Greta Claire's Birth Story

I went to the doctor on my due date (3/13/12) for my first ever 40 week appointment and was 3cm/60% effaced. I had him strip my membranes in hopes of getting something going. I was 3cm dilated with both boys by 38 weeks so I was pretty depressed about not progressing as quickly as I had before. Anyway, he stripped my membranes around 9:30am and I had convinced myself that my contractions would start by dinner. HA! Nothing happened. Not even any Braxton Hicks ctx to get my hopes up. I even jumped on the boys’ little trampoline! So after I got the boys to bed and hopped down the stairs, I decided to go for a walk. Figured I’d just walk until I was in labor or until I had to get the boys to daycare, whichever came first! We live on a hill and our subdivision is just a big circle, so I made two laps and was so out of breath and sweaty that I decided to just go home. It was about 9:30pm by this point. I was so upset that I wasn’t in labor already that instead of taking a shower, I just went to bed. Yep, went to bed all sweaty and stinky. STUPID! Anyway, I fell asleep pretty quickly and woke up at 10:47 with a contraction (ctx). It wasn’t really painful, but it was uncomfortable enough for me to know that it was a real one. SO EXCITED…then nothing else. Tried to go back to sleep, but couldn’t so I trolled facebook and twitter on my phone waiting for another ctx. The next one came at 11:32. The next one came at 12:08 and then 12:25, 12:40, 12:56…and so on coming every 14-17 minutes; strong enough that I had to breathe and moan through them. I finally got up at 2:12am after a ctx, went to the bathroom, and asked James if he wanted me to sleep upstairs so he could get some rest. I figured the ctx would stay around 15 minutes apart for several hours like they did with Asher and I didn’t want to have to deal with a tired irritable James! He said he would rather we just go to the hospital since the doc warned me that I could go fairly quickly since my cervix was really soft. He’s such a worry wart! I said I wanted to try to labor at home as much as possible and take a shower and blah blah blah, but he was adamant about going to L&D. So he got up. I packed my bag (now before you think that I should have already had it packed since it was past my due date, I had everything set aside together, just not IN the bag yet) and James called his sister. I called my sister and told her that I was having ctx about 15 minutes apart and that she should start heading down to Georgia. At that point they started getting really strong and coming every 6 minutes. By the time James’ sister got to our house and we got everything in the car (my bag, G’s bag, my pillow, my purse, iPhone, iPad, chargers, etc) it was 3:10am and the ctx were coming every 3 minutes. They were strong, but not so strong that I couldn’t just breathe through them. Didn’t matter, James said we were going, so we went. We got to the hospital and checked-in in the ER at 3:20am. They kept us waiting there FOREVER! I could have killed someone! Someone from L&D finally came and took us upstairs around 3:50am. I got all hooked up in triage and they checked me at 4:10am. I was 4cm so they decided to keep me in triage for an hour to make sure it was real/active labor. After an hour there was no change in my cervix, but the ctx were coming every 3 minutes and were registering pretty strong on the monitor so they decided to move me to L&D. I made it to 5cm about 30 minutes after they moved me to L&D and even though it wasn’t a lot of progress, my cervix had moved forward (?) so they no longer had to go fishing behind my bladder to find it. The doc said that was fabulous progress and I would probably dilate rather quickly once I hit 6-7cm. Welllll…because Greta is a diva she decided she didn’t want to come quickly like Asher did and my dilating stalled out at 5cm. So at 11:30 they started a small bag of pitocin and I cried. CRIED! I wanted to go epi free and I knew it would a lot harder to do that with pitocin. James was gone at this time. He ran home to do something…take a shower maybe since he didn’t have time to take one before we left for the hospital or maybe it was to get something to eat? Heck I don’t know WHY he left. I really can’t think of a good reason why a husband would leave the hospital when his wife is in active labor. Whatevs. Not like he was being a big help or anything, see...

