Introducing Noah Lane

Our baby is here! It took me a while to get to this point in the blog (as he is now a month old), so now it is time to share his birth story. 

I'll start around the snow storm when I was to have my 37 week appointment but it got cancelled. I was getting worried because I always had a hard time getting an appointment at the clinic and sure enough the next available appointment was on my birthday, March 2nd. That would be 5 weeks in between the last appointment I had and when the next one could be. I advocated for myself and got a walk-in appointment to make sure everything was okay (he was breach last appointment). When I got the okay I asked for an induction date and he said March 1st was available. I was surprised there was one right on the day I turned 39 weeks and took it despite wondering if I should have taken a later date for me to "ripen up" a little bit more. 

My parents drove down on February 27th to make sure they were here and got all the instructions to take care of our other three kiddos before we went to be induced on March 1st at 5am. February 28th I decided to have one last maternity shoot as I decided this would be our last baby. I would procrastinate and wait until the very last day to take pictures!

Look how massive I was!

Trying to not convey how done I felt.

We also celebrated my 29th birthday early since I would be in the hospital for my actual birthday. My mom ushered us to bed since we would be heading off to the hospital nice and early for a 5am induction. I thought, "hey, I've never labored during the day before!" Little did I know I would never experience that! Around 11:45pm I woke up wet and nudged Sam to let him know I felt my water break. I went to the bathroom to make sure it did indeed break and that I didn't pee myself and it was apparent as I walked around. I changed my clothes and took our bags I packed only a couple hours previous (thank goodness for the induction that helped me prepare ahead of time!) and left in Sam's car. My mom heard us shuffling around and thought it was odd we were still awake since we had to go to the hospital in the morning. Sam told her what happened and we were off. It was a little exhilarating to go into labor on my own (Joey was the last one I went on my own) and the first time my water broke before laboring. By the time we were driving on the freeway I noticed contractions starting. The hospital was half an hour away so I hoped we would get there without too many issues. 

We entered through the emergency department since it was the middle of the night and made our way up to the L&D floor. Even though I registered already they still checked me in, asked a lot of questions and had us fill out paperwork. Luckily the contractions weren't too bad and was able to do this without too many issues. Since this wasn't our first rodeo, Sam made sure to let the front desk person know that I go fast and should probably get a room right away. They brought me back and started hooking me up to the monitor. When Sam was brought back the doctor came in and started to consent me to the various things that might happen in the delivery room. Meanwhile, I was poked a few times and got a few blown veins for my IV. With each yes I had to give during the consenting, my contractions picked up immensely and I had a hard time concentrating on what they were asking me. Soon I was begging for an epidural, which was code for "time to push". Sam let them know as much and the nurse with me made sure he was heard. They had the anesthetist come in for his portion of the consent, but I was already feeling the need to push so he kind of backed off while the doctors and nurses rushed to the bed side. I remember Sam facing me with a big smile and told me he was coming. From the time they started the process to the time I started pushing was 15 minutes! I had three good pushes and Noah Lane came into the world on March 1st at 1:33am weighing 8lbs 6 oz and 20.5 inches long. 

It felt a little bit like de ja vu because the poor thing came out gray similar to Eden and after some furious rubbing to get him to breath they whipped him away to work on him. Sadly they didn't get the response they wanted so they took him to the NICU. I told Sam to stay with the baby and he rushed off with the NICU team. Meanwhile I got a COVID test and got the golden uterus massage until the results came back. When it came back negative I was able to go to the NICU to meet our baby. They had a really hard time getting a good stick for his IV and I could see the various pokes they had to do. They also had lines on him to monitor his vitals, an OG tube going to his stomach, and the most obvious, a CPAP machine pressing on his little nose. I couldn't feed him at the moment, so I caressed his little hand for a while then left to go to my new room. It felt weird being there without a baby and I had too much adrenaline to sleep, so I pumped some milk and watched all the videos the hospital required us to watch before we could leave. They ended up giving Noah some antibiotics as a precaution in case he had pneumonia, so his stay extended to 48 hours. We got a cool chest x-ray out of the process but it so far looked clear.

Everything looked good!

The CPAP helped open his lungs.

These were the first pictures I received of him while I was still in L&D.

Meeting my baby boy! The biggest baby in the NICU.

Receiving his footprints.

