I have a couple of hours to myself right now as Jeff is gone with the kids, so I figured I'd take advantage of it and write Logan's birth story! I probably won't have many chances like this in the near future, so I might as well do it while it's fresh on my mind. :)
I'll start at the beginning-ish of the whole thing....
A few weeks ago I went to one of my appointments with my OB. This was the first one where she was going to check to see if I had dilated at all yet. I was almost 35 weeks (34 weeks 5 days if you want to get technical) and my doctor was shocked to tell me that I was dilated to a four already!
I personally wasn't too shocked. I dilated to a four at this point with my two previous pregnancies, so it wasn't new to me.
Although I wasn't surprised, I was more concerned with this news during THIS pregnancy than the others.
This was my third baby..... usually after a couple of deliveries the following ones come a lot quicker once you go into labor. This thought had me freaked out, because I didn't know what I was going to do with my other two kids if I did go into quick labor. I needed to get them somewhere! I needed to get to the hospital!
I also didn't want to go through the NICU again, like we did with Hunter, so I was really on edge about the situation. I didn't want this baby to come too early.
Also, my doctor was really trying to tell me how important it was that I make it even one more week.
Making it to 36 weeks seemed imperative.
The pressure was on!
The next week I was dilated to a five!
Bah! Why! I really wanted to make it to 38 weeks....at LEAST 37 weeks! How could I keep making it ONE more week!?
I was a few days short of 37 weeks when I went in and found out that I was still at a 5, but it was getting scarier the longer I stayed that way. My doctor told me that she usually tells people to not go to labor and delivery till they are having stronger contractions every 3-5 minutes, BUT since I was so far dilated I needed to come in if my contractions were consistent at 10 minutes apart.
That afternoon I started having contractions pretty frequently. And then they started to be painful. I started timing them, because my doctor had made me super paranoid earlier at my appointment. They started creeping up on every fifteen minutes....every ten minutes..... every SIX minutes..... AHHH! I was home alone with my kids.
Jeff come home!
He did come home and we shipped off our kids on the way to labor and delivery. An hour later of being monitored they sent us on our way. My contractions pretty much stopped shortly after getting to the hospital, which was so frustrating. Why was this baby tricking us!?
So we went home.
More days and days went by. I was laying down at home doing literally nothing, except feeding my children every so often, ha ha ha.
I went out to eat with my friends one night during the week and on my way home I started having strong/take your breath away contractions. I had been having these off and on for weeks, so I tried to tell myself it was nothing.
I got home and they were strong and frequent. Are you kidding me!? Nooooo. I didn't want to be the girl who cried wolf again.
I laid down and tried to make them go away. Two hours of strong contractions every 7-8 minutes apart.... this was ridiculous! I guess we were going to labor and delivery again.
11:00 PM we were loading our kids up to be dropped off at my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's....for the second time.
Poor Grace....she never knew if we were REALLY having a baby or if was a false alarm.
Jeff and I sat in labor and delivery for a couple of hours that night... only to be told to leave baby-less again.
I just kept saying to Jeff.... "with how much pain I'm in, there's no way they can send us home, right?!"
Wrong.
We went home. Again!
At this point I was very frustrated. Being dilated to a five and just walking around like that for multiple weeks adds up to quite a bit of pain and soreness. Plus the false alarms were just making me mad.
I didn't want the baby to come too early, but at the same time I just needed him to come! Please just come!
After all of this, Jeff didn't want me to be alone, so he stayed home the next day. We also didn't get home from labor and delivery till 3:00 AM, so there was that too, ha ha.
We figured Jeff should probably go to work, so the following day on Friday, the 10th of August we arranged for my mom to come hang out with us for the day just in case anything happened. At this point I really was not capable of doing much of anything, so my kids needing tending too as well.
I had some doctors appointments to go to that day too.
About 5 minutes before my mom came over I felt a gush of fluid.
Did I really just pee my pants??
There was NO way I just peed my pants.
Yeah, I was REALLY pregnant, but I was pretty sure I had more control than that, ha ha ha ha ha.
Did my water break??
That had never happened to me before. With my other babies, the nurses broke my water during labor/post having an epidural put in.
So my mom arrived as I'm trying to figure out what the heck was happening to me, ha ha ha.
