Crazy First Week

We are rapidly approaching the 3 week mark tomorrow which is hard to believe.  I thought I'd do a quick post on Declan's eventful first week home.  I had in my birth plan that I wanted to do as short of a hospital stay as I could.  He was born at 7:03am on Saturday and by Sunday morning we were ready to go!  Unfortunately there were some things that prevented us from getting discharged until about 4:30.  First the pediatrician on call heard a small heart murmur when doing his initial exam.  The originally wanted to do an echocardiogram before we left the hospital.  Garrett had a small murmur when he was born so I really wasn't concerned and didn't think the echo was necessary but was willing to go along with it.  By midday Sunday they were still unable to get it scheduled so they told us to just follow up with his pediatrician. Ironically by the time we got to the doctors on Tuesday it had already closed.  After some commotion in one of the other rooms, we discharged and headed home.

We arrived home where Mike's mom meet us and my dad dropped Garrett off.  We settled in for our first night home when a massive thunderstorm came through.  I was worried about losing power since we lose it pretty frequently.  Around 10:30 I left Declan in the bedroom with Mike to grab something out of the nursery when there was an incredibly loud boom and I felt the house shake.  We also heard a bunch of Mike's bourbon go crashing in the basement.  Mike yelled that we had just been hit by lightening and I immediately grabbed the baby, woke Garrett up and ran out in the rain (in my pajama's).  Mike told us to head to a neighbors and call the fire department because the house smelled like something was burning and water was spraying all over the place in the utility room.

So there I am in a pink sheer night shirt with a 1 day old newborn and a shoeless 9 year old, knocking on my neighbors door.  I can only imagine what she thought when we opened the door!  Thankfully the fire department came quickly and confirmed there was no fire and the burning had come from some wires that were no longer a threat.  The also confirmed that one of the 60ft pine trees beside our driveway was hit and the current came through the ground into the basement.  Mike had cut the water off because two pipes had burst and we had no power in the basement but it was safe to come back in.  A few hours later the neighborhood lost power so we packed up and headed to Mike's parents first thing Monday morning.  We stayed Monday and good bit of Tuesday before we were able to get a plumber to come out and fix the water issue.  Thankfully the damage wasn't as bad as we originally thought and we've been able to mostly put the house back together and Declan even managed to get his first bath when we got settled back home.

Declan's Birth Story

I've been meaning to sit down and write this story for two weeks now, I've had a hard time finding the right words. But days are passing by at lightening speed and I know the details will start to get fuzzy. 

 The last week of my pregnancy passed by with a lot of anxiety. The constant not knowing when it was going to happen was brutal for my type A personality. Then I hit the 12 days out from due date; the same time Garrett was born. I was pretty moody that day but tried to make peace with it. I had my appointment with my midwife on Friday July 11th at 38 weeks and 6 days. I told myself I could make it to my appointment the following week and then we could discuss trying to jump start things.

Friday night Mike and I were watching the Orioles game and I headed to be bed around 10:30. I got up to use the bathroom around 11:30 and was having a pretty strong Braxton Hicks contraction but it definitely wasn't uncomfortable. I got up again around 12:30 when Mike came up to bed and the same thing. I woke up around 1:30 to another contraction with another bathroom break. This time there was some spotting so I was pretty sure things were getting moving. I tried to lay back down to rest but was too excited. I went downstairs around 2:15 and started to time the contractions as they were getting more uncomfortable. I decided to call my midwife around 2:45 because I didn't remember bleeding with Garrett and wanted to be sure it was normal. 

 

I called the after hours line and Paula, the midwife on call, assured me it was normal. I told her the contractions were coming about 2 1/2 to 3 minutes apart but that they weren't very intense. My plan was always to labor at home as long as possible so she said I could hold off on heading in until the contractions were intense enough that I couldn't talk through them. I called my dad so he could be on standby when I needed him to come pick Garrett up. When I went upstairs Mike was up with the light on, realizing there was no point in trying to get a little more sleep. I packed the hospital bag while Mike took a shower. I had intentionally not packed the bag ahead of time and just created a good list. Since I knew I'd be at home for a while, I was hoping to have something to distract me and it worked exactly how I planned.  Garrett woke up at some point and after explaining that I was in labor I told him to go back to sleep. 

