While I was discharged on Saturday, Avery had to stick around another night. The hospital was amazing and allowed us to room in with her. Since they weren't super busy we didn't even have to switch rooms, which meant we kept the large labor and delivery room for our entire stay. I admit I wasn't as scared when the time came to pack up as I expected to be - but I did have butterflies.
We arrived here mid-afternoon and started trying to settle in a bit. We've set up camp downstairs using the pack n play as her night time crib. This way we both can see her directly from the couches where we've been sleeping. I know we need to transition upstairs at some point soon, but we're working to get better at feeding for now. The girls didn't really get bigger, I don't think.
She is the calmest baby, at least during the day, but at night it seems like another child emerges - one that had me wondering if sleep was a thing of the past. Sure they say sleep when they do, but the sleep periods were so short that once I fed her, changed her, got her to wipe back out, pumped, cleaned up the supplies, I was lucky to get an hour before I had to start it all over again.
As things have moved forward I'm needing to pump less thanks to starting to get the hang of feeding, but I'm still keeping some in the fridge as backup. I couldn't even be to this point if I hadn't taken my 4 day old baby out to the Le Leche League meeting. I was to tears frustrated trying to get her on properly and feeling so desperate... so I went. I left on Monday feeling like 50 lbs had been lifted from my shoulders and that there was hope.
It was no small feat as Monday was a big day. We had her first pediatrician appointment, from there we went and picked up the dogs. It worked out well that I then went to the Le Leche meeting as he was able to get the dogs settled back in at the house for a while before we returned. So how are the dogs doing with her? Well, they were a bit crazy at first. I have to say Saf, my baby, did better than I would have guessed, and Dani ended up being weirder than I expected. They are very interested in the baby, but doing well. They're also sleeping with us downstairs (other than that first night) so they too are looking a little sleepy.
He returned to work on Wednesday but I was only truly alone here with her on Thursday as his parents were in since his father is doing some work here on retaining walls. Of course with people here I didn't have a shot at sleeping when she did, so I really just started making attempts at that pattern. I should be sleeping right now as he is out running for us and she is down, but there is so much to try and do that I often cheat myself. I guess once I'm beyond exhausted sleep will win.
Weight has started falling off and I AM eating. I'm sure I'll hit the wall on that too (very soon). My belly button is starting to return to pulling back in (yay). I also lucked out in the period department. They kept telling me I'd likely have a very heavy period for up to 6 weeks, but it's been pretty light and dealable.
When Thursday at 3am hit we were just falling asleep. I can't believe it's already been over a week already.
I'm a Mom. After years of desire and uncertainty if the day would ever come here I am. Follow along on the adventure..
Showing posts with label week39. Show all posts
Showing posts with label week39. Show all posts
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Thursday, August 24, 2017
The big show
Spoiler alert: I am back dating this post to the date and time all of
this started to happen. You can probably guess how it ended.
So the doctor had arrived by the time we got to pushing. I remember that they wanted me to try to push before I was fully dilated. At that point, they suggested some pitocin to finish my cervix out that last half centimeter or whatever. I had a hep lock in as my intention was to go no drugs (you'll note I have NOT mentioned pain medication to this point. I'm going to bring it up again because I'm hella proud) - so it was pretty easy to get that on. After the pitocin did it's job it was show time.
I'm told I pushed for about an hour and a half. Fact is, I don't understand how ANYONE with pain medication or feeling blocking medication could ever possibly push a child out. You have to be so aware of what you feel working, and even when you can feel it working it is very hard to get right back into that same feeling with the next round. It also helped to have the doctor placing fingers to give me an area to focus on. At some point they put oxygen on me and it gave me a moment of clarity in the midst of the mental avoidance of the pain where it hit me and I remember asking if they were worried about the baby.
That last little bit did indeed hurt like crazy. But then she was here, in this world. They placed her on me for a rather short period of time as she was grunting rather than crying and they wanted me to get a moment but they also wanted to take care of her. It seems like while she didn't poo before my water broke, she did somewhere between when it did and when she arrived so they had some concern there, although that wasn't necessarily the breathing thing.
It wasn't long at all before my placenta was out... I'll do the follow up comments here as it seems relevant: they later assessed the placenta and saw no cause for my bleeding in the week leading up (as in it was not deteriorating or starting to separate from my uterus, so it wasn't causing her to not get enough oxygen and create any other issues there).
After a little while with Daddy watching over her on the sidelines they took her away to the level 2 nursery. Return reports said that blood worked showed some of the white blood cells were elevated, so they started an IV, at which means she needed to stay in the level 2 nursery until that was removed. It also means she was receiving fluids, so she wouldn't be getting early early milk - a big disappointment to me. She remained there with both the IV and oxygen for the first twenty four hours. As the blood levels started to normalize we started bringing her pumped colostrum they were able to slowly bring the level of IV fluids down.
