Bath hair

Adventures with our growing B

We had a lot of fun today at "Fall for Greenville." It's like a massive taste test of downtown Greenville's restaurants. We paid $15 for 24 tickets, and the tickets worked like money to get food. I had a BBQ pork sandwich for 5 tickets, and Joe had Hibachi shrimp. We also had fried ice cream, gelato, and raspberry tea. It was neat just to walk around and see more of Greenville, too.

Brenan seems to be having a growth spurt again. His 6 month sized onsies are starting to have to stretch to snap at the bottom. He's waking up twice a night again, too. I can't say that's my favorite part of him growing. It gets old really quick!

This morning we couldn't get him to go back to sleep after the second time he nursed unless he was in the swing downstairs. Our monitors are at the cottage (we're at our off-duty apartment right now), so we laid out some blankets and our pillows and spent the rest of the night on the floor. It wasn't the most comfortable arrangement, but we all got to stay together and get our rest. Besides, it's kind of a fun story to tell later!

My poor sick baby

Oh, I miss blogging! Things have been so busy for us lately, and now as things are finally settling down, Brenan has an ear infection... a double ear infection to be more precise.

We went to the doctor two weeks ago for his two-month appointment and found out that he had an ear infection. He was prescribed amoxicillin, which we gave to him faithfully for 10 days as prescribed. He still seemed like he was feeling badly so we took him back yesterday. It turns out that the antibiotic wasn't strong enough, so the infection has spread to both ears.

According to the nurse practitioner, Brenan is really young to have an ear infection. She had to look up what stronger antibiotic would be safe for him to take since he is so small. His first dose was yesterday morning, and today he's been spitting up a lot. It's hard to say whether it's vomiting or just more frequent, but normal, baby spit up. Either way, it does have me a bit concerned.

I called the doctor's office today at 2:30pm and again at 4:30pm. Both times they ASSURED me that they would call me back before the end of the day. Guess what? I haven't heard from them. I'm really frustrated.

Brenan is about the same this evening, so as long as nothing changes we're just going to wait until morning. Then I'll call the doctor's office again, I guess. But I'm also going to be calling another pediatrician so we can transfer care. I don't mess around when it comes to my baby!

Look-a-likes

Well, I don't have much time for blogging because we're currently on shift, but I had to share... My parents emailed me a few of my baby pictures. To all of you who said that my boy looks nothing like me: You were wrong!

Brenan

Jen

Jen

Brenan

HA!

Out for a stroll

After many long pauses in my blogging, I'm back. We made our big move to South Carolina on August 12th, with the help of Joe's parents. After two weeks here we're finally starting to settle in a bit.

We've taken B out in the stroller before with the travel system setup - him in the car seat, car seat in the stroller - but tonight we took him out in just the stroller part for the first time. He wasn't the biggest fan of the typical, straight-forward stroller walk, but he loved swerving. I guess I better watch out when he gets to be a teenager with a license!

After-bath cuteness

Photo Shoot: One month

The results are in from Brenan's first professional photo shoot! 

My silly baby boy

The [post] birth story

Don't forget to read my posts about what led up to labor and Brenan's birth!

The instant Brenan was laid on my chest is one I'll never forget, but it wasn't what I expected. I was in a state of shock and relief from the intensity of the moments before. I remember feeling the weight of his body pressing down on mine, and the ups and downs of his breathing. He was warm and still moist; his hair was matted down against his perfect little head. He didn't have the typical cone-head of a newborn... I suppose because he came out fairly quickly and was never stuck in one place for any length of time during labor.


I could feel the umbilical cord laying across my belly, still pulsing, keeping us tied together for just a few minutes longer. According to Joe and I's wishes, the umbilical cord wasn't clamped off until after it stopped pulsing. Then Joe was given the scissors to make the cut that would begin Brenan's lifelong journey of independence.

Brenan's face didn't pinken up as quickly as the doctor would have liked, so they suggested that they take him to the warmer for a quick exam. I handed him over and within a few minutes he was back in my arms. He wasn't crying when he was on my chest, but he did as soon as they took him, so it wasn't long before he got enough air for his face to have a healthy color. (This says something about where he really wanted to be!) His Apgar scores were 8 and 8... practically perfect.

The doctor nicknamed Brenan "the bruiser" because of his size. The average newborn weighs 6-9 pounds and is 19-22 inches long. Our little boy was 9 lbs 6 oz, and measured 21 inches.

