Tuesday, March 10, 2015

A Valentine's Day Story

I've never been a big fan of Valentine's Day. I'm not particularly fond of the candy, pink and red aren't my favorite colors, and the idea of dedicating an entire day to "show someone you love them" aka "feel obligated to buy presents for your significant other/classmates/children". It's always been just another over-commercialized holiday of pointlessness for me. Plus, I remember how bad it felt to be in school and see other girls getting a dozen roses/chocolates/teddy bears/balloons/25 lolligrams delivered during class. In fact, the first time I remember this happening was in 3rd grade when a girl that apparently multiple boys in the class were in love with (who was a very nice girl, by the way) all brought her big boxes of chocolates for valentine's day while the rest of us settled for power ranger valentine's with a hershey kiss taped to it. THIRD GRADE!  (Disclosure: this was right after we had moved to Utah- this weirdness never happened at my elementary school in Washington) And also- how did these 8 year old boys end up with those things in the first place to give to the girl of their dreams? In middle school, it got worse. If you were "going out" with someone, then that meant that your "boyfriend" would have to send you something huge to be delivered during class so that all the "single girls" could feel bad about being total losers because they had no relationship experience at the ripe old age of...... 11.
However, with recent events, I am now a huge fan of Valentine's Day, because it will now involve birthday cake and a cute little stinkbug to celebrate! Rhys Nowlin Garrett was born Feb 14, 2015 at 12:08 pm. So here is his birth story:
My due date was Feb 21, and I was planning on trying to let things start naturally and then get induced the next week if things didn't start on their own. But, then my OB informed me that he would be out of town the week before and the week after my due date, which meant if I wanted him to be the one to deliver my baby, I would have to schedule an induction for Valentine's/President's Day weekend, when he was on call. I wasn't too thrilled about the idea of being induced a week before my due date, but I also wasn't a fan of the idea of a stranger delivering my baby, either. I wanted to be familiar with at least one medical professional in the room while giving birth, considering that we know very few people here in the first place and I just wanted some semblance of familiarity. I felt a little unsure about my decision at first, but that last week before he was born, I was so miserable that I just wanted him OUT and I didn't care how he got here.
The morning arrived, and we had to be at the hospital at 6:30. We were able to find someone to watch the kids for the day, and after they arrived, we headed over to Jordan Valley Medical Center. When we arrived, I realized that a lot of babies had decided to make their appearance that day, so it was totally insane. But, since Utah is a popular place for baby-making, there were a zillion rooms and the nurses on hand seemed to have things under control, though some people did have to get called in.
I did the usual strip down and put on the beautiful hospital gown and band for the monitor to be put on my belly, then waited for the pitocin drip. The nurse had a hard time getting any of my veins to pop out, and had to settle with jamming the needle in my left hand, which wasn't particularly comfortable. It was also at an awkward angle and I had to keep my hand in a fist for hours in order for things to flow through, so that wasn't so fun. Pitocin has never bothered me much, so I just hung out and hoped it would help get things going. I was already dilated to a 4, so I wasn't too concerned about things not progressing- I knew once my water broke that things would get crazy. While I was in the room, I started feeling really guilty about making the baby be born when he wasn't quite ready. And then I started thinking about all of the family members that had passed away before him that he would never know and how my mother would be the only grandparent he would ever really know, and I started to cry. I was such an emotional wreck for the first few hours, but Nate was great at comforting me and holding me. I was squeezing him pretty hard while getting the epidural, so I'm glad I didn't break anything.
 After being on the pitocin for an hour or two, I had progressed to a 5, and then I was informed that if I had any hopes of getting an epidural, I better get one now because of some possible emergency c-sections from other patients that were being anticipated. So the anesthesiologist showed up, did his thing, and just like with Ian, I was able to move my legs this time, though my right side was a bit excessively numbed and I didn't have much control. Still, it was pretty effective for pain. The doctor showed up, broke my water, then disappeared. I think he was in there for maybe 5 minutes. Then I sat back and waited for things to happen. I felt all of the contractions, but they didn't hurt, so I wasn't doing too bad. A couple hour later, a new nurse showed up- the one I started with was assisting with a delivery, and this nurse had gotten called in on her day off. I liked her, so it didn't bother me. She checked me, and I had only progressed to a 6, so I was a bit disappointed that. She also noticed that there was a little bit of meconium in the amniotic fluid, and suddenly any guilt I had felt about making the baby come a week early disappeared. She helped turn my on my left side because I was getting uncomfortable, then turned up the pitocin drip to help progress things along. Almost immediately after she left, I started feeling intense pain in my abdomen every time I had a contraction. I was surprised that I could feel it, and it was extremely painful. I tried to breathe through it, but it was so awful that I hit the button on my epidural to give me more meds. Even after 10-15 minutes, I was still feeling awful, so I tried turning back on my back and that helped. The nurse came in a few minutes later, and when I told her the pain I had been feeling, she got an interesting look on her face, then decided to check me. And what do you know, not only was I already to a 10, all that pain had been my body pushing the baby through- he was nearly crowning at that point, so they went to find the doctor, brought the people from the nursery in, and one contraction later, Rhys was out. I felt nothing while I was pushing, which was surprising, because I had the same type of epidural with Ian and when he crowned, the pain was excruciating. But not this time- Rhys pretty much fell out.

