Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Lazar: Birth Story

After my doctor's appointment last Monday (Nov. 5th) I headed to my mom's to celebrate her birthday along with my sister Jelena by going to the mall for some shopping and lunch.  I arrived at my mom's and told her I had some back pain but didn't think anything of it since I was 39 weeks pregnant and the extra weight just does that.  I took some tylenol and to the mall we went.  I sometimes caught myself pausing while shopping to deal with a dull back pain that would come and go.  I still thought, nah.  We had ourselves some lunch and then did some more shopping.  At this point I was getting a little uncomfortable.  I left early to get some rest at home.

As the night progressed there was no doubt what was happening.  I was so tired and all I wanted to do was a take a nap.  Well, that did not happen.  When I had Maksim my water broke first and we headed straight to the hospital.  By the time the contractions came on I was already hooked up to some fentanyl to take the edge off the contraction pains.  So, the labor I had with Maksim was completely different and so much easier.  We called my mom to come to our house to stay with Maksim.  We left for the hospital at midnight because at that point I didn't care if the contractions were not close enough apart I just knew I could not take the pain anymore.  No position, breathing technique, massage, etc helped. All I knew is it hurt and it was excruciating.  Once admitted to triage they said I came in at a good time and I was ready to go to the labor room since I was 5-6 cm dilated already. What felt like a lifetime I finally got my fentanyl and boy did it make me feel better. The contractions really hurt but the fentanyl did take the edge off and made me feel dizzy/high.  The epideral came not to long after that and then I thought yes! I get to take a nap like I did with Maksim.  30 minutes in and pop! by water broke (or burst I should say) on its own. Then I was ready to go but was told to hold the baby in until the on call doctor came.  I mean really?  Hold it?  Finally she came and was in there for all about what felt like 10 minutes.  The birth was messy from Stan and my sister's account who were both there to support me.  Jelena even got a little dizzy and felt faint.  She held her breathe too long when they would instruct me to push.  She totally did it subconsciously. I pushed for no more than 10 minutes. The birth was a bloody and fluidy mess from Stan and Jelena's accounts or at least compared to the birth I had with Maksim.  

Lazar Krimerman came into the world at 3:21am on November 6th, 2012 weighing in at 8.1 lb and 21 inches long.   He was able to latch on and eat right away.  He seemed to love the sponge bath the nurse gave him.  This time around I am way more sore which wasn't totally unexpected.  I guess it didn't help that I tore.  All the pain and fatigue was worth it when I look at little Lazar.  Now that I had him I feel like our family is complete.  That desire to have a "girl" is gone.   I am pretty sure we are good with two kids.  After this first week I realized I am way more calm but that probably comes with experience.  Calm or not it's crazy hard with so little sleep.  A toddler and a new baby are hard to manage. Luckily we have lots of family help and Maksim isn't too jealous.   Maksim has done a few things to get more attention like trying to put on the baby's hat, going into his crib, and even taking the pacifier to his mouth.  It's really cute because he likes to show people "his" baby and he wants to constantly kiss him too.  It melts my heart.  

How did we come up with the name Lazar?  We have been asked this lots.  We wanted something slavic once again.  I asked family members to give us suggestions and my mom helped on this one.  The name is abbreviated form of Lazarus and its both Russian and Serbian though not all that common these days.  What really hooked us is that it is also goes back to the Hebrew name El'azar which means "God has helped."  Russian, Serbian, and Hebrew.....we had a winner!  Plus we thought it sounded pretty cool.  He has big expectations with a name like that.

Love,
First Gen Fam

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