Baby H: PRH Birth Story pt 2

Miss part one? Go here.

We finally made it to the check in desk in labor and delivery and I started filling out the little bit of paperwork and immediately got another contraction. I couldn't talk or stand still, was trying to concentrate on my breathing while gripping the edge of the counter. I'm not sure what the reasoning was (a slow night on L&D, a nurse with a good eye for someone in active labor, etc etc) but we were able to completely skip the triage room and got put directly into a labor room which I was so thankful for. On our short walk to our room we made sure to mentioned that I for sure wanted an epidural and to get the process started on that because of what a disaster it was with Mark trying to get one in a hurry. We also explained to my nurse that my first labor was under 7 hours and it was seeming like this one was taking the fast track as well.

Once in the room I was given a gown to which I immediately started changing into, before my nurse even walked out of the room. I think this was a sign to her that things were moving quickly! I finally got into bed to be hooked up to the monitors and she checked me for the first time. I'll never forget what she said, "Well... hmm, if I round DOWN then you're at a 9 and a half. I can only feel the tiniest bit of cervix in one place" Holy crap! Again, for the second time, I had progressed completely on my own.

At this point it seemed like word of my speedy delivery (and current progress) spread quickly because everyone started working at rapid pace. A nurse came in to start setting up the labor cart. My nurse drew my blood and hooked up my IV. She put a Stat order on my CBC because we couldn't start the epidural until the results were back and even called down to the lab to make sure they saw the order. The anesthesiologist came in and was brought up to speed about my history and everything going on and started my consent paperwork before the labs were done. Between the two of them things got taken care of so quickly and for that I'm so thankful. The anesthesiologist already had me draped and sterile before the results were in so that once she got the go-ahead (and I finished my contraction) she could boogie. Once I gave her the okay to start, she worked so quickly even saying she felt like she was holding her breath she was moving so fast. She gave me a bolus of meds through the catheter instead of immediately hooking up the pump system because that would take longer and I needed some relief. Two boluses later things were starting to change from pain to pressure and I gave a huge sigh of relief. In terms of timing, the orders for my labs were placed at 8:20pm and my epidural was finished by 8:50pm.

My contractions at this point were coming basically on top of each other and baby boy wasn't really liking them. So I was told to lay on one side to see if that helped which thankfully it did. A few contractions later and I was having the insane urge to push (which by the way blows my mind that the body just does that all on its own!) so we decided to do a few practice pushes. Two contractions and four pushes with J and my nurse and we decided to wait so we weren't catching a baby without a doc there. The on-call doc had been notified I was there and at this point the next step for me would be to break my water so she was called. J likes to say that she's a magic doc because she broke my water from the doorway when in reality my water broke on its own thanks to one really big contraction just as she was walking in. She introduced herself to J and I and started getting dressed. A nurse warned her that we hadn't done much pushing yet so she might not want to totally gown up yet so she told me to do one set of pushes with the next contraction so she could see what we were working with. Well one contraction with three pushes later and baby boy was here!

Patrick was born at 2116 on April 16th, 2016. Just under three hours after leaving his daddy's surprise party and 15 days early. We like to think he just wanted to join in on the fun! And I don't blame him.

This time around my new baby boy was placed directly on my chest and it was such a magical experience. I got to lay eyes on him, wrap my arms around him the moment he was born, stroke his hair and soft skin. It was so redeeming for me. And the coolest part of it all for this med school momma? I got to cut his cord! The nurses worked to dry him off and get a diaper on him while he hung out with his momma. In fact they didn't take him at all until after we had gotten our first feed in.

His APGAR scores were 9's and they told us he weighed 6#3oz and was 18.5 inches long. Unfortunately there was a bit of a mix-up with his birth weight and we don't actually know what he was at birth. When they did his 24hr check for jaundice, etc they weighed him a second time and he was 6#8oz which didn't make any sense. There was no way he gained weight in his first day. It turns out the scale in our original room was off. On discharge day he weighed 6#5oz so they estimate he was somewhere between 6# 10-12oz. For baby book purposes we're going with 6#10oz as his birth weight but it's strange to not really know.

We stayed in the hospital two nights until Monday afternoon and it was such a different hospital stay than with Mark. The first time around it felt like we were constantly getting help from the staff, nurses, docs, lactation consultants, etc. But this time it felt like we were just hanging out by ourselves with our new baby boy. Whether this is because Patrick is an easier baby or we had the experience under our belts already I'm not sure but it almost felt like a vacation. We snuggled in bed, watched movies, fed around the clock and watched the snow continue to fall outside. Both grandmas made multiple appearances to see the newest addition and most special of all was Mark coming to meet his baby brother. It's a moment I'll never forget even if Mark was more interested in baby brother's duck and the snacks in the diaper bag!