He wasn't crying at first, but was all purple and trying to cry. As soon as the doctor suctioned him, he took a huge breath and wailed. And didn't stop screaming for an hour. He had a lot of amniotic fluid in him because he was in the birth canal for such a short period of time that it didn't have a chance to get squeezed out, so we spent the next hour alternating between trying to calm him and get him to nurse and suctioning crud out of his throat. I was hoping to hold him for a while immediately after he was born before he was cleaned up and weighed, but he was only placed on my chest for 1-2 minutes, then whisked off to the side. I have no idea if it was necessary, if there was something they were concerned about, or if they just didn't care and were trying to just do their "thing" and then bolt. It was difficult to be stuck in the bed while I was watching them take care of my new baby that I had barely been able to touch. Rhys was 7 lb, 14 oz, and 21 inches long- long and skinny just like my babies tend to be. Then suddenly, everyone just took off and we were left on our own for the next hour attempting to take care of our angry screaming newborn. I was eventually able to get him to nurse, and he calmed down, but as soon as it was time for me to move to the new room, since at this hospital labor and delivery were done in a separate room and then you were moved to a different room to recover a couple hours after delivery, Rhys was taken to the nursery for a bath and whatever else they were doing, and I was wheeled down the hall to the new room after I quickly scarfed down the lunch I had ordered. Had this been my first baby, I would have said it would have been a terrible experience, but considering that this was my 3rd, I didn't care too much because we already knew what we were doing and it didn't bother me too much that I felt like I was in a baby factory. When Madelynn was born, there was only me and one other woman having babies that day, so it was a slightly different experience having a baby in a hospital with a zillion other mommies.
Things calmed down once I was moved to the other room and I was able to rest. Sort of. If you've never given birth before, one thing that is rather awful is that the nurses come in regularly to pummel your belly to help the uterus contract down and also check to see if there is any major clotting. There was. Grapefruit-sized. 2-3 times. Not good. I was getting a bit nervous, and the nurses were also a bit concerned about the amount of bleeding and clotting, so I was given methrogen. Fortunately, that quickly slowed down the bleeding and clotting, and I was fine after that, but it was still a bit scary. It also meant that I had to be hooked up to the pitocin for a little bit longer to help contract thing back down, so that was a bummer because I really wanted to take a shower and was really annoyed at trying to maneuver to go to the bathroom with that dang IV tree following me, and trying to hold Rhys with the IV in the way.  
A few hours later, Nate went and picked up the kids to bring the to the hospital to meet their new brother. They were ecstatic, and Madelynn wanted to hold him all the time. Ian was intrigued, but didn't want to hold his new brother just yet, which was just as well, because he was sick. After dinner, Nate took the kids to a friends house to stay the night so he could stay with me at the hospital, but they only lasted a few hours before having total meltdowns, so Nate had to go pick them up and take them home, which meant I was on my own. I ended up having the nurses just keep Rhys in the nursery most of the time and just bring him in to feed, because I was exhausted and also wanted them to keep an eye on him because he was still gagging and choking on fluid. They ended up suctioning his stomach, which I figured would happen, and after that he was totally fine. Nate showed up with the kids the next day, and we just hung out in my room until I was given the okay to go home. I was healing well, Rhys was fine, and I had no desire to spend another night in the hospital by myself. Once we arrived home, it was probably the only time I was grateful for living in an apartment because it meant less to take care of.
We are so excited that little Rhys joined our family; now we feel complete. I'm done having babies if I can help it!

 Rhys hardly opened his eyes the first few days. When he did, this was as wide as he would open them.
               Ian's first time holding his new brother. He's not quite sure what to make of him.

                                   Madelynn wants to hold her baby brother all the time.

                                                                   Rhys at 2 weeks old