introducing ethan!!
i meant to post this sooner, but things have been really crazy x_x i was supposed to have my induction on the 1st, but when i went in for my prenatal check-up on the 28th, we discovered the baby had flipped breech. so the induction was changed to a c-section.
i had a really hard time adjusting to the change of plans, but thankfully we even HAD time to adjust. i can understand now why some women get so traumatized when they suddenly have to have c-sections and such. it's not like i was dead set on any specific sort of birth, but i was definitely way too confident after andrew's easy birth, which made the news a huge shock. i wasn't afraid or anything because my doctor is really great, but it was definitely really tough to change gears.
my doctor told me to check in at 7am (on the 1st still) and that the surgery would be somewhere around 10 to noon, so the plan was that cori would drop me off at 7, then drop andrew off with my cousin and come back to the hospital. but when we were like five minutes away from the hospital, they called asking where i was because the surgery would be at 7:30. i was like, what????? so cori dropped me off and they started prepping me for surgery. my doctor came in to check that the baby was still breech, but he was actually transverse instead by that point. everybody was really nice, but i was stressing so much because cori is absolutely hopeless driving around anchorage on his own x_____x i had written out very specific directions to and from my cousin's house, but he took forever getting back. i called him and he had taken a different route -___- he got back to the hospital RIGHT as they were getting ready to start the surgery.
the spinal they give you for a c-section was a little different than the epidural i had with andrew. it felt like my feet were falling asleep and i was going a little insane feeling like i had to move them. the anesthesiologist said it would probably feel like my legs were still bent even though they were straight, but i didn't notice anything like that. but as it got higher, my chest felt really heavy and it became harder to breathe. they said my oxygen levels were fine but it felt like i was drowning. around the time cori showed up, my chin was feeling tingly and i kept having to move my mouth around. then the inside of my mouth felt tingly and my ears. i guess that's not normal, but for some reason she did my spinal differently. she mentioned it to one of the nurses but i didn't hear what she said. something to do with me being so tall i guess :/
the surgery went fine. the baby had the cord wrapped around his neck once. they asked cori if he wanted to see, and they pulled the baby's head out as he looked, and he said it freaked him out a little lol they tried to show me the baby while they were getting him ready to clean but i was starting to have a panic attack x_x i was having some referred pain in my shoulders (from the weight my uterus was putting on my diaphragm i guess? cuz the muscles were numbed and not supporting it as much) and it was incredibly painful. i have a really high pain tolerance but... omg. i couldn't slow my breathing so the anesthesiologist was quick to give me something to relax. cori took a bunch of pictures while they cleaned the baby and i struggled to stay awake once the meds kicked in. it's kind of a blur after that so i'm not sure if i actually fell asleep or if i was just really out of it while they wheeled me to a recovery room, but all i remember is asking if it was ok for me to sleep and them saying it was fine, but then one of the nurses was asking me questions and i couldn't hear her over the oxygen thing in my nose. by that point i was in the recovery room, and cori sat down nearby, holding the baby. i wanted to ask to hold him but i was so fuzzy and my arms felt shaky so i didn't feel comfortable. it was like 2 or 3 hours before i even got a good look at him, really. his blood sugar was a little low i guess so they had cori feed him a little formula. they told him to just give him a little but cori ended up giving him quite a bit :B
after a bit, they moved us to the mom & baby ward, which was uneventful. cori left after an hour or so to get stuff from the car. i think the baby started fussing? i was gonna pick him up but i can't remember why because i was still really out of it. but i pressed the call button to ask the nurse to hand him to me, and the door opened and cori's mom walked in. i was REALLY confused lol but she handed the baby to me, and that was the first time i held him or even actually looked at him. (turned out my call button wasn't working for some reason)
we had more visitors. my parents came to visit and had karter with them (since mom watches him mondays). the day nurse helped me to feed the baby for the first time, doing the football hold so i didn't put much weight on my incision. he fed really great right away. the nurse was a somewhat older lady who had a lot of great tips on pretty much everything. my night nurse ended up being one of the nurses we had with andrew (which is funny cuz we were also in the same room as last time). i didn't remember her, but cori did :P we actually ended up getting along extremely well and i was sad when we left because i don't make new friends pretty much ever :/
the time in the hospital was pretty uneventful. they had me up and walking a little on the first night, and offered to take out my catheter but i didn't feel comfortable with that yet so they took it out in the morning. some med students from UAA were there the 2nd day helping out, which kind of sucked but i felt bad turning them down. ethan spent both nights pooping like CRAZY, and then would sleep for a long time all morning. they kept taking him to be weighed in the morning when he hadn't eaten yet after all the pooping :/ so by the third day they were starting to be concerned about his weight loss. they were trying to get us to stay another night, but i had no worries about his eating or weight and they weren't giving any solid reason to stay. the day nurse made a comment that she was worried cori would burn out when we got home, which was incredibly offensive. i liked her up until that point. i wanted nothing to do with her after that and was pretty cold toward her for the rest of the day. we agreed to at least stay the night in town, and come back the next morning just to have his weight checked. there was no reason to stay another night in the hospital (medical bill aside, it was crazy stressful having to drop andrew off to be babysat and cori driving around and me having to spend the night by myself). we put off checking out until after dinner, then the night nurse came on and helped discharge us.