I told my mom I thought my water broke and she immediately was all about hopping in the car and going to the hospital. I wanted to be sure though. I wasn't going to walk into labor and delivery for a THIRD TIME unless I was 100% sure.
I went and took a shower and got ready, but wasn't having any contractions. I didn't want to go to be the girl who cried baby again! I felt like we needed to go in, but I just couldn't handle being sent home three times in ONE week!
This baby was seriously being such a trickster.
After realizing that it was indeed my water and I wasn't just continually wetting my pants.... I called my OB's nurse and asked if I should go to labor and delivery or come to my appointment.
The nurse said: "So you're basically standing in a puddle? Uhhh, yeah, you need to go to labor and delivery." Ha ha ha ha ha
We got the kids situated at the same cousin's house that they went to for the 2 false alarms (my sister-in-law is so nice, ha ha ha) and headed to labor and delivery. I walked right in with a half smile on my face, which I think should never be the case when going to labor and delivery. I think everyone should walk in there in writhing pain about to have a baby....but no...
I seemed to keep just walking in to that place with only a slight care....
They took us into the exact same triage room that we had been in for the 2 false alarms and I was feeling so sick thinking that they were going to tell me I'm NUTS. Ha ha ha ha
After being checked I was STILL dilated at a five! Whyyyyyy!?!? Ha ha ha ha
...................
BUT.....
My water most definitely had broken and I was going to be admitted to the hospital! I was going to have a baby!! YAY!!
Finally.
I was safe in the hospital! I wasn't going to have my baby at home. I wasn't going to have my baby in my car. My kids were safe and being taken care of.
I was so relieved.
It took quite a while to get everything set up. IV..... monitors..... figuring out everything that I needed to be hooked up to. My doctor wanted me to be hooked up to an insulin drip rather than my insulin pump.
My nurse was VERY upset about this, ha ha ha ha ha. She kept saying how ridiculous that was when I know how to handle my blood sugar better than anyone and there wasn't a good reason to have me on an insulin drip. I agree with that, especially since they put me on the drip... my blood went low and they had to hurry and switch to give me sugar through the IV, since you can't eat while you're in labor.
It's really hard being a diabetic admitted to a hospital.
By the time we were discharged 2 days after the baby was born I was SOOOO done with being around medical staff who knew nothing about diabetes.
It's amazing to me how so many nurses and medical assistants have little to no knowledge about diabetes.
I had one nurse who was very sweet and knew a lot, because her dad is Type 1. That was about it. Everyone else made weird, sometimes rude, or just ignorant comments to me during my stay. I was emotionally done with all of that by the time we left the hospital.
One CNA was testing the baby's blood sugar and asked me how long I had been diabetic. I told her three years and her response was: "Wow, I bet you hope he doesn't get it...."
Why yes, you're right.... I wouldn't wish diabetes on anyone, but especially my OWN CHILDREN....ha.
Geez.
Anyways, just had to throw that rant out there.
I guess there will always be people who unknowingly say ridiculous stuff.
Word to the wise, if you don't know actual facts about a disease, it's probably best to just not say anything about that disease. :)
Where was I?
Oh yeah, I was in a hospital bed, in labor.
I actually didn't get hooked up to the epidural for several hours, because my pain and contractions weren't very painful. I wanted to see how long I could go without it. This was different for me, because with Grace and Hunter I was in horrible pain when we arrived to the hospital and immediately wanted the epidural.
This time I felt pretty good and just hung out with Jeff and my mom for a good chunk of the day in the hospital room.
We finally decided to get the epidural and as they were putting it in, the IV on my arm completely blew up. My nurse looked at my arm and was like.... "Uh...does your IV hurt?"
I looked at it was like: "Oh...I guess it does, sorry, I mostly was focusing on the epidural." Ha ha ha ha ha
So I had to get a NEW IV....super fun! By the time all of that was taken care of and the epidural was starting to kick in, my contractions were REALLY strong. It was like a weird combination of wanting to wiggle around out of discomfort, but not being able to, because my legs were going numb from the epidural. Ha ha. That was really strange.
After my epidural was fully working we only needed to wait an hour or so before I was fully dilated and ready to go!
They called my doctor and she started heading over to our room. One of the nurses checked me and got a slightly panicked look on her face. She said I couldn't put my legs up in the stirrups yet, because the baby's head was basically already out! Ha ha ha. Ahh!
