the lugbill family: introducing graham charles!

Graham Charles Lugbill was born at 1:26pm on Sunday, June 8th. His gender was technically a SURPRISE, though Mommy had a pretty good idea he was a boy. Graham weighed in at 9 lbs 2 oz and measured 21 1/2 inches long, the biggest Lugbill baby yet.

I went into the hospital around 8pm on Saturday night, after contracting since about 2:30pm. The contractions had gotten consistently closer but weren't very strong, so I wasn't sure if I was really in labor. The same thing had happened with Duncan; I guess I have an "irregular contraction pattern," according to the nurses. So to triage we went. I had dilated from 2cm to 3cm since my appointment the previous day, and was 50% effaced, so my doctor decided to admit me and break my water. I got my epidural soon after that, and we were on our way. Labor with Graham was SLOOOW. Every time they checked me I only had progressed like half a centimeter. And my epidural didn't work as well as past ones; I had a "hot spot" in my abdomen that really hurt with each contraction. So we labored on and on until I was about 7 cm early in the morning...and everything stopped. My contractions basically stopped completely. So then we had to start pitocin. My doctor was very conservative because this labor was a VBAC, so he gave me just a little bit of the drug at a time, monitoring me extensively. It wasn't until I was at the maximum level he was comfortable with (level 3) that the pitocin finally kick-started some regular contractions, and progression continued.

I had been so excited to find that my doctor, Dr. Wagner, was on call Saturday night all through the night, but sadly I did not deliver in time for him to be there. After being awake for over 24 hours, he graciously stayed at the hospital for an extra 3 hours after his shift ended, hoping he could deliver me. But at that point I was just starting the pitocin, and things were not moving very quickly. So Dr. Wagner had to go home, and I wound up having a different doctor deliver Graham, Dr. Beckwith. She did a great job, but it was disappointing not to have Dr. Wagner, who had been so patient and helpful throughout the night!

Finally FINALLY it was time to push. I was very tired at this point, though I had snatched little snoozes between contractions throughout the night. Dr. Beckwith wasn't available right away, so they had me wait to push for a while until she was able to come. (Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but man...it was hard to be patient in that moment!) Once we were all set up, it only took about five minutes to push him out. (I was ready!!) And he was beautiful. What a sweet moment.