They originally wanted him to stay because his breathing was a little funky (and the ABG showed high CO2 levels which means he was not ventilating well on his own). However, his blood sugars were looking good and slowly but surely they started taking him off everything, including the CPAP. Soon we were able to hold our little guy and I was able to feed him. He ate very well (foreshadowing his current voracious appetite). Sam ended up going home to see the other kids and get some good sleep (our room only had a chair other than the hospital bed). The next day was my birthday and Noah was still in the NICU. Sam had to work so a good portion of the day I sat twiddling my thumbs. The nurses were amazing and brought me flowers for my birthday and the best present was Noah was finally released from the NICU and got to spend the evening with me! Sam came from work to spend time with me and eventually took a call room to sleep so he could be there in the morning to drive us home. We were released in great time the next day and Sam was able to make it to his appointments he had with patients after dropping me off at the house.

CPAP off!

OG tube out!

He was no longer that gray color but a healthy pink!

Right before I got to feed him for the first time.

Bonding time in the NICU.

A nice weight holding something in place (maybe a line?).

Getting ready to leave the NICU!

The flowers all the nurses pitched in to get me!

I was able to bust him out of the NICU!

Now for some skin to skin!

Sam visiting on my birthday.

It was a true miracle because if I did not have the induction scheduled when I did my parents would have left on March 1st to be there. I would have had to find someone in the middle of the night to be with the kids and there would have been a good possibility that I would have had Noah in the car! I am so appreciative of my parents being there with the kids while I spent a couple days in the hospital. 

It was also surreal that I went into labor as early as I did. If I stuck with the March 2nd appointment I would not have had any prenatal care during the final weeks of my pregnancy. I always assumed this kid would come after my birthday too so it's fun (I think) to almost share a birthday with him. Sam's mom was not a fan of our plan of induction and let us know as much, so she was so happy to know it didn't happen after all, but I am extremely grateful it was scheduled regardless! However, even though it happened on its own, it happened so fast I think it really shocked our poor baby. He was acting more like a c-section baby because his lungs weren't compressed enough due to popping out so quick. Luckily it was a quick NICU stay.  I think having to trek to the NICU to see my baby helped me get up and moving faster. It was my hardest pregnancy but the fastest recovery overall!

As for Noah, he is a funny boy. He still sleeps a lot, but during his first few weeks, if he was awake, he acted famished! He likes to eat and eat and eat. I eventually had to get formula to make sure he got everything he was asking for. Noah prefers the bottle, but he will eat from the boob (especially when he's sleepy and not upset). He already gained his birth weight back and then some at 9lbs 1 oz at this 2 week appointment. Noah is now one month old and I am interested to see how much he weights, although he won't have another appointment until 2 months. 

The kids adore him and I feel his meshes with our family quite well. I'm so glad to see that Eden doesn't have major jealousy and doesn't mind that I hold the baby much more than I hold her. I try to soak this time in because this very well could be our last baby. And it's hard to believe that we've had him for a month! Time really stops for no one and it's so bittersweet. We love you, Noah!

Eden loves the baby!

Joey surprised me with his enthusiasm to meet his baby brother.

He asks to hold him every day.

My sisters sent me a gift for my birthday, too!

Eli liked holding him, too.

Bonding moment.

I could not have survived without my mom there!

Day my parents left. Miss them already!

Baby # 4

This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who keeps up with us outside the blog, which is everyone I can think of, but yes, baby #4 is on his way and due March 8th, 2021!

He was planned, and although he is technically a quarantine baby, we've been planning on having him around this time for some while. I am particular about the spacing of my children and didn't want our baby to come after Eden's 3rd birthday because that would mean they would be four years apart in school. I was four years apart from my brother and thought it would have been nice to be in the same school for a longer amount of time. But I also knew we were moving this coming summer, so I didn't want to cut that close either. So I had a small window of time for this baby to come!

I was worried because of how hard it was to get an appointment with any doctor in 2020 that I wouldn't get my arm implant for birth control out. Sam decided to do it himself and took supplies from the hospital to do it (lucky he did because Eli ended up busting his lip that same day and it saved us a trip to urgent care!). All was in place and it didn't take long before I could take this photo:

The first and last belly shot I've taken this pregnancy (whoops!) 

I also can't find our first ultrasound of the baby, so here is a photo of when Sam took me into the eye clinic to try the eye ultrasound on me. Needless to say, it was not built to take pictures of a baby.

You can see baby's spine, and that's why I went with this one.

