Hospital Stay (Days 0-3)

10/13
So, about an hour after delivery, most people had gone to the cafeteria to get lunch and it was just my mother-in-law and I in the room.  I was nursing the baby under my gown when I looked down at her and she was completely purple, limp and not breathing.  I pulled her out and she let out a little cry and went limp again.  I yelled at Ann to go get the nurse - my legs were still completely numb.  Rachel ran in and grabbed the baby from me and hit her on the back a few times.  She ran her over to the warmer to stimulate and suction her and administer oxygen and finally she started crying.  Longest 30 seconds of my life.  I was so freaked out and just started crying while sitting in my bed.  I felt so helpless.  Rachel came and brought her over to me just to show me she was ok.  She said that she was going to take her to the nursery just to monitor her and give her a bath.  Everyone came back from the cafeteria at that point and I was still crying.  I told them what had happened and I was just so thankful that Aaden wasn't in the room when that happened because I think I would have freaked him out a bit.  My Mom and Dad were thankful they weren't in the room either.  Everyone went to the nursery to check on her.  She was doing just fine and all of her vitals, including her pulse ox, were great.

Aaden watching her get her first bath

And fogging up the glass :) 

Not sure why Aaron looks so mad ;) 

Our wonderful nurse, Rachel.  We owe her a million thanks! 

At about 3pm, we got to move into my postpartum room.  My left leg was still very numb from the epidural.  I fell in the bathroom because of it, even with the nurse trying to help me!

 All wrapped up in our room post bath.

The little knit hat that was a gift from the hospital. 

Hospital volunteers knit these for all the babies born there.

Grandpa meeting his granddaughter 

 Dr Yager came to check Baby A out and did her assessment.  We talked about what had happened.  He decided that she should stay in the nursery to be monitored through the night.  He said she seemed to be healthy but he just wanted to take extra precautions especially since we didn't know what caused the apnea episode.  He said she had an innocent murmur but that didn't contribute to the episode.  He was very understanding about how freaked out we were.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl 

 

10/14
The baby did well through the night.  She was monitored in the nursery through the night and everything was fine.  She was brought in every few hours to nurse.  My left leg finally started to regain feeling at about 4 in the morning (almost 18 hours after the epidural was removed!).  I was finally able to get up to the bathroom on my own!

On the monitor    

We (well, I) could not decide on a name.  So we had her draw out of a hat.

(The one she drew was not the name we chose for her after all)

Uncle Danny visiting

Pissed.

Gam meeting her 10th great-grandchild! 

Love this!

Aaden visiting again.

Pointing out her hand 

And "ssshhing" us because she's sleeping

Meeting Aunt Kerry 

Emmy 

Daddy and Baby 

So, when Baby A was about 36 hours old, after much deliberation, we finally decided on her name...

Addison Reese :)

We thought Addison sounded good with Aaden and

Aaron really loves the nickname Addie. 

Reese is also Aaron's middle name.

 

10/15

Addison did great through the night again.  She was even able to sleep in my room for a few hours in the early morning. 

Katie came to visit and brought a much needed Starbucks coffee!

Mommy and Addison 

 

I was looking forward to going home later that day.  But - we didn't get to after all.  At one point during the day, Addison looked a little cyanotic to me.  I had Carol (her nurse) put her on the monitor for a little bit.  While her saturation was fine, her heart rate was dropping down into the 80s.  That worried Carol so she called Dr Yager.  He said that it could be normal for some babies to have a low heart rate but that AND the apnea episode made him want to look into things further.  Dr Yager ordered an EKG and decided we should stay longer.  I started crying.  I was ready to go home to my son and I was worried about my little girl.  The EKG came back normal so that was a relief.  Dr Yager came in a while later and said that he had consulted with a few neonatologists in the Bay Area and stated that many of them have seen apnic episodes in newborns before especially in the first few hours of life during the transition period.  As long as there weren't any other episodes, they were confident it was likely an isolated incident and they wouldn't recommend any further action.  The slow heart rate was probably not related to the apnea.  However, Dr Yager said that he could refer us to a few specialists if we wanted and that we could continue to monitor at home if we felt more comfortable doing that.  He wanted us to stay one more night in the hospital though as to not rush us home.  Aaron went home that night to stay with Aaden.  I was torn on what to do in regards to Addison.

 

10/16

Dr Yager called bright and early.  He said that he was able to speak to Apria Home Health and that they could set us up with an apnea monitor at home.  I decided to go ahead and do that after speaking to Dr Armstrong and one of Addison's nurses.  We had all agreed that it was better to be over-cautious than to have something happen and regret it for a life-time.  I thought I would sleep better knowing she was on a monitor too.  So, we had the social worker set up for Apria to come to our house later that day.  I was relieved to be going home!  Unfortunately, Aaron had to work so he didn't get to be with us for Addison's homecoming.

Getting ready to go home! 

Addison weighed 7lbs2oz at discharge.

First time in the carseat

And we're out!  It felt so great to be outside after 4 nights in the hospital. 

At home, finally!  Papa came to visit. 

And grandma stopped by later.

So happy to be home!!  A nurse from Apria came later that day and set us up with the monitor.

