Back to the hospital

I'm still writing catch-up posts. This happened Cayden's second week of life.

The reason Cayden was born 12 days early was because for the first time in my pregnancy, my blood pressure went up and my doctor didn't want to take any chances. This actually happened my last week of pregnancy with Adalyn. The difference is that when I was pregnant with Adalyn I had insane swelling through my last trimester. It was glamorous.  When I found out I was going to have a baby in the middle of the summer, I was so scared about the swelling this time around. I just knew it was going to be horrible. Well, guess what. I never had much swelling at all with Cayden. So weird how pregnancies can be so different yet also similar.

Anyway, throughout my pregnancy I had no swelling, great blood pressure, no headaches and acceptable levels of protein. These are the four things they look for for preeclamsia. Once my blood pressure went up and stayed up two days later at my next appointment, my doctor didn't want to chance preeclamsia so I got induced.

Fast forward to Cayden's first week birthday. I was having swelling in my feet and ankles and had a pounding headache. So weird to start swelling after having the baby.  Yes, I had signed up to work at the Lil Lambs consignment sale that Saturday which meant that Thursday (7 days old) was early shop night. I signed up to work this sale months ago thinking that I would still be pregnant. I decided that I needed to go to shop Thursday night. I sucked up my pain and just did it. This is the sale that I get the majority of clothes for the kids' wardrobes and I took one for the team because we now have 2 kids that needed a full fall/winter wardrobe. I did get some amazing buys so I'm glad I pushed through and did it.

When I got home late that night it was my birthday and we ordered take out and ate dinner at about 9:30 at night. Not my ideal birthday but what can you do? At that point my head was pounding bad and my swelling was bad but I figured it was because I had been on my feet all night.  Jonathan was really worried about me especially when I had to lay down Friday evening because my head was pounding so hard. He offered to work my shift on Saturday. I was so thankful. I didn't want to look like I signed up to work a later shift so I could shop early and then skip working.

By Saturday I called the on-call OB and he told me to go get my blood pressure taken and to take some pain meds. Well, of course I didn't get out to take my blood pressure until Monday. We were running to get Adalyn from daycare and stopped at the store to get some thank you notes (for all of the amazing people who brought us dinners and gave us baby gifts!!) so I stopped and took my blood pressure at Kroger and it was high. I called my OB office and told them what my bp was and they told me to come in right away. We got Adalyn (who always looks like a hot mess after daycare) and ran to the doctor's office. The nurse took my bp and it was so high that she went and got an electric cuff. That reading was still high. My doctor was out of the office that day so I saw a different doctor. He walked in and immediately told me he was admitting me to the hospital for postpartum preeclamsia.  I was not expecting that. Couldn't I just get some pills to make my headache go away? I called J who was waiting in the car with the 2 kids and told him the news. We were in a bit of a frenzy about childcare. We had no clue how long I would be at the hospital. It was crazy.

Of course Adalyn had no shoes on so J was carrying both kids through the hospital. We looked like a mess. I got all checked in. They told me that they were going to start me on a magnesium IV and that I was allowed to have Cayden stay with me in order to nurse him but that the IV would make me so sick that I would not be allowed to be alone with the baby so someone had to stay with me. (Even if J went to get food or ice down the hall, he had to take C with him.) We have no family in town so we called Adalyn's daycare sitter and she was so kind about keeping A overnight. I was thankful because A loves her and her kids and she knows Adalyn better than most anyone else since she spends every day with her. She also doesn't need prompts on what to feed and what time to do things. That was a relief. But in order for J to take Adalyn to her house, he had to take Cayden since he couldn't stay with me at the hospital. I felt bad that he was toting both kids around on top of being stressed about me. J ran home to pack a bag for Cayden and for me.  At that point we still didn't know how long we'd be in the hospital.

They got my IV started and oh my, they warned me about many possible side effects and thankfully I didn't have a lot of them, but the ones I had were awful! I felt like my insides were on fire. The nurse had even turned my AC in my room as cold as it would go before she started the IV. It was so weird to feel hot from the inside out. Then my muscles all felt heavy and I felt like I was in slow motion and couldn't walk or talk well. I couldn't focus very well to read anything or text. It was such a weird feeling. (Jes came to sit with C and me on the second day so J could pick A up from the sitter and she told me later that I said some crazy stuff. Ha! After living together for a few years back in the day, she's seen me at my worst so I wasn't too worried about being a hot mess in front of her.) I did get a nauseous feeling but thankfully didn't get too sick.  After the first 15 minutes they back the IV off to a much slower dose that was much more manageable. J came back with C at that point. My nurses (all but one) were awesome and that first night I was so impressed with all they did to make us comfortable having Cayden with us. They brought us a bassinet from the nursery, towels, soothies, diapers and wipes. Seriously it was wonderful how they took care of all the details.

