In case you haven't noticed...
Things have been pretty quiet around the blog lately.
I've been enjoying the snuggles & cuddles of our new baby girl!
Meet Little Sunshine (:
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I can't believe that she's already a month old!
She is absolutely adorable
& we love that she is part of our eternal family!
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Little Dudeman & Little Princess are really great with her!
They love being my helpers (:
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Today I'm going toread share with you her birth story...
Once upon a time
in a land known as central Indiana
lived a small,
but growing family.
It was the beginning of August
& the mama was having a tough third trimester.
She still had a couple weeks to go
but she felt larger & much more drained than her previous two pregnancies.
Maybe it was because of the stairs
or simply because she had two other children
that required so much of her energy.
Nobody truly knows.
She was torn between wanting the baby to come ASAP
so that she could be more comfortable & see the sweet little girl,
& enjoying the last couple weeks of baby kicks & only two kidlets while she still could.
Sleepless nights were inevitable either way.
The family went to church on Sunday, August 3rd
& the mommy noticed she was having some contractions on the drive home.
They got home & changed into comfy clothes
then she started timing them just in case.
They were 10-15 minutes apart
so nothing to get too excited about,
but they weren't stopping.
That evening they got as close as 8-10 minutes apart
with the occasional contraction only 5 minutes from the last one.
They continued all through the night
although they weren't so strong that they kept her up.
She had an appt the next day,
& was excited to see what the OB had to say about the progress.
Her contractions were roughly 5-8 minutes apart
& they seemed to be getting stronger.
The mom was slightly disappointed to find out that she was only dilated between a 1 & 2
& that the contractions were most likely just braxton hicks.
Weren't braxton hicks supposed to be painless & sporadic?
They kept up at that same pace the entire day
& all throughout that night,
but when she woke up on Tuesday
they were gone.
They would come back to tease her
from time to time every day
for the next two weeks
but they were definitely more sporadic at that point.
Her father,
whom her children refer to as Grampa,
came out to visit the weekend of her due date, the 16th,
just in case the baby decided to make her debut on or before then.
Alas, the child had other plans.
Grampa had to leave early that Monday morning to go to work
since he was also on a business trip a couple hours away.
He assured the family he would return on Thursday
with hopes to meet his newest granddaughter.
The expectant mother went into her appt that same Monday
to discover that she was dilated to a solid 3.
Her OBGYN stripped the membranes
& scheduled an induction for the next morning at 6 AM
just in case the baby didn't come on her own before then.
The mom took her kids to the park & they went on a couple walks throughout the day.
She even ate half of a fresh pineapple that evening to speed things up.
Really though.
It was quite delicious!
She & her husband stayed up late that night
instead of getting extra rest like they probably should have
because they were so excited to see their newest addition the next morning.
Also because they had started a Harry Potter marathon the week before
& simply HAD TO watch 'Deathly Hallows: Part 2' before the baby came.
No regrets.
Okay, maybe a little bit.
I was pretty drained the next day...
They woke up bright & early at 5 AM the next morning.
Let me rephrase that.
It was early, but definitely not bright outside.
She noticed that she was having regular contractions around 5:30
& they seemed to be getting closer together.
Was it the pineapple perhaps?
The contractions were roughly 5 minutes apart,
but they were fairly tolerable.
.jpg)
They dropped off their sleepy kidlets
Thanks so much for watching them Chelsea!
then headed to the hospital.
The nurse hooked up the contraction monitors
& sure enough the wife was in labor!
Things were progressing.
However, they were progressing very s l o w l y...
So they broke her water around 7:30
to see if that would help speed things up a bit.
People didn't come in to check on her very often
since there were so many C-sections & deliveries going on that morning.
The next time she saw her OB was around 10 AM.
The doctor checked her & said she was dilated to a 5... 80% effaced.
Things were happening.
Just not very fast.
A pitocin drip was started around 10:10
& the woman was still doing alright with the pain.
The nurse kept upping the pitocin every so often
then came in a little before 12 to let her know that they would be helping with a C-section.
If she would like an epidural it would have to be right then or in an hour.
Even though she could still tolerate the pain just fine in that moment,
the contractions & pain were getting stronger so she decided to go ahead with it
rather than miss her window of opportunity if she ended up needing it while they were unavailable.
They gave her the epidural,
but then her blood pressure dropped so low that they had to give her epinephrine to bring it back up.
Her lack of sleep & super small way-too-early-in-the-morning breakfast weren't helping.
I was feeling queasy when I woke up...
Her blood pressure went back to normal,
but she was still tired, hungry, & slightly lightheaded.
The couple had watched 'Thor: The Dark World' earlier that morning while waiting
& decided to turn on 'White House Down' to kill some more time.
She couldn't feel her contractions at that point,
so she was able to actually enjoy the movie.
After a while, the woman started to notice more pressure
but of course her OB was in the middle of a C-section.
She continued to feel more & more pressure
& was extremely relieved when they finally came in to check her around 2 PM.
Sure enough, she was fully dilated & ready to push.
After 40 minutes of pushing
the couple finally got to meet their sweet little summer baby.
Little Sunshine (:
.jpg)
She was born at 2:42 PM, weighed 8 lbs 14 oz, & was 21 3/4" long!!!
Their other two kidlets were much smaller...
7 lbs 10 oz - 20"
& 7 lbs 3 oz - 19 1/2"
What's even more surprising is that I didn't tear.
At all.
Because I did with the other two.
Weird.
Anywho...
Everything was all fine & dandy until approx 46-47 hours later.
Stay tuned for the second chapter titled:
Postpartum Preeclampsia
Things have been pretty quiet around the blog lately.
I've been enjoying the snuggles & cuddles of our new baby girl!
