Angela, Thomas, and I are pleased to announce the birth of our new son Alexander Kye Swienton! Alexander was born on Friday evening, August 5th, 2005 at 9:21pm and weighed 7lbs 13 ounces (oops - this used to read 9lbs - my bad!) and was 21 inches long.
I’ve been very busy the past few days with the hospital visit, visits with all our friends and family, and posting pictures on our website; that I’m just now getting around to writing about our “Alexander experience”. The following is more for the benefit of Angela and I, so we can remember all the details of Alex’s birth, and it is very lengthy. So, be fore warned before you start reading it! :) You can skip straight to all the pictures by going here.
Our due date for Alexander was Aug. 9th, but our doctor had scheduled Angela for an inducement on Friday Aug 5th. Angela and I were pleased with this decision for a couple of reasons:
- She really wanted this baby to come - It’s not easy being pregnant!
- We wanted to make sure our regular doctor, Dr. McAlpine, delivered this baby for us. With Thomas, Dr, McAlpine wasn’t the doctor that delivered him and it wasn’t the best experience for Angela or I (the on call doctor was pretty bad). Dr. McAlpine was going to be on call all week-end, so we would be assured that he would deliver Alexander.
The downside of the inducement is that it was scheduled for 6am, and we all know how I am not much of a morning person.
We woke early and arrived at the hospital at 6:10am. The nurse took us directly to our room to get us settled in and to fill out all our paperwork. Angela was happy as we got the exact room that she wanted without even have to ask for it (that was lucky as there are ~18 birthing rooms at this hospital). With Thomas, we got “stuck” with a slightly smaller room without a couch and I had to sleep on this crappy little chair that folded out into a bed.
At 8am, they gave Angela an IV and started her on the pitocin (this is what will cause Angela to start having her contractions).
At 9am, Dr, McAlpine arrived to check on Angela and he broke her water. Our nurse told us there was a chance of meconium – this meant that the baby had its first bowel movement in the womb instead of having it after birth, which can lead to the baby having an infection of the lungs. The nurse didn’t make it seem like it was that unordinary, so things seemed to be going well and I was thinking that we would deliver the baby by 2 or 3pm – was I sure wrong about that.
Between 10am and noon the nurse gradually increased the pitocin drip rate and Angela’s contractions were getting stronger and more frequent. During this time Angela was starting to feel the pain of the contractions and I was at her side more often to help comfort her. At this point she decided that she was ready for the epidural.
The Anesthesiologist arrived and started prepping Angela for the epidural. As he was cleaning off her back he asked me if I was related to Greg Swienton. I told him that he was my dad. He kinda chuckled and made a comment about this being a small world. It turns out that he purchased my parents old house at Mira Vista. “Small World”, indeed. This, of course, got us talking about my parent’s old house and kept our minds temporarily off of the epidural procedure. The rest of the epidural did not go as smoothly.
