Introducing::::

The Birth Story of Rowan Luca-Blaise Walls

            I had went to my 36 week appointment and I was told I was 70% effaced and 5 centimeters dilated. She said as soon as I started having contractions to go to Labor and Delivery and to make sure I had plans A, B, and C in place. I left my appointment worried about going into labor at any second.

            A week later, I had my 37 week appointment. At this appointment I was told 50% effaced and 4 centimeters dilated. (Different doctor.) She said the same thing as the other doctor though, as soon as contractions got timetable and uncomfortable to go in. I was having contractions pretty regularly every night. I’d go to be though and wake up to them gone.

            Tuesday evening on October 28^th I just felt different. I had already told Brian and my mom that if I started having bad contractions I was planning on going in to the hospital. My legs and feet were swollen, and I had already called my doctor concerned about that.

            Around 11:00 PM I started having contractions that actually wrapped around and lasted 45-50 seconds each. They were coming every 2-4 minutes. I started timing them at 11:35 PM. At 12:04 AM I called my doctor. In the 30 minutes I had been timing I had already had around 17 contractions. She told me to go ahead and head into Labor and Delivery so I could get checked out.

            I called my mom to let her know and she decided she was going to meet me at the hospital. Brian stayed at the house until my brothers arrived to watch the girls. I got to the hospital at 12:40 AM. As soon as I arrived they had me give a urine sample and then the nurse checked me. I was 90% effaced and 6 centimeters dilated. Right then they started to admit me. By 12:54 AM I was in my room and calling Brian to let him know that they were keeping me.

            My midwife came in to check me herself and said I was 90% effaced and 5 centimeters dilated. (Same doctor who said I was 4 centimeters after being told 5 the week before.) Anyway, she told me as soon as I was ready that she would break my water, and that until my water was broken the baby was going to stay pretty high up. I decided to wait to have my water broken so I could rest up a little bit.

            At 3 AM I decided I was ready for my water to be broken. They had to hook me back up to the monitors while they broke it though, so by the time they called the doctor, got me hooked up, and actually broke my water it was 3:30 AM.

            As soon as she broke my water the baby dropped from -2 station to 0 station and was engaged. I was able to get off the monitors and move around. I was feeling so pushy and asked to be checked. I was at 7 centimeters dilated. At this point I needed to go to the bathroom. So I went and I thought baby was going to be born there! Being on the toilet was so much better, but my body instinctively pushed!! I knew if I didn’t make it back to the bed baby was going to be born on the toilet.

            I got back in the bed and the back pain was unreal. Brian was applying counter pressure but it was not working too great at all. With every contraction the only relief was to push. They checked me and I was “AC”- Almost complete. A tiny bit of cervix was all that was left. She had the doctor come in. While she was setting up and getting ready she told me I could push during contractions if I wanted, so I did! (I have picture of her setting her tools up and you can see the clock says 4:29 AM.)

            She sat on the bed and told me to go ahead and push. I did, and the relief was amazing. She encouraged me to keep going, and next thing I knew I could feel baby crowning! They didn’t even have time to break down the bed and I had to ask Brian and the nurse to hold my legs.

            Rowan was born at 4:36 AM. His shoulder got stuck on the way out and I heard her telling them to hurry and drop the bed. It was scary.

             I was in shock I think. I was not expecting it to happen so fast. They immediately put him on my chest but I don’t think I looked at him until around 10 minutes later. I kissed him and held him, but I didn’t actually LOOK at him. Finally I snapped out of it and inspected him all over. He’s perfect. J

            He weighed in at 7 pounds 11 ounces and was 19.5 inches long!! A whole pound bigger than Kayelynn was, and 12 ounces bigger than Aaralyn!

            He was really, really bruised. He nursed for 20 minutes right away and then just slept. That night I went to bed around 11 PM and didn’t get woken up until around 4:30 by the nurse! They said that was pretty normal though since he was born in a little bit of a traumatic way. (So fast and getting stuck.)