Meet Little Sunshine (:
.jpg)
I can't believe that she's already a month old!
She is absolutely adorable
& we love that she is part of our eternal family!
.jpg)
Little Dudeman & Little Princess are really great with her!
They love being my helpers (:
.jpg)
Today I'm going to
Once upon a time
in a land known as central Indiana
lived a small,
but growing family.
It was the beginning of August
& the mama was having a tough third trimester.
She still had a couple weeks to go
but she felt larger & much more drained than her previous two pregnancies.
Maybe it was because of the stairs
or simply because she had two other children
that required so much of her energy.
Nobody truly knows.
She was torn between wanting the baby to come ASAP
so that she could be more comfortable & see the sweet little girl,
& enjoying the last couple weeks of baby kicks & only two kidlets while she still could.
Sleepless nights were inevitable either way.
The family went to church on Sunday, August 3rd
& the mommy noticed she was having some contractions on the drive home.
They got home & changed into comfy clothes
then she started timing them just in case.
They were 10-15 minutes apart
so nothing to get too excited about,
but they weren't stopping.
That evening they got as close as 8-10 minutes apart
with the occasional contraction only 5 minutes from the last one.
They continued all through the night
although they weren't so strong that they kept her up.
She had an appt the next day,
& was excited to see what the OB had to say about the progress.
Her contractions were roughly 5-8 minutes apart
& they seemed to be getting stronger.
The mom was slightly disappointed to find out that she was only dilated between a 1 & 2
& that the contractions were most likely just braxton hicks.
Weren't braxton hicks supposed to be painless & sporadic?
They kept up at that same pace the entire day
& all throughout that night,
but when she woke up on Tuesday
they were gone.
They would come back to tease her
from time to time every day
for the next two weeks
but they were definitely more sporadic at that point.
Her father,
whom her children refer to as Grampa,
came out to visit the weekend of her due date, the 16th,
just in case the baby decided to make her debut on or before then.
Alas, the child had other plans.
Grampa had to leave early that Monday morning to go to work
since he was also on a business trip a couple hours away.
He assured the family he would return on Thursday
with hopes to meet his newest granddaughter.
The expectant mother went into her appt that same Monday
to discover that she was dilated to a solid 3.
Her OBGYN stripped the membranes
& scheduled an induction for the next morning at 6 AM
just in case the baby didn't come on her own before then.
The mom took her kids to the park & they went on a couple walks throughout the day.
She even ate half of a fresh pineapple that evening to speed things up.
Really though.
It was quite delicious!
She & her husband stayed up late that night
instead of getting extra rest like they probably should have
because they were so excited to see their newest addition the next morning.
Also because they had started a Harry Potter marathon the week before
& simply HAD TO watch 'Deathly Hallows: Part 2' before the baby came.
No regrets.
Okay, maybe a little bit.
I was pretty drained the next day...
They woke up bright & early at 5 AM the next morning.
Let me rephrase that.
It was early, but definitely not bright outside.
She noticed that she was having regular contractions around 5:30
& they seemed to be getting closer together.
Was it the pineapple perhaps?
The contractions were roughly 5 minutes apart,
but they were fairly tolerable.
They dropped off their sleepy kidlets
Thanks so much for watching them Chelsea!
then headed to the hospital.
The nurse hooked up the contraction monitors
& sure enough the wife was in labor!
Things were progressing.
However, they were progressing very s l o w l y...
So they broke her water around 7:30
to see if that would help speed things up a bit.
People didn't come in to check on her very often
since there were so many C-sections & deliveries going on that morning.
The next time she saw her OB was around 10 AM.
The doctor checked her & said she was dilated to a 5... 80% effaced.
Things were happening.
Just not very fast.
A pitocin drip was started around 10:10
& the woman was still doing alright with the pain.
The nurse kept upping the pitocin every so often
then came in a little before 12 to let her know that they would be helping with a C-section.
If she would like an epidural it would have to be right then or in an hour.
Even though she could still tolerate the pain just fine in that moment,
the contractions & pain were getting stronger so she decided to go ahead with it
rather than miss her window of opportunity if she ended up needing it while they were unavailable.
They gave her the epidural,
but then her blood pressure dropped so low that they had to give her epinephrine to bring it back up.
Her lack of sleep & super small way-too-early-in-the-morning breakfast weren't helping.
I was feeling queasy when I woke up...
Her blood pressure went back to normal,
but she was still tired, hungry, & slightly lightheaded.
The couple had watched 'Thor: The Dark World' earlier that morning while waiting
& decided to turn on 'White House Down' to kill some more time.
She couldn't feel her contractions at that point,
so she was able to actually enjoy the movie.
After a while, the woman started to notice more pressure
but of course her OB was in the middle of a C-section.
She continued to feel more & more pressure
& was extremely relieved when they finally came in to check her around 2 PM.
Sure enough, she was fully dilated & ready to push.
After 40 minutes of pushing
the couple finally got to meet their sweet little summer baby.
Little Sunshine (:
.jpg)
She was born at 2:42 PM, weighed 8 lbs 14 oz, & was 21 3/4" long!!!
Their other two kidlets were much smaller...
7 lbs 10 oz - 20"
& 7 lbs 3 oz - 19 1/2"
What's even more surprising is that I didn't tear.
At all.
Because I did with the other two.
Weird.
Anywho...
Everything was all fine & dandy until approx 46-47 hours later.
Stay tuned for the second chapter titled:
Postpartum Preeclampsia
xoxo
Congrats! OH she is beautiful!!!! I am so happy she is here now. So did you get postpartum preeclampsia? My SIL just had a baby in June and she got that too. So weird and kinda scary for a bit too. Hope all is well now!
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