Around 5am I decided (with some persuasion by Mike) that it was probably time to head to the hospital. At that point I had to stop during contractions and really work my way through them. They were still coming 2 1/2 minutes apart so I felt like there wasn't a lot of down time in between once they got really uncomfortable. At this point Garrett was up again. He was super cute following me around, asking a million questions and trying to help when a contraction would come. He helped me pack his bag, take some scraps into the chicken coop and clean up the kitchen. Finally around 5:30 my dad showed up and we headed out to the hospital. I was feeling a little nauseous before we left and the contractions in the car were definitely worse because I couldn't move around. Thankfully we made it to the hospital in a little under 20 minutes with no incidents. 

When we got the hospital it was pretty deserted. We headed up to labor and delivery and they checked us into triage. They needed me to lay in the bed while they monitored my contractions and the babies heart rate. The contractions in the bed were more intense but thankfully Paula came in to check me pretty quickly and they let me get back up after seeing I was 5cm dilated and clearly in active labor.

I was planning on having a water birth but there was a small issue which I had been told about at one of my prior appointments. The permanent tub was cracked and a new one wasn't available until August. There was a temporary tub in the meantime but I would only be able to labor in the tub, not deliver. Thankfully the tub room was available when they moved me to the labor room. Paula worked with one of the nurses to start getting the tub ready while another nurse attempted to get an IV into my arm. I was GBS positive so they wanted to get me hooked up to antibiotics as quickly as possible. Unfortunately I have difficult veins and it took what felt like forever to get an IV in. It's funny because I had the same issue when I was in labor with Garrett.  It's on of my most vivid memories from his labor because I wanted an epidural and I couldn't get one until they were able to get the IV in and a full bag of fluids in.  I may have yelled at a nurse....  Back to Declan's labor.....I'm sure it felt longer because I was confined to the bed which made the contractions almost unbearable. At one point I looked over at Mike and told him I wasn't sure I could do it without an epidural. He just shook his head no and the nurse got my IV in so I was able to jump out of the bed. 

I had a few contractions while standing next to the bed and swaying my hips seemed to help. I also asked Mike to rub my hips but that idea was better in theory. I yelled at him to push harder but that didn't seen to help either. Suddenly I had an insane amount of pressure and I told Mike something was happening. No sooner than Mike took a step back away from me, my water broke all over the floor. It really was just like the movies, I heard a pop, a crazy loud splash and the last thing I remember really clearly was the sound of Mike gagging and jumping over to the other side of the bed.

Things got really crazy after that. I told a nurse behind me that I thought I was pushing. She told me to stop pushing until the midwife could get back into the room and I told her that I couldn't, my body was doing it on its own. She told me I at least needed to get into bed because I couldn't deliver the baby on the floor. Everything flashed like blur. I got into the bed but I was so scared from the pain on the contractions when I laid down that I went on my knees and leaned over the back of the bed.  To complicate things, they were in the middle of a shift change so I had four nurses instead of two and no midwife in the room. Thankfully Lauren was coming on duty and checked me to find me ten centimeters and gave me the okay to start pushing.

Pushing was super intense but it was such a relief to be able to bear down after trying not to push while they got ready. Mike was at the head of the bed holding my hand and he was pretty overwhelmed by the way things were progressing, not to mention he was completely new to the whole process!! After a few pushes they asked me to flip over onto my back because the position wasn't working and they couldn't get a monitor to read the babies heart rate. I rolled over, but only onto my side, when Lauren said one more push. Sure enough, his head came out on the next push and after another small push he was here! 