Poor Jonathan had a sad little chair to sleep on but I was so thankful he was willing to be at the hospital with me. We were hoping to go home the next day. We were told the IV took 24 hours so we thought we'd be out of there by then. No luck. I had to be observed for another day off of the IV to make sure everything was ok. Seriously my bp readings were scary high when I first got in there and then they went scary low (and I got sick) while I was on the IV. And through it all I had my awful headache. It was miserable. Finally they got my bp regulated and on some meds for it (which I'm currently still on for who knows how long). I still just had this tiny twinge of a headache even with the bp meds and the last day my nurse brought me a cup of coffee to see if caffeine would help and it did!! Yay!

I ended up being in the hospital for about 48 hours and I was so thankful that I felt better and was ready to be home with my family!! My doctor said that there is nothing I could have done to prevent this and it just happens sometimes. It was a bit scary but I was glad I was in good hands.

First...

First Week:

First nap time with daddy. 

 First-time mommy...stealing some wipes for her baby doll.

 First diaper change. (Can you tell how serious she is about it? Like all her "baby gear"?)

 First time to be held by "Aunt" Billie. (She was there when he was born but didn't get to hold him since he was taken to the nursery.)

 First outing to the Doctor's office.

 First sponge bath.

 First fuzzy head.

 Mommy's thirty-FIRST birthday. First birthday with two kids. Cayden's first week birthday.

Cayden Going Home

First real clothes! Cayden's ready to go home from the hopsital!

 I don't know if I like these real clothes!

 Daddy and his boy.

 My baby!

 In the car seat waiting to be released from the hospital.

 Ready to leave!

 In the car ready to go.

Here is the same exact picture of Adalyn going home:)

Dakoda came to the door to greet us:)

 We won't talk about the fact that I still look prego in these pics.

 You like how my 4th of July door hanging left on the door worked so well for Olympic spirit? :)

 Coda greeting his brother.

Cayden's Hospital Pics

I am finally getting some time to upload pictures and write some posts. Yay!!  Here are some pictures from our hospital stay. Warning: This is picture overload:)

Adalyn meeting her brother for the first time. She was so curious and wanted to touch him. She wanted his hat off so she could see his hair. It was so funny.

 Then she wanted to hug him and give him love. She gave him kisses too. She is still this sweet with him. She just loved him from the first moment and it made this mama's heart so happy.

 First family picture.

 The kids gave each other gifts. They gave each other the same monkey (in different colors) and Cayden got a lovie and Adalyn got a Big Sister book. It's a big girl book (not a board book) and she has been so gentle with it. She loves reading it.

 The nurse brought a baby for Adalyn. (I got this idea from my cousin and it was so special!) I had wrapped the baby in one of Adalyn's old receiving blankets.  When the nurse took it to the station to be ready to bring it to Adalyn, she went above and beyond by putting a hospital band on the baby's wrist and then she brought a "mommy" wrist band for Adalyn too. It was so sweet that our nurse made it so special for Adalyn. She LOVES her baby. (We honestly had the best nurses! We loved them all!)

 Grandma Nan holding Cayden. Maybe I should say "Nana" since that is what Adalyn calls her. 

 Papa with his baby boy.

 Eli (and his parents) came to visit Adalyn (and Cayden too). Can you tell how much they love each other? They kept giving each other hugs and kisses. They play so cute together.

 We found a cute little diaper bag and also a set of "baby gear" from Target that had a baby carrier. When Adalyn would come to visit us my mom said she'd gather her baby doll in her carrier and her diaper bag in order to be ready to go. So cute!  One of my nurses said she saw Adalyn walking down the hall with her baby carrier and bag and said how cute she was.

 Adalyn got herself in this chair and put the boppy on her lap to feed her baby. I have absolutely no clue how she knew to use the boppy that way. She had not yet seen me use it for baby C!!

 Adalyn holding her baby brother. She doesn't call him Cayden. She calls him Baby. And she asks about him constantly. 

 Caleb (and his parents) came to visit Cayden. These boys are going to be BFF's! I can't believe they are only 5 months apart. How in the world will my baby be that old so soon??

