Our sweet caboose joined our family this weekend! It was a wonderful experience and I am so grateful everything went smoothly. We are on day 4 of having her here and I wanted to write down everything I could remember. As we were heading to the hospital I read the other kids birth stories and I'm so grateful I wrote them down because I forget so much!
September 1st, 2021
We prepped all week- attempted to clean the house, organize rooms, finish up work and just be ready. Unfortunately, our children followed suit with every other delivery and all started coming up a little sick. It's like my children know that when I am going to have a baby they should get sick. It's happened with EVERY. SINGLE. DELIVERY after Adi.
Adi had soft poop- and sharted her pants TWICE. Chloe woke up with a fever and felt miserable- She stayed on the couch most of the day and didn't want to do anything. Brantley's big toe started looking infected(He had stubbed it about a month ago and just kept reopening the wound over and over again.) That night I started getting stressed because I didn't know what we would do with the kids if they were sick the next morning. However, Bamma got her shift covered and was prepared to watch the kids if they weren't feeling good.
September 2nd, 2021
I woke up at 4:48 and thought okay 10 more minutes and I can call in. I fell back asleep and woke back up at 5:42 (apparently I set my alarm for PM) I called in and they said someone just delivered to give them a couple hours and call back. We ended up getting up and doing a few things we didn't get to the night before. I took Adi to school, went and got donuts and went and checked out the progress on our house! We had more framing done and I wanted to see where they were at. I got home and started organizing our room and the babies stuff and they called back and said come on over! We got the kids ready for daycare (thank goodness they were finally feeling better) and we headed to Logan!
11:00 a.m- We checked in.
12:00 p.m. - They finally got paperwork finished and set up my IV. Checked me and I was at a high 3-4.
12:30- They started my pitocin. We talked about how I should have probably ate something before we checked in. The nurse was really nice and let me order a sandwich, I split a turkey sandwich with Kooper. I could feel the pitocin kicking in though.
1:00-I started feeling contractions. They were pretty mild, and I didn't feel the need for an epidural.
1:30- Dr. Blackett came in and broke my water. It didn't feel as weird as normally does. But of course was warm and felt like I was peeing my pants. Immediately following my water being broke my contractions tripled in pain. It's like the water was acting as a barrier because they were killing me. I immediately asked for an epidural. I feel like I can tolerate pain but I like to enjoy labor and contractions are not enjoyable!
2:20- My Anesthesiologist came in and started my epidural. I could feel the pain in the left of my back two times and as soon as he was placing the catheter all of a sudden I got this electric shock feeling in my entire body and down my left leg. My whole body flinched and I scared Koop the nurse and probably the anesthesiologist but I couldn't see him. He told me the catheter must have went straight in and hit my nerve sending that pain everywhere. It was the weirdest feeling ever, I seriously felt like I got electrocuted- it didn't hurt though, it almost felt like a reaction to when someone hits your funny bone. Then he had to take it out and position it to the right more, I was like great we have to do it again. But the medicine had already started kicking in and I could just feel the coldness to it.
2:55-They came in and checked me once my epidural kicked in-I jumped to a 7. They were all like you were right you do go fast after your water breaks. However, things completely slowed down and she tricked us. I felt like she wasn't even close to coming- the nurse said oh maybe 10 minutes but I was like at the point I feel like I'd have to push for hours. So we kept waiting and waiting.
4:55-She checked me again and I was barely at a 8. My photographer (who is also a certified doula) suggested we use a peanut ball. Let me tell you, I felt a little awkward on that ball-the rolled me to my left side and I couldn't really use my legs much so I just felt weird. Literally 5 minutes in and I said I think you need to get the nurse she is ready. Koop Looked at me and was like really- you just got on this ball. I said yes really she is ready. The Nurse came in and checked me and said you're right. Let me call the doctor.
It took about 10 minutes for everyone to get there, and the whole time I kept telling Koop they better hurry up she is ready! I was laying a little slanted(with my legs a bit lower) at at this point because she didn't want me to put my legs up till Dr. Blackett was there. Once Dr. Blackett got there we put my legs up and the nurse said you're having a contraction do you want to push? I said right now? She said yes and I gave one push and they said whoa whoa whoa. I was like uh what, did I do something wrong?! And Koop said no hun she's here. I was like wait what? Already, no way? They all said yes, she is here and she slid out and that was it. I started tearing up and Koop was like what is wrong- I said that was incredible.
Unfortunately I had to get 2 stitches-I tore in the same spot I did with every kid. When I delivered a lot of blood came out-which Danilyn swallowed. So once she was doing chest to chest she kept spitting up blood. However, they cleaned her up, weighed her and gave her back to me. I feel lucky and blessed to have such great deliveries and be able to do them without a lot of pain and trouble.
She Felt soooo small!
SEPTEMBER 3rd, 2021
Danilyn wasn't interested in nursing, wasn't interested in a bottle, wasn't interested in sucking of any kind. All she would do is sleep, I was getting worried because I couldn't even get her to show interest in food. She actually would gag and act disgusted anytime you put something near her mouth. I kept trying to hand express milk and wasn't getting ANYTHING. We got some PHM (I believe it was called) and she drank two small bottles, within the first 8 hours. Dr. O'very came in and the lactation specialist and both weren't worried- they said because of the blood she swallowed her tummy was so upset. Once that all cleared out she should be fine! She was so good though, she never cried- she slept the whole time. I'm not sure if because it was my 4th baby but my nurse didn't seem to care to check in, she came in maybe twice is all. By the time it was shift change I had someone come in and start prepping the discharge papers. She still hadn't peed and needed to go within 24 hours. Luckily right before we left she went! We headed home and got home just before bed, the kids were still up and got to meet her. Chloe and Brantley were super sweet and came over to the car seat and just said HiBABY on repeat.. Adi unfortunately broke another fever and wasn't to thrilled on the couch and didn't move.
The next few days went really well, she slept good, pooped an insane amount, and started drinking more milk. When I say she poops an insane amount, I'm not even kidding. We went through 5 diapers in 30 minutes at one point, and we it wasn't like a tiny bit. She won't nurse, she actually would put her mouth up to me and thrash her head around. I got a nipple shield about a 1.5 weeks in and for the first time using it she actually nursed. It was a small miracle. We tried over and over for the next 2.5 weeks and she maybe nursed 5 times. So other than that I exclusively pumped every day for 2.5 weeks, I woke up one morning after having super sore nipples and told Kooper I am done! I can't spend all day nursing, washing equipment, and then feeding again. That next morning I tried nursing and ever since she has been a champ!
Baby Danilyn we love you and are so glad you came into our lives! Your siblings love you so much, they want to snuggle you all day, touch you, hold you and constantly not let you lay alone.
Below are some pictures of the placenta... so if you don't want to see it STOP reading :) but I think its kind of cool so I wanted to put it here.
Its about time. I love the pictures
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