Pitocin was started immediately after the birth (without my consent, but it wasn't worth it to me to make a fuss about it), but the contractions seemed so mild compared to the ones I was having minutes before. Brenan was still at the warmer when the placenta was delivered. It's pliability made it almost ignorable as it slipped out the birth canal. The doctor massaging (this is hardly the right word) my uterus with her fist however, was not so pleasant. In fact, I might even classify it as worse than labor. Ladies: if you're going to have a baby, please prepare yourself for this! When they press down to make sure your uterus is hardening and not going to cause hemorrhage, it hurts! It causes a massive contraction and you can feel the leftover fluids from birth gush out (gross, I know). Thankfully, it doesn't last long... plus you get to have your baby in your arms while you experience it, so you have a wonderful distraction to give your attention to instead.

I had a second degree tear, which the doctor said was remarkable considering Brenan's size. I didn't feel it happen, and getting stitches wasn't too bad. I had local anesthesia; although, the place the last stitch went into didn't quite get numbed all the way. So that was bad, but the pain was short-lived.

After he was returned to me from the warmer, Brenan remained on my chest for an hour or so. I'm not quite sure of the time... I was too captivated by his precious face to look at the clock. He nursed for the first time, and nuzzled against me for warmth. Joe and I stared and stared. Our little baby boy was finally here.

The nurse came back in after a while and asked if I was ready to get up and try to go to the bathroom. I was shaky and sore (not just from Brenan coming out, but the muscles in my arms and legs were exhausted, too, from tensing them as I pushed), but I made it to the bathroom okay. Sitting on the toilet was REALLY uncomfortable. It put pressure in all the places I didn't want to have pressure on. At any rate, I wasn't able to pee. The nurse moved the hospital bed out of the room and set up the double bed which came down from the wall. I wandered over and laid back down, all my energy zapped from the short walk to and from the bathroom.

Sometime around 2 o'clock we decided we were ready for Brenan to have his full newborn exam, footprinting, measuring, etc. Joe went with Brenan and the nurse to the nursery while I took a shower. I was also able to pee when I went to the bathroom this time, thank goodness! The shower felt great. My room was, for some unknown reason, around 78 degrees Fahrenheit the entire time we were there, so I was covered in sweat from labor... not to mention blood, amniotic fluid, bits of vernix, and whatever else you come into contact with during labor and delivery. I got a little shaky from standing so long, but they have a fold-down bench in the shower at the hospital, so I just sat down for a while and relaxed in the water, reflecting on everything I had been through in the past 12 hours.

Birth is a wonderful experience. I would do it again in a heartbeat. The bond that Joe, Brenan, and I established that day has only continued to grow. We are experiencing life together... all three of us both learning and teaching as we go along.

The birth story

Read my [pre] birth story here

We got home from the hospital on Tuesday night around 9pm. We were relieved to know that everything was still okay with the baby, but really discouraged about the prospects of ever going into labor naturally. We went to bed with blank, smile-less faces, finally beginning to accept that I would probably have to be induced.

Wednesday, June 22nd

Around 2:15am I woke up with a contraction. This had happened to be a few nights before though, so I wasn't going to let myself get excited about it. I went to the bathroom and laid back down, trying not to think about it. I woke up again with another contraction at 2:25am... this time feeling kind of flushed and sweaty... it seemed stronger than any I'd had before. I tried not to get excited, but laid in bed awake hoping to feel my uterus clamp down again soon.

I felt another contraction about 10 minutes later. These contractions were somehow different than all of my Braxton-Hicks. I knew in some deep part of me that my body was finally ready for this, and that my baby was going to be born, but on the surface I was still in denial. I woke Joe up and we trudged out to the living room and sat down on the couch. We had gotten up other nights when I had contractions, and weren't really expecting anything too intense for quite some time, even if this was "the real thing." Everything we read about early labor said that I would be easily distracted from labor and able to continue functioning at a fairly normal level. 

That did not happen for me.

From then until we got to the hospital, everything blurs together. I breathed through many of my contractions laying on my side on the floor with my head on a pillow. We kept the lights off, and for the first hour or so I was able to doze in between my contractions. They were coming every 8-10 minutes. Every half-hour or so I stood in the shower and let the hot water relax me. The first few times it was almost numbing. When I first got up I was hungry, so I had eaten a bowl of cereal. It didn't stay down for long. I threw up pretty early on, and was unable to keep down even sierra mist and water.

