Eva (Eh-va) Viola’s Birth Story-March 7, 2014 A History Post

I’m not exactly sure why it has taken me so long to write my sweet Eva’s, pronounced Eh-va, birth story. Oh! Wait! I know, I’m a mom of two now…no time…Ha! Ha! Ha! Well, today, I’m making time!

Here is Eva’s Birth Story!

I was due February 28, 2014. I was so thankful that this year was not a leap year…Ha! Well, a two weeks prior to this date, I had two of my doctors tell me that I should induce, because she may be as big or bigger than my son (he was 10 pounds 3 oz). Than I had another  doctor tell me to wait it out at my appointment 2 days before my due date…but at that appointment, she said I could induce…I was so confused… I honestly didn’t know what to do. I’m 9 months preggos, huge, slightly uncomfortable, emotional because I want to meet my little girl, very happy (I love being pregnant), sad…as you can see a mix of all emotions.  So, I went with it… I had to call ahead (24 hours) to see if there was a bed for me, I got a bed around 12pm on the 28^th. So now I get all checked in, an awesome gown on, blood drawn, and then the doctor comes in. The doctor does an exam and says along these lines “You’re lucky that your cervix is pliable and a good candidate, otherwise I was going to read you a riot act!” my husband and I were sort of stunned…she then went into detail about waiting is the best option…yadda yadda yadda…and I was like yeah! That’s what I wanted, but I had two doctors say do it and one say no… I was torn. She apologized, and said “Sometimes that’s the hardest thing with having a large practice, we don’t always say the same thing, but having you be comfortable with all doctors helps…double edge sword” In my head I’m thinking if you know this than you should do something about it… but I kept that in my head and decided to head home and wait it out!  I think my husband was more pissed than me!

So, I go to my appointment the following week and we now pushing week 41, the doctor that I saw apologized for the confusion again and then said, she’s a little uncomfortable waiting till 42 weeks. So this time I medically am having an induced labor.

So that whole calling in 24 hours before the day happens…Let’s say there were a lot of babies being born these two days that I had to do this. I finally got thru at 10:45am on March 7th and they said to come on in…We said goodbye to my parents, who were watching our son, and to Ethan. This was the last moment he would be an only child…We got to the Hospital and checked in at 11:30AM.

Last moments of being an only child

Now we just had to wait for the Pitocin…They drew some blood, put an IV in, hooked up all the monitors, got the blood pressure arm band on (my least favorite monitor-it hurts) Doctor, was the doctor that delivered my son and I was so happy it was her, came in and explained the whole process. Pitocin will be hooked to your IV, we start with a low dose and increase dosage as we progress and see how things go from there. She left saying “I’m ordering the Pitocin, Let’s have a Baby!” This was it! We were going from a family of 3 to 4 today! We were both excited!

At 1:00pm the pitocin drip began, I was 3 cm. Now it was time to just wait…playing games on my phone, facebooking, watching TV, eating an ice pop or two, maybe some ice chips, just trying to pass the time. I began to feel small period cramps… nothing special. Every time the nurse came in to check on me, she asked how I was and upped the dose.  Around 3:00pm, I could feel mild cramps…not painful, just there. The nurse came in…checked me out, asked how I was, then upped the dose. Everything was all good, I was dilating nicely, and I was 5-6cm at this point.

Killing time…

At 5:30pm, the doctor came in to check me; I believe I was still 6cm or maybe 7cm. She asked how I was with pain, was astonished that I wasn’t more uncomfortable. I told her I’m fine, not uncomfortable, can feel the contractions, but they aren’t bad. The nurse was like “Hunny, you are one tough cookie…you are almost at max dose and your calm as a cucumber.”  Then the doctor determined that it was time to break my water. She asked me what my pain plan was…I told her “I would like to go as long as I could without getting an epidural, but when the time comes I would want it.” She then explained to me that once my water breaks, things should pick up and it may get very uncomfortable…so I decided to have them call the anesthesiologist, and when they came if I wanted it I’d take it and if not, then I’d say come back…So that’s what we did…GOOD THING! Once my water broke (both of my waters never broke on their own), the contractions picked up like no other… Some of them off the chart paper they print on. It took the anesthesiologist about a half hour to get to me…this was a very very painful ½ hour. It was the same exact pain I felt when I got my epidural with my son, with him I was 8 cm when I got to the hospital.

