2016 May Miracles

[bakerh518]

So many adorable little babies!! Can't believe some are already over a month!! Our own little man is passed two weeks! goes by so fast!

Samuel is doing better today, still very limited energy but no more fever, his cough sounds terrible but the ped said it would

Myself, I definitely have a cold, post nasal drip, headache and an awesome cough... At least I know William is getting some antibodies from me... This cold season has been so brutal here! (Which again, out ped said it was going to be )

 

[NZKiwi]

Finlay Arlen Bernard Page was born via emcs on Friday 3 june, on my bday, am still in hospital having a few issues but hopeful to be discharged tomorrow or day after. Will update and catch up on the goss when home and recovered x

 

[drjo718]

Congrats nz! I hope you feel better soon.

 

[busytulip]

Congrats NZ, praying that you and Finley improve and are able to go home soon.
Oh and Happy Belated Birthday, seems as though Finley wanted things to be interesting for you.

 

[bakerh518]

Happy belated birthday to you both! Congratulations! I hope you both get to go home soon!

 

[sugargully]

Happy Birthday and Congrats NZK!

 

[sugargully]

Isadora Nanette

 

[pinkpassion]

Holy moly sugar look at all that gorgeous hair! What a beauty you have there!!!

 

[busytulip]

Loads of hair! She is beautiful

I hope everyone is feeling pretty great and that you are all finding your new routines.

 

[bakerh518]

Oh wow!! What a little beauty!!

 

[sugargully]

Thank you ladies! One of DH friends joked, "where'd you guys find a wig that small!" Lol!

She's a week old today. Man the time flys. I've had one successful outing to her pediatrician last Friday. She wanted to see if she's gaining. She was up 3oz. I tried to go to a job fair today and that was an epic fail. She was hungry again and I missed the fair. It was just too much to try to get myself, my mom and my little one out the door. I noticed I need to delegate better if I really want help. People don't know what to do to help until I tell them.

I've finished my birth story. It' s pretty lengthy because I wanted to remember every single moment.

Spoiler

My Birth Story
Monday May 30th 2016

At 6am I woke to strong feeling cramps. I needed to use the restroom so I rolled my self up so I could go. I decided not to get up because my bump felt so hard I waited a an hour and had 4 more cramps which I decided was either Braxton hicks or maybe real contractions.

Hubby made bacon and eggs for breakfast. We had plans to go look at a volkswagen he wanted to buy and his dad was going to meet us at the dealership. I decided to say nothing about the cx. I new his heart was set on getting a new car to bring the baby home in. His had stared to have AC and transmission problems that couldn't be ignored or easily fixed. Having AC in Texas is as essential as having wheels on a car. At this point I wasn't in any more discomfort than mind cramping so I didn't have to breath and everything appeared normal.

We were at the dealership from 9am-2:30. The car selection and deal took forever. I wasn't directly involved after the first hour including a test drive. I had been timing the cx since 6am and they were mild until 12:49 when they became moderate. I had to breath lightly and move around at that point. I also was really thirsty and spent a lot of trips to the loo. I was by myself in the lounge most of the time. I watched my fav. Shows and tried not to focus on the fact that I was getting hungry. Finally I was called into the finance office to sign off the motorcycle title that would be used in the vehicle trade. I had bought that bike for my hubby in our first year of marriage but it helped to sweeter the pot so he included it in he deal. Sad to see it go because it's a part of our relationship history but it needed to be sacrificed for the cause.