I know Joe was there to get me whatever I asked for, whether it was help getting to the shower or a straw for my water... but I honestly have no recollection of how he passed the time otherwise. I vaguely recall the TV being on, but with the sound turned all the way down because I couldn't stand noise. I remember asking Joe every once and a while how frequently the contractions were coming... it seemed like they were 6 minutes apart the majority of the time.

My birth instructor told me when you feel like you can't do it anymore you're almost there. I was feeling that way by 7:30am. I was shaky, nauseous, and the shower wasn't helping anymore. Every contraction made me just want to thrash around violently to try to escape the pain, but the pain was almost paralyzing. Moving seemed to accentuate everything that already hurt. I worked through a few contractions on my hands and knees, and finally when I sat back as one was finishing, I felt a little gush of fluid. I told Joe my water broke, and we got ready to leave for the hospital.

I threw up as we were getting in the car, and had a contraction before we left the driveway. The 15 minute car ride was awful.  I had two contractions on the way... during both of which I screamed at Joe. I wasn't trying to scream, but when you're in such intense pain it's hard to get any words out without raising your voice.    During a contraction, both accelerating and braking were like torture, so Joe did the best he could to let the car coast. I was so thankful when we pulled in to the hospital parking lot.

We went in through the ER, as instructed. I sent Joe a few steps ahead of me through the doors to get a wheelchair, because I knew I was about to have a contraction. I wasn't particularly keen on the idea of being on my hands and knees having a contraction in front of everyone else in the waiting room. The hospital volunteer who brought the wheelchair looked a little flustered, but I tried to shut her and all the other patients out as I tried to breathe though the contraction that came as soon as I sat down. 

I was wheeled up to a room in the OB unit, and admitted immediately. I answered the nurse's questions during the breaks in between my contractions, which were still 3-5 minutes apart. There were two nurses in the room when they checked my cervix. The one who did the exam looked at the other one and said, "I feel... nothing. I can't feel any cervix at all." She also said that she could still feel the bag of waters. This was around 8:30am, I think.

The doctor came in some time shortly thereafter, and confirmed that I was fully dilated. Soon-to-be-Brenan's heart rate was beating steady with a lovely baseline around 140, and accelerations during contractions. His head wasn't quite as flexed as the doctor wanted it to be, so she put a rolled up towel just below my butt and lowered the leg portion of the bed so that my legs were hanging. I had to lay on my back and labor through 3 contractions like that (horribly uncomfortable), but her little trick worked and the baby flexed his head so that the crown of his head would present first. After that she told me I could start pushing as soon as I felt the urge.

I pushed laying on my left side for a while, then the doctor had me turn to my right side. My pushes still weren't as productive as they could have been, so she had me lay on my back (not flat though, the head of the bed was slightly elevated) and hold my legs myself. Joe and the nurse and been helping before. Pulling on my legs during the contractions helped give me more pushing power, and it ended up working the best for me. I was far too exhausted and shaky during contractions to try squatting. 

With each push I could feel the baby's head moving farther down. I could visualize where he was in my pelvis and the progress I made with each push. My contractions had been pain with no relief, but when I began pushing the pain felt productive and almost helpful. And then I felt the "ring of fire." I thought I felt like I was stretching, but then his head got to the widest point on it's way out, and... whoa. Now I know EXACTLY what women mean when they say that. It burns!

Thankfully that only lasted for two or three contractions. I could feel how close he was to having his head out, and the pain was bad enough that I got some sort of superwoman adrenaline rush and decided he was coming out RIGHT THEN. I'm not sure I've ever been quite so determined. That's the way it's supposed to be though - my body was made with Brenan's birth in mind.

When his head came out most of the burning feeling went away. I could tell that he wasn't all the way out though because I could still feel a lot of pressure from his shoulders. The doctor was concerned that his shoulders might get stuck because of his size and had warned me prior to when I started pushing that I should listen closely to her instructions after his head came out. Thankfully, she was pleased with the way his shoulders were presenting and told me to continue pushing. His shoulders (and the rest of his body) came out with the next contraction, after only two or three more pushes. At 11:19am, Brenan Matthew was born.

Keep posted for the final chapter of my birth story!

Say cheese!

Despite a screaming baby, howling dog, flat tire, and a bug in my eye, we made it to Brenan's first photo shoot today. I can't wait to see how the pictures turn out! We got a few sneak peeks and they were so precious!

P.S. After Brenan's pre-photo-shoot-bath this morning I blew his hair dry (he loved it!) so it wouldn't be all plastered to his head in the pictures...

There is no way you're not smiling right now.