 

I reached down and grabbed him from Lauren and held him for about a minute before one of the nurses said "wait, we don't know the gender" and spread his little legs apart to find boy parts. I looked over at Mike who had come around to the side of the bed and he looked very proud and a bit overwhelmed. I can't say I blame him, from the time my water broke until he was born at 7:03 was only 8 minutes. It definitely took me almost an hour to really process the whole delivery. It was probably only 45 minutes between the time I was checked in triage at 5cm and the time I was fully dilated. 

I held him while they waited for the cord to stop pulsing which was a little awkward. I kept trying to pull him closer to my face and had to be reminded that he was still attached and I needed to wait to bring him closer. Mike cut the cord after saying the entire pregnancy he didn't think he would want to. I think at that point his gross factor had was maxed out and he could have handled anything.

We immediately started talking about names so that we could call Garrett and announce to the rest of the family. I didn't really keep it a secret during my pregnancy that I was really pulling for another boy so it's no surprise that our list of boy names was in better shape than the girl list. Thankfully we had a listening 3 that needed to be narrowed down: Austin, Declan and Everett. Everett was my first choice but Mike wasn't sold on that one so we agreed on Declan.  

 

Declan Augustus Gonano weighed in at 8 lbs 12 oz and 21 3/4 inches long. He was  almost exactly the same size as Garrett, just one ounce heavier.

Needless to say, it was an incredibly fast labor and I didn't get my water birth which was totally fine with me.  There was only about 3 inches of water in the tub when Declan was born and they barely got one round of antibiotics in. Thankfully he had no issues related to the GBS and only had to he treated with a little formula for low blood sugar, likely due to his large size and quick labor. I really still have a hard time believing how quickly things moved but it was a blessing because I'm not sure how much more labor I could have handled. Mike joked about it after the fact but I do wonder if the 2 pints of Red Rasberry Leaf tea I was drinking in the 3rd trimester contributed to my quick labor.  My natural delivery was definitely the most intense, empowering experience of my life. It doesn't take away from my experience when Garrett was born, both resulted in amazing, healthy baby boys. But from a personal perspective and what it meant for me and my body, this was truly an amazing, amazing experience and I now completely understand why women who have done it advocate so hard for it.  We are so excited to have Declan as part of our family and can't remember what life was like before he got here.

37 Weeks + 4 Days

Down to the final stretch!   Garrett spent the weekend with some friends at Hershey Park so Mike and I managed to get a lot done around the house.  Sunday morning we went to Ihop for breakfast where I polished off 2 pancakes, two eggs, 2 slices of bacon, hash browns and toast.  The worst part was that I probably would have kept eating if I hadn't run out of food!  It's funny because with Garrett I remember that my appetite tapered off at the end and I was eating small meals more frequently.  I still feel like my appetite is pretty big this time around.

By Sunday night I was feeling like I might actually be ready for the baby to come.  I even managed to get one of the two baby hats knitted this weekend and by Monday night they were both done!  I've actually been feeling a little anxious about the whole "when is baby coming" situation.  I was feeling really unready a few weeks ago but now we are as ready as we are going to be.  When I was pregnant with Garrett I fully expected as a first time mom to go a week or so after my due date.  Even when I was checked at my 36 week appointment and was 1 cm dilated, I was still planning on going to at least by due date so when he came a full 12 days early it was a welcomed surprise.

This time around I've just assumed from the beginning that I would go early again this time.  I didn't realize until a few days ago that I was potentially setting myself up for a lot of frustration.  As of my 37 weeks appointment I was 1 cm dilated again but I was expecting to be a little further progressed since I've been having pretty consistent Braxton Hicks all throughout the 3rd trimester.  I keep telling myself that baby will come when he or she is good and ready but walking around knowing that it could be any day now or 3 weeks from now is honestly just not a lot of fun.  I've had some slight cramping and an occasion shooting pain in the last few days but definitely nothing to make me think I'm anywhere near labor.  I really think I just need to get out of my own head, relax a bit and enjoy these last few days or weeks of being a family of 3 and sleeping (mostly) through the night.

