Easton was born last Sunday, 10-16 at 8:59 am. He weighed 7 lbs 14 oz and was 19 inches long. I want to write down his birth story, but we need to start back on the Monday before, 10-10. I had a doctors appointment that morning and I was hoping so badly that she would induce me. I was SO over being pregnant. Unfortunately, she wasn't going to induce me, but I did find out that I would have to have him turned. The little stinker was breech. Bummer. We scheduled to turn him on Wednesday morning. Andrew took the morning off so he could watch the kids and I would go and have him turned.
We went down at about 8:30 and I got into labor and delivery. They monitored Easton for about an hour, did an ultrasound and checked his fluid (which was still a lot). At about 10:30 my doctor came in to turn him. She did a quick ultrasound and double checked the placenta, his placement, and all that good stuff. She started to push and with in about 5 minutes he was turned (it may not have even taken that long). My doctor was a little concerned that he was going to turn back because of how easily he turned. She said it was WAY to easy to do and honestly it didn't hurt at all, not even uncomfortable. Well, after she turned him they continued to monitor him. His heartrate was super flat. It wasn't increasing with activity as they would expect it to so we kept monitoring, and kept monitoring and kept monitoring. Finally, things were looking good and they let me go. That was at 2:30. It was a long day. They had me schedule a non stress test on Friday to check him again.
I had my non stress test on Friday at 3:30. Andrew stayed with the kids and Emily met up with me so we could visit. The non stress test looked good. His heart rate was doing exactly what it should be but then when the nurse took my blood pressure it was high. Like 151/91 and 148/97 or something like that. Yeah, they typically don't like your blood pressure to be that high. So they talked to the doctor on call and he sent me to labor and delivery to be monitored some more. Let me tell you, I was less than thrilled to have to be monitored again. I went and they monitored my blood pressure. It finally came down but then Easton's strip (his heart rate activity) wasn't looking good. So then they kept monitoring him and monitoring and monitoring. Finally, at about 8:30, things looked good so they sent me home. Thankfully Emily hung out with me most of the time and kept me company.
Saturday we had a fun day planned with Emily and Dylan. We met up for lunch and then Emily and I headed off to get a pedicure. Oh that pedicure felt SO good! When we got back to Emily and Dylans house I thought my water had broken. So Andrew and I headed back to Labor and Delivery. Well, after testing it wasn't my water. Boy I was embarrassed. The nurse said that it happens and it could just be from excess discharge or the baby kicked my bladder (but it did not smell like pee so I was pretty confident it wasn't that). They did check me and I was dilated to a 3 on the outside and a 1 on the inner part and very soft. Well, they needed to monitor Easton quite a bit again because once again his heart rate was doing funky things. After a couple of hours they let me go again.
We met back up with Emily and Dylan and Jackson and Kenadi at the mall. They were playing at the tree house thing at the mall. We decided to grab some dinner so we started heading to Old Spaghetti Factory. We get there to find that there is a 45 minute wait (since when is there EVER a wait there?) So we walk all the way back to the food court and decide to just eat there. During all this walking I was cramping but nothing bad, just uncomfortable. We eat dinner and then decide to head home.
We put the kids to bed and Andrew and I were watching tv. I was still quite crampy but didn't think anything of it. We finally went to bed at about 10:30. 12:30 came around and I was having inconsistent contractions. I tried sleeping but couldnt so I finally got up and went upstairs to watch tv. At 2:30 they were becoming more consistent, coming ever 4-5 minutes but I didn't think I was in labor. I thought it was just bad cramping because it was only in my lower abdomen and it didnt feel like the top was getting hard like they say it would. (Just as a side note, I know this is my 3rd and you would think I would know these things by now but I was induced with both Jackson & Kenadi and didnt really know what labor felt like). At about 3:30 I woke Andrew up and asked him to give me a blessing. He told me that we should go to Labor and Delivery but after my week there I WAS NOT under any circumstances going unless I for sure knew I was in labor. I did NOT want to be sent home without a baby. He finally convinced me that I should at least call and talk to them and see what they think. I explained what I was feeling and the nurse said that it is hard to tell and if in doubt I could always go in and be checked out. I didn't want to just be "checked out" so I told Andrew we would wait a little longer and see what happens. I decided to take a shower and see if that helped. It felt really good but I was still contracting regularly. While I was in the shower Andrew was getting things ready to go. He was pretty confident I was in labor. After my shower I decided to call my mom and sister to see what they said. I didn't feel bad calling early in the morning since they were 7 hours ahead in time. As I was talking to them they started timing my contractions for me. They told me that I needed to go to the hospital since my contractions were about every 2-3 minutes and about 45 seconds- 1 minute long and couldn't talk through them. So between them and Andrew telling me to go I decided we would go. Andrew got the kids up, who thought it was AWESOME that they got to get up early and not be told to go back to bed, and put in the car. Then he came to help me out to the car. This whole time I was shaking pretty badly and couldn't help it (it probably didn't help that there was nothing in my stomach at all, that all had cleared out, and it was a little on the cold side in the house).
