Hello World!

Each of my three labors have been so different that I no longer have any idea what to expect!  I was convinced that Jonathan would come early, because I was getting very strong Braxton-Hicks from early on, then on December 30th we had to go have contractions stopped at the hospital because they were strong and every two minutes.  On February 10th I thought that it was the real thing and we headed to the hospital just after midnight.  Well...I didn't progress enough, the contractions stopped, and we were sent home :(  I had my membranes stripped on Monday the 24th, and I really didn't feel any contractions that day. Tuesday the 25th I had an induction scheduled because he wasn't growing anymore and I was over 39 wks and he wasn't my firstborn.  Well that morning at 4:15 I woke up because I felt as though I was laying in a pool of water.  My water broke I thought.  So I woke up Nathan and told him, and got out of bed and turned on the light to see what had happened, but it wasn't water.  I had been laying in a pool of blood.  "Nathan, wake up!" He saw it and we both got into "get to the hospital now mode".  I went into our bathroom, and a clot a little smaller than my fist passed, and then the contractions started to come.  I was worried.  Then I was ticked, and thought "how could something bad happen right now, I'm supposed to be induced in 5 hours!" I called my friend and neighbor Holly to come stay with the kids as we headed down to the hospital while Kathy headed up to our house.  We arrived at the hospital at 4:50, and contractions were about 4 minutes apart at this point.  My induction was scheduled at 9am, so the hospital already had a room for me conveniently.  I was hooked up to all the monitors quickly to check on baby and me after telling them about all the blood.  We took pictures to show we were not exaggerating, and the nurse was worried about a partial placenta abbrution then.  Baby's heart rate looked good, and my blood pressure was fine as well.  The nurse checked me and I was a 4-5, but not very effaced, so she suggested walking around to get him to come down.  Also, she could not tell if my water had broken or not because there was still a lot of blood.  So we went walking for about half an hour.

Walking with my bag of fluid

Nathan freaking out a little for the camera, 

but he didn't let me see that he was nervous

Stopped for a contraction

After our thirty minute walk, she checked out baby's heart rate again, and it did something a little funny, so I couldn't leave the monitors now.  I was still worried, but felt him moving around so was comforted by that.  

 

 Getting hooked up again to the monitors.

My nurse Cheryl had a student that day, which I was 

fine with, I remember being in his shoes not

long ago.  Pretty sure though he didn't like labor and delivery 

much though, he was kind of awkward :/

Nathan was the best!  Much to the contrast of the two previous times :)  After getting an epidural with Jack, and being able to feel the injection site and that it felt as though there was a needle in my back if I twisted or did a pull-up or whatnot, I wanted to try to do this labor all natural.  Nathan helped me so much with that! He told me to relax each muscle by starting at my head and moving down all the way to my toes during the contractions and that really would help labor progress, and he coached me to do that each contraction.  We watched the Olympics downhill skiing that we had recorded on his phone, but the contractions were so hard I was afraid I'd drop his phone so I paused them for each contraction.  I was worried once (it was during "transition") that I wouldn't be able to handle the pain any more, and he said "you don't have to commit to not having an epidural until the baby is born, you just have to commit until it's too late to get one".  Apparently that worked for me, and I kept on without anything, not even a tylenol.

We made the bed into a sitting position to help the baby move down

This is during transition

After my walk I was then a 5-6, and every hour thereafter I was another centimeter dilated. At 8:30, and I was at an 8 then, my nurse told me Dr. Housel would be out of surgery and on his way to assess (he was at another hospital).  At 9:16 (yes that exact, I looked at the clock on the way), he walks in and says "alright, let's break your water and see how that goes".  "Whoa there, let's see if I'm at a 10 yet, I do not want to break my water before, that's what we did with Jack and then I couldn't handle the pain anymore and needed the epidural.  And we don't even know if my isn't already broken, Cheryl said she couldn't tell if she was feeling his head or the bag". He said, "well if we don't break it then I have to go" ( he had another surgery scheduled for 9:30...I was supposed to start being induced at 9 remember).  "Okay just you check me and let's see" I said.  So he does and says "you are complete, let's break it".  "Yeah right, you're just saying that so you can break my water" I say.  "No really, there is no cervix, you are ready".

An hour before this a CNA had started setting up the room to receive the baby.  

 

So Cheryl is at the computer charting, "click, click, click" on the computer.  The CNA put my bed back into a bed from the sitting bed, and Dr. Housel uses the crochet hook thing to break my water, at 9:23. He puts the sheet back, and I immediately say "you guys, something's happening, check the sheet".  Nathan says "it's okay, there's more pressure now, just relax like before, start at your head", I cut him off there "Nathan, shut up and check the sheet!!" Dr. Housel lifts the sheet and declares "oh boy, that's a head!" Now he's in stealth mode, turns quickly to put on gloves and his gown, and there is Cheryle still at the computer "click, click,click". He yelled "Cheryl do something!"  She starts trying to call in the receiving nurse with the little call thing they all wear, then said "this is not working".  I'm not sure but I think the student ran out and called for help.  "Somethings happening!!!" I yell again. Then next contraction I felt the need to push, so I did, and luckily Dr. Housel had turned around because one push and pop!  he was out!  There wasn't time to get all those bucket things in place, so the room was a mess. 