the next morning we went back to the hospital. cori took the baby in while i stayed in the car (andrew had fallen asleep). he'd pooped on the way there, so it was no surprise that his weight was lower again, but the nurse that was weighing him suddenly started lecturing cori a ton. like, about EVERYTHING possible. from the baby's weight to the blanket i had rolled up to keep his head from drooping too much on the 3-hr drive home. she accused us of not feeding him enough, basically of starving him. she said i should be pumping while cori fed him formula (excuse me? my milk was only just STARTING to come in), or that i should be dripping formula on my nipple while feeding him... wtf? she made some completely absurd and offensive assumptions about me and cori as parents, and our apparent inability to handle both a newborn and a 2-yr-old. cori flipped out on her and left. (the worst part was he didn't even recognize her... it wasn't a nurse we'd had at all, so she was making all these assumptions without even knowing either of us)
things have been just fine since getting home. andrew's obsessed with his baby brother, trying to pat him and give him kisses and everything. he's been a bit of a turd lately though lol definitely doing more things specifically for attention, and he's been increasingly stubborn. cori goes back to work tomorrow and i'm stressing a little over that :/ my anxiety's been spiking a bit. yesterday was definitely a high anxiety day but i'm feeling a little better about things today. my birthday's this weekend though which is always a stressful time for me, which is making my anxiety a bit worse. it also kind of sucks that i'll be stuck at home for my birthday, since i'm not supposed to be lifting much, and it's still quite a bit of work getting andrew in and out of the car, and carrying the baby's carseat. i had my 2-week check-up yesterday though and i'm healing up really well.
as for the baby's weight, he's slowly gaining. we've taken him to the local pediatrician for weight checks and they said he's doing well enough, especially since andrew was slow to gain weight when he was born too (until he chunked out, now he's 93rd percentile for weight lol).
so! we now have a second son! i'd say i can't wait to have our third kid and complete our family (maybe hopefully with a girl? haha) but... i can definitely wait lol
introducing ethan grant william, born at 39 weeks at 8 lbs 3 oz, 21" long, 14" head circumference.
i had a really hard time adjusting to the change of plans, but thankfully we even HAD time to adjust. i can understand now why some women get so traumatized when they suddenly have to have c-sections and such. it's not like i was dead set on any specific sort of birth, but i was definitely way too confident after andrew's easy birth, which made the news a huge shock. i wasn't afraid or anything because my doctor is really great, but it was definitely really tough to change gears.
my doctor told me to check in at 7am (on the 1st still) and that the surgery would be somewhere around 10 to noon, so the plan was that cori would drop me off at 7, then drop andrew off with my cousin and come back to the hospital. but when we were like five minutes away from the hospital, they called asking where i was because the surgery would be at 7:30. i was like, what????? so cori dropped me off and they started prepping me for surgery. my doctor came in to check that the baby was still breech, but he was actually transverse instead by that point. everybody was really nice, but i was stressing so much because cori is absolutely hopeless driving around anchorage on his own x_____x i had written out very specific directions to and from my cousin's house, but he took forever getting back. i called him and he had taken a different route -___- he got back to the hospital RIGHT as they were getting ready to start the surgery.
