Last Thursday at about 4:45 am I got my wish. My water broke! Having not felt a contraction yet, I didn't feel the need to rush, so we called Mrs. Olivia and being the WONDERFUL help that she is, she came in 2 hours early to stay with Jackson till he woke up, then fed him breakfast and opened up for the Preschool. Our original night-time labor plan was to call my aunt Sara and she'd meet us at the hospital, but since it was so close to when I open, it would be silly for her to drive from the Frisco area to take Jack back to her house then bring him back to school so she could go to work. (She is the President of a manufacturing company.) Olivia is such a life-saver, she rescued us again and then stayed late till Sara could get there int he evening because my mom stayed up at the hospital with me during my recovery drama (see below).
At around 8:30 am I still hadn't felt a contraction, so they started me on Pitocin, which worked, but not fast enough. After they had upped my dosage to the max and still the contractions weren't getting the job done, the doctor came to me and said that we could keep going and risk infection or go to a c-section. At this point it was about 5:00ish pm. I didn't want a c-section, but I also wanted all parties healthy, so I opted to go ahead with it.
The actual c-section was a cake walk compared to almost 3 hours of pushing with Jackson, I thought. Then they wheeled me into the recovery room.
My epidural wore off within 15 minutes for some reason and I went from slightly uncomfortable to hyperventilating VERY quickly. There was a glitch in the computer system and the pharmacy had put in my order for morphine, but the recovery room nurses were not seeing it in the system. They had the meds right there, but couldn't give them to me until they could get the order in the system. It took an hour. I sat there feeling the full brunt of the incision for an hour. I had to be put on oxygen because I panicked and my chest tightened and I couldn't breathe. What a wuss huh? I always thought I was so tough, lol, I guess I needed to be humbled. I would go through my tough labor with Jackson 12x over before going through that again...or the next morning's first walk post-surgery. YIKES. The nurse said I had to walk down the hall to the nurse's station, but after seeing how much pain I was in, she told me just to walk to the ice machine, which was directly across from my door to my room, lol.
Things got better very quickly though. I made myself get up and walk regularly, and today (one week later) I am feeling about 70%. I can get up and around and I am on minimal pain meds, just to ease the discomfort at this point. I'm not really in "pain" anymore unless I turn in certain positions or cough.
Samson is a totally different baby than Jackson was. Jackson was very much a schedule baby. He'd breastfeed for 30 minutes, sleep for 3 hours and repeat almost to the minute. Sam is a cheerful baby, but very alert and awake a lot. He'll eat a small meal, then sleep for 2 hours, wake up hungry, eat a huge meal, then sleep for 4 hours, eat a medium meal, and stay awake until the next feeding, mildly fussy unless I hold him or he is in the vibrating seat with his pacifier. It really deosn't matter to me as I have help right now and I can sleep whenever I need to. Then I'll be home not working over the summer and Ben will be home too (even though he'll be mostly studying) so I'll get to rest if Sam decides to stay awake at night, but so far he has been choosing to stay awake mostly in the daytime.
My mom and Mrs. Olivia have helped so much with the preschool and Jackson this week and I have been able to stay upstairs and rest and take of Sam mostly. I can go up and down the stairs easily, and I have even picked up Jackson very quickly, but I'm taking it easy for the most part and letting them help me. This is hard for me because I feel guilty that I am feeling better and they are still doing do much work, but I know that is what I need. Next week is our last week of school and my mom goes home on Friday, so I'll be on my own after that. Ben was able to postpone the date of one of his tests, which is good because he wasn't feeling ready after spending 4 days by my side at the hospital, but also not so good because now he'll be stressing about it until the end of June and won't get much of a summer break since he starts rotations in July. Also, we won't get to see him as much, so I'm sad for that, but I know he needs to feel ready for this test.
