Thor Michael *******
Friday, November 14, 2008 @ 12:58pm
6lbs 15oz
21 inches
November 13th - We arrived at the hospital for my 7:30am NST appointment, and by 8:00am my doctor had arrived and checked my progress. At that pont I was “between 0-2″ dialted. So he decided to go ahead with the Prostin Gel induction at 8:15am which gave me small contractions all morning, but nothing very exciting.
I was having problems with feeling like I was going to pass out, so they had me on oxygen and admitted me to the hospital right away (normally they send you home after the gel insertion).
By 2:15pm my doctor stopped by to see if I had progressed any. I had made it to 1cm dilated and about 75% effaced. At that point my contractions were slow so he decided to do a second round of the Prostin Gel. That fave me much stronger contractions, but then they died off around 6:00pm.
Doctor came back to check me at about 9:15pm - I was still only 1cm dilated but was now 100% effaced. He decided to go ahead with the third (and final) round of Prostin Gel. This brought on very very strong contractions. I was able to have a hot shower which helped me cope with the pain quite a bit.
By 2:00am the nurses and doctor thought I needed some rest so they gave me a sleeping pill to knock me out for a while. I slept hard until 5:00am, still having contractions.
At that point I got up and walked around the maternity floor trying to get things to pick up…but had no luck.
The doctor came back again around 8:00am Friday to check my progress and I had made NONE. I was so frustrated that all those hard contractions got me nowhere. They decided to go for an Oxytocin drip and started getting everything ready to go for that. Before they turned on my Oxytocin drip, the had to monitor mine and baby`s heart rate, etc to make sure it was okay to go ahead. Well, baby was already at 170 and the oxytocin would have made it much worse.
By then I was doing much worse and was so swollen that I couldn`t move my feet. After some more blood tests and checking, they decided it was likely I was suffering from HELLP Syndrome. Baby needed out - now.
An hour later I was prepped and ready for surgery. My mom came in with me, as DH could not handle seeing me having surgery - which I totally understand, I wouldn’t have been able to watch him having surgery either! My surgery went very smoothly and by 12:58pm my baby boy was born! I was too numb from my spinal to hold him while being stitched up, but my mom held him close to me and I cried 
Thor and I spent a while in the recovery room and then were taken back to my private room where DH was waiting to meet his son.
We couldn’t be happier. 
It turned out that his placenta was small and failing fast. Even if he had of “baked” two more weeks he would have been even smaller because he wasn’t getting anything. So he’s tiny, but happy.
And for everyone who skipped all that writing just for this… here are a few pictures:

about 30 min. after surgery

look at that chubby face, how could you not love it?

several hours later, finally in his PJ's and much happier