As most everyone knows, through Facebook of course, Squishy ended up being a little boy. I can now proudly say I am 3 for 3 on 'knowing' my kid's genders. I was right with Oliver and Scarlett, confirmed by the anatomy scans, and from conception I just had 'that' feeling that Squish was going to be a boy. I knew to trust my instincts because honestly, I wanted another girl, but felt so strongly it was a boy!
Here are the stats:
Felix Zbyszko
May 26th, 2012
9:18 am
9 lbs 1.5 ozs
20 inches
I get a lot of questions on where the middle name comes from, so here's a back story:
I knew if this baby was a boy his middle name would be after my dad. My dad's first name is Zbigniew (yes, very Polish) and I told him he could pick if he wanted that to be the middle name or any version of it. After some discussion Zbyszko was picked. There is a wiki link HERE to see the cultural background of the name. I love it and I love everything behind the name!
Here's Felix's birth story (long):
Prequel because I don't want to forget anything!
Mr. Felix started his torture on my body at about 36 weeks with irregular, annoying contractions. On several occasions I thought that I might be going into labor. At around 37 weeks I had contractions coming every 6-7 minutes for 4 hours that magically disappeared. That made me realize this little baby might be a little nuisance.
I think I was most mentally drained since everywhere I went people always had the, "Where's that baby?" comment. Not annoying on its own by any means...but hearing it over and over and over, in person through FB, over text, etc. for so many weeks, was hard. I started to feel like I was letting people down that this THIRD baby was not coming out early. Especially after I passed the 38 week mark (that's when Scarlett came) I thought, uh oh.
May 20th, my due date, came and went. Mind you, I'm still having irregular, annoying, sometimes painful contractions to no avail. I vowed that if I made it to my due date I would take that following Monday off of work to just relax and cry, haha. I had a great day, got a pedicure and had my OB appointment (Still at 3 cm for the 3rd week in a row...Boo). Dr. Lutz even kept joking about how surprised she was I was still pregnant. And I have to say that I had done all the tricks in the book, minus drinking castor oil, to get this baby out. Bouncing on an exercise ball, drinking red raspberry leaf tea, having sex (more to get the baby out then it took getting him in there in the first place!!), practically hiking all the time, etc...Grrrr.
So I made another appointment on Thursday to get checked out and schedule a gel application as I was absolutely miserable. This is a prostaglandin gel that helps to ripen the cervix. I was a fabulous candidate since I was so far dilated and thinned out and this was my third child so I was praying it would work and work fast. But of course L& D was crazy busy and understaffed so they were unable to schedule me that afternoon and after I had rescheduled for that evening, they cancelled for the same reason. If you've ever had an elective procedure done, then you know people with real medical needs go in front of you. Not cool when you're just a pissed off, miserable pregnant lady...but of course I was understanding!!!
Luckily by Thursday my body was already on day 2 of early labor. If you've never had to experience a prolonged early labor, you are lucky! I escaped it with my other 2 so this was quite the experience. By early labor I mean: vomiting, diarrhea, painful contractions that are not close enough together nor increasing in intensity (basically dud contractions), and the worst fatigue. I was unable to go to work Wed-Fri bc this was how bad it was. However, Friday the 25th, I came in for an NST at 1 pm to make sure baby was still safe with all my physical symptoms going on and I actually started having some bleeding (good sign!). Baby was doing very well so they told me to go walk and I would probably go into labor! I told George to get off of work early and we could go hang out before we had to pick up the kids from daycare. We went to Pegasus on Alki and took a nice walk on the boardwalk. I started having REGULAR contractions about 3:30 right at the end of our walk!!!!
Fast forward to 8 pm. I could not help George put the kid down to sleep since I was needing to breathe pretty heavily through my contractions at this point. Since Squishy had given me SO MUCH false labor, I really didn't believe this was it!!! I was bouncing on my ball, I had George massaging my back through each peak of the contractions. I was walking. Around 10 pm I was crying with each one and they were about 8-9 minutes apart. Then I had a bit of a gush during a contraction and the consulting nurse just told us to go in and get checked out!
Hospital
We arrived to L&D at about 11 pm. Thank goodness my fore bag of waters had broken and I was at 4 cm. THEY WERE ADMITTING ME! You have no idea how excited I was!!! I was hoping to go all natural but by 2 am with the contractions coming about 2-3 minutes apart, I was exhausted. After being up all day and walking for so long...and the kids, ugh was I tired. I gave in to the epidural and ended up getting it around 2:30-3 am. At that point I was at 7 cm so we thought I might go quickly...but alas, the epi slowed down labor but I got a ton of sleep! By 7 am I did begin to feel some pressure, I was complete and ready to push!! I don't think I actually started pushing until about 7:30-7:45 ish.
After pushing for about an hour and a half, (after they turned down the epi I pushed a lot better), Felix was born at 9:18 am! He had the cord wrapped around his neck pretty tightly so Dr. Lutz cut it before I pushed the rest of him out. He did come out very blue and not making any noise. He wasn't limp, which was good, but I only had him on my chest for literally a few seconds. That made me super sad since that first skin to skin contact after birth is such an amazing experience. But please, I'd rather they save my baby!!! So they gave him some oxygen and kept rubbing him until he made a nice little squeak.
Best. Sound. Ever.
For some reason I was never worried. I had a weird sense of calm over me during the whole experience, thank goodness. Then we weighed him and BOY, did I NOT expect a 9 lb baby!! Only 1 stitch too. I'm pretty proud of myself for that!!
He's nursing like a champ. I've had zero issues with nipple cracking or bleeding, etc. He is truly a perfect little thing and I just love him so, so much. He is precious and a perfect addition to our little family!!
Whew, if you read all of that, high five!!!
Good work, Felix is a doll!
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