My doctor came in and started getting all of her scrubs/medical whatever on and the nurses were like.....ummm...you kinda need to hurry.
The look on my doctor's face when she saw the baby pretty much out already was hilarious.
It pretty much went like... "Ready....okay, lift your legs up....okay, push....okay you didn't need to push....yay baby!!"
Ha ha ha. I probably did half a push that wasn't even needed and he was born!
The cry....
I love hearing that first baby cry. A sign that they are breathing okay.
My little Logan boy! What seemed like an eternity of a pregnancy and wait....he was finally born.
Logan Scott .... born at 5:31 PM
7 pounds 13 ounces
19 1/2 inches
I was so happy. So much worry and anxiousness just left me immediately.
He was our biggest baby by over a pound. He was 1 pound 3 ounces more than Grace and 2 pounds 5 ounces more than Hunter. SO much bigger than Hunter! He seemed HUGE when they pulled him out and laid him on me. They kept him on me for a good half hour too. That was such a tender mercy. I am so grateful that was able to happen. I'll never take that for granted.
I kept waiting for the nurses to be like.... just kidding... he's just like your other kids and you can't keep him with you...
But they never took him away. He was fine! He was strong and healthy.
Such a sweet miracle.
I really didn't know what to do with myself. It was like I had never given birth before. I felt completely new to all of it.
They cleaned him up and weighed him then brought him back to me. It makes me cry thinking about how blessed those moments were.
The sweetest part of it all was being able to take him to the post partum room with us.
We had never done that before. There were no wires. No chords. No concerns. Just me being wheeled in a wheel chair holding my baby.
One of the best moments of the day was when Grace and Hunter came to meet him.
They were OVER joyed. There are few other times that I have seen them THAT happy.
Jeff and I had worried about Hunter a little bit, because he loves to have all the baby attention on himself, but he was and has been so cute with Logan.
Hunter gets concerned whenever Logan cries. It's funny and cute. He'll cover his ears and start yelling at us. "BABY! AHH!!" Ha ha ha ha. He always wants to poke Logan's eyes and likes pointing out all of the parts of his face. He loves trying to give him his binky and brings him diapers all the time. He'll just throw the diapers on top of him while he's sitting in the baby swing. He brings him toys a lot too. He'll place cars and stuffed animals next to him or on top of him all throughout the day. He's been very sweet and kisses him on the cheek several times a day too. I've been surprised to see how well he's taken to him.
Grace is over the moon about Logan. It's funny, cause when I was still pregnant Grace called the baby "Logan" almost every time she talked about him. Now that he's actually here, she is primarily calling him "the new baby". Ha ha ha! She'll call him Logan quite a bit too, but it has made me laugh how much he is getting called "the new baby".
Her constant thing is that she'll come up to him.... crying or not.... and say "It's okay, baby. It'll be okay!" So cute. Ha ha ha ha. She is so so so sweet with him. She loves helping.
Jeff. Can I really ever say enough about this guy?? I wouldn't be able to do any of this without him. He's not only the biggest help, but also the best supporter. He always tells me I can do hard things and helps me push through. He's the sweetest dad. He always gladly takes the baby or the kids and does whatever needs to be done. He has so much love for our kids. He always wants to ensure their happiness.
Family of FIVE!
His hair is exactly like Hunter's was at this age. Soooo cuuuute.
Love this chubby buddy.
Just hanging in the hospital room. When can we leave this place!?
Getting ready to go home! He looked so cute in these clothes! Putting the first REAL clothes on a newborn always makes me so happy.
Let's go!
These little newborn faces. Ha ha ha ha ha. Gotta love em. Just figuring out the world...
And then he's like.... don't worry, I can pose like I'm 2 months old, even though I'm only 2 DAYS old! Ha! Such a handsome little boy. He makes my heart happy.
Lots of sibling love over here. They are pretty much always wanting to touch him.
I feel so blessed to be this little boy's mom. He is such a good baby. I know that might change as he wakes up more and is more alert later on, but so far he has been very calm and does everything well. He eats well, he sleeps well, he is doing really great.
His calming presence is nice to have in our house. He's helping me slow down and realize what I need to focus on. He's already helping me be a better person and he's only been here for five days!
Newborns being straight from heaven have such a sweet spirit about them. I am forever grateful that he is here and safe and healthy as can be. I love my Logan.
God has truly blessed me.
