A Birth Story-Dylan Richard Stefanic

As promised in my previous post, I am here to tell you most of the details of the birth of Dylan!

It was a typical Thursday It was September 11, 2008, a beautiful day in Northern Michigan, but I think everyone in America thought of the events of September 11, 2001.  I know I did.  However, I got up as usual and went to my part time corporate job as a bookkeeper for a charter aviation company.  I was busy working, talking to my boss who happened to stop in for a few minutes, when my son-in-law who also works there as an airplane mechanic, came in and informed us that Trisha was having contractions 20 minutes apart.  She was calling her mid-wife and Ben was waiting to hear back from Trisha what the mid-wife had to say.  A few minutes later, Trisha called and said the mid-wife said to just stay at home for now, unless the contractions get closer together and stronger.  They weren't very painful yet.  Well of course Ben and I couldn't concentrate on work any longer so our boss said we could go.  I went over to Ben and Trisha's and just hung out.  This was about 11:45 or noon-ish. 

About 2:00 the midwife called back because she hadn't heard anything from Trisha.  Contractions were still about the same.  The midwife said she wanted Trisha to come in so she could see what was going on. So, Ben's dad came over and got Ethan (their almost 2 year old).  I headed to Jeff's office to pick him up because we had ridden in to work together.  When we got back to B & T's, I got in the car with them and headed for Petoskey, while Jeff headed home.  Karlie was at school, and Jeff was going to wait to see what the midwife said before he got Karlie out of school.  T planned on Karlie being in the delivery room for the birth.

When we arrived at the Dr's office, they checked her cervix right away and she was dilated to 6 cm and 70% effaced. Then they hooked her up to the fetal heart monitor to see how the baby was doing and monitor the contractions.  She was having contractions a little closer together now, but still not very strong or painful.  So, the midwife gave her her options: She could go home with the chances greatly being she'd have to turn right around and come back or they could admit her, break her water and go from there.  Trisha really wanted to stay and have the baby, so she chose the second option.

Just as the decision was being made, Jeff called to see what was going on.  So, he waited for Karlie to get home from school as it was about 3:30 now.  Ben, Trisha and I headed for the OB dept. They checked her in, put her in a gown and pretty quickly the midwife came in and popped her water (about 4:00).  They then had her get up and do some walking around and some nipple rolls to stimulate the uterus.  Karlie had arrived by then, and she and I waited in the room while B, T and the midwife were out walking.

After about 1/2 an hour they came back in the room and Trisha was in active labor.  You could now see the pain in her face when the contractions came and they were much closer together.  Trisha laid on the birthing bed and didn't move from it until Dylan was born.

After just a couple of hours of "hard" labor, the midwife checked her and said the baby's head was right there so she could start pushing.  She pushed just a few times (not nearly as much as she did with Ethan) and out came his little head.  I noticed the umbilical cord was over the top of his head and wrapped around his neck.  They immediately unwrapped it and then they let Trisha continue to push him out the rest of the way.

The baby was born at 6:44 pm, weighing in at 7 lbs. 3 oz and 19 3/4 inches long.  But we didn't find that out till later.  After Trisha delivered the placenta, the midwife noticed she was bleeding continuously and not from the uterus.  So she had Karlie and I leave the room "for just a couple of minutes". After about 1/2 an hour, I headed back toward the room Trisha was in, but was stopped by the midwife.  She said it was going to be a few more minutes.  Of course I was getting worried. Ben's parents, Ben's brother and his wife, my mom, Jeff, Karlie and I were all in the waiting room, waiting to hear what was going on.  And we were all starving.  So, we called Pizza Hut and Jeff went and got some pizza. Still no word.  This time Karlie and I went to the room again, only to be stopped again.  We went back to the waiting room and after I don't even know how long, the midwife finally came in and told us what was going on.  The baby had knicked her cervix on his way out so they had to have a surgeon come in to stitch it up.  She said it was just a small knick requiring only a stitch or two. 

So, finally after a few minutes again, they said we could go in.  Of course as soon as we got in there, they chased us out and made us wait in the hallway by the door.  Ben came and got Ethan first so they could have some family alone time.  We waited patiently for that and then it was our turn to go in. 

Trisha was a little loopy from the drugs they gave her while they stitched her up, but she was doing well, and so was the baby. 

Then the nurse came in and wanted to bathe the baby (who still didn't have a name at this point) and I got some photos of the bath.  They got him all cleaned up and then we all headed to the room where Trisha would spend the rest of her hospital stay.  We stayed only a few minutes because now it was like 10 pm or something like that and everyone was tired. 

Baby still didn't have a name.

The next morning, we got up around 11 and headed to the hospital.  We were meeting Ben's parents there so we could take Ethan for the night until T got out of the hospital. 

Baby still didn't have a name when we arrived, nor did he have one that whole day.  Finally, on Saturday, two days after his birth, Trisha and Ben had to decide on a name for the birth certificate.  So he was named Dylan Richard Stefanic. Dylan is just cute and Richard is after Ben's dad's middle name and Trisha's dad. And Dylan goes with Ethan really well-ha!

So, now 9 days later, things are going pretty well.  Trisha is doing just fine, losing her baby belly quite nicely and Dylan is gaining weight well and nursing really well, which Trisha is excited about.  Ethan is tongue tied so he didn't ever latch on very well.  Dylan has been a little jaundicy so they had his bilirubin checked and he's been wrapped in a bili blanket for the last few days.  Trisha had him checked yesterday, and his bilirubin count went down 2 steps so he's doing better, but they want him to be wrapped in the blanket over the weekend and go in for another check on Monday.