36 Weeks + 6 Days

I've really been meaning to carve out some time for a blog post.  There's so much about this pregnancy that I've already forgotten when I promised I was going to document more this time around.  When I was pregnant with Garrett I picked up a pregnancy journal that was awesome.  There was a little blurb to read each day about how the baby was growing and every few days there were a few lines to update how I was feeling, how much I weighed, etc.  It's been fun to go back and compare to where I was with Garrett compared to this pregnancy and I'm bummed out that I haven't kept similar records this time around.

Part of my problems is that I've wanted pictures for the post and I just can't seem to remember to take pictures of this ever growing belly.  I think the majority of the problem has been that life is just much more full than when I was pregnant with Garrett.  When I was pregnant with Garrett I didn't have a lot going on in my life.  I went to work, went to school and planned for baby, that was it.  I felt like my whole life revolved around getting ready for the baby.  This time around my life is just busy with.... well, life.  

I have to say that I've really gotten off relatively easy this time around.  My first trimester was a breeze with the exception of some extreme moodiness and heading to bed around 8:30 most nights.  The second trimester was equally as easy and I still managed to make it to the gym at 6am a lot of mornings.  By the time the 3rd trimester rolled around I was mostly just praying that the calendar would slow down because holy cow, we were not ready!!!!  Thankfully we have managed to get the nursery completely together in the last few weeks, clothes have been washed and cloth diapers have been prepped.  Things started getting uncomfortable around 35 weeks.  I had terrible swelling in my feet with Garrett and thought I might skate by without it this time but no such luck!  My feet look like they might pop by about 5 o'clock most evenings.  Mike tries to get me to sit on the couch and keep my feet up but all the laying around on the couch just makes my back hurt.  It's funny, I feel better on the days when we are up and around all day then I do after 8 hours of sitting at my desk.  So far I'm up about 36lbs which I think has helped keep the back pain under control.  All in all, I am still feeling pretty good but would like a bit longer to get some deep cleaning done at home and get to a place at work where I don't feel like I'm dumping a ton of work on my co-workers.

Girls Camping Trip 2014

Last September we spent a weekend at the beach for my bachelorette party and promised to make an annual girls trip each year.  Funds were tight for a lot of us this year so we decided to try camping in order to keep the cost down and keep me close enough to a hospital in case something happened.  

A few of the girls needed a little convincing and I won't lie, after hearing my friend Tori scream the 15th time in the first hour because she is not a fan of bugs, I started to worry about what I had gotten us into.  Thankfully Tori's bug sensitivity seemed to get better (paired with A LOT of bug spray) and we had a really awesome weekend.  Abby and I managed to pitch both tents in under 15 minutes.  I was pretty proud of our accomplishment.

Friday we spent the evening making dinner and sitting around the campfire.  It was great to just sit around a laugh in the dark.  It felt a little like being back in high school for a sleep over.  For being 34 weeks pregnant, I slept surprisingly well on my air ma tress.  Everyone who heard I was camping while pregnant seemed to think I was a super hero but all in all it really wasn't too bad.  It probably helped that I had a group of girls ready to jump up and grab me something anytime I needed it.

Saturday morning we took a stroll before breakfast and then took what turned out to be at least a mile long walk to the lake to do some canoeing.  We found a shortcut on the way back and managed to get back in probably 1/3 of a mile.  Saturday afternoon was spent playing cards around the picnic table until we all got a little too competitive with the 4 hour card game.

Sunday we all packed up relatively early and I was able to get home in time to catch the second half of Garrett's lacrosse tournament in Westminster which his team managed to win!