            We had to do X-rays on his collarbones and right arm to make sure nothing was broken. Everything came back fine. The overall hospital stay was good. My brothers were here with the girl’s so I was anxious to get back though. It was the longest I had ever been away from Aaralyn! On Thursday we were discharged and able to go home. (That was awesome, because we were expecting to have to stay. Both girls had to stay extra days because of jaundice.)

 When we left the hospital he was 7 pounds 5 ounces.. Not bad since he had hardly woken up to eat!

My milk is in now though and he is so much better about eating. 

Last night (first night home) we went to bed at 11 and woke up at 8:30. Between those times he woke up about every 2 hours, but it only took him 15-20 minutes to eat so we were right back to sleep. 

Anyway... I have more picture from the hospital and from since we've been home, but they are on my phone/Facebook and I need to save them still..

Kayelynn is in love, but she hasn't gotten to hold him yet (Except for long enough to get a picture) because she's been sick. Aaralyn doesn't know what to think. She's been sick too though, so I can't encourage her to hold him or get too close.

He has a doctor's appointment on Monday. That should be fun. I get to take all three kids with me. 

Alright, Alright.

I don't want to disappear from blogging! So, I'm going to try my best to blog more than I have been. I know for a while it's been nothing but weekly pregnancy updates. I need to get back into the habit of writing on here!

Aaralyn is officially 13 days old now that it's after 12AM. :( I can't believe she'll be2 weeks old on Friday. It's going by so fast!!

So far, Aaralyn is nursing like a champ. I have a huge over supply though.. And an over active let-down. So, she sometimes gets drowned in milk. Lol. I've been trying not to pump so my body can regulate itself and only produce what she needs... But it's so hard when I'm leaking through the pads! It's ridiculous. Seriously, in the hospital when she was 2 days old my milk came in. The nurses could not believe I was pumping as much as I was. I need to get some freezer bags to store the milk... And some more bottles.

I was really worried about nipple confusion at first. But, I had to give her a bottle too because she wasn't wanting to latch on correctly every time and it hurt SO. BAD. But, she's doing great. She nurses, takes a bottle, and takes a pacifier with no problems!!

The kids love her. We had an issue with them all calling her "The baby." And, Paige would call her "It." They finally started calling her by her name though. Kayelynn is super helpful. She loves bringing me things that I need.

So, last week, Kayelynn had a fever. It ended up going up to 105.1 and we rushed her to the ER. We found out that she had a horrible double ear infection. The doctor just kept saying he couldn't believe how bad they looked. :( It was seriously so scary though on the way to the ER. It's been about a week now and she hasn't had a fever in 2 days. Thank goodness.

I'm doing good. I'm down 20 pounds from my pre pregnancy weight!! Woohoo. That excites me.

Aaralyn has a doctor's appointment on the 25th of this month. It's crazy because it's a day before her due date but she'll actually be 3 days shy of being 3 weeks old. I can't wait to see how much she weighs. She was 6 pounds 5 ounces when we left the hospital.. Then 6 pounds 6 ounces the next day. Her birth weight was 6 pounds 15 ounces.. So I'm hoping she's back up to that.. Or maybe even bigger.

She eats a TON. She will nurse anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. She will drink 2 to 3 ounces from a bottle. She's a pretty good sleeper. She wakes up normally 2 times at night, usually around 2 and 6.

So now... Pictures!!

Kayelynn looks weird in this picture...

My Breastfeeding Fail.

So, Christina at Loving My Life as a Mommy of Two gave me the idea to share my Breastfeeding story/fail.

Keep in mind Kayelynn was born at 36 weeks.

I wanted to breastfeed from the moment I found out I was pregnant. When I had Kayelynn they didn't let me breastfeed right away before they took her away. About 2 hours later when we finally got back to my room they finally let me try. She wouldn't latch on so they had the lactation consultant come in and speak to me. We tried for forever to get Kayelynn to latch and she just couldn't do it. They told me to just wait.