Once we were to a safe level she was returned to our room at 2am - 23 hours after her birth. They then were testing blood sugars, which seemed to be too low and lower each time a test was taken after each meal. So we had another slight worry on our minds. If it had gone any lower she would have needed to head back to the level 2 nursery. Fortunately, a secondary type of test showed things were okay and suddenly the in room test was starting to give better readings (thank the Lord).
All of this did still mean that she was not going to get released with me the next day (Saturday). Fortunately, the hospital gets it - and they allowed us to stay another night after I was discharged to room in with her. We also got lucky and the L&D department didn't get over run so we got to stay in the larger room the whole time. It was nice to have meals coming from the cafeteria and attentive care and guidance from the whole staff (nurses, peds, lactation consultant, and even the clean up and meal delivery folks) - truly, I appreciate what they did for us.
Other things that surprised me:
- You spend hours with a conscious exhale going on to breathe away the pain. Then you get to pushing and their expectations of you to hold your breath for 10 seconds x 3 feels like an absolute eternity.
- This shouldn't really surprise me, but - Good golly, having an oxygen mask, doing all of that breathing with your mouth open, and allowing a few screams (oh yes I did) out sure dries out your throat. I ended up asking them for losenges.
- Again, no pain drugs. I did it! This is the one thing I wanted so much as I do feel that one intervention leads to another. I had my doubts (and voiced them) even before we left the house with the doula.
- After the head came it felt like a limb, another limb, another limb, another limb... also came. Did I just give birth to an octopus?
To make the formal announcement:
Avery Violet joined us on Thursday, August 24 at 3:05am. She was 7 lbs, 15 1/2 oz, and 19". My good girl listened and waited to not be a Leo!
So the doctor had arrived by the time we got to pushing. I remember that they wanted me to try to push before I was fully dilated. At that point, they suggested some pitocin to finish my cervix out that last half centimeter or whatever. I had a hep lock in as my intention was to go no drugs (you'll note I have NOT mentioned pain medication to this point. I'm going to bring it up again because I'm hella proud) - so it was pretty easy to get that on. After the pitocin did it's job it was show time.
I'm told I pushed for about an hour and a half. Fact is, I don't understand how ANYONE with pain medication or feeling blocking medication could ever possibly push a child out. You have to be so aware of what you feel working, and even when you can feel it working it is very hard to get right back into that same feeling with the next round. It also helped to have the doctor placing fingers to give me an area to focus on. At some point they put oxygen on me and it gave me a moment of clarity in the midst of the mental avoidance of the pain where it hit me and I remember asking if they were worried about the baby.
That last little bit did indeed hurt like crazy. But then she was here, in this world. They placed her on me for a rather short period of time as she was grunting rather than crying and they wanted me to get a moment but they also wanted to take care of her. It seems like while she didn't poo before my water broke, she did somewhere between when it did and when she arrived so they had some concern there, although that wasn't necessarily the breathing thing.
It wasn't long at all before my placenta was out... I'll do the follow up comments here as it seems relevant: they later assessed the placenta and saw no cause for my bleeding in the week leading up (as in it was not deteriorating or starting to separate from my uterus, so it wasn't causing her to not get enough oxygen and create any other issues there).
After a little while with Daddy watching over her on the sidelines they took her away to the level 2 nursery. Return reports said that blood worked showed some of the white blood cells were elevated, so they started an IV, at which means she needed to stay in the level 2 nursery until that was removed. It also means she was receiving fluids, so she wouldn't be getting early early milk - a big disappointment to me. She remained there with both the IV and oxygen for the first twenty four hours. As the blood levels started to normalize we started bringing her pumped colostrum they were able to slowly bring the level of IV fluids down.
Once we were to a safe level she was returned to our room at 2am - 23 hours after her birth. They then were testing blood sugars, which seemed to be too low and lower each time a test was taken after each meal. So we had another slight worry on our minds. If it had gone any lower she would have needed to head back to the level 2 nursery. Fortunately, a secondary type of test showed things were okay and suddenly the in room test was starting to give better readings (thank the Lord).
All of this did still mean that she was not going to get released with me the next day (Saturday). Fortunately, the hospital gets it - and they allowed us to stay another night after I was discharged to room in with her. We also got lucky and the L&D department didn't get over run so we got to stay in the larger room the whole time. It was nice to have meals coming from the cafeteria and attentive care and guidance from the whole staff (nurses, peds, lactation consultant, and even the clean up and meal delivery folks) - truly, I appreciate what they did for us.