We were cleared for discharge around noon on Monday so after ordering one last meal from the hospital and doing one more round of checks from both our doctors we were headed home. The transition to a family of four has going fantastically so far and we are so thankful for our littlest boy. Thanks for making me a momma for the second time, Patrick Reece. I love you past the moon!

Baby H: PRH Birth Story pt 1

Patrick Reece was born on April 16, 2016 at 9:16pm. His birth was not what I was expecting by any means and just like his big brother, my labor with him tested my strength, my patience, my heart. But the moment we laid eyes on him we were smitten.

There's a bunch of back story here that plays into his birth that I need to catch up on before we get to his actual birthday. The week before he was born I had two doctors appointments. The first ended up with me going on the monitors to watch his heart beat because his baseline was lower than what my doc wanted to see. Everything checked out great with him though and at the end of my appointment we discussed my crazy school schedule and ended up setting an induction date for one week before my due date, April 24th. It worked best with my schedule to be induced that day and technically he was "fully cooked" but there was part of me that didn't like the idea of an induction. We decided that we'd put it on the calendar but wait to decide 100% until after my next appointment which included my first cervical check. It made a big difference if I was making any progress on my own or not as to whether we'd go through with the induction. At my next appointment I was 3cm and 75% effaced and my doc said "goodness you have a great cervix" which is only something you appreciate at the end of a pregnancy, haha, so we kept the induction date assuming I didn't go into labor on my own before then. I felt good about the decision that we wouldn't be forcing my body into something it wasn't ready for and got excited knowing little brother's potential birth date.

The second part of this story involves J's birthday. My due date was May 1st and J's big 30th birthday is May 7th. Obviously I felt horrible that our little ones "newness" would come in the way of celebrating his big day so I decided to plan him a surprise party 3 weeks before his actual birthday. And I scheduled it on April 16th. Because Mark was early I wanted to make sure I gave us a big enough window before my due date so that the party didn't get ruined. Well party day came and I was woken up at 4:30am with my first real contraction. I knew something was up because it was strong enough to wake me and I had to concentrate through the next few that came in those early morning hours. I remember thinking to myself, "No way, I cannot go into labor today. Everyone is coming to the party and it'll be such a fun celebration for J. We can't not go!" Oh and I forgot to mention that it was also a blizzard outside that entire weekend. Yes, silly Colorado spring predicted 8-12 inches of snow the weekend of J's party.

I kept having irregular contractions throughout the day but nothing consistent. I'd have a few in a row and then nothing for an hour or so. I ended up having to tell J what was going on because some of them were strong enough for him to notice my reaction to them. I tried to downplay them at some points because I knew it would be impossible for me to convince J to get out of the house for his party already. A 4:30pm super early dinner at a very specific restaurant while it was pouring snow and I was having crazy contractions? Yeah, he would have thought I was crazy. Well we ended up at the restaurant at the right time without him suspecting anything and it was the perfect surprise! He had no idea it was coming which made me so happy. The party was so fun, all our family and friends were there despite the weather, we enjoyed lots of yummy snacks and drinks and some delicious cake. And I kept having contractions. I tried to sit as much as I could and drank lots of water while trying to hide what was going on because honestly, I wasn't convinced it was really anything serious.

We got in the car to head home around 6:30pm and on the 10 minute drive home I had a number of contractions that felt stronger than they had before. I even told J "I sure hope I didn't put myself into labor throwing you this party" and at the time, I was totally joking. We got home and I told J I was going to lay down with a big glass of water and try to relax to make things settle down while he put Mark to bed. All my efforts did nothing to calm things down though and I ended up texting him as he's reading to Mark that I thought this was the real deal. My contractions were 3-5min apart and were getting more and more painful as they progressed. He ended up rushing through Mark's bedtime routine and coming downstairs to check on me where he realized this was serious. To add an additional complication, our plan was to have my mom come stay at our house with Mark at night but because of the snow, she was staying with a friend on the other side of town closer to her work meaning she couldn't get to our house for a good 30-40 minutes. And we knew there wasn't time to wait. Thankfully one of J's really close friends lives just minutes from us and was able to come over to be with Mark while he slept so we could jump in the car. At this point it was 7:50pm.

