Baby Boy

Carson Robert Sterzer was born on Sat, March 20th at 5:33 pm. He weighed in at 8 lbs 12 oz and 21 1/2 inches long! He is my second biggest baby, but I really thought he was going to be smaller since I was so much smaller this pregnancy. But as soon as he came out it was apparent he was a big boy:) He follows the pattern of our children- bald, chubby and sweet:) I tried nursing within the hour and the little piggy ate for 40 minutes! The only pain I am feeling right now is pain from nursing. If I walk around to much then I feel a bit uncomfortable from the slight tear I got. I know nursing is supposed to be a great thing, but I really do hate it the first little while. I cringe every time he needs to eat, which is a lot at this point.
As for labor details, I consider it my second favorite labor. Aj was my first natural birth and still ranks at amazing. This labor was actually pretty boring, that I and I was hungry. I kept sneaking saltine crackers ont he hour so I would have enough energy. I confessed to the nurse later:) I went in at 8am and prepped but didn't get my water broke until 10am. Then it was my job to get the contractions going to avoid the pitocin I don't favor. But 4 hours later there was not much going on, and dialated to about 3-4. Being just plain bored and hungry at this point, I wanted to speed things up, and had a small dose of pitocin hooked up. This started the contractions an hour later. I didn't think they were too horrible but they started getting intense and I needed to focus on relaxing instead of on the Bewitched episode on:) When they were a minute apart and lasting 20 seconds or so and I got my cervix checked. This was the moment that would determine whether or not I would get epidural or not. My last labor was so painful and long I was afraid of repeating that and not having enough strength to deliver with assistance. So when they measured me and I was at a 6 I felt discouraged. This was what I was at with Cheyenne and still had so much more left to go. So I told the doctor that I was going to go for a low dose of epidural to just take the edge off in case it was going to be hours more of this intense labor.

So the epidural was officially put in at 5pm and as she went to go put in the catheter she announced the baby was ready to come. The epidural had a slight problem because it numbed my legs first but I was still feeling pretty intense contractions. He readjusted things a bit and gradually the pain was dulled, but I could still feel them as well as the pressure from the baby. I pushed for 2 contractions, less than 2 minutes and my big boy came right out. So yes, in hindsight, if I knew it would have went so quickly from there and the pushing was going to be so simple I wouldn't have gotten the epidural after all. Considering that my legs were numb for 10 hours after that. It still was a good experience over all and the numbing wasn't too frustrating since most of the time it was during the night while I slept. When I say sleep, I mean laying in the hospital trying to sleep, while the nurses come in all of the time to wake me or the baby up to check vitals. They insist on the baby being woken up every 3 hours to eat, when I prefer he learns to sleep and not wake to eat...I prefer to be home where I can do what I want, sleep in my bed, and not have someone check to see how often me and the baby go to the bathroom:)
The kids came later that night and were so excited to see him and hold him. Cheyenne found his nose, eyes and other essential features and pointed them out for us all:) So far the still think he is fascinating.