April 2018

April was a pretty slow month for us. I was still recovering from my hospital stay and surgery and I was super pregnant at this point. Emma got to spend some time with her Mimi and painted her toes. She started learning a lot at daycare and really started doing better being potty trained. This is mostly a picture/video dump post. We also went to SeaQuest which is a post on its own.

Birth Story: Blake Phillip

I went to my 39 week specialist appointment on Monday, April 30th at 10 am, thinking I would still be induced on May 3rd as planned. However, during the weekly ultrasound she noticed an obstruction in his colon. She was pretty sure it was meconium, but just in case she didn't want to wait any longer since I would be 39 weeks on May 1st she wanted him born on May 1st.

I left the appointment and the midwife on call, Hannah, called me and said to come in that evening between 5 and 7. I called Bobby, he started wrapping things up at work and headed home. We thought we had a few more days before the induction so I rushed around getting last minute things from Wal-mart and I went and had to get a new tire.

I picked Emma up early from school, it was during her nap so she was not the happiest, but we wanted to spend some time with her before we wouldn't see her for five days. She wound up coming to the hospital with us because my mom couldn't make it before we went in.

We got to the hospital and checked in around 6:15/6:30 and just hung out for an hour or so because they were busy with shift change. The midwife, Monica, came in around 8:30 and did a check. I was 2cm dilated and 70% effaced. We debated on when to insert the balloon to help me dilate further, and decided to put it in around 3 or 4am. She didn't want to do it any sooner, because we needed the baby to be born during the day because of his cardio issues and if we put the balloon in too soon there was a chance it would jump start labor and he would come in the middle of the night.

I got a little bit of rest over night, the specialist wanted him monitored the whole time I was there, including while I was sleeping even though I wasn't in labor. That cut into the amount of rest I was able to get and the baby was really active so I also couldn't sleep. Around midnight I took an Ambien and got about three or four hours of sleep before they came in and put the balloon in around 3:15. I started having some contractions, nothing horrible, but I couldn't sleep through them either. The balloon fell out around 7:15am. I ate some breakfast.

At 9:15 I was contracting on my on every 2 to 3.5 minutes and they were lasting for 50-80 seconds. They checked me at 9:30ish and I was 4cm and 80% effaced. They went ahead and started pitocin to help jump start things a little more since we needed him born that day. The contractions picked up immediately and got more intense. I could still talk through them if I had to, but preferred not to. By 10:30 they had upped the pitcocin to 4ml and I could no longer talk through the contractions, only in between.

Around 10:45am the NICU doctors came in and we kind of talked about what would happen after he was born and how I didn't want him to get a feeding tube until he had had a chance to take a bottle. This was a really hard conversation to have because I was contracting every couple of minutes.

At this point my contractions were picking up and Bobby started doing some hip squeezes. I also started having some back labor at this point. The only way I could get through the contractions was to stand and lean on the back of a chair. The whole labor the nurses kept coming in to put the baby back on the monitor and it made it really hard to focus on getting through the contractions because they kept messing with the monitors on my belly. They would want me to get in a position that I could not handle the contractions in. They also didn't have the wireless monitors like I had with Emma (they were out of the pads that stick on you) so I couldn't get in the shower, which with Emma that gave me so much relief.

At 11:10 am Lindsay, our doula, got there. She said that she thought I was about 6cm and in active labor. I changed position from leaning over the chair to hands and knees, but they couldn't keep the baby on the monitor so they kept messing with me during contractions.

At 11:50 am Summer did another check and I was 6cm, 90% effaced and -1 station. Around 12:00 I started to feel really shaky and nauseated. Lindsay thought at that point that I was starting to enter the transition part of labor. I wanted to stand again, that was the best way for me to handle the contractions. However the nurses were still messing with the monitors trying to get the baby on them. I was standing leaning over on pillows and at this point the nausea got to me and I threw up. At 12:40 pm Summer did another check and I was at 7cm and starting to feel a little bit of pressure.

They had me get in bed and lay on my side at this point because they couldn't keep the baby on the monitor. The side lying was so much worse than standing because I couldn't sway my hips or move in any rhythmic form what-so-ever to get through the pain. I laid on my left side for 30 min and then my right side.