At 6:00pm, the anesthesiologist made it to my room. He asked my mom to leave, my hubby could stay. He then explained all the details of what he was going to do…yadda yadda yadda…and I was like now now now! I’m over the pain! Now, it was time for me to sit on the edge of the bed hug a pillow, hold the nurse and sit still…easier said than done when your uterus is squeezing and all you want to do is stretch out…So he cleaned the area did his thing and I hear him say “Nurse, do you need a blood sample?” He missed and hit a blood vessel…so he had to do it again, this meant I had to sit in this uncomfortable position longer…a big contraction hit me and I heard a splash on the floor! All of my water had not come out and it was coming out now… another splash, this time it coincided with the anesthesiologist attempting again, so I couldn’t move…and it got all over the nurse…I felt so bad, it looked like she wet her pants…I was so embarrassed…I kept apologizing to her…The nurse said “it’s ok, it happens, you’re fine!” Then we started to giggle. Talk about a water breaking… haha!

The anesthesiologist finally got it right, taped it to my back and I was able to lay down. He showed me my little dosage button…it was instant relief! Thank God for an epidural! I felt like I accomplished my pain goal once again. I made it as long as I could without meds.

So, now it was time to wait again! This time the nurse came in more often. I was 8cm doing well, but every time I had a contraction baby girl’s oxygen level dropped slightly, so I got to wear the oxygen mask (I was familiar with this thing… I had to with Ethan too…I think the mix of oxygen and epidural make you a bit loopy…I was saying “Luke, I am your father! Silly stuff!)

“Luke, I am your father!”…haha

At 11:30pm, the surse was coming in to check me and at that same moment, I felt pressure on my butt like I have never felt before, she say’s “I’m just going to check you” I say, “ok, I just felt something move to my butt, never felt that before”(I quickly grab the epidural button and hit it once, twice, three times…just incase). She checks me and says “That was the baby, you are ready!” I said, “Really?! Already?” She said “Yup! We are going to get set up for practice pushes, I just called the doctor”… This was it!

Ready to Push

Welcome to the World!

Here we go! My mom had my left foot, my husband my right, and the nurse was watching the contraction meter! Nurse said “Ok, get ready, PUSH!” and I did! Three practice pushes ten seconds long…the nurse said “She’s crowning!” Just at that moment, the doctor walks in…”Wow! You are ready, let’s have this baby girl!” So, 2 more sets of three ten second pushes and one extra push baby Eva Viola was in the world at 11:43pm!!! I’m thinking in my head Holy crap! That was fast! The doctor along us, couldn’t wait to see how much she weighed…10 pounds 7 ounces…Bigger than Ethan! I was so happy! I did not have as much tearing or blood loss with Eva as I did with Ethan.

She was perfect! This time around, baby never left the room! All I could do was stare at her and my husband’s glowing face…while I was staring, my placenta was delivered and stitches were stiched… Then it was time to hold her…Skin to skin(I didn’t have that with my son). It was so amazing…I could feel myself and Eva calm…Incredible! I attempted to feed she got a little and then went back to her little table to get all her vitals, and sponge bath, all in the delivery room within an hour or so! I was starving and asked for food. I got a kind of crappy turkey and cheese sandwich, but at that time it was AMAZING!

Skin to skin

Moments after birth!

Welcome baby Eva

I love us!

Love this!

One of My Favs! Moments after birth

We moved to our mother baby room and tried to hit the hay…of course having to do the whole bathroom thing…I drank two pitchers of water to make sure I proved I could pee… no catheter for me. I don’t even know what time it was when I tried to close my eyes. Then she awoke for a feeding…had another good one…During the night, she had to have her sugars tested because she was slightly on the large size…every time her sugars were good. They did some test, I think hearing,  in the room and she got a little fussy so they said they would take her to the nursery to complete it and be right back. I said ok(I could barely keep my eyes open). Then I awoke in a panic, probably 10 minutes later, and made my husband find out where she was…something similar to this happened to my son and he wound up in the NICU for a week…so I panicked… Fortunately, they were just wrapping up the test and bringing her back…it was just changing of the nurse staff so we had to wait for that.

The rest of my hospital stay was perfect! It’s how I had envisioned my first time around, which didn’t happen. One of my favorite moments was when my mom brought big brother Ethan to meet his little sister… It was such a precious moment!

