I can't believe that Cor.ben is 2 weeks old already! Time is going by way too fast and honestly the thought of him growing up way too quickly makes me panic. I love having a newborn. That and the fact that my husband deploys in October and Cor.ben will be almost 9 months old by the time he comes home makes me very sad. Luckily we will get to visit him once during that time and thank God we live in a time where things like Sky.pe exist. It's not the same as face to face interaction, but as my dad would say "it's better than a poke in the eye".Cor.ben is doing very well and is still such a mild mannered and calm baby. For the most part he still only cries when he's hungry or needs to be changed. If he does get a little fussy for some unknown reason it doesn't last longer than a few seconds and he's chilled out again. Oh how I pray this all lasts! He had a second check-up yesterday and he now weighs 8 lbs 4 oz. He does have a little bit of thrush, which his doctor said is very common in new babies, and has to take an antibiotic for a week :(. Hopefully it won't upset his stomach. Ugh, his umbilical cord stump is still holding on for dear life. It's very short, shriveled, and nasty looking, but it's still not quite ready to come off. I can't wait for it to be gone! Breastfeeding is going okay and I've started to produce a little more milk, but still not near enough to feed him. It makes me feel sad and disappointed. I really wish that I had enough breast milk for him and I feel guilty having to give him so much formula. I just don't know what else I can do. I've read up on things I can do to help increase my supply, but it just isn't happening. The other morning I was able to pump out 4 oz (I pump between feedings to help stimulate) and I was so thrilled thinking my supply had finally increased enough, but NOPE and I still haven't been able to get that amount again.Sleep has been pretty good as well. My husband and I take four hour "shifts" at night so that we can each get some straight time of sleep. I pump what I can for him to use during his feedings. Of course we each sleep as much as we can during our shift, but even with this we are still feeling sleepy during the day, so I can't imagine how we would feel if we weren't doing things this way. It's also been helpful because my husband is still on leave. I'll be interested to see how things go once he goes back to work. Wish us luck!
As I mentioned in my It's Time!!!! post, August 2nd I went in for my NST and they discovered that my amniotic fluid level was extremely low, so that combined with high blood pressure and contractions every 3 minutes, they decided that it was time for baby Cor.ben to be born! I was so excited thinking that I was going to get to meet my baby boy that day. I will save you the blow by blow details otherwise I may never have the time to tell you my birth story or you very well may just get bored reading a super long post.
Basically after I arrived at L & D to be induced I was started on pitocin and I maxed that out without making any progress. They also inserted a foley bulb to force my cervix to dilate to 4 cm, but after that I still wouldn't progress anymore. They continued to try cytotec, more pitocin, and breaking my water (all of this was occurring over the 4 day period). At some point I did finally get to an 8, but then my cervix became swollen and I went back to 6cm. I was having regular contractions, but they just weren't helping my cervix to dilate or efface. I was able to go 3 days with absolutely no pain meds and my husband and I worked through the contractions like champs. However, when 2 hours after they broke my water and told me that I still had made absolutely no progress I knew that I couldn't keep on being in pain if nothing was working and my last option at this point was to hope that my body would finally decide to dilate or have a c-section. So, I finally got an epidural..... BUT of course that didn't work either. When it first was placed I had relief for about an hour and then it quit working and that button they give you to push when you need more medicine did nothing too. They would push more medication through the catheter and I would have some relief for maybe 30 minutes and then nothing! The next morning (day 4) I still hadn't progressed and it had been about 14 hours since they broke my water and I had a fever, so my last remaining option was to get a c-section. They had to replace my epidural for surgery since mine wasn't working and let me tell you I think I got the worst person ever! Not only did she do EVERYTHING so slowly, but she was just horrible. I was in so much pain and wanted relief so badly. As you know when you're getting an epidural you have to remain completely still, so it took all of my will power to do that while she's moving slower than a snail and I'm having really painful contractions. The first try she got it in a vein and had to do it again. I thought my husband was going to punch her, he was so mad! When I got to the OR they discovered that I still had feeling on my left side. They gave me more medicine and I still could feel. At this point they were talking doing a spinal or general anesthesia, but they went ahead and took my epidural out and put in another one. This one seemed to work, so they started the c-section and brought my husband in. I was so excited and nervous that I couldn't look at him or I would burst into tears. Shortly after I heard the most beautiful sound of my baby crying. That was the most amazing moment. They took him over to the table to be cleaned up and started sewing me back up. At this point I started being able to feel pain and what they were doing. My anesthesiologist tried two times adding more medication and it didn't work, so they had to give me a hypnotic medication to make me loopy and out of it. That was the strangest feeling ever! I felt like I was in another world and when I would talk I couldn't tell if sound was actually coming out. The bad part is that I couldn't focus my eyes, so when they brought my son over for me to see I couldn't tell what he looked like. It took them about 30 minutes to put me together and stitch me up and then I went to recovery for a few hours, where the medication finally wore off and my husband was able to bring me my precious baby. Apparently part of the problem was that he was facing sunny side up, but I don't know what is up with my body not responding to any of the treatments. I spent three more days in the hospital and now we're finally home! I'm so in love and loving being a mommy! My husband is an excellent daddy too and I must say that we make a great team. The c-section recovery has also been a breeze and I've been able to do so much more than I thought I would. We even went out to lunch yesterday and stopped by the store to get some stuff for Cor.ben. Wow, good thing I didn't give the complete details of labor otherwise this would have been a novel! Oops! I'm going to do pictures in a separate post.
I've been trying to type this message forever but have been so tired. This is from my phone so sorry if it looks funny. Cor.ben was born yesterday morning after a very brutal four day labor. Pictures and a full labor story to come on monday. He is so precious and we are so in love.
AHHHHHH! I had a horrible horrible weekend with contractions. Today I went for my NST and my fluid levels are super low, my bp is high, and I'm contracting regularly every 3 minutes. They said he needs to come out today and it looks like I just need a little help to get things moving. They sent me home to get my bag, my husband, and to come immediately back to L & D! I'm so excited and so nervous! I can't wait to meet Cor.ben. Please pray for me to have strength, focus, and endurance. I really hope I can still have a pain med free birth even though I need to be induced! I'll update again as soon as I can!