the spinal they give you for a c-section was a little different than the epidural i had with andrew. it felt like my feet were falling asleep and i was going a little insane feeling like i had to move them. the anesthesiologist said it would probably feel like my legs were still bent even though they were straight, but i didn't notice anything like that. but as it got higher, my chest felt really heavy and it became harder to breathe. they said my oxygen levels were fine but it felt like i was drowning. around the time cori showed up, my chin was feeling tingly and i kept having to move my mouth around. then the inside of my mouth felt tingly and my ears. i guess that's not normal, but for some reason she did my spinal differently. she mentioned it to one of the nurses but i didn't hear what she said. something to do with me being so tall i guess :/
the surgery went fine. the baby had the cord wrapped around his neck once. they asked cori if he wanted to see, and they pulled the baby's head out as he looked, and he said it freaked him out a little lol they tried to show me the baby while they were getting him ready to clean but i was starting to have a panic attack x_x i was having some referred pain in my shoulders (from the weight my uterus was putting on my diaphragm i guess? cuz the muscles were numbed and not supporting it as much) and it was incredibly painful. i have a really high pain tolerance but... omg. i couldn't slow my breathing so the anesthesiologist was quick to give me something to relax. cori took a bunch of pictures while they cleaned the baby and i struggled to stay awake once the meds kicked in. it's kind of a blur after that so i'm not sure if i actually fell asleep or if i was just really out of it while they wheeled me to a recovery room, but all i remember is asking if it was ok for me to sleep and them saying it was fine, but then one of the nurses was asking me questions and i couldn't hear her over the oxygen thing in my nose. by that point i was in the recovery room, and cori sat down nearby, holding the baby. i wanted to ask to hold him but i was so fuzzy and my arms felt shaky so i didn't feel comfortable. it was like 2 or 3 hours before i even got a good look at him, really. his blood sugar was a little low i guess so they had cori feed him a little formula. they told him to just give him a little but cori ended up giving him quite a bit :B
after a bit, they moved us to the mom & baby ward, which was uneventful. cori left after an hour or so to get stuff from the car. i think the baby started fussing? i was gonna pick him up but i can't remember why because i was still really out of it. but i pressed the call button to ask the nurse to hand him to me, and the door opened and cori's mom walked in. i was REALLY confused lol but she handed the baby to me, and that was the first time i held him or even actually looked at him. (turned out my call button wasn't working for some reason)
we had more visitors. my parents came to visit and had karter with them (since mom watches him mondays). the day nurse helped me to feed the baby for the first time, doing the football hold so i didn't put much weight on my incision. he fed really great right away. the nurse was a somewhat older lady who had a lot of great tips on pretty much everything. my night nurse ended up being one of the nurses we had with andrew (which is funny cuz we were also in the same room as last time). i didn't remember her, but cori did :P we actually ended up getting along extremely well and i was sad when we left because i don't make new friends pretty much ever :/
the time in the hospital was pretty uneventful. they had me up and walking a little on the first night, and offered to take out my catheter but i didn't feel comfortable with that yet so they took it out in the morning. some med students from UAA were there the 2nd day helping out, which kind of sucked but i felt bad turning them down. ethan spent both nights pooping like CRAZY, and then would sleep for a long time all morning. they kept taking him to be weighed in the morning when he hadn't eaten yet after all the pooping :/ so by the third day they were starting to be concerned about his weight loss. they were trying to get us to stay another night, but i had no worries about his eating or weight and they weren't giving any solid reason to stay. the day nurse made a comment that she was worried cori would burn out when we got home, which was incredibly offensive. i liked her up until that point. i wanted nothing to do with her after that and was pretty cold toward her for the rest of the day. we agreed to at least stay the night in town, and come back the next morning just to have his weight checked. there was no reason to stay another night in the hospital (medical bill aside, it was crazy stressful having to drop andrew off to be babysat and cori driving around and me having to spend the night by myself). we put off checking out until after dinner, then the night nurse came on and helped discharge us.
the next morning we went back to the hospital. cori took the baby in while i stayed in the car (andrew had fallen asleep). he'd pooped on the way there, so it was no surprise that his weight was lower again, but the nurse that was weighing him suddenly started lecturing cori a ton. like, about EVERYTHING possible. from the baby's weight to the blanket i had rolled up to keep his head from drooping too much on the 3-hr drive home. she accused us of not feeding him enough, basically of starving him. she said i should be pumping while cori fed him formula (excuse me? my milk was only just STARTING to come in), or that i should be dripping formula on my nipple while feeding him... wtf? she made some completely absurd and offensive assumptions about me and cori as parents, and our apparent inability to handle both a newborn and a 2-yr-old. cori flipped out on her and left. (the worst part was he didn't even recognize her... it wasn't a nurse we'd had at all, so she was making all these assumptions without even knowing either of us)
things have been just fine since getting home. andrew's obsessed with his baby brother, trying to pat him and give him kisses and everything. he's been a bit of a turd lately though lol definitely doing more things specifically for attention, and he's been increasingly stubborn. cori goes back to work tomorrow and i'm stressing a little over that :/ my anxiety's been spiking a bit. yesterday was definitely a high anxiety day but i'm feeling a little better about things today. my birthday's this weekend though which is always a stressful time for me, which is making my anxiety a bit worse. it also kind of sucks that i'll be stuck at home for my birthday, since i'm not supposed to be lifting much, and it's still quite a bit of work getting andrew in and out of the car, and carrying the baby's carseat. i had my 2-week check-up yesterday though and i'm healing up really well.
as for the baby's weight, he's slowly gaining. we've taken him to the local pediatrician for weight checks and they said he's doing well enough, especially since andrew was slow to gain weight when he was born too (until he chunked out, now he's 93rd percentile for weight lol).
so! we now have a second son! i'd say i can't wait to have our third kid and complete our family (maybe hopefully with a girl? haha) but... i can definitely wait lol
introducing ethan grant william, born at 39 weeks at 8 lbs 3 oz, 21" long, 14" head circumference.