Me and My Boys: July 2009

The story continues...

After much preparation in the last few days before July 2nd, I was feeling really ready for this baby to come emotionally and physically. I don't think I could have lasted another 2 weeks at the rate this little fiend was growing. I seriously was huge by July 2nd...see for yourself. I am glad that I made Dan take a couple of pictures of my before I went into the hospital to deliver. I remember him grumbling about it and thinking I was silly, but they turned out pretty good, and you can only have those moments once and it is best to capture them on camera...even if you are extremely HUGE!

So Thursday morning July 2nd, I wake up and take a shower, do my hair, put on make-up and take my sweet time. My parents had come the night before so they were going to hang out with Tyler and come to the hospital more near the time of delivery. Since I took my leisurely time about getting to the hospital, it wasn't until about 9:00 am that they had me all checked in and hooked up the the pitocin. My doctor came in to check in on me and see where we were at. She broke my water then and let me tell you...there was a LOT. They say bigger babies have a lot of waters, but that was a bit of an understatement in my case. Even my nurse said she has never seen so much. It felt so strange too.

I have had the same OB for the last couple of years and really like her a lot. I was super disappointed last time with Tyler when I went into labor and delivered my baby a day before she got back from vacation. I was so glad that she would be here for this delivery though.
However, she came in to the room and informed my that she was needing to leave the hospital at 3 pm in order to catch a plane to see her dad whose health is failing. I couldn't be upset that she would leave me to be with her father, but man, I was hoping to have the baby before then. Luckily, I had an awesome nurse who has a knack for getting things done.
I shortly got my epidural since when the nurse asked what pain level I wanted to get to before meds and I was like well maybe a 3 and then my wise husband butted in and was like "she wants a zero...no pain." I had to agree with him. I guess I was just trying to be tough...but lets face it, I am not.

After that, it was a few hours of watching a movie, getting some rest, and rolling from side to side with a HUGE birthing ball between my legs. At one point I was on my right side for so long that all of the medicine had drained over to that side and I could feel my contractions in my left. I called the nurse and told her about it and so they upped the drip and turned me over. When she checked my though, I was ready to go and it had only been about 4.5 hours. Since I got more medicine in me though, my heart rate began to drop and I felt amazingly woozy and cross-eyed. There was a man in there getting the room ready and he was just talking and talking and when I started feeling like that I really wanted to jump up and shut him up somehow...his voice was driving me mad.

I said that I didn't feel so good and they took one look at my sheet white face and pumped me with something to bring my blood pressure back up. I felt fine in about 2 minutes which was a good thing since it was time to push!

It only took about 10 minutes and our sweet little slimy baby had been born. I asked the nurse if it had been like a half hour or something and she laughed and told me it was only a few minutes of pushing. If time flies when you are having fun, then I suppose the opposite it true as well.

He was born at 2:01 and was 8lbs 4 oz. and 21.5 in. long. Good thing he was 2 weeks early!
After that, the little man got cleaned up a bit and the family came in to check him out. He was perfect and sweet and it was such a wonderful experience again. I am so lucky and blessed to have good pregnancies and easy deliveries.

Unfortunately, everything didn't stay perfect for long. Little Chase Alexander was a noisy baby from the get go, but it started worry us when his little moaning motor never turned off...even when he was sleeping. He was always making a low rumbling sound in his throat. The doctors said it could be fluid in his lungs still and did chest scans and x-rays and all sorts of other tests which came back negative. It worried us a lot because we could tell that it worried all of the doctors and nurses that saw him. They obseved him in the nursery for 2 nights to make sure that all was well and then finally Dan, Sam, and my dad gave him a blessing. Dan says that he felt that it was an infection that was plauging his body but through the blessing and our faith that the Lord healed him of it although there was no evidence from the doctors tests.
I am so thankful for the power of the priesthood that it could heal something that we wouldn't have even known what or where it was.

A few days later, the motor subsided and since then he has just been the most grunty, stretchy, noisy thing anyway! I was glad to get him into his own room after my parents left.
Then, as if having engorgement isn't bad enough, both Chase and I got thrush...that hurt me a whole lot. Luckily, not so much him. But then he got this horrible boil on his bum right next to his anus. That was not fun at all. After 4 doctors visits and some excruciating pain, the boil was popped (which made the doctor even gag) and he was on antibiotics on his way to recovery. Unfortunately, the antibiotics make the thrush worse and gave him a little fungus on his boy parts. Then I started hurting more and realized that I was getting mastitis. A little later we realized that the poor kid had pushed so hard in his abdomen from pain from the abcess that a little hernia popped out into his belly button with is now the size of a golf ball. It doesn't look pretty, but fortunately, it doesn't hurt him. To top it all off, he has had a clogged tear duct that causes his eye to be all goopy every day.

All this on top of adjusting to a new little person in our family, and trying to help Tyler feel loved and safe still was quite a chore. I thought it was a good idea too to start Tyler with potty training since I would be home a lot with a newborn. It sounded like a crazy thing to do, but it worked and he did awesome. So he is mostly potty trained now. One less thing to worry about.