So finally the deal was done. I had to help transfer our belongings out of the old vehicle and into the new. At that point it was really hard to pretend like nothing was happening. Luckily being guys my hubby and his dad didn't notice because they were drooling over the new toy. So once my FIL drove away and I waited in the new car for my husband to insure it so we could leave. I knew I was going to tell him once he got off the phone. I thought he might be suspicious when he saw I put a towel and a plastic bag on my seat to protect it in case my waters broke. Also I had to jump out the car while he was on the phone bc one cx was too strong for me to sit down through. DH finally said I was acting weird. He the started to tell me the plan for the rest of the day which included going to get the motorcycle and bringing it back there for the trade. This meant I would have to drive which I was in no state to do and that's when I told him. At first he wondered why I didn't say something. I told him that the car purchase take a lot of focus and I knew I was fine because it was very early labor and I'm a FTM so this was likely going to take a while. We headed home, got my FIL to come back and help with the bike trade and I stayed home to call the OB nurse line. The on call dr. confirmed early labor and told me the standard time to call back when cx are 3-5 min apart, lasting 1 min for a consistent hour. I already new this from Dr. Lombard instructions so I set about staring my home labor intensive plan. I should mention that I was really excited to be in labor. When it was clear that the baby wasn't arriving on the due date the dr. gave us options and info on when to induce. Neither of us felt comfortable going too far into week 41 and certainly not into week 42 at all. The risk of stillbirth rises and we just were't comfortable.

My labor plans were to stay home and cope as long as possible. I wanted to use the birthing ball, take warm soaks in the tub, walk and rock my hips, listen to positive birth affirmation tracks and use aromatherapy. Thankfully I got to do all of these. It made my birth experience so special to me. One of the things I did at the dealership was call family/friends and let them know what was happening.My mom was driving in from a Florida. It takes at least 9 hours to get her so I wanted my mom to get a good start. She ended up arriving at 10:30pm. Perfect timing. My cx had turned to the severe level. We called the hospital and got the ok to come in.

I labored for 3 more hours. My nurse used intermittent monitoring so I could move a round and try different laboring positions. I had affirmation poster on the walls and they really helped me focus. By 4:00 the cx were so strong and very close together (2min. ) but I hadn't progressed. I was 4 cm at arrival, 6 cm at 2am, and only 6.5cm at 4:00. That's when I knew things were stalling and I wanted pain relief. I made sure I really wanted to change my birth plan and the doctor informed me about the Demerol shot and its limitations. When she said I would have to stay in bed and the shot would not take the cx away just make me incoherent, I knew I had to do the epidural instead. Only because I had already struggled to stay in the bed for required monitoring. Something about staying on my back like that seriously intensified my contractions. I knew I needed to just take the pains away.

Also affecting my decision was the state of my birth partners. They were giving me their all and I was draining them. They where deliriously exhausted and started to sit more and make crazy jokes which I had no sense of humor so nothing was funny to me. The epidural was difficult. The doctor had broke my waters right before it and immediately my cx had intensified to an earth shaking level. I screamed through them but luckily there was about 5 and the epidurals took effect. Immediately I fell asleep. Like I thought, labor slowed because I was stuck in bed. After 6 hours and being rotated to side lying positions to move the cervix I was ready to push. I felt some pressure so I was able to know where to bear down. My Megan nurse readied the room and coached me for the first 30 min by herself. My husband held my left leg while Megan sat on my right and let me know I was moving the baby. People where rushing into set up. Megan wanted to call the dr. but I was doing so well she didn't have time. Dr. Lombard just happened to come in and said he figured it might be time. Megan tied him into his scrubs and he sat in a stool ready to get baby 10 min. later Dr. Lombard held her up and said I would get to name her. He knew that was our agreement. If it was a girl I would name her and he'd name the boy. We worked on and chose the names together a week ago . He could not agree on Geneveive, my favorite girl pick. So we went with a version of my dad's first name and my mom's middle name. And that's how we were blessed with little Isadora Nanette@ 8lbs 2 oz. and 20 inches long. Long black hair with light brown/ hazel eyes.

 

[Em260]

NZ - congratulations and Happy Belated Birthday!

Sugar - she is adorable!! It is so hard to get out of the house with these little ones. One would think I would have it down by now but it's still a huge process.

 

[bakerh518]

Lovely birth story sugar! So glad to hear it was everything you were hoping for!!