I feel bad that we didn't get more pictures of people in the hospital room who came to visit us, but honestly I was just trying to do more "living in the moment" than worrying about picture ops. (I've honestly been this way at home also. I need to be more deliberate with getting pictures!)  I think this post is long enough as it is. Going home pictures will have to be another post:)

Cayden's Birth Story

Four weeks later and I'm finally getting around to writing out Cayden's birth story.  I'm still sleep deprived and so very thankful that Adalyn is going to the sitter each day so that I can give my undivided attention to Cayden and have some bonding time with him. I've really slacked on keeping up with my blogging. I use my three middle of the night nursing sessions to read blogs on my phone, so I have kept up with the goings on of my blog friends. I just haven't taken the time to keep up with my own blog.

I'll pick up from my last blog post where I explained why we welcomed Cayden 12 days early.  I was expecting my labor with Cayden to be faster than my labor with Adalyn but they ended up both being the exact same amount of time. About 8 hours. Crazy!

I got to the hospital around 11am and by the time I got my IV and paperwork finished, my pitocin was started around 12:15pm. At that point I wasn't progressing very quickly.  I was at 2cm at the doctor's office earlier that day and was still at 2 when my doctor broke my water at 1:30pm. I honestly wasn't feeling the contractions very much. We were excited to find that there was no meconium when my water was broken (as there had been with Adalyn).

I got my epidural around 5pm. I was going to wait a little longer because I honestly thought I had more left in me until I needed any relief from drugs. At the time I was still around 3-4cm and it felt like this labor was going to be long. My nurse came in before 5 to let me know that there were two other ladies in labor that were going to have to have c-sections and there was only one anesthesiologist available so if I didn't get my epidural right then I would have to wait 2 hours (1 hour for each c-section) before I could get it and I honestly didn't think I had two more hours in me. I opted for the epidural early. (And that ended up being a really good decision!)

I got checked right before 7pm (before shift change) and I was still at 4cm. At 7:30 my nurse came in to give report to my new nurse for the night shift (my night nurse was my absolute favorite) and my new nurse wanted to check for herself to see how far I was and I was at 6cm!! That was quick! My new nurse hung around in the room checking my stats and talking with us and the second the door shut when she left the room I felt serious pressure. I told J that I had that sensation but I'd wait a minute since she had just checked me and had literally just left the room.  She came right back in after seeing her monitors at the nurse's station. She said that my stats looked like I had made some progress. I agreed with her that I had pressure and I thought it was time. Sure enough, it was 8pm and I was at 10 and ready to push! She called my doctor who thankfully had hung around her office so she was on the property and was in my room within moments.

My nurse didn't even have me do any "practice" pushes so when the doctor had me push for the first time I thought we were just "warming up". Nope. I literally only pushed two times and he was born at 8:17pm.  I couldn't believe when she told me his head was out and to STOP pushing. WHA??

I was excited to hold my baby right away since we didn't have the meconium issues this time. When he was born he had a super short umbilical cord. My nurse and doctor were both in shock over how short his cord was. It wasn't long enough to reach up for her to put him on my chest while they cut the cord. She had to hold him at the end of the bed and even made a comment that she needed to be careful when cutting this cord. She again coerced J into cutting the cord (she told him he had to for Adalyn too) and promised him that she wouldn't let him cut anything wrong. So he cut the cord (I was so proud of him) even though he's quite squeamish about such things! And then I was able to hold my baby boy!!  It was so wonderful!

It was crazy that I went from 4-10cm in one hour but that is exactly how it happened with Adalyn also!  We did some skin to skin for a little bit but Cayden was "grunting" and ended up going to the nursery just to make sure everything was ok.  Thankfully he was able to stay in Labor and Delivery with us long enough to meet his Grammy Burns and Grandma Nan and Papa (but unfortunately not long enough for them to hold him). And we were able to get some pictures! He finally was released from the nursery at 1am and we enjoyed some alone time with our boy.  Thankfully we both had a bit of adrenaline so we weren't tired when they brought him to us.

Here are some pictures from Cayden's birthday. (I posted some of these in my last post.) He was born on July 26th at 8:17pm. He was 6lbs 12oz and 19.5 inches long.

All smiles waiting for a contraction so I could push. 

 Getting cleaned up. Sweet boy!

 I love this pic!

 Skin time trying to get rid of the grunting.

 Grandma Nan and Papa got to the hospital about 15 minutes after he was born. They had quite a day of travel. They flew from Florida to Toledo that afternoon after visiting my brother's family. Then hopped in their car and drove as fast as the could to Kentucky!

 Grammy Burns waited all day in the waiting room to meet this boy.

 Daddy / son time.