Everyone was rooting for us to have another girl. And while I agreed that would be nice (Eden to have a sister, it would be easier to divvy out rooms, etc), Sam and I both felt it was a boy this time. I remember before getting pregnant looking at Eden and asking myself if I would be sad if she was my only girl. I found that she fills her role of being my daughter nicely and I wouldn't be disappointed if the next one was a boy. And to be honest, after the ultrasound Sam took, he was pretty suspicious that it was a boy. Me, thinking it was still a pretty early ultrasound and the fact that it was hard to see anything with a machine made for eyes, was not completely sure. Well, my 20 (at 21) week ultrasound put all doubts out of anyone's minds:

You really can't ask for a more clear photo!

Here's his little feet.

We already have a philosopher on our hands.

Here is my gender reveal for Sam and the kids:

And once I could say I knew for sure we were able to make this bad boy to announce it to everyone else:

Adding a new coworker to our office!

This was our most "liked" photo on Facebook, and truth be told, I love everything about this photo. It's the little things that make it so great.

Now some notes on pregnancy #4.

It's definitely hard being pregnant! I kind of forget every time, but the fatigue at the beginning is one of the hardest parts, especially when you have little people counting on you. Our house always becomes a major disaster and I never feel like cooking with the nausea. So basically, I fail at all my jobs! Luckily I have an understanding husband.

Things that are different about this pregnancy is the pelvic pain and pressure I've been feeling earlier on. I think it's due to it being my fourth pregnancy so my pelvic floor muscles aren't what they used to be! I also weigh as much or more than I did with Eden full term, so I think I'm going to gain the most weight this pregnancy. Granted I did start at a higher weight than with any of them!

One thing I didn't anticipate was how hard it would be to get doctor's appointments and such. With my previous pregnancies I brought my other kids along (but would try to schedule it during school time so it would limit the number I had to drag in!) but they don't allow any visitors of any kind this time round. And with the pandemic I especially feel bad asking people to watch my kids. But one of Sam's co-resident's wife offered to watch them every time! That has helped so much! It is still hard to get a doctor's appointment when I need one and the time I need it, especially on shorter notice. AND the clinic I go to is half an hour away, plus going to the baby sitter's house is adds an extra half hour to the commute, so it takes an hour and a half of travel for a 20 minute appointment. It's a little nuts but what can I do?

I also had to not only take my 1-hour glucose test, but the 3-hour! I decided to take the test while Sam had a week off for Christmas and I failed the first one. I then had to go back in the next day for the "3 hour" test. So I get there right when they open, only to find out the orders weren't put in, so I had to walk across the hospital to the OB/GYN clinic to tell them to put in the orders, then when I came back, I found out they have to draw my blood and analyze it before they can start the 3 hour test, so I sat there for an additional hour until they did that. It took 5 hours to do that test! I felt bad Sam got this week off and spent it being with the kids alone while I sat at the hospital scrolling on my phone for hours. But I found out I don't have gestational diabetes so that's great!

So as you can see, I guess I don't like pregnancy all that much, haha! Sorry to complain so much about it, but it's been hard. But I am truly blessed I can plan for a baby and it almost always goes to plan. My niece has had to work so hard, go through so many tests, and pay so much money for the little man they are welcoming a month after we have our baby. And my pregnancies and deliveries for the most part are "easy". So again, I truly feel so blessed for all the babies we have been able to have. 

Despite this, I told Sam this is my last pregnancy (God willing). I believe four kids is the perfect number (or the most I feel I can handle while still maintaining some sort of sanity). I haven't been sad that this is my last pregnancy. I am sad it's the closing of a door in our lives and we are entering a new phase as a family and in our marriage. I don't feel that old to already be having all of our kids but it really testifies that I really am getting older! 

Here's to the caboose!

Eden's Birth Story

She’s here! I’m so in love with this baby girl and so grateful that she made it here safe. So now to document her birth.

At the beginning of July, I went to an OB/GYN appointment and expressed my concern about living half an hour away with how fast my labors have gone with my boys. The nurse practitioner immediately asked if I wanted an induction and I was on board. Eli was induced after all and that went fairly well. Other factors that I thought about were the fact that we could work it around Sam’s schedule and that my parents could be there to help. So by the next appointment I gave a date I wanted to be induced and was scheduled in, which was July 27^th.

This is what made the last few weeks of her pregnancy different that with the boys. With the boys, I didn’t know when they would arrive so I would try to get labor going on its own and be unsuccessful, therefore frustrated. This time round I knew a date she would arrive so I just enjoyed the last few weeks best I could with the boys. I didn’t want to go into labor before then after all! Sam was on his busiest rotation and my parents weren’t there to help with Joey and Eli. I kept it real easy.