The doctor was ready to start and inserted the needle in Angela and she quickly responded with some “ouch’s”. He apologized and gave her another numbing shot. He then worked on the epidural catheter and told Angela that she should feel a tingling in her leg. The tingling she felt was quite a bit more and she felt like her whole leg was being shocked and she could not control its movements. She told this to the doctor who quickly started to remove the catheter. I was watching everything the doctor was doing (Angela was sitting down facing me and I was supporting her as she leaned forward as far as she could) and I guess it was a little too much for me as my stomach started to feel sick, then I felt extremely hot, and then I felt like there was a lot of pressure in my head and my vision started to turn red. I have never fainted before, but I recognized that I was about to do so, so I blurted out “I think I’m going to faint”. The nurse instructed me to sit down with my head between my legs. After about 10 seconds I felt fine again and returned to helping Angela, this time kneeling in front of her, and not locking my knees and without watching the doctor and his large needles! I know I’m going to get some “ribbing” from my friends for almost passing out, but at least I didn’t faint! The doctor explained that the needle had been inserted properly, but that the catheter had a kink in it and needed to be redone. The doctor then tried 5 more times to get the epidural in – with every time producing the same result – more pain for Angela and no epidural in yet. At this point the doctor had run out of supplies and had to open up a new epidural kit. This gave Angela a little time to rest and recuperate from the failed attempts. After a few more minutes the doctor started up again and we had 4 more failed attempts. Each attempt seemed to cause more pain to Angela – she was in tears and had starting saying a little prayer before each attempt in hopes that the epidural would finally go in. And I forgot to mention that during all these failed attempts Angela is still having her contractions that were getting stronger by the minute, and did not make the situation any easier. This was pretty hard for me to watch and not be able to do much to help her out. We quickly started to realize this was not the usual epidural. Our nurse started to tear up and the doctor was apologizing to us letting us know that this was turning out to be an extremely difficult epidural. We decided that Angela needed another break and we did not know what we should do next. Obviously, Angela could not take much more of this, if at all, and I know we were both concerned about complications that could arise. We had been trying for about ~40 minutes and Angela was completely in tears because of the pain she was in and she was faced with either more epidural attempts or having to go thru with the rest of the birth without an epidural. We asked the doctor about any risks from so many attempts and he assured us that there was no greater risk from multiple attempts as opposed to one and that he would keep trying as long as we wanted. Angela asked if there was another anesthesiologist on duty, hoping that some else might have better luck. He said that he was sorry and the he was the only one on duty. We hope he didn’t take offense to us asking, but she figured it was worth the chance to at least ask, especially since the epidural with Thomas took only one try. Angela decided that she could give it one last try and thankfully the doctor got this one in quickly and the epidural procedure was finally done. This was a great relief to Angela as the epidural quickly kicked in and she was able to relax. I ended up taking a picture of Angela’s back on Saturday and counted 11 separate holes from failed epidural attempts – needless to say her back was quite sore the next few days.
After making sure that Angela was doing ok again I stepped out of the room to make a call to a friend to let him know an update on how things were going. When I came back to the room 15 minutes later I find the nurse in the room and Angela has an oxygen mask on. I wondered what had happened in the short time that I was gone and find out that Angela started to feel nauseous and queasy. She called for the nurse and it turns out that she was having a reaction to the epidural and her blood pressure had dropped really low - it was now in the 70’s. They called in another nurse who took her off the pitocin and administered some drugs to help with the low blood pressure. This helped Angela feel better, but was disappointing because taking her off of the pitocin stopped her contractions and she had to wear the oxygen mask up till the actual delivery as baby’s heart rate was dropping without the extra oxygen.
After an hour or so, they decided it was ok to put Angela back on the pitocin. During the time that had passed, Angela had almost completely stopped with the contractions, so we knew that the low blood pressure incident had pushed back the inducement process by at least a couple of hours – arrghh :(
The rest of the evening was passing by slowly and without any further events. It was now 8:30pm and my parents arrived with Thomas as well as my sister Ellen and my brother-in-law Chris and their baby Gregory. Since Angela could not eat any food until after the baby was delivered, I had decided to skip on dinner too and wait to eat with her. At the time, I was not thinking that we would go this far into the day without having delivered the baby yet. At any rate, I was really hungry and my mom and Angela suggested that Chris take me to go get something to eat. Angela was only dilated to a 4 the last time they checked her (about 4:30)and things seemed to be moving slow, so I agreed to go grab a quick bite. It was 8:35pm when we left the hospital and we went down the street to a local BBQ restaurant, unaware that Alex would be arriving in less than an hour. I had just ordered and they were asking me what sides I wanted when my cell phone rang – uh-oh, it was Angela calling. All I can remember from that call is her saying “why aren’t you at a fast food restaurant?!” and “I’ve started pushing get back her now!”. Looking back, it was kinda funny as when I got off the phone I told the lady serving the side dished to “make that a to-go order!” and the people working there started congratulating me after Chris told them I was about to have a new son. It felt like I was in a movie where the dad has to rush back to the hospital!