My sister FINALLY got to the hospital and arrived at the same time James did so they walked in together. They stopped in the gift shop and got me some Lifesavers. OMG THEY WERE LIFESAVERS! I was so hungry and ice chips weren’t cutting it! I needed something with flavor! Kirsten REALLY helped me get through the ctx. She massaged my belly and back through them and helped me concentrate on my breathing. However, because of the pitocin, my ctx were coming fast and furious. Because I didn’t have an epi, I also didn’t have a catheter so I had to walk to the bathroom to go pee. The ctx were so close together that I couldn’t even get out of bed before another one came. Kirsten and James helped me to the toilet around 2:00 and another ctx came. I started screaming to get me the guy with the needle. Kirsten hit the nurse button and a nursing student came in to my room to see what I needed. I screamed from the bathroom to get me the epi NOW! But because I had been adamant all day about wanting to go epi free, he hesitated. I screamed once more and I’m pretty sure a few ugly curse words came flowing out of my mouth. I should probably find that poor boy and apologize. Hmmm? Anyway, when they came in to check me to make sure I could still get the epi, the nurse said I was 8cm and would probably have the baby if I could just make it ten more minutes. I told her it was my body and I wanted the epi and they couldn’t stop me because it was my body and I was master of the universe of my body and get me the man with the(bleep bleep bleep) drugs. My sister couldn’t stop laughing at me. Looking back, I’m sure it WAS pretty funny, but at the time I wanted to scream ugly curse words at her too! LOL The man with the drugs came into the room and he made Kirsten and James leave the room. Not sure why. James was able to be with me through the epi’s I got with the boys, but this was a different man and whatever he said, I did because I was done with the pain! I had to hold on to the nurse instead of James and when I looked at her to let her know the ctx had stopped, I noticed she was LITERALLY crossed eyed. Seriously y’all, I can’t make this up. Her eyes were crossed, and it wasn’t because she was trying to make me laugh…that’s how her eyes were. I decided I didn’t want her putting in my cath so I requested my regular nurse to do that. Turns out though, ole cross eye was quite hilarious and very sweet. ANYWAY… I was able to still feel the ctx and ALL the pain with them on my left side after the epi ; and I remember I had the same problem with I delivered the boys. But this man…this man was a knight in shining armor because he came back and gave me more drugs! MORE DRUGS! Woooohooo! In fact, he gave me so much that my blood pressure plummeted and I started violently dry heaving. My sister called the nurse and they gave me Zofran in my IV to stop the heaving and something else to bring up my blood pressure….I think James said it was ephedrine, but I can’t remember exactly. Good stuff whatever it was. Stopped my dry heaving and allowed me to drift off to sleep for 20 minutes. At around 3:00, I told James I felt funny and needed him to look under the sheet to see if something looked weird. His face said it all! My water had broken and the baby was crowning! Whoa! My sister buzzed the nurse, who leisurely walked in stating that it was “probably close to time to push.” She lifted up my sheet to check me, saw the top of the baby’s head and called the team stat! They got me prepped and told me not to push until the doc got in there. Then he leisurely walked in telling a story about how a woman didn’t know the baby was crowning and when he lifted up the sheet to check her progress the baby’s head was already out and yada yada yada taking his sweet time, then he lifted the sheets and said “OH THE BABY’S HEAD IS CROWNIG!” They prepped my legs in the stirrups and said to push with the next ctx. I could feel the tightening of a ctx to I grabbed my legs to try to sit up so I could push, but as I was trying to sit up…Greta’s head popped out! WHAT?!?! Crazy talk right there! They started screaming at me to stop, but I wasn’t sure what they wanted me to stop because I hadn’t even pushed yet! They then said to push one more time to deliver her body, so when I felt the tightening of the next ctx I tried to pull myself up in a sitting position and before I could get myself up, they screamed that she was out and to stop! AGAIN…I hadn’t even started pushing yet! James joked that the 4th baby would just slide right out on its own. I said I didn’t know who was having a 4th baby, but it WASN’T THIS LADY! Anyway, Greta Claire was born at 3:17pm on March 14, 2012. She weighed 6 pounds 15 ounces and was only 18.5 inches long. My third child was my peanut! The runt of my litter. And she was perfect. Beautiful. She had just a tiny bit of peach fuzz hair and we still haven’t figured out what color it is. She looked like a perfect mixture of her brothers, but at the time everyone said she looked “just like Asher.” She doesn’t. She resembles Asher and she resembles Preston and she resembles James and she resembles me. She’s a perfectly adorable mix of everyone in our family. They put her on my chest right when she came out and she immediately calmed down. I sang Mammaw Dee’s “Pretty Little Muffin” to her because I sang it to her all the time while she was on the inside, so I figured she’d like it. She did and I believe Kirsten got it all on video, but I have not seen said video. Hmmm…must ask her about that! Anyway, G still settles to that song. I hope she loves it as much as I do, but I know I could never do it justice like Mammaw did.

Oh Hey!

Oh hey, I DO have a blog that I can update. Huh, must have forgot about this. Anyway, I had another baby. SHE (yes SHE! A GIRL! Wooohoooo!) is almost 6 months old now. Guess I better update so I can start telling everyone about the shennanigins my hoodlums are up to these days!

Asher Jacob Birth Story...