My parents, Alexis and Kayla rolled into town on the 26^th of July and, after a day of errands and last minute preparations, my mom took me to the San Antonio Military Medical Center at 7pm to start the induction. My night nurse, Sarah, was putting in my iv port while my mom waited in the waiting area. Sarah told another nurse to get her but no one did (whoops!). It wasn’t until Sam was available to come down from his day at clinic that my mom came in. We waited for quite a while after that because the triage blew up with patients and they come first (naturally). Meanwhile, the anesthesiologist came in with a consent form for an epidural (if I decided I wanted it) and in case I needed a C-section. Then a doctor came in later to give the very thorough spiel about induction and other interventions (forceps, vacuum, etc.) I appreciated that even though I knew mostly everything he talked about.

Then the induction was discussed. They decided they wanted to start with a Foley balloon to have me dilate more if I wasn’t at a three. Never heard about this one, but they never used it because I was already at a three when they finally checked me! Then they decided to start me on Pitocin at around 11:30ish. I was really hoping they would just break my bag of water like what happened with Eli, but oh well. However, they started so low that none of it was that painful. It was enough to keep me from sleeping. My mom and Sam got some shut eye while I just let the contractions do their thing. For how scared I was of Pitocin it was surprising how little pain I felt, even as the nurse kept upping my dose every half hour. During that time, I noticed the beautiful bright yellow full moon outside. I needed to pee a lot from all the water I was drinking (since the doctor said I couldn’t eat any more Kit Kats), so it was a little difficult with the monitors and iv port on me. Other than that, it was a boring waiting game and talking to our super nice nurse (who manages to work and home school five kids).

Finally, two doctors came in and checked me. I dilated to a four during all those hours, but they came to break my water. This was what I was waiting for. At 4:45am my water was broken and the show was on the road. This is where it gets fuzzy, but I believe the painful contractions started around 6am. Sadly Sarah the nurse had to end her shift and so we said our goodbyes. I turned on some calming music I picked beforehand and started holding Sam and my mom’s hands while I breathed through the contractions. I started crying from the beautiful music when it hit me that I was going to meet my daughter very shortly. The poor nurse after Sarah first came in when I started puking, so that was our introduction. She had a nurse in training with her as well. Kristen said the Peds people were going to be there because they found meconium in my water. What? They didn’t tell me that before! The contractions just kept getting more and more intense and no position gave me relief. Kristen came in when they were almost unbearable and told me based on the monitors it appears baby is face up. They tried to position me to help her turn but after one contraction I hit my threshold and told Sam and my mom that if I wasn’t complete I wanted an epidural. Then while Sam hit the call light the next contraction I felt that crazy urge to push at 7:30am.

In no time there were two nurses, my mom, Sam, and three(!) doctors around the bed side and five or six people around the baby station waiting for her. It was indescribably painful! She was indeed face up the stinker so it seemed more painful than the last two births. She did not come out in three pushes like Eli, sadly. Then baby’s vitals started to look concerning. Her heart rate was not bouncing back after each push, so they had to tell this poor mom (me) to push after every other contraction. I’m sure I hyperventilated and yelled out a couple times. Sam was going to deliver her, but it was looking like they needed to get little girl out quick, so the doctor started mentioning the use of forceps. I just said, “Do it!” I didn’t want to prolong the pain, and I feel bad I thought about that before I thought of baby girl. However, I don’t know if the baby moved or I gave a good push, but her head was out before the forceps were in hand and the doctor quickly put Sam in place to catch her.

A gray blob with dark hair was placed on me at 7:43am, but then she was immediately whisked away to the baby station. I really had no idea how shocked our poor little girl was. I just laid there drained while an intern doctor stitched me up (third time I tore in the same spot). It was so mentally and physically exhausting. Meanwhile, baby girl had a low Apgar scale (6-7 and above is healthy and she was at a 4). So the Peds team worked vigorously on getting her to cry, rubbing her, suctioning her lungs, and even using C-pap. Within five minutes she was at an 8 so the concern was very short. Eventually Eden Olivia was handed to me for some skin to skin and I could finally cuddle her and see her sweet face, which reminded me a little bit of Joey. The after-birth process was extremely painful (manual blood clot removal and a catheter) but I was quickly on the mend.

I don’t think I would have done anything differently even if it was the longest and hardest labor I experienced. We are both healthy, I am mostly recovered, and baby girl is eating like a champ. And I did it naturally, even when she was sunny-side up. Eden seems to have a strong personality from the get-go. She’s perfect!