin to get contractions going. At this point I was still dilated to about a 4 1/2, I hadn't really progressed. Contractions started coming regularly and stronger, but I wasn't progressing at all. After only about 3 hours of labor on my own I asked for my epidural (greatest decision ever) and was able to relax a little bit.

After getting the epidural my body kicked into high gear and in less than an hour I was dilated to 9. About an hour later I was ready to push. Landon was head down but he was turned with his face up (babies are supposed to be delivered with their heads facing down toward your back). The doctor kept thinking he would turn around on his own, but our stubborn boy never did, so it took an hour and a half of me pushing before Landon finally made his entrance at 8:27 p.m. (can't argue with under 8 hours of labor for a first child though!) He weighed 7 lbs. 10 oz. and was 21 and 3/4 inches long - and every inch was perfect! He was born on September 19th, twelve days before his due date.

Landon Isaac's first picture

They laid Landon up on my chest and I just bawled for forever looking at how perfect he was. Talk about love at first sight! Then they took him over to get him cleaned up and checked out - Kyle's favorite moment was when they laid Landon down to check him over he was crying but as soon as Kyle held his hand he stopped crying. He loved his Daddy from the start :)

Notice the mascara all over my face from crying!

Visiting hours technically ended at 8 p.m. but the staff had mercy on our parents and Kyle's brother who had been waiting in the waiting room for 3 hours and let them come in to see him once he was all cleaned up. So Landon got to meet his grandparents and one of his uncles within a half hour of being born!

Then I fed Landon for the first time, and then they took him to the nursery while I FINALLY got to eat something and waited for my epidural to wear off so I could move from the delivery room to our permanent room. I had to lay down in our new room for just a few minutes because I was feeling a little nauseous, but then we went down to the nursery to watch Landon get his first bath.

All stretched out in the nursery

Of course I started crying again as soon as I saw him again in the nursery, and pretty much cried the whole time he was getting his bath (Whoa hormones!!) I just loved him so much! Then we took him back to our room and just held him for a long time. By about 11:30 I was exhausted so tried to go to sleep, but Kyle just sat next to me on the bed holding Landon and watching TV till about 2:30 in the morning. He took him to the nursery and the nurses brought him back once in the middle of the night to eat and then woke us up in the morning when he was ready to eat again!He was a GREAT eater from day one.

On Monday we had LOTS of visitors come to see Landon - he had 30 different people come see him at the hospital! (Both sets of grandparents, Kyle's brother, my brother & his wife, our staff team of 11 people, and 12 students!) The last student who came to see Landon after dinner on Monday said that the lady at the desk buzzing visitors in didn't even wait for him to say who he was there to see - she just told him our room number and buzzed him through! Probably not used to a bunch of college students coming to the birth center!

Tuesday was a little more chill; we didn't have any visitors but just spent time with our sweet boy, and did all of our check ups/consultations with the hospital staff and his pediatrician. 

We got Landon changed into his going home outfit and headed home at about 5pm on Tuesday - but that's another story for another post!

Thus ends Landon's birth story - congrats if you actually stuck with me through the whole post. More than anything I wanted to record it before I forget the details, especially after I have another birth story to remember! We sure love our precious firstborn.