At 1:23 pm they had to place an internal monitor on the baby, which is something I 100% did not want to do, but they couldn't keep his heart rate on the belly monitors so we didn't have much of a choice. Placing the monitor broke my water. I laid back on my left side again and I started to become shaky.

At 1:50 pm I went back on my hands and knees. They turned the pitocin off sometime around here because the baby wasn't handling it well. I couldn't tell the pitocin had been turned off, the contractions kept coming and were just as strong as with the pitocin. The pitocin never went past 4ml which is barely anything. With Emma they had it up all the way. At 2:05 I started to feel a lot of pressure. 2:13 pm Summer checked me again and I am 10 cm and 100% effaced. I felt the need to push with every contraction but because NICU wasn't there yet they told me I couldn't. Lindsay had me do what they call 'horse lips' through the contractions so I wouldn't push. They worked for a few contractions but then I couldn't help it anymore and I had to start pushing. I felt the ring of fire almost immediately, it is perfectly named. I continued to push on my hands and knees for a few contractions, but the baby's heart was having some decels so they had me lay on my left side. I remember hearing Summer say that we needed the baby out now (apparently the baby was not doing well, because Bobby said he wasn't sure what they were about to do if I couldn't push him out at that point, but that the doctors were starting to look worried) and so I pushed as hard as I could. I remember being loud at this point and just needing to make noise to get him out. Everyone was telling me to conserve my air, but I feel like I was much more effective at pushing with making noise. Blake Phillip was born at 2:24pm on Tuesday, May 1, 2018. He weighed 6lb 7oz (Emma was 7lb 6oz) and was 19.6 in long.

They placed him on my chest and we were able to do delayed cord clamping and Bobby cut the cord. The Blake was a little bit blue and I kept asking the NICU doctor if she needed to take him but she just kept saying hold on a minute.

 Thankfully she finally took him because he wasn't crying very loud and the blueness was making me nervous. They took him to the warmer to check him out. He finally started crying some and pinked up, but his pulse ox was low.

They brought him back to me for some skin to skin and his pulse ox went way up. Skin to skin does wonders and can be some of the best medicine. I got to hold and cuddle him for about 10 minutes and then they took him across the bridge to the children's hospital.

The best thing about delivering where I did is that the hospital is connected to the children's hospital through a bridge so he was only about a 5 minute walk away. Bobby went with them while I got cleaned up and then I went to meet them a couple of hours later, but that will be covered in Blake's one week old post.

Summer, the midwife

Lindsay, the Doula

Thoughts on unmedicated child birth:

I still can't believe how short this labor was, 5ish hours compared to Emma's which was 48 hours.

I am still not sure how I feel about unmedicated labor now that I have had both. I didn't really want the epidural until about 7cm which is transition which lasted about 1.5 hours for me this time around. The recovery was definitely better unmedicated. I barely tore (which 2nd birth so thats to be expected), but I just felt physically better over all. I was able to spend the whole day at the NICU the day after he was born with only some Motrin as my pain meds. While we are probably done having kids, if God has different plans for us I honestly don't know which way I would go.  I do know that I will never have a baby without a Doula. I would not have gotten through either of my labors without Lindsay.

Pregnancy #2: Bump Pictures

I really wanted to compare all the bump pictures I took in some way.

 I was in the hospital and recovering weeks 26-29.

Pregnancy #2: 38/39 Weeks Pregnant and Specialist/Midwife Appointment

I was 38 weeks pregnant on April 24th.

According to thebump.com, the baby is the size of a pumpkin.

The Baby
He may have as much as an inch of hair, however Emma was pretty much bald so we shall see.

He is slowly shedding the white vernix, but he will probably still be born with some. Emma was covered in it.

He is around 20 in long and weighs around 7 lbs. I'm curious to see if the growth scan was correct or not on his weight.

His head is about the same circumference as his abdomen.