 

[ja14]

So we had Bennett's one month appointment today. His birth weight was 6 lbs 14 oz, and today he was only 6 lbs 7 oz.
The doctor put him on a reflux medication and told me to give him an ounce of pumped breast milk or formula after he breast feeds to make sure he's getting enough. We will have a weight check next Friday.
I'm going to continue with breast milk, but I think right now my goal may just be 6 weeks.
I visited my office yesterday with the baby and it was really nice seeing everyone! I also checked up on the day area I had been planning to send him to. One had a year waiting list ( it may have been February or March when I added myself, can't remember) and it looks like there may be a slot in July! It all depends if a current child is ready to move to the next class. I hope so since I'd prefer him go there than the alternative.

Since it's getting close to my 6 week appointment, I've been thinking about birth control. What are your plans?
In the past, I said I'd never be on hormonal birth control again, because of the way it made me feel, but now I'm thinking I may get on the mini-pill for a short amount of time. Before I was just keeping track of my cycles and being conscience of when I thought I was fertile, but that hard to do without cycles!
Things like the IUD scare me, and I want something shorter term anyways. We will probably ttc in 1-2 years.

 

[drjo718]

Hi ja, sorry to hear about Bennetts weight issue. As you know, I have a similar problem with Nora. She gets 2oz of formula, or whatever I managed to pump mixed with formula, at each feeding via the SNS. It's frustrating and hard sometimes, but I just have to remind myself that she's getting the nourishment she needs now.

As for birth control, it took us 16 months, a surgery, and multiple medications to conceive Nora. I have PCOS and only ovulate a few times a year, and I had a fibroid inside my uterus that can grow back, so we're not planning to prevent once my blood pressure is under control. Until then, we're going to use vaginal contraceptive film.

 

[Ganton]

Sorry to hear about the weight issues. I hope you see a good gain at your next appointment.

I'm really stuck on the contraception choices. We aren't planning any more children but I still don't want to make a permanent decision, like vasectomy for DH. I've been off hormonal contraception for 7 years now and I really don't want to go back, but I'm also scared about the idea of an IUD. It seems like the only option left is a barrier method, and condoms worked very well for us before DS1 and in between each baby, but they do slightly hinder the enjoyment.

 

[ja14]

Thanks ladies, I'll be counting the days til next Friday to hopefully see great progress!

I don't think we would actually use condoms when it got down to it, so I don't want that to be our plan.
In the past we'd use the "pull out method" if we were in what I thought was in my fertile window, and I think that worked pretty well considering I got pregnant the first time ttc. However, I really don't want to risk being pregnant with a 2 month old! That would be rough to say the least!

 

[bakerh518]

We used monitoring and po method, I was very vigilant about where I was cycle wise, I didn't get pregnant until cycle two of ttc for William so we were successful but I think there were two times we were nervous

Ja sorry about the weight issues! That is so frustrating!

 

[NZKiwi]

Because of my c section I have been told I'm not allowed to get pregnant for at least a year, me and dh had been planning on trying again when Fin is 8 months old as we wanted children closer together. I'm torn on what to use as well, will prob go see my GP and get more information on my choices.

We have had feeding issues to, my milk took almost 7 days to come in properly and we had to get put on a feeding schedule where I would pump and top up with formula, it's not easy going at all. My milk has come in and I've been allowed to drop the top ups but I'm nervous for his next weighing which is on Monday

 

[sugargully]

How's everyone's recovery going? I'm 12 days out and i thought I would feel better by now. My insides are still sore, I have a UTI now and my feet and hands are very swollen. I have to move slowly too because I'm so unfit and my legs are barely supporting me. My mom is trying to convince me to go easy on my self because birth is a pretty traumatic event. It's hard for me because I don't have any friends that have kids and of course on tv, famous moms make it look so easy. I'm ready to be normal again.

I think when the time comes I'll ask the dr. for some barrier contraception like a diaphragm and combine it with a spermicide. I want to try for baby number 2 in nine months to a year. It took a year TTC Isadora so I don't want anything hormonal to slow it up.


I'm sorry for all the feeding and weight gain issues. That must be really stressful.