Other things that surprised me:
- You spend hours with a conscious exhale going on to breathe away the pain. Then you get to pushing and their expectations of you to hold your breath for 10 seconds x 3 feels like an absolute eternity.
- This shouldn't really surprise me, but - Good golly, having an oxygen mask, doing all of that breathing with your mouth open, and allowing a few screams (oh yes I did) out sure dries out your throat. I ended up asking them for losenges.
- Again, no pain drugs. I did it! This is the one thing I wanted so much as I do feel that one intervention leads to another. I had my doubts (and voiced them) even before we left the house with the doula.
- After the head came it felt like a limb, another limb, another limb, another limb... also came. Did I just give birth to an octopus?
To make the formal announcement:
Avery Violet joined us on Thursday, August 24 at 3:05am. She was 7 lbs, 15 1/2 oz, and 19". My good girl listened and waited to not be a Leo!
Wednesday, August 23, 2017
Leading up to the big show
Spoiler alert: I am back dating this post to the date and time all of this started to happen. You can probably guess how it ended.
Around 2am the pain began. I couldn't get comfortable on either side as the cramps started. I kind of knew it my heart it was the start of labor - like I said in a previous post, I was looking for signs - but I had no clue how much so. While I couldn't sleep I sent a few messages on to my guy that made it sound like I felt something was definitely going on.
By 4am I turned to my back and managed to get comfortable and fell asleep. I was up with my alarm and at my work desk. All morning I could feel things going on but I was waiting it out to get confirmation at my noon doctor's appointment. My guy went into work briefly and then came this way to join me at the doctor's appointment (at his suggestion). I kind of thought I'd get to the doctor and she'd say congrats you're now 2cm. Imagine my surprise to learn I was at 4cm! She asked if I wanted to head to L&D as she was willing to send me and she thought for sure we'd see her on that day. This was definitely happening! We opted to go home and labor there as long as possible - and to get the girls to camp.
We were to have a meeting at my place w/ the doula this evening, so I guess she was coming either way. Later in the afternoon things were getting rather unpleasant and by the time she arrived I was already waffling if we should just meet her at the hospital or what. I'm not sure how long the doula was here, but for a little while before we headed out - and the rest of the times get muddled in my head - but we got to the hospital just as the sun was setting (which I googled was at 8:09).
Upon arrival I was 7cm. I gotta admit there are lots of bits and pieces missing. I remember getting out of the car and into the wheelchair and the ride to triage. I don't recall getting my clothes off in triage or moving to the room just down the hall where I labored. There are plenty of pieces of the labor - mostly waves of pain that I do recall. I think I spent most of it - or at least until Dr P got there with my eyes closed just trying to get through.
I remember the nurse coming in to check me again so the doctor could decide if she needed to get in there. I do remember my guy commenting that it was 11pm. Not sure when Doc arrived. But I know we didn't start pushing until what is technically 8/24.
Around 2am the pain began. I couldn't get comfortable on either side as the cramps started. I kind of knew it my heart it was the start of labor - like I said in a previous post, I was looking for signs - but I had no clue how much so. While I couldn't sleep I sent a few messages on to my guy that made it sound like I felt something was definitely going on.
By 4am I turned to my back and managed to get comfortable and fell asleep. I was up with my alarm and at my work desk. All morning I could feel things going on but I was waiting it out to get confirmation at my noon doctor's appointment. My guy went into work briefly and then came this way to join me at the doctor's appointment (at his suggestion). I kind of thought I'd get to the doctor and she'd say congrats you're now 2cm. Imagine my surprise to learn I was at 4cm! She asked if I wanted to head to L&D as she was willing to send me and she thought for sure we'd see her on that day. This was definitely happening! We opted to go home and labor there as long as possible - and to get the girls to camp.
We were to have a meeting at my place w/ the doula this evening, so I guess she was coming either way. Later in the afternoon things were getting rather unpleasant and by the time she arrived I was already waffling if we should just meet her at the hospital or what. I'm not sure how long the doula was here, but for a little while before we headed out - and the rest of the times get muddled in my head - but we got to the hospital just as the sun was setting (which I googled was at 8:09).
Upon arrival I was 7cm. I gotta admit there are lots of bits and pieces missing. I remember getting out of the car and into the wheelchair and the ride to triage. I don't recall getting my clothes off in triage or moving to the room just down the hall where I labored. There are plenty of pieces of the labor - mostly waves of pain that I do recall. I think I spent most of it - or at least until Dr P got there with my eyes closed just trying to get through.
I remember the nurse coming in to check me again so the doctor could decide if she needed to get in there. I do remember my guy commenting that it was 11pm. Not sure when Doc arrived. But I know we didn't start pushing until what is technically 8/24.
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