Baby Rhett

Well I know it's taken a while but I'd like to jot down some thoughts about when Rhett was born.

Well, as most of you know we found out we were expecting in September and a couple months later found out we are having a boy! I was pretty excited, but nervous because I know how to take care of a girl, but boys seemed quite foreign.

In late January I went into the doctor because I was having quite a bit of pelvic pressure and they told me to take it easy for three weeks, as I was already at a 1 and 60%. I was able to do quite a bit of work from home which was nice to be able to save my time off for when he was actually born. After three boring weeks of doing very little, I was able to go back to work. However I did get to read Unbreakable, which was nice because I rarely get time to read, especially a long book like that one. I got a bunch of sewing done as well.

The next few weeks dragged on and on. I was having a hard time sleeping at night which is quite unusual for me. With Josie and Kate, I never had any problems. I continued to have quite a bit of pressure and pain all through those last several weeks.

At about 11:00 in the evening of March 12, a few days shy of 38 weeks, I started having contractions every few minutes and couldn't sleep. I started walking around our house to see if they went away and they didn't. I was induced with Josie and with Kate, I never felt the contractions until they broke my water and after that it was a very quick labor. So I was worried I would go very quickly this time as well since I was already feeling the contractions. I woke up Ty and told him to go we needed to go into the hospital. We called a neighbor to drop the girls off and headed in.

When we got to the ER, there were three other pregnant couples right in front of. A rainstorm had picked up and the barometric pressure had dropped which explains a lot of why everyone was there. Talk to any OB nurse and they will tell you that. Well after a few hours of contractions about four minutes apart they told me it was false labor and sent us home. I was a little disappointed and tired, but glad that we didn't have an early baby.

We got some breakfast and went back to get the girls. When I went to the neighbor’s house to pick them up, Josie asked me where the baby was. It's just funny how simple it is to her. I explained the baby wasn't coming quite yet. We dropped the girls off at daycare and slept the rest of the day since we'd been up all night.

Well, I continued to have contractions on and off over the next several days and on the evening of March 17th at about the same time, I started having contractions again. So I waited for them to get stronger and tried sleeping on and off throughout the night. At about seven in the morning I told Ty, I think it's time to go to the doctor. We gathered the girls up and took them to daycare.

Ty and Josie had had a date night at the park the night before and forgotten part of Josie's fairy crown. Josie asked us if we could go look for it when we went into town. Ty wasn't sure we were going to have a baby that day, so we went to the park and Ty looked around for Josie's crown. Unfortunately, it wasn't anywhere to be seen.

Then we headed to the doctor. They had me walk for about an hour and decided I was in active labor and at a 4 with contractions every 3 minutes and they were planning to keep us there. Since I wasn't officially admitted yet and just on observation they let Ty bring me up some lunch from the cafeteria before we got started. 

I told them how strong the contractions were when they broke my water with Kate and asked that I get my epidural before they broke my water. So they got everything set up my IV went in very easy this time which was quite nice.

They set up my epidural and then we waited.  Within about an hour I started to itch all over, got nauseous and felt incredibly numb and puffy everywhere. I told the nurse and she said they could get me some medicine to help with the itching and nausea.

I was able to rest for a couple of hours, but woke up in a bit of a panic. I had a dream that my whole body was just getting bigger and bigger and even as I started waking up I would look at my hands and think they were getting larger and larger, like a gigantic marshmallow that was about to pop.

I was crying uncontrollably and just basically felt like a crazy person! The nurse came in and reassured me that I was just a little anxious because this was taking longer than we thought it would. Although she mentioned that my blood pressure had gotten a little bit low right before I'd woken up. My BP is normally ~90/60 so lower than that isn’t a good thing. But I knew it was more than that. I felt like my blood sugars were too low. So Ty went searching for some hard candy since I wasn't supposed to have anything to eat. That helped so much! Ty was surprised that they never took my blood sugar to see what it was. The Resident said I could have some Jell-O and I had 3 cups! Haha. Apparently one of the nurses at the desk wasn't so happy about me eating Jell-O since I was supposed to be NPO, but I didn’t care I felt a ton better!!

I did feel much better after that but still felt there wasn't something quite right so I asked if they could turn down the epidural.

Once they got the epidural turn down it was better from then on out. At that point I was at nine and not quite all the way effaced. The baby was posterior but just a few minutes after they told me that I felt a lot of pressure. I told the nurse that I was ready to push. She checked me and sure enough I was at a 10 and 100%. She told me to wait until the doctor and the resident were able to come in, which felt like a long time. 

Once they both were there they gave the baby a little bit of a turn, so he was face down. Then I threw up all of the Jello that I have been eating.

But the Resident said it was a good thing. Sometimes it can help the baby move down faster. After that I had one round of three pushes and the baby was out!

They changed RNs at 7pm, 13 mins prior. Since he came so fast, there wasn't even a nurse for the baby in the room yet!

I was pretty overwhelmed with all of it as they laid Rhett on my chest and got him cleaned up. He was beautiful. Ty cut the cord and they got him weighed and measured and the rest of his vitals.

His temperature was just a bit lower than they liked so we got to cuddle for quite a while. He was quite hungry right from the get-go, but in similar form so was I!

After we were settled in just a bit, Ty headed home to check on the girls who were now with my mom and came back just before work. He works there at the hospital, so decided that night he would just pop in several times and if I needed anything I could call him.

 After a couple of hours they were able to get me moved over to postpartum. And at one point they checked my BP which was 88/45! A new low!! Of course I wasn't going anywhere without anyones help, I knew better from last time…passing out twice! The rest of the night went by pretty well. He wanted to nurse all the time which was nice because it helped my milk come in earlier.

My mom brought the girls in the next day and they were so excited to see their baby brother. It was fun to see their faces as they held him and took it all in.

 Josie and kate wanted to take a few pictures...good work ladies!

We were able to leave the hospital about 9 o'clock that evening and headed to the drug store to grab a few things and some gifts for the girls "from Rhett".

They were so excited to see him again!! Ty had that night off so we were able to get settled in a little bit more. Well I guess that's it for now but I can't tell you how precious this little baby is.

Beautiful boy!! We love you!!