Chillen in the Hospital

Ethan Meeting Eva for the First Time! Nana, is holding her!

We went home two days later!

 

We’re Going home!

Welcome Home

Hello!

Family picture with our lawn sign

So darn cute

Watchful Big Bro!

This is what my husband typed up for me on the day of, so I would remember…he’s so darn cute! I love him!

Eva’s birth timeline

3/7 1130 – arrived at hospital

3/7 1300 – patocin drip started

3/7 1500 – small contractions start

3/7 2030 – water broken by doctor

3/7 2100 – epidural

3/7 2343 – Eva born

 

*Disclaimer – my birth story is 100% what happened, based on my own personal opinions and beliefs. I am not one to judge any mom for the decisions they make for their own births nor do I encourage anyone to think my birth story as the way it always goes. I hope that you will educate yourselves so that you are effectively able to advocate for you and your baby.

Exploring New Places….

The other day we went exploring.

The day started off with a job that needed to be done… try to sell some of those clothes that I just went through….So off we (my son, daughter, and me) went on our merry way with the tub full of clothes. When I got to the store… I asked “How long should this process take?” they said “3 hours”. I said “ok”, and walked out of the store…

I thought about taking the clothes back and trying again at another time, but then I realized its a good distance from home… I’m here now! So, now we had time to kill.

It was a pretty nice day out and we were close to one of the beached that we normally don’t go to, so I thought let’s go! While driving to the beach we passed a new playground. Now, my son he’s very observant, he saw this new park and said,”Mommy, I want to go park, please!” At first I didn’t want too, I had the beach in my head… but then I said to myself “Hey, he saw it, he asked nicely, and its new…why not?” So I turned the car around and we went.

I’m so glad we did! He had a blast and so did his sister. She was excited to get out of her carseat…she hates that thing… I wrapped her up in a nice Lenny Lamb size 2 wrap, rebozo with a  slip knot finish. She was nice and snug and warm (it was a little chilly especially if you were out of sun). Wrapping her up is always a good thing…especially today… all of a sudden a school bus showed up, they had lunch and then BAM! They invaded the playground. I was able to chase and keep up with my two-year old…normally, I would do the same thing, but the school kids(second graders) were being a little rough, so I was a little more hover-ish!

On a side note: I was kind of surprised at how their teachers, and chaperone parents, were letting them run a muck like that, not even saying once “Watch for the little kid!” I was a teacher and I totally understand letting the students run out their energy, but I remember always if we were in public with other people, reminding the students to be mindful of the others around them and have a good time….

Oh well, those students were only there for about 15 minutes. Then it was just us again! My son was running, climbing, swinging… having a grand old-time… Then I decided to get on the swing with my wrapped baby! It was great! She loved it! Of course while big brother played…she got hungry… So Momma fed her!

We had such a great time exploring! I’m glad that the store said 3 hours (wound up only taking 1) and we had time to kill. We had so much fun! My son was so tuckered out for all the play, that he fell asleep in the parking lot on the way home…

Here are some pics from the day!

Family Shot

Climbing the stairs to slide

Momma and Me on a swing

swinging

large curvy slide

lil slide

he’s getting so big

climbing

I love my little family

rocking

climbing some more

hanging out

How gears work

Lunch Time

Exhausted

History Post…Doctor Visits and Breastfeeding

Taken from a blog post written July 25, 2012

So he was released from the hospital on the 16^th of May and went to the doctors the very next day… this began a new adventure and challenge for mommy and baby.

Ethan was born weighing 10lb. 3oz. when he left the NICU he was 9lb 9oz. a total loss of 10oz.

The doctor did not like this weight loss, and wanted him back up to birth weight. So she said come back in 2 days. We did this for a good solid week. It was rough basically weighing him every 36 hours or so… fortunately, he was gaining each time except for one.. He stayed the same. This killed me with the time of the weighing, because I’m think… duh?1 he can pee or poop an ounce… at one visit he was 10lb. 2 oz. she still made us come back… I was like really?! He is one ounce shy…and every appointment except for one he’s been going up…oh and then we got the bill in the mail… the doctor gets a co-pay every time… grrrrrrr! Well after the whole 10lb.2 oz. we went in there the next and he was 10lb. 8 oz. I was like “Boom! How you like me now?!” (I love moments like that… lol).

