Saturday, July 30, 2016

Sabie, Party of 4

And then, just like that, something you didn't even know was missing shows up and you feel like your life is complete.

Surprise, Logan is here!

Grandpa James Lew Comer had a saying, "If you show up on time you are already late." He must have been talking to Logan, because Logan definitely got the message. He showed up 5 weeks early. I mean, technically as I type this, we still have a week until he's even supposed to be here - not that we are complaining one bit.

Logan Jacob was born June 30, 2016.
6lbs 10oz
18 inches (5 weeks early)
Mandi's Grandpa Jake is the inspiration for Logan's middle name. Grandpa Jake will turn 92 this year, and we should all be so lucky to be so active and live a long life. 

And yes, if you're like me, you're trying to remember what Grant was...
7lbs 12 oz
20 inches (only 11 days early)

Here are a few pictures and then I'll tell you a story.
Happy Mom

Happy Dad

Mr. Logan

Big Brother

Logan
13 hours door to door I like to say. It was a whirlwind day, luckily Grandma Leona dropped everything and jumped on a plane (we had her ticket booked for July 15 which is still 3 weeks early) and flew out to meet little Mr. Logan. (Okay, seriously? Who do you know in your life who would drop everything and race to the airport and spend 3 weeks at your house? That list is so very short, and Mama Leona is on the top of it. Thank you does not BEGIN to cover it.)

Just for fun, here's the brief rundown:
Thursday morning, everything normal...until...

5:30am - Woke up because I was wet. Thought I peed the bed. Turns out my water was leaking. Not one big sploosh like with Grant, but a slow, annoying, pee your pants where ever you go leak. Awesome.
This is where fear, panic, "WHAT? It can't be?", and pregnancy logic start to click in. I told Kyle "If I don't call the doc, then I don't have to go to the hospital and it never happened." Whereas Kyle just smiled at me and said "I'm already calling work." Kyle is good like that.

7:30am - already talked to doc and was checking myself in to the maternity floor. Called, woke up mom, told her today was the day and she said "HOT DAMN I'm going to the airport." The hospital has a maternity check-in area on the 1st floor with rooms in the back where you stay and get checked out and if they decide to keep you (instead of sending you home) then you get moved upstairs to your real labor and delivery room (L&D). Stayed in the "check-in room" leaking on the bed, in a lovely hospital gown, watching Wimbledon and soccer on TV and eating my snacks in peace and quiet...was kind of nice actually to be alone for a bit. They do an ultrasound to see what is really going on and by the time they see little man moving around in there, they said my water was all gone and it was time to move upstairs. Woohoo! Finally got to my room about 11:30. Apparently, I was the 7th person that morning to check in to maternity, plus here was one pregnant woman who had a heart attack, so they were saving her an operating room and a L&D room. So thankful that my doctor was on call today. I had the other office doctor with Grant, and it was fine, but to have your own doctor on your last birth brings a calm to the storm and is such a great way to have happy closure to this part of our life. My doc brings up the fact that I need a Pitocin drip because once again I have zero contractions on my own. (No contractions on my own with Grant or Logan - that's a whole other story for another day. Just think of what NOS does for your car, that is what Pitocin does for your body and contractions.)

7:30am - 2:00pm - Kyle stayed home with Grant until our babysitter came over. I had told him no rush, take your time, because with Grant I was on Pitocin all night before the party really got started. Hmmm...right.

Kyle proceeds to write up a 6 page "how to" for babysitters/grandmas/and anyone else that may have to take care of Grant, plus get the house organized, grab the baby's bag (yes at least I packed my bag and the baby's bag already).

The L&D nurses were fantastic. They knew Kyle wasn't arriving until 2:30, so they slowed my pit drip so he could make it on time. They also told me to order lunch, hang out and relax. Why not? So in perfect logic, I order a bacon cheeseburger. YUM. I think I was just hungry and had anxiety, because it tasted fantastic for a hospital burger.

