The night of April 2 I was having fairly intense contractions, but they were ten minutes apart at least, and they quit after five hours. Losing five hours of sleep to contractions with nothing to show for it was intensely frustrating, but those babies and our bodies tend to do what they want without any regard for the consequences. Slight, irregular contractions followed all day on April 3 to the point where I gave our friend a head's up saying we might be calling her that day to come stay with the kids. I felt terrible for putting her on her toes when nothing happened by bed time that night. At about the same time as the night before, intense contractions began again. I didn't think much of it since nothing happened the previous night, but boy, were they painful. Finally, at 1am I sent a text to our friend to let her know we were going in since the pain was so bad even though the contractions were still about ten minutes apart. Right after she said she was on their way, the contractions came every five minutes, or sooner, and would last for a day and an age.
We got to the hospital and went through the process of being checked and officially admitted. Contractions were coming back to back already, and by the time I was completely settled at about 2 or 2:30am, the nurse was confident we weren't going to hold out for more than a couple of hours at the most. She immediately got me hooked up to an IV and found the anesthetist so we could get my epidural as fast as possible. The contractions continued coming back to back and often would not let up for several minutes at a time. The line on the monitor would disappear off the screen and stay there until I was convinced I was going to die. Then it would start to drop down for maybe five to ten seconds, and then shoot right back up to where it was to hang out for awhile. This was, by far, the worst part of bringing our caboose baby into the world.
The anesthetist came in pretty quickly and got through the process not a moment too soon. It takes some time for those epidurals to kick in, and the only thing keeping the baby in place was that the doctor had not broken my water yet. The room was all aflutter with people setting up for the doctor, the anesthetist setting my epidural, and nurses prepping the baby area. They gave my body just enough time to let the epidural kick in, and then the doctor came to break my water since I was already at a ten and just hanging out. The contractions continued to be a little painful because of the position of the baby on my pelvic bone, and so I was very ready to get to this point. As soon as my water broke and they cleaned it up, it was go time.
I pushed through two contractions, and with the baby being so close, the doctor said to keep pushing if I felt like it, so I did, and out she came with head of dark hair at 4:19am on 4/4/19. I got to snuggle her to my chest right away while they made her kick and cry and get some color in her. I got a small tear and had to hang out for awhile as the doctor wrapped everything up, but everything else was perfect. Our little girl was 7 lbs. 7 oz. and 21 in. long and ready to eat right away.
They had me stay in labor and delivery for quite some time because the epidural really settled into my right leg and I could not move it. They finally got some weird strap and a couple of nurses to get me out of the bed, into a wheelchair, and into the postpartum recovery room. Our sweet baby was exhausted and slept and slept, and I wish they would have let me do the same thing. Why do they send so many people in to a room where all is needed is sleep? And why do they always come in while the sleeping is taking place? Can't they come in while I'm eating or something? The car seat lady has to come in, the breastfeeding lady has to come in, the nurse comes in and tap, tap, taps on the computer for ages all hours of the night, and they come in to test the baby's hearing, and they come in to take her for a bath, and it never ends. All we need it sleep, people. Go away and let us sleep! They kept harassing me to get the baby to wake up and eat, but the baby didn't want to wake up and eat, and she was doing fine. Just go away. Anyways, we were released the following night and were so happy to be back home.
Her first week was rather rough. Our other newborns were so sleeyp that first week or two, and this little one was just mad. Just as she started to seem less angry, she became incredibly congested. After a week with no improvement, she started to struggle eating through the congestion, and I could see her using her neck and stomach muscles to breathe. I took her into Urgent Care, and the doctor said to get her to the ER. They suctioned a ton of crud out of her nose and tested it for RSV and the flu, and both came out positive. No wonder our poor baby was so miserable. Fortunately, her oxygen levels were still quite high, and so we did not have to be admitted to the hospital. We were prescribed a suction pump to use at home to stay on top of the congestion and told to follow-up with the doctor's office on Monday.
By Monday her little eyes were incredibly goopy and looked like she had caught pink eye. The doctor checked her oxygen, said she was still good, and took a culture of her eye. A couple of days later when we went back to check her oxygen again, we were informed she had developed a secondary infection in her eyes called haemophilus. Poor, poor baby. She is now on antibiotics and should be reaching the end of her flu symptoms. We've been told the congestion could last for another week. Fingers crossed she kicks all the crud sooner rather than later so she can breathe and sleep and generally be happier.
It's been quite a ride these first five weeks, but I'm hoping it's all better from here! We look forward to watching her little personality grow and love watching her older siblings love on her. It really is so fun to have a tiny new baby at home, even if they are exhausting little things.
Here's the fun part: pictures!