I made it back in to the hospital at 8:48, only gone 13 minutes - whew! When I came back to the room the nurse had already started the delivery pushing and I was quickly told to help out. After only 10 minutes of pushing, we could see the head and the nurse told us to stop as we waited for Dr. McAlpine to arrive. The whole delivery team (minus Dr. McApline) then arrived and got everything prepped for the delivery. I made sure to have the camera and camcorder ready and close by so I could capture the first moments of Alex’s life. Our nurse also told us what to expect with the meconium. She said to not be worried if the baby does not cry out when he is born, as his lungs and throat could be filled with fluids. Also, there would be a chance that they would quickly take him over to the warming tray to fix the problems caused by the meconium and that they might have to take him straight away to the nursery. But, not to worry as the nursery nurse on duty was excellent and we would be in good hands. Although they tell you not to worry, there was a 5 minute period before the delivery started, where our minds had time to digest what they were telling us. Obviously, this is very scray for us as parents and we hoped and prayed that things would go well. She also let me know that I probably wouldn’t get to cut the umbilical cord because of complications from the meconium. This was disappointing to me as the doctor that delivered Thomas didn’t even ask me to cut the umbilical cord.
Dr. McApline then arrived and went to immediately get his scrubs on after quickly checking on us and realizing this baby was going to come soon! As soon as he got back, Angela started to push again and the head was hastily starting to come out. Dr. McApline asked Angela to slow down and hold off on the pushing as the head was almost all the way out. But, Alex was not concerned with slowing down and his head suddenly came out. The doctor took hold of his head and his shoulders and the rest of his body came out in seconds. He quickly took a nose sucker and cleaned out Alex’s throat and nose of fluids. After doing so, Alex let out his first cry! This was encouraging and Dr. McApline asked me if I wanted to cut the umbilical cord – yeah! It took a couple of snips to cut thru it – I wasn’t expecting the cord to be that tough and sturdy. It was amazing how fast all of this progressed – the actual active delivery with Dr. McAlpine lasted only 30-45 seconds. They then gave Alexander to the nursery specialist who, after cleaning him off and giving him the Apgar tests (he passed with a flying 9.9!), proclaimed that Alex was in perfect health and our meconium fears subsided.
While Angela was being attended to, I was able to grab some great photos and video of Alex’s first moments. I then went out to the waiting room and got to tell my family that there was a new healthy boy in the family! I brought Thomas back to the room with me so that he could meet his new baby brother. He was so excited to meet him and Angela and I were glad that Alex wasn’t born any later in the evening; otherwise Thomas wouldn’t get to meet him until Saturday. Thomas was very happy that mommy was doing well and he got to give Alex his first hugs and kisses and declared that he was a ”Big Brother” now! We had another surprise for Thomas and told him that baby brother had brought him a present. This was a great idea that Angela had so that Thomas would feel welcomed by Alex and that he wasn’t going to be second fiddle to Alex. I got out his present and Thomas ripped them apart to find that Alex got him a Woody and Buzz Lightyear doll (Thomas is a huge Toy Story fan). Thomas was on cloud nine – he had his new dolls and a new baby brother! After a couple of minutes of special time with Thomas, I went back to get my parents and Chris and Ellen. While they were meeting Alex for the first time I made the calls to the rest of our family who were eagerly awaiting good news after waiting all day.
My parents then took Thomas home while Angela fed Alex for the first time. My mom and sister brought us back our first meal, Whataburger, which we devoured while Thomas was taken to the nursery. After we finished eating, it was time for Alex’s first bath, which I captured on video. He spent the entire time screaming his little lungs out – poor guy. But he settled down and fell asleep as soon as the nurse wrapped him up and laid him down. I headed back to the room where Angela and I were finally alone and asking each other if we could believe that we just brought another child into the world! It was now well after midnight and finally time to get some much needed sleep!