Nifty Nine

I'm still having a hard time saying it out loud... I have a nine year old.  Garrett celebrated his ninth birthday with an eventful weekend.  Somewhere along the lines I came up with the bright idea to take five (yes 5!!!) kids to the Orioles game for Garrett's birthday.  Mike and I thought it would be easier to catch the light rail down to the stadium rather than driving two cars down but I'm not quite sure that was the best laid plan.  All in all it really wasn't a bad experience and I think the boys had a lot of fun.  We all survived but the Orioles stunk it up and it really was exhausting, especially at 32 weeks pregnant.  The light rail ride back was incredibly crowded, we were stuck standing and trying to keep track of everyone for a solid 40 minute ride. On the ride back Mike looked at me and said he was never doing this again.  I asked him to clarify "never taking the light rain to a game or never taking 5 kids to a baseball game?"  "Any part of it, I am never doing any part of this again."  Ha, can't say I can argue with that.

The boys were planning to all spend the night so when we got home we ate some pizza and then sent them outside to run around and burn off some steam until it was time to start the movie.  About an hour later I came outside to get everyone together and come inside when I heard Garrett let out a blood curling scream. Definitely not the sound you ever want to hear coming from your child, especially at his birthday party.  Turns out he had been running through an area in our yard that has yet to get cleaned out from the previous owners and there was a piece of wood with a nail sticking right out of it.  I scooped him up and got him to an urgent care center where they were able to get him cleaned up and x-rayed in about an hour.  After filling a prescription we got home around 10pm and did birthday cake and a second round of pizza before settling down for the movie.  It will definitely go down as a birthday he will never forget but hopefully 10 years down the road he remembers more than just the fact that he stepped on a nail at his birthday party.   I unfortunately was so busy running around that I don't have any pictures to show for the day except the one I snapped at the ball park.

It's hard to believe that Garrett is really nine but at the same time, I can hardly remember what my life was like without him in it.  There is something about getting ready to start all over in the parenting department that has made me realize just how quickly he is growing up.  As excited as I am to welcome this new baby into our family, it is so different this time around because I know I will blink my eyes and be celebrating another 9th birthday.  We are half way to 18........ half way to graduating high school and embarking on a huge new chapter and that idea takes my breath away.

So Happy Birthday Garrett, we are so excited to see what the next 9 years holds but you will always be my happy.  Our family started out as just the two of us and I wouldn't trade those years for anything in the world.  Our family grew by one when Mike came into the picture almost 5 years ago and this July we will see it grow by one more.  You are going to be an amazing big brother and I'm so excited to get to watch you grow into that role in the next few years.

1st Trimester

My first trimester when I was pregnant with Garrett was brutal.  I remember sleeping on the floor in the bathroom in my tiny apartment some nights because I was so sick.  The nausea was how I found out I was pregnant with him.  One minutes I was eating crabs with my mom for her birthday and the next I could hardly keep ginger ale and crackers down.  It went on for what seemed liked months but it had definitely cleared up by the time the first trimester was wrapping up.  I had a relatively uneventful second trimester and then spent most of my third trimester tired, sore and swollen.  I'll never forget in the hospital after Garrett was born and looking down at my ankles and thinking they looked like twigs.

It's amazing how different this pregnancy has been.  When I would hear women talk about how much they loved being pregnant I thought they were insane.  I was certain it had just been long enough that they had forgotten the misery and suffering.  This time around, I am not so cynical.  I won't go as far as to say that I love being pregnant but I can honestly say it has only been slightly inconvenient this time around.  I'm sure that it is mostly just because every pregnancy is different but I can't help but hope that the healthy eating and exercising has contributed to my easy second round of pregnancy.  I had no morning sickness in the first trimester although I was extremely tired in the beginning and EXTREMELY moody.  For a few weeks there I thought for sure Mike would end up divorcing me before we made it 3 months into the marriage.  I tried to curb the hormones and the mood swings but I'm fairly certain I didn't do a very good job and I spent a lot of time apologizing to Mike and Garrett.  But in the end we all survived the first trimester relatively unscathed.