We get in the car and start heading down the canyon. Boy, it felt like such a long drive. Sitting is not very conducive to having contractions, at least for me. Andrew later told me that every time I went through a contraction he would speed up a little bit. He was timing them and said that they were getting closer together. He also tried to run through a red light but I yelled at him for that. We made it to the hospital in about 25 minutes and it usually takes about 40, yeah he was speeding, but luckily it was 5:00 in the morning and no one was really on the road. We got there and Andrew dropped me off at the front of Labor and Delivery while he parked and got the kids out. Right as I walked in I had a huge contraction (of course). The security guard asked if I was alright and if I needed a wheel chair. I declined and made it up to Labor and Delivery before the next contraction hit. I was just finishing up signing the paperwork when Andrew and the kids came up. It must not have been too busy because once I got into a room and changed a nurse came in to check me in and do all that jazz. When she checked me I was pleasantly surprised to hear I was a 6 so I would NOT be leaving the hospital without having a baby. Boy was that great news! Once she said that, a swarm of nurses came in. One was starting an iv on me (or I should say trying. This happened on Wednesday too, they tried getting an iv in my right arm, couldn't and then tried on the left and finally got it in after digging. On this day, she managed to 'blow' my vein as she said and I ended up with a nice bruise), another nurse was setting up for delivery, another taking my vitals and getting me connected to the monitors the list goes on and on. All while this is happening, Andrew is trying to get the kids settled and out of the way until he could get a hold of someone to watch them. He was holding Kenadi in one arm and Jackson wanted to sit on a rolling computer chair. He went to put him up on the chair and the chair kind of slipped out from underneath Jackson. All I know is that I saw Andrew holding Jackson up by one ankle and Jackson was upside down. Kind of scary in the moment but very comical now that I think about it. Don't worry, Jackson didn't hit the ground or anything. No permanent damage done. After that incident he took the kids out of the room and proceeded to call people to watch the kids. He said he probably made like 100 phone calls and no one answered, in their defense it was like 6:00 in the morning. Thankfully my sister was just getting off work and was willing to watch them even though she had been up all night. It was during this time that my favorite person at the hospital came. The anesthesiologist! He got me hooked up with an awesome epidural. Enough to take away the pain mostly but still feel the contractions and pressure. AWESOME!
Once the kids were gone and the nurses were done doing whatever they were all doing it calmed down a bunch! My nurse caught up on her charting and Andrew and I hung out. We did call my mom and sister back to let them know that I was at the hospital and did not have a baby on the side of the road, they were quite worried that would happen. After we talked to them for awhile the doctor on call came in. Dr. Gourley was the doctor who was on call for my doctor. I was a little disappointed to not have my doctor there but at this point as long as they know how to deliver a baby I really didn't care who it was. My nurse had been watching my contractions and noticed they weren't as strong as the usually like to see them and Easton was still quite high and moving around so much she couldn't keep the heartbeat monitor on him. She mentioned to Dr Gourley that maybe they could break my water. As Dr Gourley was checking me (I was now about a 7) he broke my water. Andrew said it was quite comical and that it was a jet of water streaming out for like a foot before it finally dropped down. Dr. Gourley then put on internal monitors so that it would be easier to monitor contractions and Easton's heart rate. He sat and watched the monitors for awhile to check my contraction pattern and watch Easton's heart rate. I then reminded Andrew that I needed to text the Primary President and let her know that I could not play the piano for them in primary today. (I had just talked to her on Thursday and told her that I would most likely be able to). Well, evidently he didn't hear me say text and he ended up calling her at like 10 till 7 in the morning and totally woke her up. He felt so bad that he woke her up but oh well. My nurse, the dr and Andrew and I were all kind of laughing about it since we had all been awake for quite awhile it felt like it was mid morning to us.
