John Birth Story

So I have a few minutes by myself (Janae is watching all three kids!), so I'm going to try to whip this out as quickly as I can. I'm doing voice texting, so pardon the misspellings and potentially weird words! as is typical, Johnny is the third child, and so his birth story will not be as detailed and he's almost 6 months old so I've probably forgotten some of that already. But I'm going to do the best I can and give the basics. I know it was a Sunday and I woke up that morning feeling pretty much the same as I had every morning. I did feel pretty uncomfortable and huge as usual though. I definitely felt bigger and this pregnancy and was very ready to be done by the end. Although overall I felt great and worked out until the very end, which I'm sure helped a lot. But I definitely felt like it was my hardest pregnancy, being 37 years old – knowing it was my last, my body was just ready to be done having a big bowling ball on the front of it! I did have to go to the chiropractor quite a bit for adjustments the last probably three months of pregnancy, as I was having some pretty bad pain that was keeping me from working out, which made me pretty depressed. But the chiropractor really helped and once I got through that I was able to continue to work out. But he really didn't bother me at all. That day I think we went to church like normal, and I was hanging out at my moms house after that and Jeanae was there. Jeanae had a seven week old, Meris, and so she was fairly limited as to what she could do, but we really wanted to go get a pedicure. I had a gift card and thought it would be fun to get one before the baby came so I have pretty toes. So we were trying to figure out a time when me and Jeanae and my mom could go, or just Jeanae and I saw that my mom could watch Marris. She was very dependent on Janae, obviously, at that age! There was a lot of back-and-forth about who was going to stay and watch Morris and her was going to go get the pedicures, because I believe the husbands were also there and off, and we needed to time it to where Marist was hopefully napping the whole time we were gone. Anyway, it ended up just being me and Jeanae and we took Leoney and Greta as well and we drove there. But when we parked my mom had texted that Maris was crying, and wondered if she could be hungry. So Janelle got stressed out at that point and we just decided to go back home to my moms house. We had planned to try to possibly get the pedicures the next day. Sometime in the mid afternoon I started feeling went out like could potential he be contractions. They varied extremely though, as far as time between them. I believe some of them were as much as 30 minutes and maybe even an hour apart, and some of them were much closer together. So I wasn't really sure if that was at the sense they vary so much. But they did feel like light contractions so I was starting to prepare myself for the possibility. What clued me in that this was probably labor, is that they just never really stopped. So after a few hours my mom and sister were pretty sure that I was in labor, and I was fairly sure also. But I didn't know when to call my midwife since they were so inconsistent in their timing. I'm trying to remember, but I think that we just sort of made plans for the kids to stay the night there at my moms house, which worked so good because it was a Sunday night and we kind of had all afternoon to plan out what would happen over the next few hours. We went on a walk around my mom's neighborhood to see what would happen with My contractions, and I definitely had to stop to catch my breath throughout the lock, and moved very slowly. I was pretty sure after that that this was it. So I think that George and I eventually went home and just kind of finished packing up my stuff for the hospital. I called Ruthann and told her about the inconsistency of the contractions and ask her if I should go in or just wait it out until the timing between them evened out. I can't really remember what she said, but eventually we headed to the hospital. I knew I really wanted an epidural, and I didn't want it to snowball like Georgie's labor, so I figured getting there sooner than later was probably a good idea, especially since I was pretty sure I was in labor. I think we were just kind of keeping in touch with my mom and Jeanae, and the plan was that I was going to tell Ruthann that I'd really like to need to be in my labor, but she had a nursing baby and so we probably need to bring her. George and I were fine with that, so as long as she was OK with that then we were hoping it would be OK. Which it was fine she said. So I think we just got all checked in – I can't believe how much of this I really have forgotten already! Oh yeah – I remember I got there and the nurse checked me and I was dilated to a five. Which is funny because I really wasn't in that much pain at all yet, and Jeanae was surprised I was that dilated with how little pain I seems to be in. The contractions themselves were starting to get a little bit more intense, but really didn't last any more than I think like 30 seconds if that. But I told them I wanted an epidural as soon as possible, and with the history of my snowballing labors I would love it sooner than later. Ruthann was there by that point and said that was fine. The nurse was pretty young – younger than me for sure and really nice. She had used Ruthann as her midwife too. So I got the epidural which was good, because the contractions are starting to feel a little bit stronger and I'm just in time. If I remember right, it seems like maybe the epidural took a little bit longer to set in this time than it did with Greta's labor. I could be wrong, but it does seem like that was the case. So then it was just a very uneventful and fairly boring actually. Jeanae had put Marist to bed and the plan was for Kevin to bring her to Jeanae during her first waking, to the hospital. I'm trying to remember where the kids stay the night, because I think that they were all together so that Ted could be home with all of them when Kevin had to leave. I can't remember if they stayed at Jenny's house or at my moms house. But it worked out, and it was very low-key – Ruthann just came in every so often and would check me. I could not feel anything at all, even more so than with Greta's labor that I felt completely numb. I think I was sort of hoping to labor in a similar