People always ask me where I came up with Griffin's name. "Is it from Griffindor? Harry Potter?" No. I heard it on a morning talk show. Some actor named his son Griffin and they were calling him 'Finn" for short. I intended to do that, but we never have. He is always Griffin, Scott after my grandfather.
I anticipated Griffin's birth to be fast...No one told me that with baby 3, it could go either way...
Erik was 7 hours, Will was 3 hours, so it goes to stand that the next would be...
1 1/2?
Well that didn't happen! He was 13 hours coming! Now I realize for some that is a small amount of time, but not for me. I don't remember exactly when it started, but when my contractions were 5 min apart we went to the hospital. Sometime in the evening...
They didn't have a birthing room for me, as they were full, so they kept us all night in an extra room on the surgical side where they usually hold C section patients. So here we were all night long, ...I might as well have stayed home, but I was making some progress with the contractions I was having, so they kept me. I was dilating with those contractions, but they weren't painful, not really. My water hadn't broke (It never does, we know now!) so pain level was OK. I kept telling them, break my water and get this going!! But they wouldn't because they had no rooms!! Finally around 4 am I got a birthing room! It was right next to the labor tub, so I soaked in that for a while, but preferred the shower in my room. I spent alot of time in there, so Mike tells me. Eventually they broke my water. Yes- that's when it got intense... I needed to dilate more, so the nurse had me rotating every 15 min. from left side, to all fours, to right side, back, etc... This was to supposed to help him 'spiral' down into my canal more. It worked. I bet the doctors got quite a kick out of seeing my 'moon' when they walked in, as I was on all fours in that bed!! Nice picture huh?
Come 7a at change of shift, I was asking for some pain meds...that never came. Little did I know that was the transition time. With in a short period of time I was pushing and they were scrambling to find the OB. So the doctor I labored with all night, was not the one who delivered him. Such an odd concept to me... However my nurse stayed and I pushed for an hour. Mike said he was doing the 'Superman' pose with his arms as he was coming out. I remember singing to Griffin the ABC song from across the room, as the nurse left him under the warmer and naked to go get supplies. We were alone, because Mike had gone for coffee. Griffin started crying and felt helpless to get him, so I thought If he heard my voice he would settle. So the nurse comes back in and I'm singing the ABC's. I actually was a little embarrassed. William was almost 2 so it was a song I sang alot and thought he might be familiar with it from hearing in utero. The nurse bragged about me to the other nurses that came in to help clean up, how uncomplicated his birth was. Meaning no pain meds, no epidural, no Pitocin... The OB tried to give me a Pitocin shot after he was born, but I refused. he was upset about that and said "We'll try without it but after baby 3 your uterus will be boggy. The nurse will have to come in and do alot of fundal massage. if it doesn't work, you'll need it..." That stuff is bad news!! It feels like its wringing your insides out! Was I fine? yes! The nurse did have do massage, and I did it too. Breastfeeding helps contract that uterus too, so I put him to the breast asap. I regret that I didn't nurse him longer. By 7 mo he was weaned. I was working part time in the Peds Ed and wasn't pumping enough, so my supply went down and it was too convenient to just give a bottle. Plus he was looking every which way when I nursed and never stayed on long. I still didn't know enough about breastfeeding... Just because a baby looks around alot doesn't mean they don't want you anymore. You just need to have a strategy. At 5 mo I flew with him and Erik to California to visit my sister Betsy and that decreased my supply too. I gave bottles instead of nursing more to build up my supply. Griffin was a beautiful baby with big blue eyes and lots of dark hair. Stay tuned for more adventures in childbearing....
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