I typed out a novel about going into labor with Asher on my mommy board and instead of trying to remember something that happened over a year ago, I figured I'd just copy and paste. So if you are a family member or someone who is easily offended, you may not want to read this. I'm pretty sure I was still on pain meds when I wrote this...

I started having minor contractions (ctx) at regular intervals Monday morning (9/27/10) around 3:45am. I told James to go ahead and go to work (he leaves for work around 5:30 so the ctx weren't bad at all yet). Once I got up to get Preston ready for daycare, the ctx slowed down. I had one ctx on the way to daycare and two on the way home...luckily all three happened when I was stopped at stop lights! THANK GOD! I laid back down when I got home and fell asleep for 2 hours. James' sister came over while I was sleeping and started cleaning the house for us. When I realized that I didn't have any gowns for the hospital, I asked her if she would go to the mall with me so I could get some and do some walking since I had read that walking could help ease ctx. The ctx continued throughout the day, but never got really consistent, nor did they get really painful so I never felt the need to pack my bag (yes, 4 days before my due date and still hadn't packed a bag). Around 6pm I decided to try on the gowns that I bought that day and OMG they didn't fit! So I told James that after dinner I was going to drive myself to the mall and exchange them for the right size. WELLLLLLLLL, that didn't happen. During dinner...around 7:30pm...the ctx started getting really painful. I actually had to get down on the floor on all fours and just breathe to get through them. That happened twice during dinner. Then I went to the living room and relaxed in the recliner which seemed to help because I didn't have a ctx for the 45 minutes I was in the chair. James took Preston upstairs for his bath so I waddled up there to say goodnight to my Stinkerpot. Good thing I did!!

My sister called at 8:57pm and I talked to her while I laid on my side on my bed. In the 30 minutes I was on the phone with her I had 3 horribly painful ctx. James was still upstairs for the first one, then in the shower for the 2nd one, and then witnessed the 3rd one (side note...my sister is a SAINT! She talked me through all 3 of those ctx! She had 2 of her 3 kids without ANY pain meds, so she knew exactly what to tell me to do. I really wish she would have been able to be here for the delivery...I think I would have been able to do it without the epi then). Anyway, James was mad at me for wanting to go to the mall after dinner so he started griping at me after I hung up with my sister. LIKE THAT'S WHAT I NEEDED!!! While James was griping, I had to run to the bathroom. I didn't make it back to the bed before the next ctx hit. I was on the floor in the bedroom next to James side of the bed on all fours breathing (where he was all cozy under the covers just looking at me. Grrr!). He asked if he needed to call in to work and if we needed to go to the hospital. I told him that I'm not going to the hospital until the ctx are 4 minutes apart and I put in my birth plan that they were to send me home if I wasn't at least 4cm dilated and/or my water hadn't broken...so since my water hadn't broken and the ctx weren't 4 minutes apart that I wasn't going anywhere (remember my bag at this point is pretty much non-existent!) About that time I had another one. It came 6 minutes after the previous one. I said I was going to take a hot shower because that would probably stop the ctx, plus I needed to shave my legs! LOL I had 2 ctx while in the shower. We have a stand-up shower so I had NO room to get down on hands and knees. I had to lean up against the wall and hope I didn't fall over. James by this point had gotten up and started getting ready to go to the hospital (put his contacts back in, got dressed, called work, etc). I told him to stop, I wasn't going, but he told me he was in charge and wasn't listening to my shenanigans anymore.

~~~DELETED TEXT - TOO PERSONAL~~~ Long story short here...James made me leave :-) ~~~

Well my hair was still wet, I wasn't dressed, and had NOTHING in a bag. I was NOT going to the hospital with wet hair, so I proceeded to dry and style my hair. I begged James to straighten my hair during ctx, but he wouldn't do it. He then remembered he didn't have the car seat installed, so he went out to do that. Luckily I was able to get my hair done, get dressed, and throw some things into a suitcase that just happened to still be in the bedroom from when I went to my company meeting 10 days prior. I have NO clue what I even packed! Just started throwing things in. By this time the ctx were coming about every 3 minutes and were HORRIBLE! I read somewhere that ctx felt like the whole top and bottom half of the body trying to separate from each other, and THAT feeling had totally hit me! James' sister arrived at the house to stay with Preston and off we went (about 11:10pm). We got to the ER and I had to get down on my hands and knees in the parking lot because James parked in the farthest parking spot from the door and I couldn't walk fast enough to make it to the door in under 3 minutes. Then when the L&D nurse came down to get us, she had me walk to the elevator to go up to L&D. I started having another ctx when the elevator arrived, but I hadn't made it there yet and the nurse looked at me (doubled over in pain) and asked "Do you want me to wait for you?" WHAT??? Nah, you go ahead, I'll catch up with you....dumb a$$. Have NO idea why she didn't get a wheel chair for me!