The Mama
I have really been struggling the past few weeks with just utter exhaustion from working full time while being this pregnant and not sleeping. With Emma by this point it was July and I had been out of school for about 6 weeks. While this is my last week of work (I have three days left while writing this), I am struggling a lot. It hasn't allowed me to get a lot of stuff done on my to-do list, which is kind of freaking me out, but I go to bed around 8 and I'm still really tired the next day because I am up so much in the middle of the night.

38 Week Specialist Appointment
He looks good, she spent some time really checking his abdomen and making sure he was swallowing fluid to make sure not to expect issues there when he is born a long with the heart issues. She wasn't really concerned about my blood pressure since the urine at the hospital was fine. She said just to watch it and call if I felt bad again or it went up, but that since I am so close to my induction date (May 3rd) she really isn't worried at this point.

38 Week Midwife Appointment 
This appointment went well. We talked a little bit about the induction next week and how that would go. It was pretty short, we didn't do a cervix check since I have another appointment on Monday a few days before the scheduled induction.

39 Week Specialist Appointment
I had my 39 week appointment the day before I turned 39 weeks, three days before our scheduled induction. She noticed a blockage in his colon and while it is probably just meconium she wanted to go ahead and induce before it gets any bigger and could potentially cause more issues. We found this out at 11 am on Monday, April 30th. We spent several hours getting child care figured out for Emma, running last minutes errands and cleaning last minute things. Then we hung out with Emma before we had to go to the hospital around 6pm.

Pregnancy #2: 37 Weeks and Midwife/Specialist Appointment

I was 37 weeks pregnant on April 17th.

According to thebump.com the baby is the size of a winter melon.

The Baby
He is practicing some skills: inhaling, exhaling, sucking, gripping and blinking.

He is also getting ready for his first dirty diaper.

He measures around 19 inches and 6 to 7 lbs. I am sure he is over 7 lbs at this point if his growth scan last week was correct, but I have my doubts that it was.

He has started falling into a good routine of movement on most days.
The Mama
I have been having some contractions on and off for a few days, but nothing major. At my chiropractor appointment I jokingly told her to "adjust me into labor" I did have some more contractions after, but they went away once I went to bed. I wouldn't mind him coming sooner than the induction date as I just keep thinking about my 48 hour induction with Emma. All the midwives keep telling me it won't be that long, but technically 30 hours is shorter than 48.

I've been having some headaches this week, I tried upping my water intake but it doesn't seem to help. I'm also getting over a lot of sinus pressure/allergies so maybe that is part of the issue. It has been a pretty stressful week at work as well.

I'm pretty sure I lost my mucus plug on the 23rd, the last day of week 37, the pelvic pressure has increased a lot, however not really any contractions anymore. I woke up feeling really foggy on this day and it just progressively got worse. At noon I went to the school nurse and had her take my blood pressure. We took it four times over an hour period and it was high all four times, so the midwives had me go to maternal observation. We were there being monitored for about 2.5 hours, but my blood pressures were fine the whole time, my urine came back with no protein and the baby was doing well so they sent me home and told me to just watch it since I have two doctor appointments during week 38.

Midwife Appointment
We set an induction date of May 3rd, but going in at 8 pm on the 2nd for softening of the cervix if needed. We will find out for sure on April 30th. My blood pressure was high with the cuff, but fine when done manually. This happened when pregnant with Emma too. The information from our growth scan last week says he is in the 69th percentile. Three weeks ago he was in the 29th, so I'm not really believing these scans at all at this point. She said everything looks good. I found out I was GBS negative, so I am so excited not have to have any antibiotics during delivery.

Specialist Appointment
This appointment was at the office that I like the least amount, they always take forever because they don't buzz him soon enough to get what they need. For example, they had me on the monitor didn't check on me until 15 minutes in and instead of buzzing him then then, they let me go for another 5 minutes. Of course they didn't have what they needed, had to buzz him and then monitor for another 20. The other location checks on you every 5 minutes and if they don't have what they need in that first 5 minutes they buzz the baby to get them moving, so I have rarely gone over the 20 minutes there. It was really annoying and I'm sure they realized I was not a happy camper. Other than that everything looked good, the scan and meeting with the doctor only took about 20 minutes all together.

Compare to my pregnancy with Emma