Derek Ong

Time to revive my blog now that baby #2 is here! :)

Pregnancy #2 was pretty uneventful, just like the first one. Didn't have any morning sickness or heartburn luckily. My only complaint was that my lower back was constantly hurting, mainly because Ryan still constantly wanted me to carry him. Oy. Sleeping the last few months was not fun, I flipped from side to side all night. I gained about 35 lbs this time around, I think when I was pregnant with Ryan I only gained 25 lbs. I ate a lot more sweets this time :P

Derek's birth story:
On Tues night Aug 3/early Wed morning Aug 4 around midnight, I started feeling contractions. I got out of bed and went to the restroom. I had some bloody show, so I knew baby would be coming soon! I watched 2 episodes of The Office to distract myself. I remembered that I was supposed to head to labor and delivery when my contractions lasted one minute, every 5 minutes for an hour. I was feeling them about every 7 minutes or so. After about an hour, I went to the restroom again and after that, the contractions totally stopped! I was tired so I went back to bed.

Wed morning I woke up and didn't have any contractions still. I thought I would definitely have the baby some time that day though. I just so happened to have a dr appt scheduled for that morning, so at the appt the dr checked and I was 3cm dilated. Throughout the day I was feeling some contractions off and on, but very irregular. Julian worked from home that day, so in the afternoon we took Ryan to the park. While Julian and Ryan were playing on the playground, I walked around the park several times with Tofu trying to stimulate labor. Still nothing! I was so bummed out. So I went to bed thinking this baby would never come out. It seemed like Julian didn't think the baby would come either because he was planning on going to work the next day. A funny coincidence is that both grandmas called that night to ask how things were going.

However, around 1 am that night, I was woken up with pretty strong contractions. They were about 5 minutes apart. I went to the restroom and had more blood. After walking out of the bathroom, I felt a little gush of water. I thought hmm, did my water just break?! I went to the bathroom again and just sat on the toilet, it seemed like every time I was having a contraction, more fluid would come out. So while I was on the toilet I called out to Julian and told him that I think the baby is coming! Since my water broke, I told him to call labor and delivery. The nurse said that we should get to the hospital around 3:30-4am. So I called my mom and she came over to watch Ryan. I felt like my contractions weren't lasting a minute or were every 5 minutes, but since my water had broken, we had to get to the hospital.

We got to the hospital around 3am-ish, and got sent to the observation room. They confirmed that my water had broken and was 5cm dilated. I was then supposed to go to the labor room, but the hospital was sooo busy that it took forever. Meanwhile, I was in the observation room laboring. The contractions were getting stronger, but were still kind of manageable. I didn't know how far along I was but I didn't think I was that far along and wanted to get an epidural because I thought the contractions would just get more painful. I wouldn't be able to get one until I was in the labor room though. We didn't end up getting into a labor room until about 5am. The anesthesiologist came fairly quickly and administered the epidural. Once it took effect, I couldn't feel a thing. The nurse couldn't get a good read on the baby's heart rate with the fetal monitor, so she called the doctor in to put in an internal heart monitor. When she checked me, she was like...umm...she's 10cm, she can push now! I thought to myself.. "W T F?!!!! I just got the freaking epidural!!" I was so annoyed, if I had known that I was so far along, I would not have opted for the epidural!" The nurse was like "OMG, you didn't look like you were in pain or had the urge to push and you were so quiet! So I didn't think you were that far along". Ugh! I was hoping to get the epidural so I could take a quick nap, I hadn't slept all night and it was around 5:30am. I didn't feel like I was that far along because the contractions weren't *that* painful so I thought the baby wouldn't come until noon or something. The doctor was like, "Well I'm ok with waiting a bit to push so you can get a little break", but the nurse was like, "I can't really get a good read on the baby, so maybe we should try pushing". I was just like..umm..ok, I guess we can try it, even though I can't feel a thing. Oy. So I pushed for about half an hour, towards the end the doctor used the vacuum for the last 2 pushes, and at 6:13am, baby Derek came out! Luckily Derek's head didn't have any trauma from having to use the vacuum. I was SO relieved that I somehow was able to push the baby out. Derek weighed 7lbs 15oz and 21 inches. The good thing about having the epidural was that delivering the placenta and getting sewn up was very painless. I ended up having a 2nd degree tear.

So all in all, it was a very fast delivery. It seems like the pushing part is my archenemy because for both pregnancies I didn't have great experiences. But now I know what real contractions feel like. My first pregnancy I only felt pitocin contractions, which were MUCH stronger than regular contractions to me, plus most of the time I was laboring I had an epidural. This time around regular contractions were not so bad... to get through them I visualized Ryan and his funny fake laugh. Or Julian and Ryan horsing around. It really helped a lot for me. So, if I ever have a 3rd baby I now know that contractions don't necessarily have to last a minute. The whole time I was laboring I didn't think I was that far along because my contractions felt short. I would also opt not to have an epidural again, it seems like the epidurals work *too* well on me where I can't feel a thing. Supposedly it's only supposed to take away sharp pain and not pressure, but I couldn't feel either.

We only stayed in the hospital for one night. I was eager to get back home to see Ryan and sleep in my own bed! I ended up having a HUGE muscle strain in my neck from pushing. It was sooo painful. I literally had to lie on my back for most of the day because it hurt so much. I took prescription Motrin, but it didn't really help that much. We had to go to the Newborn Club twice to check Derek's weight in the first week, and by the end of the appt I was in soo much pain from having to hold my head up. It took about 2 weeks for it to finally stop hurting.