Jackson is adjusting well to having a new brother. He is fascinated with the baby's things, like his swing and his bottles and pacifiers and blankets, etc. He does pretty well when I hold the baby, but DOES NOT like it when Ben holds the baby. "MY Daddy!" he says. He is getting better though. A couple of times he has been a little rough, trying to get the baby to play with his puppy, and we had to scold him, but he'll get it. The biggest adjustment for him is that his bunk beds FINALLY came in and Ben put them together and we moved him into the bottom bunk. He was SOOOO excited to play in his big boy bed when we first showed him, but that first night when it came time to actually sleep in the bed, he was not a happy camper. We let him sleep in his crib next to the bed that first night to get used to the big boy bed being in his room. Then the next day Ben laid down with him in it to take a nap, and now when we put him in it he cries for a few minutes like he always did in his crib, then we hear him talking to his puppy and playing. Eventually he stays in his bed and goes to sleep. Good boy!! The bunk bed is fairly low to the ground, but doesn't have a protective railing, which I hate, but Ben thinks it is good for him to learn not to fall out of the bed (?). Last night was the first night he slept in it all night and since I am up several times a night feeding Sam, I went to check on him a few times. The first time I saw this...
We moved him back to his original position, but then at 4 am I found him cuddled under a blanket near his bedroom door. It was so cute. Again, I moved him back to his bed, and that was where he woke up the next morning. We had a successful long nap in the big boy bed this afternoon and an easy time getting him to bed tonight, so we may move the crib out of his room and hide it in Sam's room for a few months and maybe he'll disassociate himself with it by the time we move Sam into his nursery and out of the pack and play next to my side of the bed.
Well, that is it. So far, so good, I guess. I'll be sad to see my mom go and feel mixed emotions about school ending next week. I'm ready for a break, but I'll miss the routine of the day and teaching. Jack will miss his friends a lot, so we'll be hosting play dates at our house and we'll be regulars at other play dates through out the summer!
At around 8:30 am I still hadn't felt a contraction, so they started me on Pitocin, which worked, but not fast enough. After they had upped my dosage to the max and still the contractions weren't getting the job done, the doctor came to me and said that we could keep going and risk infection or go to a c-section. At this point it was about 5:00ish pm. I didn't want a c-section, but I also wanted all parties healthy, so I opted to go ahead with it.
The actual c-section was a cake walk compared to almost 3 hours of pushing with Jackson, I thought. Then they wheeled me into the recovery room.
My epidural wore off within 15 minutes for some reason and I went from slightly uncomfortable to hyperventilating VERY quickly. There was a glitch in the computer system and the pharmacy had put in my order for morphine, but the recovery room nurses were not seeing it in the system. They had the meds right there, but couldn't give them to me until they could get the order in the system. It took an hour. I sat there feeling the full brunt of the incision for an hour. I had to be put on oxygen because I panicked and my chest tightened and I couldn't breathe. What a wuss huh? I always thought I was so tough, lol, I guess I needed to be humbled. I would go through my tough labor with Jackson 12x over before going through that again...or the next morning's first walk post-surgery. YIKES. The nurse said I had to walk down the hall to the nurse's station, but after seeing how much pain I was in, she told me just to walk to the ice machine, which was directly across from my door to my room, lol.
Things got better very quickly though. I made myself get up and walk regularly, and today (one week later) I am feeling about 70%. I can get up and around and I am on minimal pain meds, just to ease the discomfort at this point. I'm not really in "pain" anymore unless I turn in certain positions or cough.
Samson is a totally different baby than Jackson was. Jackson was very much a schedule baby. He'd breastfeed for 30 minutes, sleep for 3 hours and repeat almost to the minute. Sam is a cheerful baby, but very alert and awake a lot. He'll eat a small meal, then sleep for 2 hours, wake up hungry, eat a huge meal, then sleep for 4 hours, eat a medium meal, and stay awake until the next feeding, mildly fussy unless I hold him or he is in the vibrating seat with his pacifier. It really deosn't matter to me as I have help right now and I can sleep whenever I need to. Then I'll be home not working over the summer and Ben will be home too (even though he'll be mostly studying) so I'll get to rest if Sam decides to stay awake at night, but so far he has been choosing to stay awake mostly in the daytime.
My mom and Mrs. Olivia have helped so much with the preschool and Jackson this week and I have been able to stay upstairs and rest and take of Sam mostly. I can go up and down the stairs easily, and I have even picked up Jackson very quickly, but I'm taking it easy for the most part and letting them help me. This is hard for me because I feel guilty that I am feeling better and they are still doing do much work, but I know that is what I need. Next week is our last week of school and my mom goes home on Friday, so I'll be on my own after that. Ben was able to postpone the date of one of his tests, which is good because he wasn't feeling ready after spending 4 days by my side at the hospital, but also not so good because now he'll be stressing about it until the end of June and won't get much of a summer break since he starts rotations in July. Also, we won't get to see him as much, so I'm sad for that, but I know he needs to feel ready for this test.