After a slippery but quick drive to the hospital J pulled up at the main entrance where he dropped me off so I could start making my way to labor and delivery and avoid the snowstorm while he parked the car. Knowing how strong my contractions were already I tried to move as quick as I could to avoid having too many contractions in random public places. I ended up having to stop once in the lobby then booked it to the elevator and had another one just outside the elevator doors on the L & D floor once I made it upstairs. J met up with me at this point and we made it the last bit through the doors to check in.

Part two coming tomorrow...

Baby H: MJH Birth Story pt 2

Miss part one? Go here.

Once we finally made it to labor and delivery and quickly got checked in at the nurses station we were headed to a triage room to make sure that this was really happening. More of a technicality than anything else because I for sure knew this baby boy was on his way out. The nurse hooked me up to the monitors as I tried to lay in bed writhing in pain with each contraction. She checked me and I was between 5-6cm, up from 3cm five days before at my doctors appointment. It was confirmed that I was indeed in labor and I started the journey down the hall to our labor room. I glanced at the clock and it was 10:15pm.

Keeping in pace with the rest of the evening, once we got to my actual room things just kept on ramping up. I had gone into this whole thing not sure what to expect in terms of pain and what I wanted to do as far as meds were concerned. I didn't want to go into it assuming I would get an epidural because I had never experienced it before while on the other hand there wasn't a single part of me that felt bad or ashamed or less strong for wanting meds. I wanted to play it by ear with that part of labor and by the time I made it into the room I was already asking for an epidural. Epidurals however require an IV to be started and labs to be drawn before the anesthesiologist can begin. I literally couldn't even sit down during contractions which were coming only minutes apart at this point and it took every square inch of me to hold still long enough (while standing up, mind you) for my nurse to be able to put in the IV line and draw my blood. Then she gave me the worst news, it would be about 30 minutes for the labs to come back.

I literally almost lost it. There was no way I was going to be able to wait 30 more minutes. My contractions were stronger than ever at this point, I was already feeling the unstoppable urge to push and I was about to give in, things were getting so rough. There was one contraction in particular where I didn't even know what to do with my body and I told J I couldn't do it anymore. I asked for a birthing ball because we had learned in our birth class it can be comfortable. My nurse went running from the room to get one for me, I sat down and immediately stood up. That wasn't going to work. I tried sitting on the bed, I tried squatting on the floor, I tried bending over, clutching J's hand, shaking my legs, anything I could think of. My nurse became my biggest advocate at this point. She called the anesthesiologist seeing if she would start even without labs since I was healthy and had no pregnancy complications. No dice. I swear she must have stood at that computer continuously hitting refresh for my labs because finally, about 15 or 20 minutes later the anesthesiologist walked in with her glorious cart and started to prep me. Knowing that sweet relief was coming was like someone else took over my body as I sat completely still with my back rounded allowing her to work her magic when just minutes before I could have run around the room like a chicken with it's head cut off. I felt the coolness in my back and knew it would be better from here on. Time check was 11:20pm.

The first few contractions were still fairly painful but each one became progressively weaker and lasted a shorter amount of time.  I had 3 contractions after the epidural was in place before my nurse checked me again. I was complete. And I think I might have cursed in disbelief when she said that. Essentially I had progressed to active labor ready to push completely on my own without medication.

From then on it was time to move this baby down and out. I was thankfully able to still feel the pressure of each contraction and would look at J to tell him I was ready each time I felt a new one rising. With the help of my nurse and the constant encouragement from my husband we made progress towards meeting our son. Between the epidural, my hormones and the adrenaline rushing through my body I had shakes like I've never had before. J asked me why I was so freezing at one point and I told him I was sweating and that I couldn't help but shake. At one point they were worried about baby's heart rate and ended up attaching a monitor to the top of his head (which I had no idea they could do) since it seemed like the external monitor wasn't picking things up correctly. Once we were close the OB covering for my usual one came into the room and helped bring our sweet, sweet boy into the world.

Mark was born at 0049 on September 25th, 2014. Just six and a half hours after I thought I might be having real contractions. The nurses and OB jokingly told us that we need to head to the hospital immediately for baby #2 with the pace that my first labor decided to take.

I'm not sure if it was because his cord was around his neck or just because of a miscommunication and the lack of my regular OB but he wasn't placed directly on my chest like I originally wanted him to be. This was my only negative feeling towards my labor experience as a whole and thankfully we quickly demanded that I have him and the nurses placed him on my chest in one of the best moments of my life. J and I were completely smitten by him. He weighed a tiny 7lbs 3oz which was much littler than we thought he would be based on u/s estimates. His APGAR scores were 8 and 9 and he was the most perfect little thing we'd ever seen.