Even though the doc knows I’m strictly breastfeeding, she said “it’s ok to supplement a little formula, there nothing wrong with it” I just yes’d her…in my head I’m thinking… I know you really want the measurement to know how much he’s eating….oh well not going to happen!

While this was all happening, I was trying to get him off the nipple shield. I wanted him latched on my nipple. Luckily, at the ped’s office, the lactation specialist for our hospital chain works with them. So in-between these weight check appointments, I met with a lactation specialist. She was great! She asked what my concerns were and told me not to worry us will get through this… She then said “ok, let’s try off the bat, no shield” so we did… He didn’t like that… so she said “ok, put it on and let’s see what happens” sure enough on their suckling away… so we let him eat as long as he wanted to on that side… then we went to the other. Again, she said “try with no shield”…so we did and BANG! He was on! It was an amazing feeling and I was so happy… she then gave me encouraging words and told me to keep doing that until eventually weaning him off the shield.

So when we went home, I tried without, if he needed the shield put it on then switched no shield… it took about 4 days to wean him of the shield completely! … It was a great feeling and things have been going great ever since. I have even stopped crazily timing his feedings(since I was on those missions of having him gain weight), and just let him tell me when he’s full, or hungry.

Last time we went to the Doctor June 27^th he was 12lb. 8oz. and the last time I got on a scale with him last week, he was weighing in at 14… so I’m thinking 14-15 pounds now!!!! All booby milk!

History…Ethan’s NICU Stay

Taken from Blog Post July 25, 2012

May 11
Mommy gets discharged and baby needs to stay in hospital for 5 more days…this was definitely not the way I thought our first week would go…

So as I said in the earlier post, they took him to the NICU the first night in the hospital due to his quick breathing… I still wish that they would have told me that rather than me waking at 12 am wondering where my baby was, but at least he was safe and being taken care of…The diagnosis was inhalation of amniotic fluid (which had meconium in it, but that wasn’t the worry, even though it was for me) which caused fluid in the lungs, similar to pneumonia, so he needed IV antibiotics.  Since the doctor and nurses knew I wanted to exclusively breastfeed, they put him on a saline/sugar water( I think) drip IV. When I got to the NICU first thing that morning, I wanted to feed him to get him off the one IV.

This is where it started to get hairy…The nurse on duty said “alright let’s do this”… I was thinking great, they are going to help me, they are so supportive…So my boob came out, the nurse is helping me put it in his mouth, standing over my shoulder, telling me things…ok, so this wasn’t going like I planned, it didn’tfeel like help…Ethan was having latching issues (he would get like 2-3 pulls let go, “forget” how to go back on…it became stressful…then the nurse started saying “well if he doesn’t eat, we can’t get him off the IV you should just let us supplement him with formula” I’m thinking hell no! I then politely said “No, I would like to see the lactation specialist and keep trying” she seemed to kind of huff out of the room. Well, this little stressful situation turned into a more stressful situation…Casey was great and went out on the hunt for the lactation specialist. He was started to get really frustrated with the way the nurses were acting about breastfeeding.  He found her and she came in.

Now, my mom, Casey, lactation specialist, two nurses, myself and Ethan were in his NICU room…the room was big, but not for all these people. So the lactation specialist, who was awesome, was helping me, while the nurses were moving about the room(annoying)…we were really getting him to latch on and each time he would improve the number of pulls, but he would then come off and again “forget” how to get back on…the lactation specialist, said that my colostrums was there and no worries about production, but my nipples weren’t staying “out” so she said that she would get me these nipple shield that helped pull out my nips. Then he started to cry, because he was becoming frustrated. His crying then made the nurses start saying “ok, enough, he’s stressed out” I agreed, and said I would try again. The lactation specialist said that she needed to see another patient and she would find me in my room later to discuss things and what not. I was thinking great, she’s going to help, and we are going to get this rolling.