The next day she still wouldn't latch on. I was so frustrated. I don't know about where you girls live, but in all the hospitals around here in Ohio, you have to keep a record of how much your baby is drinking. They don't go off weight, only how much they drink. So, I knew they weren't going to let us go home because in Kayelynn's first day of life she had drank NOTHING.

Finally after about 18 hours I gave in and asked for formula. Kayelynn couldn't latch. I knew she was hungry. I was frustrated. They wouldn't let me have formula even though I asked! They told me to just keep trying. FINALLY I demanded formula. This was almost 24 HOURS LATER.

Now, the doctor told me they wanted her eating an ounce every 3 hours. She wouldn't. Instead, Kayelynn was eating half an ounce every 1.5 hours... Same thing right? Some babies like to eat a smaller amount and eat more often. Well, the nurse YELLED at me. She told me I was feeding her way too much and that I was giving her gas. Oh, I was LIVID. If you are breastfeeding, you don't know how much your baby is drinking, yet if they are hungry, you feed them. It doesn't matter if it's every 4 hours of every 20 minutes. A baby is not going to over eat.

We ended up talking to ANOTHER lactation consultant. Yes, that's 3 different ones. They basically came to the conclusion that since Kayelynn was "Late pre-term" she just couldn't latch on. (I ended up getting a REALLY nice hospital grade breast pump when we got home and it was actually covered through my insurance since Kayelynn was late preterm!)

Next day we go home. On our second day the home nurse came to visit and check on Kayelynn. Within an hour of her leaving she called to tell us that Kayelynn's bilirubin levels were super high and to go to the hospital right then. Not to stop anywhere just go.

*Bilirubin- which can make babies Jaundice- is dangerous if the levels are too high. It causes baby to turn yellow and can cause brain damage if the levels are elevated and left untreated! Bilirubin exits the body though bowel movements. That is one reason it's so important for baby to go so much. Breast milk is especially good for getting bilirubin out of the body. Formula tends to make babies more constipated. *

I asked the doctor if Kayelynn's levels being so high could have had anything to do with her not eating for an entire day after birth could have affected her levels and they told me yes, it could have. If I would have even pumped and gave her breast milk through a bottle that would have helped get the bilirubin out of her system.

We ended up staying in the hospital for 24 hours while Kayelynn was under the bilirubin lights. I was only allowed to touch her to change her diaper and then to feed her. Even then she had a special light that I put under her on my lap and then we had to shine the overhead light on us both. They weren't even going to let us stay in the hospital! Thank goodness since I was pumping they let us stay with her.

I just found out recently about a nipple guard that can sometimes help babies latch. I am so mad. I honestly feel like my nurses and even the lactation consultants didn't provide me with all the tools they could have to make my breast feeding attempts successful.

I hate that I gave in and gave Kayelynn formula in the hospital, but I did what I felt was right. Eventually they did give me a breast pump... It was a manual one that I had to sit and pump myself. When we got home I used that thing every 3 hours until I got my amazing one in the mail. I swear angels sang when I used that thing. I was able to pump Kayelynn for 3 weeks, and then my milk supply stopped. I tried pumping more often and it just didn't work. I decided to just go ahead and make the change to formula.

I hate that I couldn't breast feed. And I don't know why my milk just stopped coming in. I still hate that I couldn't breast feed Kayelynn. I honestly feel like if they had given me a nipple guard to try, or if I had known about it to ask my attempts would have been successful. I'm not going to lie. I went into it thinking that it was a piece of cake.

Anyway, thanks to Christina, next time around - whenever that is - I am going to do my research and use the tips and information she provided on her blog to help inform myself and do everything I can to make my attempt successful. I'm going make sure my doctor knows I want time for skin to skin contact and breast feeding time before they take the baby away for all the test and what not. I will find a doctor that allows that.