Saturday, April 2, 2016

The Story of Holly

Wow, just now realized I never wrote up anything about the day Holly was born.  Oops!  Here's the rundown.  Let me be clear -- this is the story of her birth, so if you're squeamish about labor-y stuff, this may be a post you want to skip.

I woke up around 2:30 on December 5th (Holly's due date) with what I thought was a contraction.  I wasn't positive, since I didn't really have contractions with Tyler (his story here).  The last few weeks of pregnancy are basically one huge discomfort, so I couldn't tell if it was just pregnancy stuff or the real thing.

me at 39 weeks

At 4:30, I could definitely tell I was having contractions.  I called the doctor, took a shower, called Jill (who was on deck to take care of Tyler while we were at the hospital)... and then I waited.  Because you're not allowed to go to the hospital until the contractions are regular and 5-7 minutes apart.  So... I hung out.  Played with Tyler.  Chatted with Mom (who had come into town a few days before).  Jill and Jodi came, Jason bought everyone lunch, and after monitoring my contractions all morning (btw, yay for contraction apps; so smart!), we went to the hospital around 1:00.

Things progressed, but not a ton, so they broke my water.  They also decided to encourage things by having me rest on my side with my knees between basically a peanut-shaped yoga ball (best way I can describe it).  At some point, I had an epidural (hmm, knew I should have written all this down while the memory was fresh).  

At some other point, the doctor came in and decided it was time for me to push.  The RN disagreed, but followed the doctor's wishes.  No dice.  She very quickly decided that I wasn't ready.  So more peanut-ing to encourage things to happen naturally.  Around 7:40pm, it was time to push, for real this time.

With Tyler, despite his size (he was a big boy!), the pushing wasn't really bad.  I pushed for about 40 minutes, but with the epidural, it was pretty easy sailing.  I only pushed 10 minutes with Holly (yep, you read that correctly), but it was NOT easy sailing!  We later found out the main problem was that she was face up (or "sunny side up" as it's sometimes called).  Babies typically are face down when born.  In fact, I just looked it up, and only 4-10% of babies are born face up.  Plus, it's more common in first babies than second.  There are several complications that can be involved with this (including many deliveries switching to c-section), but Holly was born healthy, so we're very thankful!  I just found out a little while ago from my mom (who was also in the delivery room with Jason and me) that Holly also had the cord wrapped around her.  The nurses had said earlier in the day that they suspected it may be (something about her vitals made them suspect), but that it wasn't a big deal.  I guess it wasn't, since I knew nothing about it once she was born.

Holly was born at 7:50pm on her due date, 8lbs, 13oz and 22" of perfection.


Perfection... except for the crying.  Boy, that first 24 hours, whew!  Homegirl would turn straight-up burgundy in the face when crying.  Suuuuuper fun.


That night, Jill came to meet Holly, drop off dinner for Jason, and pick Mom up to head back to our house.  The next morning, Jason went home to take a shower and get Tyler.  The meeting didn't go well (note: a swaddled baby with a hat on doesn't look very human to a toddler), but Tyler was a trooper.

The rest of the day was fairly low-key.  Several things were better this time around.  Less nurse visits.  I had magazines and a smart phone to keep me entertained.  At the end of the day, we got a surprise -- we'd be able to go home that night if we wanted to!  There were a few tests that had to happen 24 hours after birth (aka, 8pm), but if we wanted to, we could leave after that.  Sleeping in our own bed instead of at the hospital?  Yes, please!




A few other things of note:
~Holly actually failed her hearing screen in the hospital (hormonal worrier Megan did not handle this news well), but thankfully passed the follow-up two weeks later.  Apparently, we learned that pushing for a short period of time (like Holly's 10 minutes) doesn't allow the "gunk" (medical term for it, I'm sure) to exit her body, so it was more than likely blocking her ear.  The nurses also explained that was the reason for some of her early-on reflux issues.
~We went through the usual (I'm guessing it's usual since most people have similar stories) cycle of 1st pediatrician visit = not enough weight gain, come back soon.  2nd visit = milk has come in, yay, your baby has gained weight!... but come back soon just to double-check.  Then, we had a 3rd visit... and a 4th...  All of this around Christmas, mind you.  We finally discovered that Holly was tongue-tied (You know that little flap under your tongue?  Hers was too big, which didn't allow her to eat properly.  The little flap that connects her top lip to her gums was also too big), so she had a procedure at a dentist office where they used a laser to cut both flaps.  I didn't notice a big difference right away, but she seems to eat just fine now.  Thank goodness!

So that's our girl!  The first few weeks (especially with all the appointments and big question marks about hearing and eating) were quite stressful, but we survived!

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