position as I did with Greta, more sitting up and using the birthing bar, but since I was so numb and this was my third baby, and I wasn't nearly as particular, I think I just decided to go ahead and buy them laying down on my back traditionally. Ruthann said that I could probably start pushing whenever – which was a little weird because I don't know that I was even dilated fully yet. But I really couldn't feel any urge to push so we would ask her to come in a couple times just to see if I was getting close to I 10 yet. I really don't remember when I got the epidural, but something in me is telling me it was around 10 PM or sometime in that hour. It was very uneventful and Kevin did bring Morris and Jeanae was able to feed her and just wear her during the rest of my birth. Eventually route then came in and checked me and said that I could probably start questioning, so I did. I remembered from Greta's birth, that it was very weird to push when you couldn't feel anything, and I was even more numb in this birth, and I didn't want to take long, so I just remember thinking to push as hard as I possibly could be down in that area, even if it felt weird or like I wasn't doing anything. So I just pushed as hard as I possibly could down there, even though I couldn't really even feel wet down there meant! But it worked – he was out in three pushes and I think Ruthann even seem surprised at how fast I got him out since with Greta's birth I had a hard time pushing because I couldn't feel anything. But I also attribute it to my strength from working out so much Moore for the last two years before that. Jenny loved it – and everything was so calm and I was so wide open that everything was very visible. It was a pretty textbook labor and so I can't complain at all! Something that was a lot different about this birth from grandmas though, was that this epidural took much much longer to wear off then with Greta us. I was pretty surprised because it was so different, and my legs felt numb for quite a bit longer afterwards then they did with Greta. I felt like it took me longer to be able to actually walk and get up, and even the next morning I felt like I could still feel slight numbness in my legs. Oh – he was born at 1:08 AM and weighed 7 lbs. 13 oz. – a full pound heavier than my heaviest baby – Greta. It's funny though because I was in the best shape during this pregnancy, and I gained the least amount of weight – only 15 pounds. I had actually lost 5 pounds at one point, which is the only common during pregnancy when the mother is very sick and throwing up a lot. Which wasn't the case for me. So it's ironic that this was my largest baby, but I sure couldn't tell! When he came out I thought he looked so much like Greta – squished face and just so much like a Gatseos! Again, he looked so much like George's dad! I don't even remember who cut the umbilical cord. But I don't really want to save my placenta this time, just in case I wanted it. So I did, and I actually still have it in my freezer! It was funny to discover it when we moved into our new house! Eventually after a few hours we moved upstairs to the recovery for, and we got a room on the side that I liked, with a good view, as per my request when I had called the hospital the night before. I was so excited, as I love the view from up there! The couple nights in the hospital were pretty rough – he really seemed to have his days and nights mixed up, and he was up so much during the night. It was so hard because we were just so exhausted from laboring through part of that first night and yet we couldn't just let him cry next to us. I don't remember it being that way with Georgie and Greta. I remember with Greta they actually let me sleep as long as I wanted to until she would wake up to feed. With Georgie, the nurses would actually come wake me up to nurse him every three hours in the night. But with Johnny, he never let us get long stretches at all – in fact I had to ask the nurses to please take him a few times so that George and I could just get some sleep. I felt like it was physically dangerous for me to be holding him because I was so exhausted and couldn't hold my eyes open. It was really pretty rough! It was one of the tiredest I had ever been! My friend Sandy Prindle from MOPS was able to be my nurse for part of the time, which was really awesome! The nursing went fairly normal, although there was one point where he was crying uncontrollably and he just would not latch on, and we try to get the lactation nurse in but she was busy, and so my nurse ended up giving him a teeny bit of milk in a syringe, just to get him to calm down and suck. I could tell that nurse thought that I wasn't nursing him often enough. I think the only visitor I remember having was Mindy Towner. It seems like maybe there was someone else but I can't remember who it was! It's funny how about your third kid, people don't think it's that big of a deal to come visit you anymore! But it was totally fine – I understand! I don't really remember too much more from that hospital stay than that, except that I remember my bum getting really really sore from sitting on it for so long and so much – which I really don't remember happening with my other two kids. And I don't feel like I was sitting more than with them. I would try to get up and walk around a little bit as much as I could. I'm sure I remember more stuff later, but that is when I can remember about that. When we got home, the first couple nights are really rough – he was up so much during the night, and I was terrified that it was going to take weeks for us to get him on a better schedule. I was so so so exhausted! Definitely harder than my other two have been. But after about three or four nights, he finally started sleeping a little bit more through the night. I was so grateful! I will try to do a separate post soon, of just what kind of baby he's been for the last six months – I'm sure I will forget a lot but I can try to remember as much as I can, which will be more now than in a year or five years from now! Johnny – if you're reading this someday – I love you just as much as the other two – it just gets a lot harder to get stuff done – like documenting births and babies lives – the more babies you have! But I love you fiercely – and it's so interesting how you can love every single one of them so equally and so much, yet differently. I'll try to post again soon!