 

Baby Girl Makes Her Debut! (Birth Story)

It's crazy with the 2nd baby how much sooner your body starts getting ready for birth.  I started having contractions at about 35 weeks.  Maybe sooner.  But I only had about 5 a day, max and didn't even have them everyday.  Around 38 weeks they became more frequent and I was also starting to get cramps in my upper thighs just as I had had when I went into labor with Aaden.  On Wednesday 10/10/12, I started with early labor.  I was having more frequent contractions, some of them painful but none of them were really "timeable".  I was also having a ton of pressure to where I thought my water would break at any moment.  I went to sleep that night thinking I'd wake up in labor.  Except I woke up in the morning feeling fine.  Same thing happened the next night.  Friday morning I cried because I was still pregnant and obviously not in labor.  So off to work I went. Again.  I was so over work.  I hadn't taken a single day off since April and I was tired.  That day I was trying to wrap up training Angie since we were pretty sure I would have the baby sometime soon.  I was having quite a few painful contractions so at lunch I went to Big 5 and bought a yoga ball to sit and bounce on during contractions.  At about 3pm, my contractions started to become a little more discernable and I started timing them.  They were about 6 minutes apart and lasting 30-50 seconds each.  That went on until 5 when it was time to go home.  I called Aaron and told him to call his mom and let her know that we would probably need her to stay in town to stay with Aaden in case we went to the hospital that night.

When I got home the contractions fizzled out for a bit and then picked back up.  At around 630 they were about 3 minutes apart and feeling more intense.  My mom met us at our house and we left for the hospital at 830pm.  I said goodbye to Aaden and had to choke back the tears.

We got the the hospital and got checked in and weighed (12lb total weight gain, yay!).  My nurse was Marilyn who was one of my nurses last time.  She checked me and I was only dilated to 2cm and was 60% effaced.  I felt deflated and worried that they would send me home.  The last thing I wanted was to labor at home again like I did with Aaden.  They let me labor for a while and then checked me again in an hour. At that point I was not dilated any further but I was more effaced.  They decided to admit me since I had made progress and they could tell that I was having intense and regular contractions. Yay!  I got a shot of fentanyl at that point and the doctor on call said I could get my epidural at any time.  Music.to.my.ears.

I got the epidural around 1130pm.  Sweet relief!  Aaron, my mom and I hung out and watched the news and dozed here and there.  Around 2am I started itching everywhere.  Especially on my stomach and arms and a little in my toes even though they were totally numb.  It was so annoying.  Marilyn came in and I told her I was itching so she said that I could get some Benadryl.  Apparently itchiness can be common with an epidural.  She gave my IV Benadryl and holy moly, that knocked me out and took the itchiness away.  I slept pretty soundly from about 230-530.  They continued to check me and I was slowly progressing.  But I was progressing on my own without Pitocin this time!  I was proud of my body :) At 6am I was around a 5 or 6.  At 7am, Dr Armstrong came in and checked me and broke my water.  I was dilated to 7cm at that point.  The baby's heartrate kept dropping with contractions but they weren't overly concerned since they weren't late decelerations.  My nurse, Rachel, just kept changing my postition.  By 9am I was pretty much fully dilated and Rachel had me take a few practice pushes.  It felt really weird to push because I was sooo numb from my epidural.  Rachel decided to let me labor down on my own for a while longer so hopefully I wouldn't have to push as long as I did with Aaden.  I was still feeling drowsy from the Benadryl so I took another nap.  I slept from 930 to 1030 - and apparently I was sleeping pretty hard, my mom and Aaron said I was snoring!

When I woke up Rachel came in and saw that the baby was still having some issues with her heartrate so she put some oxygen on me.  At around 1045 she had me take some practice pushes.  Despite the concerns with the baby's heartrate, it was so calm and peaceful in my room.  I was rested and felt pretty good.  So much different than my delivery with Aaden where I was beyond exhausted from not sleeping and extremly hot and everything just felt really hectic in comparison to the experience I was having this time.  Maybe having her during the day versus night made a difference too?  Plus, I still had my epidural this time where with Aaden it had been turned off 2 hours before I started pushing.  After a couple of pushes, Rachel decided to call Dr Armstrong to come in because the baby was getting close.  I had no idea though since I was so numb.

Dr Armstrong came in at 11am and I started pushing again.  They had to tell me when the contractions came because I couldn't even feel the pressure from them.  I pushed through a few contractions and then heard Dr Armstrong tell Carol (the baby nurse) to get the vacuum ready.  That freaked me out.  The baby's HR was continuing to drop.  I wanted to get the baby out without the vacuum.  With the next contraction I pushed with all my might - although I had no idea if I was actually pushing or if I was pushing efficiently but apparently I was because with that contraction, her head was out.   Dr Armstrong discovered her cord was wrapped around her neck - not once but twice!  No wonder her HR kept dropping! With the next push, at 11:12 am on Saturday, October 13th, Baby A was here! No vacuum needed.  I couldn't believe that I only pushed for 12 minutes!        

She had a little weak cry when she came out, they laid her on me and she started turning dusky almost immediately.  Carol took her to the baby warmer and suctioned her and put a little oxygen on her and she turned pink right away.  Baby Girl weighed in at 7lbs8oz and was 19" long.  I was so happy that she was here and was thrilled with how great I felt.  We still didn't have a name for our sweet girl but that was alright, she was the perfect no-name baby. ;)  

Yep, pretty purple

Better

Getting weighed 

Daddy and Daughter 

Little butt-chin like Daddy

Dr. Armstrong - best OB ever! 

Our Baby Girl 

Happy Pappy 

Emmy and her granddaughter

Meeting Aunt Krissie 

 Mommy, Daddy and Baby #2!

Proud Papa 

Meeting Big Brother!! 

He was a little unsure of her at first but he warmed up pretty quickly.  Soon he was pointing out her hands, eyes, nose, hat, etc.  He even gave her his Lovie to hold a few times.

Opening his Big Brother gift from Sissy

Checking out his new sister

Our first picture as a family of four :) 

♥ Kisses for his sister ♥