I went back to my room to shower and relax, because as all this commotion is going on, I had to remember I’m still healing too. I’m supposed to be taking it easy too. Ha yeah right, but when my baby can’t be with me, I need to be near my son. So after a quick shower, the lactation specialist comes in… first words “wow! It smells so good in here, what do you use in the shower that smells so good?”…lol I told her of  bath and body works… we both giggled. She has the shields, gives them to me to wear. She also shows me how to hand express milk, and how to use the pump they brought me. I really liked her, she was very encouraging and she said, “I want to apologize that the lactation specialist didn’t come find you. Even if you weren’t in the room, she should have looked for you in the NICU.” I told her how thankful I was and she left.
It was time to go back and begin feeding. Well, it kind of started out the same, he was on there for 2-3 pulls
then would come off and “forgot” how to get back on, this is when one of the nurses got m a nipple shield that had holes in it. AMAZINGLY, it worked! He would get on there (maybe with a little coaxing with some breast milk in a syringe(shoot a little in his mouth and then he would start suckling at the nip. It was great!

Finally he was eating! Unfortunately, since it was so late in the day when we both figured out the breastfeeding … the doctor came in and recommended that we supplement him for the night so they can take out the IV tomorrow. Casey and I really really really did not want to, but we decided it was better to get that stupid IV out. So he was supplemented formula for one day…(man his poop and breath stunk…) I didn’t give him the bottles, because I did not want him to associate a bottle with me.

May 12-16

This whole supplementing thing and how the nurses were trying to force me to supplement a lot with formula, I WAS ON A MISSON. I told myself that this baby would be supplemented with my breast milk overnight when I wasn’t at the hospital.

Now I could have stayed at the hospital with him in his room, but for my mental health, Casey convinced me it wasn’t good for my head to stay there for the 5 days, but to come home and sleep at home and go back first thing in the am… he was right, but the first time I came home it was bad. I cried the way home I didn’t want to leave him… Casey just held my hand and let me cry. He understood. Then I got myself under control and then we pulled in the driveway… my parents had decorated the house with and “it’s a boy!” stuff and blue ribbons… that made me spiral to tears again, because I was home and baby wasn’t…I walked through the house and said as little as possible, brought the dogs outside and just cried… and cried… my mom set up a nice little “bed” for me on the couch. So when I was done, I went and sat there…drifting in TV shows..Only thinking about going back to the hospital to see my baby. We went back after dinner and stayed till 1 AM.

So back at the hospital the next day, I had the nipple shield and he was doing great! After every feeding, I pumped. I was and still am producing a great amount of milk for my little man. I gave the hospital enough milk that they gave me 3 bottles to bring home when it was time to bring him home. I was so happy with that! To me that was the “Boom Bitches, what do you think now?!”

Our experience in the NICU was overall great! There were only two things that killed us.
1-      The emphasis on formula- even though every word out of their mouths was breast milk is best, it’s the best thing you could do…they were still trying to push formula. I really think it’s because they can measure it. They can see how much he’s eating. And obviously, with breast milk they can’t unless it’s in the bottle.

1. I’m so glad that he only had formula for one day… his breath and poop stunk…

2-      Nurse X I’ll call her… Here we are in the NICU (not because he’s underweight, early, or deathly sick…so we would hold him, love him, and be there all the time… well nurse X came in and said “Oh no wonder why he never cries, you’re always holding him. You should really leave him and not hold him so much. Hold him all you want when you get home.” Casey and I were flabbergasted… Like, how dare you tell me that?! So we complained not like a bitchy complainer, but we said something… that’s not right to tell first time parents who are dying inside because their baby is here in the NICU just for antibiotics… and she wasn’t our nurse for the rest of the stay.

One observation I made was that I was the only mom that was there all the time… I was there from about 7 AM till 1AM…other parents came and went… I’m not sure how they could do that… it was funny one of the nurses said, “You’re amazing. You’re making my job easy. Now only if you could do the meds…lol” that made me feel really good!

When Wednesday the 16^th came and the doctor gave us the go ahead that after his last dose of antibiotics in the evening he could go home, we were so excited! I did a little dance. I couldn’t wait to get my little man home! I called our pediatrician, made an appointment for the following day… it was great!
Taking him home was the best thing ever.

Even though our first week wasn’t what we planned, he’s healthy and was well taken care of.

In the NICU with All His Wires

First Mother’s Day in the Hospital

In the Carseat…Ready to Go!

Nana and Poppop Bought hims a Cake

We just got an invitation in the mail from the NICU for their 1 year celebration and they are making it like a reunion… we are thinking about going.

*I respect all those moms in a NICU situation…this is just how I was feeling at the time.