Jackson is adjusting well to having a new brother. He is fascinated with the baby's things, like his swing and his bottles and pacifiers and blankets, etc. He does pretty well when I hold the baby, but DOES NOT like it when Ben holds the baby. "MY Daddy!" he says. He is getting better though. A couple of times he has been a little rough, trying to get the baby to play with his puppy, and we had to scold him, but he'll get it. The biggest adjustment for him is that his bunk beds FINALLY came in and Ben put them together and we moved him into the bottom bunk. He was SOOOO excited to play in his big boy bed when we first showed him, but that first night when it came time to actually sleep in the bed, he was not a happy camper. We let him sleep in his crib next to the bed that first night to get used to the big boy bed being in his room. Then the next day Ben laid down with him in it to take a nap, and now when we put him in it he cries for a few minutes like he always did in his crib, then we hear him talking to his puppy and playing. Eventually he stays in his bed and goes to sleep. Good boy!! The bunk bed is fairly low to the ground, but doesn't have a protective railing, which I hate, but Ben thinks it is good for him to learn not to fall out of the bed (?). Last night was the first night he slept in it all night and since I am up several times a night feeding Sam, I went to check on him a few times. The first time I saw this...
We moved him back to his original position, but then at 4 am I found him cuddled under a blanket near his bedroom door. It was so cute. Again, I moved him back to his bed, and that was where he woke up the next morning. We had a successful long nap in the big boy bed this afternoon and an easy time getting him to bed tonight, so we may move the crib out of his room and hide it in Sam's room for a few months and maybe he'll disassociate himself with it by the time we move Sam into his nursery and out of the pack and play next to my side of the bed.
Well, that is it. So far, so good, I guess. I'll be sad to see my mom go and feel mixed emotions about school ending next week. I'm ready for a break, but I'll miss the routine of the day and teaching. Jack will miss his friends a lot, so we'll be hosting play dates at our house and we'll be regulars at other play dates through out the summer!
Getting prepped for surgery
Samson Jay Blake, 7 lbs, 12.5 oz, 19.5 inches, born 5/22/09 at 6:40 pm
This is the best nurse at Denton Regional, Nicole. She was my labor and delivery nurse when I delivered Jackson and I was so excited that she was working when I had Samson, too. She had gotten off work and was on her way out when I was wheeled into the recovery room after the c-section, but came back to be with me when I was waiting for pain meds and hyperventilating. When I had Jackson, she was just so upbeat and sympathetic to my pain. She listened to me, tried to make things better in any way she could, and was a great coach during an arduous labor. When I had Samson, she came to see me the next morning in the recovery room. We would have all our babies at Denton Regional if we could have Nurse Nicole!! Even Ben and my mom loved her!
Jackson did NOT like to see HIS Daddy holding some other kid!
4 comments:
wow! I'm glad everything went well. He is beautiful!
What a rough ride! I'm so glad that you are healing well and letting everyone help you. Sam is a cutie!
WOW girl! That sounds like quite the crazy ride! But when all is said and done, and you have such a beatiful and healthy little boy, it is all so worth it.
I'm so glad it all worked about in the end for you. That must have been pretty scary going into have a C-section? I really don't want to need one of them-they sound horrible. Yikes!
I wish I was closer to you so I could bring you all a meal or take Jack for some play time while you and baby Sam slept. I'm glad your momma got to come help out. It is always hard to see them go though. I know all about that too. :)
Hugs to your family. Same is ADORABLE!
PS I loved the pic of Jack chillin' in his big boy bed. CUTE!
OMG can you say CHANGE! You guys just do it in strides don't you:)
lol I love the pic of Jack... so cute... and yes I agree with Ben b/c we had to do it with B and it has worked for a few weeks now. Your recovery sounds scary, I remember "feeling" my incision, I can't imagine it being RIGHT after thow!! OUCH! I"m going to email you about some adivice about the recovery..... it sounds like it might be needed:)
Sam is adorable! How fun, CONGRATS again to you all!
ps - SO CUTE that Jack doesn't like to share HIS daddy! I would say he's used to you holding other kiddos.... but he's a total daddy's boy so of course he'll be jealous.... AWE:) he luvs his daddy!
Post a Comment