The Perez Life: Welcome Baby Tatum

Tatum Kruz Perez arrived on Sunday, February 13, 2011 at 1742. He weighed a whopping 8lbs 13ozs and was 21.7in long. He immediately had my heart!!!
My water actually broke around 0730 that morning. I called the L&D unit and they said to go ahead and come in to be checked out. I wasn't having contractions, just the same Braxton Hicks-type contractions I had been having for months. We calmly got ready, got Linkoln ready, and kissed him off to stay with Melissa and Adyson. We headed to the hospital. I drove because I get car sick very easily. Good thing contractions didn't start in the car. Tony and I arrived at the hospital around 0930. They did a couple test and confirmed that indeed, my water was broken. I was there for the long haul. They started an IV and hooked me up to all the monitors. I was having contractions, not consistent, every 4-8min. They decided to start me on Pitocin, but a very low dose. Still no pain. Contractions started coming every 1-2min, so they had to turn the Pitocin down to the lowest dose. After a couple of hours, the pain began. And when I say it began, I mean it hit me like a ton of bricks. I quickly requested an epidural. The CRNA came right away. By the way, I got excellent service because I was the only prego there. After he was done, I was still having pain on the right side. He said to give it a while to work. Well, after a while, I was still having A LOT of pain on the right side. He cam and gave me an extra dose in the epidural. Yay, finally pain-free!! So, then the MD checked me, and said I was dilated 10cm and baby's head was "Right there!" We did a practice push, and she quickly said don't push again!! She ran to the hall to get all the nurses and assistants. I was nervous at this point. Time to meet my baby. I pushed for only another 10min and there he was. He was beautiful!!! He cried right away and then stopped. So they had to take him to the warmer and give him a little oxygen. He was grunting and had a little retractions. They called the neonatal NP in to check him out. By the time she got there, he was better, breathing just fine. He was just very large for his gestational age. Everyone in the room was shocked when they weighed him. He was considered high-risk because of his weight. His blood sugars had to be checked before every feeding until there were two consecutive results over 50. We also had to stay for 48hrs since he was high-risk. It took a while, but his blood sugars finally regulated and he was good-to-go. He is such a sweet baby. Doesn't cry much, just grunts and poots a lot. LOL. We love him dearly!!!