We spent the rest of the early morning visiting with the eager and ever doting grandmas who made their appearance at 3am just to meet this sweet little boy. I was still hyped up with energy from labor itself but we finally were able to get some rest as the morning progressed. Mark slept in the bed with me the entire first day as I couldn't fathom giving him up, not smelling his brand-new skin and stroking his dark head of hair.

We stayed in the hospital until Saturday and took full advantage of having so many nurses and docs around to get advice from. Breast feeding started off well, the pediatrician came by each morning and told us that he was as healthy as can be, he passed his hearing test with flying colors and even got his first bath while daddy watched. We definitely had our tough moments as we were given a pretty high-needs baby it seems making these sleep deprived new parents quite at a loss. Add in a few shifts of unhelpful nurses and we were feeling pretty defeated. Thankfully our last nurse, Sandy, was a godsend and turned our world upside-down with all her help and advice and patience and just general goodness.

We left the hospital around 2pm on Saturday afternoon with our precious bundle of joy ready to start on the adventure that is parenthood. Becoming this little boys momma early that Thursday morning was one of the most fantastic moments I have ever had. Mark was ready to meet the world in rapid fashion and we can't wait to see what the rest of his life brings.

Baby H: MJH Birth Story pt 1

Mark Jameson was born on September 25th, 2014 at 12:49 am. His birth was completely different than I expected it to be, surpassed my expectations about what my first labor would be like and challenged me in ways I never knew possible. He sure had a mind of his own, this little boy of ours, and his birth story shows just that.

I was 39 weeks and 2 days pregnant. I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions for quite some time that were increasing in frequency but not doing a darn thing. I was at home for the evening doing some studying upstairs in my office while J was making dinner for us when I thought I was having my first real contraction. The feeling was very different than what I was used to, it felt like a really strong period cramp throughout my entire belly and into my back. It didn't take my breath away with pain but it definitely got my attention. I finished what I was working on and headed downstairs for dinner where I proceeded to tell J that I thought I finally had a real one. This was at about 6:30pm on Wednesday night.

We ate dinner together, burgers from the grill and sweet potato fries, and I continued to have the same type of contractions. They still weren't strong enough to make me think it was really time but I ended up having to stop eating during them and just focus when they happened. After dinner I decided to start timing them. I had no other symptoms or signs that labor was imminent and the contractions were already coming at intervals less than 5 minutes apart. I was convinced at this point that it wasn't really happening yet. It was now 7:00pm.

Over the course of the next hour and a half I timed contractions that were progressively getting stronger and stronger. J and I were watching Bridesmaids on TV while I moved around, drank lots of water and eventually got to the point where I had to stop what I was doing and couldn't talk through them anymore. Contractions were averaging 3-4 minutes apart lasting about a minute each. We figured we should call the doctor at this point since this was the "typical frequency" that warranted a call. Unfortunately my OB wasn't available that night and had specifically called in one particular OB to cover for her. After speaking to her about what was going on she casually said, "come on in if you think it's time". We contemplated whether we needed to go yet. We knew this was the real deal but didn't want to be the couple that shows up way too early. So we finished packing the last minute items in our hospital bag and J took my picture which would end up being the last one with my big baby belly. Contractions were getting strong, strong enough to make me a bit concerned so we figured it was time to head out. The time was 9:15pm.

The puppy momma in me wanted to make sure that our Ollie dog was well taken care of especially since he was already on edge sensing that something was up. So I insisted to J that we grab his leash and a bowl of food and drop him off at my mom's house on our way. I told J it would just make me that much more comfortable knowing he wasn't home alone. We got in the car and let me tell you how much worse contractions are when you're stuck in a car seat not able to move or position yourself differently. We finally got to my mom's, got the dog out of the car and I told J to get to the hospital as quick as he could because I needed out of the car asap.

We pulled into the hospital parking lot at the ER entrance since it was after hours and the main doors were closed. Within ten feet of the car I had a contraction, leaned over the suitcase, breathed hard and was honestly a little bit freaked out about how quickly things were changing. I was finally able to walk again and made it through the ER and into the hospital lobby before having another contraction that was even worse than the last. I couldn't walk, couldn't talk, clenched my fists until it was over. J told me we needed to walk as quick as we could because he was worried we wouldn't make it upstairs. I had another contraction in the elevator meaning J had to hold the doors open on the 3rd floor before I was able to walk the last bit into labor and delivery.

Part two coming tomorrow....