I get up to triage and they make me put on a gown and hook me up to all the monitors and go get my birth plan from my file. The nurse checked me and said "You're between 4 and 5cm...let's get you to a delivery room!" ~~~DELETED TEXT~~~

So now I'm in my delivery room and the dang nurse is asking me all sorts of stupid questions like am I an organ donor (to which I responded "why? are you planning on killing me?) and what my highest level of education is...all while I'm having horrible ctx with no pain meds! James looked at her and said "What the heck do you ask during pre-registration??" Anyway, since I didn't have an epi or an IV hooked up, I was able to walk around which was nice cause James rubbed my back during ctx while I leaned against a wall...really helped with the pain! Around 2:00am I had a ctx that lasted 2 minutes. It was a beast! At that point I screamed for the epi. I was only 6cm and 90% effaced so I knew it was going to be a while...plus my water hadn't broken yet. I had been dry heaving and just couldn't take it anymore. The dude with the needle came in and talked me through the epi. I heaved the entire time he was back there so I'm not sure HOW he was able to do it. Anyway, it kicked in, I started shivering so they loaded me up with warm blankets and I took a bit of a nap.

I then woke up because I realized I could still feel the contractions on my left side! WHAT?!!? That happened with Preston too! I guess my left side is just resistant to pain meds. But I could also feel the ctx in my chest and my arms. It was really weird. I felt really wet when I woke up so I asked James to lift up the blankets and check to see if my water had broken. He did and said that it hadn't, but something didn't look right. I told him to call the nurse cause that didn't sound good. As soon as he put the blankets back down there was a LOUD noise. It sounded like a muffled gun shot...NOT EVEN KIDDING! Both our eyes got really big and I said "Um, that was my water...it just broke!" I totally felt it even with the epi. James lifted up the blankets again and he said it was so gross looking. He said it was everywhere!

I didn't even have to call the nurse...she must have saw it on the monitor or something cause she was walking in the door as James put the blankets back down. I looked at her and told her my water broke. She said she needed to check me and when she did she said his head was coming out and NOT TO PUSH! She was yelling at me as she was running out the door to not push, "don't even move!" The doctor came in with 4 nurses and said there was meconium in the water and to get a NICU nurse. We had to wait for 5 minutes for the NICU nurse to get there and I needed to push SO bad, but they wouldn't let me. I guess they can't deliver the baby until the NICU nurse gets in the room since there was meconium in the water. Poor Scuttlebutt was in distress for some reason.

ANYWAY, nothing too eventful from that point on. I started pushing. Did three sets of pushes and his head was out. In between pushes I noticed James had a HUGE smile on his face and said something about Asher's hair. I asked "What color is it??" and he just said "It's not dark brown!" and then the doctor said "He's got daddy's hair!" I just laid back and smiled cause I knew I had gotten my red head! After he was out, they took him straight away from me to check him for signs of distress. I told James to go with him.

But that's about it. The NICU nurse said he was fine and left. The nurse kept trying to get him to cry so he could get all the crud he swallowed out of his lungs but he wouldn't cry. They gave him 2 shots and a heel prick and he still didn't cry. He cried a bit while she was bathing him, but not enough so she ended up having to put a tube down his nose and suck all the crap out. It was GROSS...not sure why she showed me. Once she got the crap out of him, I FINALLY got to hold him and nurse him. It was weird because he still didn't have a name so when she handed him to me I said "Hey....buddy" I hated not being able to say a name! My nurses name was Ashley and she was the best nurse EVER! LOVED her! So James said, "I really liked our nurse, Ashley. We could name him Asher after the nurse." So we did!

So since my last post...

Since my last post I've gotten pregnant again, had a baby, lost a bunch of weight, got pregnant again. Because you know, life isn't hectic enough. I would LOVE to sit here and type out everything that I've done and everything that's happened since October 2009, but I have a life (who knew?!). So instead I will post some pics of Preston since October 2009.

December 2009

April 2010 (First Birthday)



August 2010 (Florida Vacation)


December 2010


April 2011 (2nd Birthday)


July 2011

Claire's Bear

So Preston's first Halloween has come and gone and I am JUST NOW being able to upload some pictures of his cute little costume! He was a teddy bear for about five minutes! He left the costume on long enough to get a few pictures...then he ripped the hat off!!! Oh well, it's not like he could trick or treat anyway!

