Hospital Life

Here is part two of Mr. C's birth.

I believe I mentioned in one post or another that I am GBS positive so when I give birth at a hospital baby and I have to stay for 48 hours to insure that the baby does not pick up an infection from me so these next bunch of pictures will highlight our two day stay.

Here's my first attempt and nursing Mr. C. 

(Sorry if seeing this makes you uncomfortable however I always see these photos as beautiful)

Here's daddy getting in some additional time while I work on recovering from the epidural and before Mr. C is taken to the nursery to get his first bath.

Daddy and I are the type of parents that we don't leave our baby's side for anything while we are in the hospital.  Daddy always stays in the nursery for the two hours they keep the baby there and either Daddy or I will always go for every test they perform on him as well.  We do this not because we don't trust the hospital so much but because we always want to make sure one of us is there to comfort our babies when a little comforting in needed.

Here are the photos Daddy took of Mr. C in the nursery while I was getting some sleep in our room.

Daddy said Mr. C. just loved his bath but he melted the most when he was getting his hair washed.

 Here he is all cleaned up and ready for his mama.

 The day we were checked into TMC to labor and birth this little boy we were informed that all of the recovery rooms were now private and that they were all recently remodeled.  SCORE!  We were told after Bug was born that we were lucky to have been given a private room then because most of the rooms were semi-private so we were really concerned going back in that we may not get the same luxury again.

Here are pictures of our visitors...

My folks

Bug checking out his little brother making sure there are ten toes and ten fingers.

Ericka

Grandma or Damma according to Bug and Papa. 

By the way I owe a HUGE thank you to Grandma and Papa for bringing me Chipotle.  That was my reward food for giving birth.

 I would also like to give a HUGE thank you to my folks for keeping Bug the two nights we were stuck in the hospital.  My biggest fear about giving birth at the hospital was the two nights I would have to be away from him.  Bug has never slept a night away from me except for the first time back in January when my dad kept as a test run.  Fortunately the test run went really well but I still had some stress on how he would do being gone for two whole days.  Having my parents be there and available for him made it a whole lot easier on me.  By the way, I think Bug enjoyed the mommy-free vacation.  My parents spoil him with all sorts of junk food, trips and toys. 

I would also like to take this time to thank my in-laws for being available and taking on Bug over the last few weeks and months.  There were plenty of times we would call on them to watch him while I had an appointment or at the last minute like when I thought I was going into labor the Sunday before I actually went into labor.  It really made the transition from having one babe to two a whole lot smoother for me.

Here's my adorable #1

Okay back to our hospital life.

Here I am getting him dressed to go home.

Getting in another squeeze while I await my chariot aka the wheel chair

Here's a photo of our lovely room

Here is daddy loading up Mr. C for his ride home.

YEAH!  We are heading home!!!

 Lots of Love~SL

Another namesake is born

Well our 2nd son made his arrival into this world on Sunday, March 6th at 7:12pm.  His birth was witnessed by his Daddy, big brother, Grammy, Granddad, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Kissy and Aunt Michelle. 

I had planned for the day to start off like the rest of them...still pregnant.  Daddy and I had planned to go to Mesquite Valley Growers to pick up some plants to add to our growing garden.  After breakfast I called Grammy and Granddad to give them the news that I was still pregnant and I didn't see labor coming on anytime soon. 

Lets rewind a bit to give you a tad bit of background....

At this point I was considered 41 weeks and 2 days into my pregnancy.  After trying every form of "hocus-pocus" over the last week or so that we could think of to encourage labor to come on in a more natural state we finally decided to throw our hands up in the air and just wait for Mr. C to come when he was ready.  Daddy and I had always disputed the due date we were given so we had some apprehension and guilt about taking steps medically to induce labor.  I had a round of tests the Friday before that confirmed everything with Mr. C was okay and we were basically given the clearance by a mid-wife to continue the pregnancy. 

Fast Forward to Sunday now.... 

At around 12:30am while lying in bed my water slowing started leaking.  This happened three separate times between 12:30 and 2:00am.  I wasn't convinced my water was leaking because I wasn't having any contractions so I just chalked everything up to a full bladder.  The Sunday prior I was convinced I was going into labor so I rounded up the posse and essentially staged a fire drill because it turned out to be a false alarm.  Needless to say I wasn't going to "call it" again at 12:30 for it be another false alarm. 

Back to my call with Grammy and Granddad....

The phone was just about to connect when I felt that leak again and again I shrugged it off as my bladder.  Grammy and I talked for about 10 minutes and when I hung up the phone...WHAM.... I could no longer deny the "leak" was my bladder.  Surprisingly, I still was a little apprehensive to call it.  I was more convinced now but because I wasn't having any contractions I thought it was all to good to be true.  To be safe though I called Grammy right back and told her I thought my water had broken and that they should head back home from the property.

I told Daddy the news and I called the Birthing Center.  The mid-wife on duty told me to come down in about 45 minutes, she would check me, start my antibiotics for the GBS and send me home until the contractions started.  I figured I had roughly fours hours between antibiotic doses to come home and do my hair, pack the bags, finish laundry and give Bug a better parting besides the rushed one he was given.  Fortunately, Daddy had the brains to pack as if we wouldn't be coming home for two days because when we arrived at the Birthing Center the mid-wife had recalled I was over the 41week mark in the pregnancy and I was now an automatic TMC transfer which we knew. 

We arrived at TMC and we were checked in by 10:30.  I still wasn't having any contractions to speak of and  I wasn't too surprised by this.  I had actually suspected that because of the position of the baby I would never get the consistency I needed and therefor would need the help of Pitocin. 

I had my first round of antibiotics at 11:40 and a very slow drip of Pitocin started.  The goal was to get two rounds of antibiotics in me before I delivered.  Now I knew with a broken water sac and being on Pitocin the contractions would more intense but I still wanted to try for the natural labor. 

I was given my second dose of antibiotics at 2:40 and the Pitocin drip increased.  I managed to make it to 8cm before I pulled plug on the natural labor and begged for the epidural.  I don't recall at what time I started pushing but it was a whole lot less then the two hours I pushed with Bug...THANK GOD! 

All checked in and waiting

Enjoying my contraband

 Sending out the updates

 Contracting

 Stealing a moment with my only child for the time being

 Ahhh....the Epidural!

 It's go time!

The photographers

 My audience

 Still pushing

HE'S HERE!!!

His Audience

The Official weigh in

Family moments

I would like to take a moment to talk about the mid-wife who delivered Mr. C.  Her name is Susan Yount, CNM.  We had just met her the Friday before when I had gone in for the all the testing.  She lives and teaches mid-wifery in Phoenix and comes to Tucson a few days out of the week to work for the Birthing Center. 

She was FABULOUS!!!  She is what a mid-wife is supposed to be.  With Bug I didn't get the true experience of a mid-wife and in fact I hardly saw his mid-wife during my 24 hour labor.  I had explained to Susan during my check-in that I had a "personality conflict" with Bug's mid-wife and I hoped I wouldn't get her again this time.  Turns out Susan's shift was ending at 7 that night and Bug's mid-wife was up next.  If you only could have seen the "oh poop" look on my face.  Susan was such a dear and agreed to stay on until Mr. C was born. 

This will conclude the first update of Mr. C's birth. 

Lots of Love~SL