Birth Story: Recovery

Things don’t just stop once the baby is born. You’d think you’d get to just rest and recover, but that’s not how it works, especially if extra tests need to be done. Okay, so maybe I’m making it sound worse than it typically is. But for us, it did seem like we didn’t get much of a break in between tests and exams. Shilo had to have her routine hearing test, have a prick for a PKU test, get her hepatitis B shot, have her blood sugar levels checked 3 times since she was “big”, have a cardiovascular echo done because of the “leaky valve” they found in her heart while she was in the womb, have her temperature checked, be weighed again, the pediatrician came to do a routine check, she was bathed, learned to nurse, and a few other routine things.

Nurse E giving Shilo her first bath

The pediatrician checking up on Shilo

Shilo having her cardiovascular echo done.

I had my blood pressure watched very carefully since I lost so much blood (I’m a redhead, we’re known to lose more blood than most people), had a flu shot, had my temperature checked regularly, started taking pain meds after the epidural was out of my system, worked on getting stability in my legs, had a lactation nurse stop by and talk about breast feeding, was check “down there” a few times to make sure all was well, finally ate food and drank water and OJ, tried to sleep, nursed Shilo, called/e-mailed family and friends, enjoyed visitors, and a few other things.

Things were busy. Thankfully we had a great nurse, nurse C. I think she is the best nurse I have ever had. I am so thankful for everything she did post-birth.

Since I had an epidural and had lost a lot of blood, we waited until Saturday afternoon to head home. I wanted to make sure my light headedness had gone away and that I was able to walk on my own. So we had a long hospital stay, but we think it was the right decision to make.

I have to say that when we left the hospital, my body felt like what it did two weeks after giving birth to Kayley. It’s probably partly because Shilo didn’t punch me on the way out. But labor did seem to be better, and the whole birthing experience was better too. I am so happy I had a midwife this time, and so thankful that it was midwife H who was with me. She helped to make me more relaxed, respected my birth plan, and was in the room and just hanging out (OBs don’t do that). She was with me practically the whole time, and I think that really made a difference too. 

Getting ready to leave the hospital; gotta make sure the straps are in the right places for Shilo

About to leave the hospital

Walking to our apartment

Thank you everyone who came and visited us in the hospital. It was so wonderful and encouraging to have you stop by and share your love with Shilo. Thank you so much!

Snuggles with mama

Lovin's from dada

Love from Maimie

Love from her Aunty Heidi, who was a great support while she was born

Uncle Mace and Aunt Janet stopped by to meet her

Uncle Steve and Aunt Lisa were excited to see the new addition to the family

My cousin Kelli, happy for a new little baby in the family

Birth Story: Ta-Da!

We got home, ate lunch, I took a shower, and we both tried to nap. We timed contractions for a while, but stopped since there obviously wasn’t a real pattern to them. But after a few hours they seemed to gain some consistency so at 4:30pm we started timing them again. They were about 4 minutes apart and more intense than they had been. At 5pm I told Andrew I wanted my sister, which made him know it was about time to go to the hospital. So we called my sister and had her come to our place, and then after 15 minutes we called midwife H to let her know how I was doing. H told us to come on over to the hospital and she would meet up after we checked in.

All checked in and ready for the rest of the labor

I was checked into the hospital by 6:00pm. H checked my body’s status and I was 4.5cm dilated and 100% effaced. So my body was a bit more ready for Shilo’s arrival. It was super overwhelming though while getting all checked in and ready in the birthing room. I swear there were 10 people in the room all doing different things, asking me questions or trying to get me hooked up or checked on in some way. It made it pretty hard to focus on breathing through contractions. Part of the reason why there was so much going on in my room was that I asked for an epidural right after H checked me. I was just so tired and exhausted from having intense contractions for 24hrs, and having little to no sleep since two nights prior that I decided I wanted it right then. But in order to get an epidural you have to get an IV and go through one bag of fluid before you get the epidural. Like always I was hard to stick. My veins do not like to cooperate. When they finally got the IV in, it only worked when my wrist was bent at a 90° angle. It took longer for the IV bag to drip empty since I had to constantly remind myself to bend my wrist.

Finally Doc T, the anesthesiologist, was called in to do the epidural. He got me all prepped and was about to start the procedure when he got a call for an emergency c-section. It was voiced that he might have to leave right then and not give me the epidural so he could help the woman who needed the emergency c-section. I thus burst into tears knowing that would mean I wouldn’t be able to get an epidural for a few hours. But! He talked with the nurse, found out the other woman wasn’t quite ready, asked for the door to be left open so he could watch for her gurney, and proceeded to give me the epidural. I was so relieved! I don’t know what I would have done if Doc T had to leave. He was an awesome doctor too. He even came by and checked on me after he was helping the woman who was having a c-section (after I had Kayley the anesthesiologist didn’t come check on me or stop by to say hi).

After the epidural got into my system, H talked about breaking my water to help speed things along. I talked it over with Andrew and we decided to go ahead and do that. So H went to go get ready, and nurse E checked my vitals again. And then poof, my water broke on its own. I guess it decided it didn’t want assistance. So then we just all kind of hung out for a while. H stayed in my room and chit chatted with us, and my mom stopped by with dinner for Andrew and Heidi. 

Waiting while hanging out with mom

At about 9:20pm H checked me and I was 6cm dilated, 100% effaced, and Shilo’s head was at -2 station (meaning her head was not engaged in my pelvis yet, but was getting closer [0 = head is engaged, 0 to +4 means the head is in the pelvis, and +5 means the baby is born). H said we could break my other bag of water (you have two) to help things along if I wanted, and Andrew and I decided to go ahead and do that. We wanted to meet our little girl and though I was feeling better because of the epidural, I was still really tired. So my 2^nd bag of water was broken, and then we all just hung out and talked for a while.