After awhile Dr. Gourley left and we were once again just hanging out. Andrew was doing his favorite thing, watching the contraction monitor. For some reason he finds it fascinating! And then he likes to tell me how big it was. Easton's heart rate dropped some so then I had to lay on my side and that helped him a ton. Then as I started getting closer to being complete it started dropping some more so on went the oxygen. My nurse checked me and couldn't tell if I was a 9 or a 10 so she had the charge nurse come in. The charge nurse said she thought I was a 10 but there was just a small lip left so she had me do some practice pushes to bring Easton down some more to help get rid of that. Then she had my nurse sit and do that with me. We did that for about 15 minutes, just half pushes really and then she decided she better call the Doctor so she didn't have to deliver the baby. We were laughing so hard about different things that I thought the baby was going to pop out. The doctor came and started getting ready. While he was getting ready he had me push through one contraction. Then during the next contraction he had me really push. Lets just say the epidural wasn't working as well down there so I could feel everything. I remember saying something along the lines of how bad it was hurting and Andrew said, "Yeah but theres a baby!" and then Dr Gourley said, "And here is your baby boy" and sure enough just as I was looking down he was out and then put on my chest. I never thought I would want to have the baby on my right after birth but with Jackson and Kenadi I didn't have a choice, and it was SO COOL! I am so glad that we got to have that experience. The entire time of pushing from when the charge nurse started to when Easton was delivered was 20 minutes. After a few minutes on my chest they took Easton over to get checked over. He got great apgars 8 and 9 (once again the best apgars any of our kids have ever had). The nurse brought him back over and we got to cuddle. My mom and sister had facetimed us and they were on facetime with my dad which was pretty cool. They were able to see Easton as he was just minutes old even though my mom and sister were in England and my dad in Oregon. I then was able to nurse Easton for about 20 minutes and he was fantastic at that.
Then they took Easton to the nursery and Andrew followed him down there. Eventually, I got moved downstairs to my room. Andrew was texting me during this time telling me that Easton had low blood sugar. The nurses noticed he was quite jittery and decided to check it. His came back at 14 and they like to see it above 45. They gave him some formula and tested again and it only came back at 24 so they had to send him up to the NICU to get an iv and start giving him some glucose stuff to get his blood sugar up. Unfortunately, that was the beginning of 3 and a half days in the NICU for him.
His days in the NICU were pretty uneventful. The first day and a half or so they checked his blood sugar every 3 hours. Poor guy still has the little scabs on his heels. They put him on an iv- essentially it was just a sugar drip to help raise his blood sugar. I think it was on the 2nd day that his blood sugar was staying stable without having the drip and just having formula so we were able to get that pulled out. My milk hadn't come in so he had to have formula and whatever I could pump, which was close to nothing but he didn't seem to mind. It was an interesting experience being in the NICU again but this time with a healthy baby. It was kind of "funny" anytime a new nurse would come on shift they usually made some comment about either having to treat this baby a little differently because he's in the NICU or something to that effect. I usually took that opportunity to let them know that we've had a baby in the NICU that was in much worse shape and so I kind of know how things go. One nurse really got me mad. I had been trying to nurse and he was nursing great, but since my milk hadn't come in he wasn't getting enough to keep his blood sugar stable. She kept telling me, "well he is in the NICU so things are different for him and you just have to know that and they usually have a hard time nursing and kept going on and on." Seriously, she was making me feel like it was my fault that he wasn't nursing well even though I knew he was getting some milk and the lactation consultant had even agreed with me. Finally, I told her that I had nursed 2 babies for a year, one of which was in the NICU up at primaries and explained about Kenadi. Finally she shut up about me not knowing what I was doing. It seriously irritated me so bad. Luckily a little while later the lactation consultant came by and made me feel so much better and every time the nurse tried to say something the Lactation consultant kind of disregarded what she said. One really great experience while we were in the NICU was getting to see Dr Stoddard. Now that name might not mean anything to you, but this is the doctor that saved Kenadi's life by diagnosing her with a diaphragmatic hernia and shipped her off to Primary Childrens. We introduced ourselves, and thanked him for what he had done. Then he explained that his daughter had a baby a couple months later diagnosed with the same thing. Crazy coincidence.
Anyways, we are so grateful that they caught his low blood sugar and we were able to get it resolved. It was also nice that he was only there for 3 and a half days. I was disappointed that I had to leave the hospital without him, but luckily it was just the next night that he was able to come home. We have been thrilled to have him with us and hes such a great baby!
1 comment:
Thanks for sharing! Congrats!
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