We took Preston outside to look at all of the trick or treaters. Unfortunately, it rained all day so we didn't get a lot of kiddos, but the few we had Preston really enjoyed looking at! After the trick or treaters were all gone, we had Chris and Alison, and Roger and Haley over for a camp fire. Preston really enjoyed sitting outside looking at the fire with us...until he got tired and became super cranky!! It took him a while to fall asleep, but I think that was because of all the excitement :-)

Anyway, here is my cuddley little teddy bear!

BIG Boy!!!

Preston had his 6 month check up on October 22 (almost 2 weeks late and I'm still bitter!).  He weighed 18 pounds 10 ounces and was 27 3/4 inches (I thought it was closer to 28 inches, but she didn't think I had his head up agains the board...whatever!).  He's HUGE!!!  He is in the 90th percentile for height and the 75th percentile for weight.  Dr. Rodgers nicely put it..."He's bigger than the average baby, that's for sure!"  Hahahahaha!  Yes he is!  She also said he's not fat since he's taller than he is heavy...if that make sense.  I thought I wasn't feeding him enough, but HA!  That is not the case OBVIOUSLY!  He did get 3 shots, which he took like a champ.  He screamed when she stuck the needle in, but then quit as soon as it was over; only to scream again two more times.  Mean nurse!  He stopped crying as soon as it was over.  I picked him up and hugged him.  He cuddled into my chest for only a few seconds before he sat up and started playing with my necklace.  My big guy!!!

Not much else is new since Preston is refusing to do anything!  He won't crawl...he won't even scoot!  He just cries and flails his arms and legs out like he's sky diving.  We bought him a walker and he just can't figure out how to put one foot in front of the other to make it move.  He usually just ends up screaming and we take him out.  He is sitting up by himself really well, and has been doing that for a while now.  One thing that IS new is that he's babbling "dada dada dada dada" ALL THE TIME!!!  What a STINKER!  He doesn't know what he's saying though.  When the doctor walked into the room last week (after we had waited for over TWO HOURS!!) he started with the "dada's" so even though he is saying "dada", he isn't referring to James.  LOL  Which makes my heart a little happier since we all know he should be saying "momma" first because I'M THE BEST!!!  

I took Preston outside last weekend to see if I could get some fall pictures of him and he was amazingly cooperative.  Our neighbor came over and brought one of her pumpkins since we don't have any fall decorations.  She and her daughter helped me get Preston to smile.  Her daughter, Anna Grace (4), had a good time squeaking Preston's toy for him.  Here are a few of my favorites.

FINALLY!

My child is 5 months, 2 weeks, and 3 days old today (according to the ticker at the top...I did NOT count the days on the calendar to figure that out...I don't have time for such silliness :) and he finally has done something that I have bittersweet feelings about; but should be elated!  He slept in his own bed ALL night for two nights in a row now.  And he actually slept!  

I, of course, was a nervous wreck so I slept upstairs in one of the spare bedrooms to be close to him.  I will probably stay in said spare bedroom for a while until I can get my Stinerpot to sleep ALL night without waking up around say 1 or 2 am for a feeding.  The book I bought "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" says that by 4-5 months, babies don't need a feeding in the middle of the night.  They should be able to sleep 10 hours without a feed.  I understand this to be fact, but ONE THING AT A TIME PEOPLE!!!  I just got my baby out of my room and into his own room....where he's in a big crib, all alone, by himself, without his mommy!  I hope he's not scared!  Maybe I should rethink this.....???

Anyway, Preston turns 6 months old soon and will be going for more shot.  BOO!  More importantly though, he will be measured again and I can't WAIT to hear his new "stats".  I hope Mommy Milk has done its job well again!!!  

Speaking of Mommy Milk, 6 months was my goal and it totally looks like I'm going to make it!  WOW!  After all that complaining I did and all those times I wanted to quit, the time is here.  It's here!  Now I've got all these sad feelings.  How am I going to be able to let go of my nursing relationship?  I know that once I am able to just whip out some powder and shake up a bottle while still continuing my conversations with friends while we are out to dinner, I will realize that I'm just fine.  But what about those times when we're home and he's hungry?  I LOVE that he wants his momma to comfort him.  Ahhhhhhh!!!!!  I'm so freakin' indecisive, it's scary!!!  I never used to be like this...I always made fun of Kirsten because of her complete lack of ablity to make a decision!!!  

OK...because I can't post without showing off my little Stinkerpot, here he is with his favorite toy: 

(and it's his favorite toy because I SAID SO!  Bwahahahahahaha!!!)