Clearly it's been a hot minute since I've last updated this blog and boy oh boy do I have A LOT to update to you all!
The last blog entry was June 14th and FIVE days later, I woke up in the middle of the night going into June 19th going into labor! I had always joked with our family that I was probably going to go into labor early with this little guy; however, I never anticipated two weeks early! Let alone the day after Father's day!
The day itself was actually spent pretty relaxed. My husband got to hang out, relax and we even took Lou to the local city park and fishing(where my husband accidentally got a hook through his finger and needed to go get an updated tetanus shot since it had been an embarrassingly long time since he had last gotten one). After bath time, bedtime stories and Lou was tucked away into bed, we settled down for the evening ourselves catching up on whatever TV show we were watching at the time(I think it was probably Sopranos...but to be fair I couldn't quite remember).
All I remember was feeling really tired and wanting to go to bed, so I went to the bathroom and noticed a 'warm' feeling that I quickly disregarded as me just peeing at a little after midnight. I tried to get. back into bed, but noticed a radiating cramping from my lower back to my abdomen area(again, disregarding because I had been having Braxton hicks for WEEKS up to this point). I tried to relax, but simply couldn't get comfortable, so instead of tossing and turning in bed I decided to go out to the couch and see if that helped. When I was pregnant with Lou for the last two weeks the couch was my bed because I could wedge myself into a comfortable position.
WELL, that was NOT how this was going to go.
The cramping started to intensify and it suddenly clicked "Oh....I need to start timing these". So I got out my Ovia app and started the contraction timer and noticed they were intensifying and getting closer and closer together. I decided to call nurse triage at that point and once connected to the nurse hotline they instructed me to go to the hospital, because it sounded like I was going into labor. By that point, my husband heard me talking on the phone and something instinctual kicked in as if saying "It's go time!". LUCKILY we had our bags already packed(all 3 of us) and we scooped up my poor 4 year old out of bed and headed over to my friend's house who was on baby watch to take care of our 4 year old while we were in the hospital.
I remember sitting in the front seat, nearly in tears because the contraction pain hurt SO bad and my sweet, four year old saying "It's going to be okay mommy, I love you" in the back seat. We eventually made it to the hospital around 2:15 AM, where they took down our information and went to check to see if my waters had broken. Sure enough, my amniotic sack had ruptured and we were going to have a baby!
This birth was SO different compared to our first where he was 3 days late and I had to evict him out via induction, and although I went into this kind of wanting to go without an epidural I decided after a couple hours of labor pains I personally NEEDED it. While waiting for the anesthesiologist, the only way I could get comfortable was standing up, leaning over the bed and having Hubs put counter pressure on my back through every time I would feel a contraction. Needless to say, I was very happy once the anesthesiologist came into the room with his kit. I laugh at the conversation we had because it literally went like this.
Anesthesiologist: Have you had one before?
Me: Yes.
Anesthesiologist: Do you have any questions?
Me: No.
Anesthesiologist: Do you just want me to start?
Me: YES!
THANK GOD for epidurals, because once the meds kicked in I was able to relax for a couple of hours, look at my phone(message my contact at work to let her know I would NOT be showing up to my shift the next day) and wait for baby to come. I swear, my kids always want to come during shift changes, because once the OBGYN was about to clock off, that's when I started feeling a little pressure(again nothing like my first where I felt EVERYTHING) and requested for the nurse to check me. I'm pretty sure the poor L&D nurse almost went into panic mode because baby boy was RIGHT there and the doctor barely had time to get into his gown before it was time to push.
12 minutes of active pushing I had my sweet, beautiful, BROWN haired little boy in my arms!
I'm not going to share his name, nor his face as I'm wanting to respect and protect my boys' identities through the internet, but for the sake of the blog I will add his little nickname we have for him here like we do for Lou's, Wooly Bear.
So that in itself has been a wild ride that we're still navigating through and I'm sure I will write more about it being as I am now dairy free and working on being wheat/gluten free as we continue on our breastfeeding journey.
In addition to the food sensitivity, we also discovered after taking him to an IBCLC he had a severe tongue and lip tie, which made reflux symptoms awful as well as nursing to be painful for me. Luckily we got it correct and he's been nursing great ever since!
Now at 12 weeks my supply is starting to regulate, which scares me since I always had an over supply with Lou and with Wooly I have just enough to feed him, which is great; however, I always liked to have a little extra...especially since I may never be able to use any of the milk I have frozen pre-dairy/ wheat/gluten(if the later two are the culprit).
Other than that, the four of us are adjusting well to being a family of four. Big brother is completely over the moon in love with him and always wants to hold him AND Big Brother also started Preschool this year! That in itself nearly made me want to bawl my eyes out seeing him so grown up with his Spiderman backpack and brand new dinosaur shoes we picked out especially for his school year.
I can't wait to continue to share my journey through motherhood with you all and I hope you all enjoy this journey together.
-xoxo Midwest Mommie