Moments after birth

Meeting mommy

 I heard a nurse say, "Dr. you didn't wash"  " I had gloves on!" was his response.  From the time that he broke my water at 9:23 (the end of that minute) to the time he was out was 9:25 (the beginning of that minute).  Cheryl said it was one minute in between time.  Holy fast!!!

I delivered the afterbirth fine, had no tears or anything. Dr. Housel was only gone from the other hospital for 40 min, and that includes travel time, so that is crazy fast.  He did say I was his fastest delivery so far. 

My nurse Cheryl and Dr. Housel, smiles after such a fast delivery

Getting all checked out, APGAR scores were great,

a beautiful baby boy

Jonathan Carl Manwaring

February 25th, 2014 at 9:25am

6lbs 2.6oz and 19inches long

My biggest baby so far.  

 I realized after we had gotten home when I loved him. 

It wasn't an instant love

like with James at his first cry, or

Jack with his first movement that I felt.

 

 It was gradual, and I had started to love him even before I was pregnant.

We had wanted to add to our family, and it took a year to become pregnant,

then the nine months waiting for him to come. 

It was during this this whole time that my love for my baby

gradually grew.

Jonathan has Nathan's name in it, see how tricky we are :)

His middle name Carl is after Great Aunt Carol Berridge, 

because after the third boy we didn't want to run out of kids before

we could use her name for her to have a name sake!

After delivery I still was bleeding quite a bit, 

and the pitocin wasn't cutting it to make it stop,

so I also was given cytotec to help that out.  I'm very

grateful for modern medicine.

I rested a bit while Nathan got to hold and bond with the little guy.

Daddy and Jonathan

Getting a bath in the room

All clean and ready to meet the brothers...

coming next post!

February Baby Watch Activities

Here are some of the pictures that we captured in February.  We were all wondering when baby Jonathan would make his appearance, so I feel like we kept things lower key than we have in the past few months.  I did go to the hospital with contractions on the 10th, but I wasn't progressing and the contractions ended up stopping, so I was sent home, and he wasn't born for another 15 days!  After that we were on "high alert"  and wondered if every set of contractions would continue, or putter out.  Many a day I would be counting them (yes, they were that strong to be counting them), so we would try not to go too far from home on those days :)

At the first part of the month there was lots of snow in our yard,

and so Nathan and the boys built a fort in the front yard!

Another time out in the snow, Jack was helping me by

shoveling the snow...then he stopped to eat it :)

 James helped shovel too, and was very good at it.

He first made a snow angel.

These boys love the snow!

 Built a huge marble works "castle".

I used three boxes worth, and every single piece (these were my and my sister's 

when we were little and still going strong!)

 Watched a movie on the iPad on the new recliner

 Went to the mall and spent $2 in quarters on rides

 

 And played at this little play area there

 This was on Saturday the 22nd, and we got out of the house,

but I had been having contractions all day.  We found a 

Sweet Tooth Fairy store in Layton!  So naturally we stopped for a

delicious cupcake treat.

 The boys were very excited about this outing :)

 Playing chase and caught Daddy

 Playing racing cars

 Here they were pack animals? Not sure why, 

and so they had to carry the stools around.

 Lincoln logs play.  Made a house which was great, then they brought out

their construction toys and proceeded to demolish it! 

Snuggles with mommy.

Valentine's Day

So I need to catch up, and little one is finally sleeping

more, so I think that I can do it and be done by the end of the 

month (that's the goal right now!)

Valentine's Day was great around here.

February was really "Baby Watch" month, as

we didn't know when baby Jonathan would make his 

appearance and with all the Braxton-Hicks and false labor,

and 2 hospital visits, we predicted he would come much earlier

than he did.  Anyway, I did not want a Valentine's baby and it 

happen.  Here is what did instead:

James had his cute pre-school party, we

made Frozen valentines that said:

"Valentine, you're worth melting for"

and had the parts of a "melted"

edible Olaf snowman in a bag.

He also wrote his name on all of them!

 James all dressed up for the party!

James at one of the activities for Valentine's Day

 

That night (it was the day before Valentine's Day)

Kathy had her "Utah" kids over for a special V-Day 

dinner complete with heart shaped food and fancy

table settings.

Valentine's evening Nathan and I actually hadn't made

any plans (again not knowing and waiting for baby),

and I wanted to spend as much time together as a family

of four, so I packed up some dinner and met Nathan at

his office for a special dinner there and a chance to watch 

whatever movie the boys chose.

The chose Spy Kids 4?! It actually was enjoyable

and I loved seeing the joy on their faces. 

Jack enjoying the whip cream from the

strawberries and cream dessert

And why not finish off all of the sparkling cider too,

straight from the bottle :)

I had a 

 Happy Valentine's Day

with my sweet boys!