Talking things over with midwife H

At about 10:00-ish, my mom left to go home. She needed to make sure she got rest since she had to wake up with Kayley the next morning. Right after she left I had an extra dose of meds from my epidural. But I was still feeling pressure/pain in my back in a very specific spot, and in my legs. This happened to me when Kayley was born too, so we called H back to our room (she had stepped out for a minute).

At 10:30 I was 10cm dilated, 100% effaced, and station +1. I was feeling a lot of back pain along with pain from my sciatic nerve (just like with Kayley).  Just after 10:40 H asked me if I wanted to push. I told her I didn’t want to start unless my body was well ready, and Shilo was ready to come out. H suggested I do a test push to see what would happen, and if it looks like things are moving along, I would keep pushing, but if nothing really happens, we’d wait for a little while. Well, the single push did a lot! So a 2^nd nurse, nurse Ch, was called in. Within 5 minutes I had the 3 contractions that I pushed through to bring Shilo into the world. Five minutes of pushing! Wow! And I thought it was short with Kayley (about 45mins). 

Welcome Shilo!

Talking to Grandpa and Grandma V on the phone

Shilo was born at 10:52pm. She was mellow, but crying. Her 1^st APGAR score was an 8, and her 2^nd one was a 9. Shilo was placed on my chest right away and I got to snuggle her while Andrew waited for the umbilical cord to stop pulsing before he cut it. After snuggle time from me I gave Shilo to nurse E to be measured and cleaned up. She was 8lbs 15oz, 20cm long, and her head circumference was 36cm. By 11:30 my 2^nd degree tear was stitched up, Shilo had been snuggled by Andrew and me, and my epidural had been taken out.

Getting weighed

One funny thing that happened right when Shilo was born was that H said “oh, we lost a leg.” It took everyone a second to realize she was talking about me. You see, because of my epidural I couldn’t move my legs by myself. Andrew was in charge of holding my left leg where it needed to be, but he got so directed by Shilo entering the world that he stopped holding my leg and it fell off the bed. I didn’t even realize it happened because I was so intent on looking at our daughter!

Oh I love our little girl! I was so happy to hold her in my arms right after she was born. I just couldn’t stop looking at her! Right now it seems her soft fuzzy hair has a lot of red tint to it. Maybe she’ll end up being a redhead like her mama. Little Shilo Hope, mommy and daddy love you so much and are so happy God gave you to us. 

Shilo Hope

Our Cub with her bear

Tiny toes!

Birth Story: It All Started When...

After my 39 week check-up I had another acupuncture and massage appointment to try and loosen up my back and make it feel better. During my massage session I started having contractions, but they were super easy to ignore. I mean I was being worked on and really relaxed. Actually I was a little annoyed that my body wanted to practice contractions during my session. That was in the afternoon. By about 7pm that night (10/17) my contractions started to become a bit more intense, but super irregular. They still didn’t feel like real contractions, but Braxton Hicks contractions. There were a few I had to breathe through, but nothing too bad. So we went to bed. Kayley and Andrew slept great! As for me, the intensity of my contractions increased, though they still remained irregular, and made sleep quite hard to obtain.

At around 2:30am (10/18) the intensity increased. I tried changing positions, getting up and walking a bit, but none of that seemed to help. My breathing through them woke Andrew up and he tried to help me through them and rubbed my back to help me relax. That sadly didn’t help either. So I told Andrew to go back to sleep and said I’d distract myself by watching Tangled. I was able to watch half of it before fatigue finally started to win and sleep seemed inevitable. Well, I did get some sleep, but only a few minutes here and there before a contraction would wake me up (they were 5-20 minutes apart, and lasting 30 seconds to 1.5 minutes).

First thing in the morning I gave my mom a call to let her know what was going on and to ask if she’d come be with Kayley, and to tell my sister what was going on too so she could be prepared to go to the hospital if needed. So my mom got up and came over and Kayley was excited to have a playmate.

We also decided to call the midwives and go in and get checked out. Since contractions had been going on for so long, and at first Shilo was super active and then became very quiet and still, I started to become worried for her well being. We saw H at 11am and found out I was 4cm dilated and almost 100% effaced. It was such a relief to know that all those contractions had been prepping my body!  That was not how it was with Kayley. I took a non-stress test to check on Shilo’s well being, and to track my contractions too. We found out Shilo was doing great, and yup, contractions were strong, but irregular. We thus decided to go home and relax.

Non-Stress Test: The squiggly line on the left is Shilo's heartbeat. The line of the right shows my contractions.

She's Here!

She’s here! Shilo Hope is here! She was born Thursday, October 18^th at 10:52pm. She weighed a whopping 8lbs and 15oz (nearly 9lbs!) and was 20 inches long. She has basically a pound and half an inch on Kayley. Right now we can’t really tell what shade of blue/black eyes Shilo has because she doesn’t really care to open them. As for her hair, she has quite a bit of fuzz that has more of a red tint than Kayley's, but it’s hard to tell if it will be a shade of red or just tinted with it. Shilo seems to have a pretty mellow personality so far, is a good eater and a good sleeper too. We’ll see how that all evolves over time. There will be more on Shilo and Kayley later. Now it’s time to get some more rest while Shilo sleeps.

She's here!

Sleeping peacefully

Opening her eyes a bit to the bright world

Sisters!