In the meantime, I'm watching tennis, going through contractions on the yoga ball, and squeezing the bed rail and doing my breathing. The nurses were great and kept checking on me and asking if I needed help. If you know me, you know my answer is "Nope, I got it."  Kyle was so prepared - he had his suitcase and was ready like we were settling in for a long fight all night, but by the time Kyle walked in my contractions were 2 minutes apart. They were the kind where the pain went up during contractions and slightly down in between, but never really went away. The nurses were on top of things.  Kyle was in the room maybe 10 minutes before they turned up the drip and WHAM, now it's 3:45pm and I looked at Kyle and told him to GO GET THE NICE MAN WITH THE EPIDURAL. Kyle is a very good coach and super helpful in the delivery room. I am also a pain in the butt to anyone trying to help me, just ask Kyle. After 12 years of marriage, we've figured out a good balance and made it work. Coincidentally, if you wind up giving birth by yourself, I recommend calling Kyle. He's super duper like that.

6:00pm - You know when you realize there are a few too many people in the room, but no one is really saying anything? Yup. Logan's heart rate would drop depending on what side I was on, and the resident came in with a serious look on her face and asked the nurses "where is her doc?" My doctor gets there and people start moving quickly. She was amazing and I'm so glad my last baby could be with her. Logan did have his own nurses in the room since he was 35 weeks and could possibly have to go to NICU. I did 5 pushes - the first 2 on a contraction and then I heard the words "cord" and "neck" and didn't really catch it right away, but my doc stood up to look at me and said KEEP PUSHING DO NOT WAIT FOR A CONTRACTION JUST GO. And really, I don't think I heard her words, but her face was serious and that much I understood. Logan has his cord wrapped around his neck. I did get another episiotomy (blech), but not nearly as bad as last time. Turned out Logan had very low blood sugar and was borderline jaundice. They were able to give him supplement formula and as long as we kept him fed and had his blood sugar checked every 3 hours for the first 24hrs, he could stay with us in the room. In the end, he was born at 6:30pm (13 hours door to door) on Thursday, and we were home Saturday at noon. I had made the decision a long time ago to not breastfeed and just do formula (also another blog at some point), and in this case it worked out great because his protein and sugar had to be tracked so closely.

Sidenote - did I mention we had tickets to see Chris Stapleton that night? The concert started at 7:30. We kept joking with the nurses that if they could get us out on time so we could go to the concert that would be great. We were trying to figure out how to give the tickets to someone, but they were the kind where you have to show a picture ID and credit card to pick them up at Will Call. Oh well, there's always next time. I recommend you check him on on youtube in his duet with Justin Timberlake: click here.

All in all, I'd say a pretty "normal" birth. Although is any birth normal? When you think about it, I'm amazed the human race has lasted this long. Think about life 2,000, 500 or even 100 years ago. Think of how hard it is to get pregnant, the timing involved, how hard life is if you work sun up to sun down, and how truly easily it is for the pregnant mom to possibly not survive during birth. The whole thing is crazy and amazing.  I say the two births of G and L were not that bad, but I say it with the same kind of hindsight that you would say "high school wasn't that bad" once you graduate out of it.

Grant is a great big brother (thanks to the trains little Logan brought Grant home from the hospital) and gives him kisses. We've had a few times where G has started to act out just to get more of mom's attention, but that is to be expected of course.

So we were home on Saturday, and everything is great. I feel a million times better after this birth than the first one, my stitches were healing great, and everything is dandy. Then on Tuesday, July 5th, I went for a ride in an ambulance. 38 years on Earth and it was my first ambulance ride. 

Time Out! Your story is nice, but more pictures please.

A Yawn, in 3 parts.








Tuesday, July 5. Finally settling in to a routine...
Remember when you left the hospital and your doctor told you "blah blah blah, don't pick up anything heavier than the baby for 2 weeks, blah blah, no exercise for 2 weeks, blah blah, check up in 6 weeks..." Yah. That's important. Remember that.

I literally did everything wrong you are not supposed to do. I was feeling fantastic. Just had a baby, everything was great, didn't feel like a truck ran me over like I did last time...things were good. It was 7am, and I picked up Toby to put him on the bed (like I do every morning), leaned, twisted my back and WHAM. Between lifting a 35 lb dog and having preggo hormones still in your system making all your joints and ligaments loose, my whole left side locked out. OH MY GAWD. Not so much my back, but my entire left leg cramped up, from the top of my glute all the way down the back corner of my leg to the ball of my foot. It was like someone had reached it and grabbed the rubber band down the back of my leg and just pulled tight. I tried to square up and walk around the house to walk it off, but it got worse and worse. Then you start figuring out where you want to land - the floor or the bed. I made it back to the bed and rolled on to the mattress. I tried grabbing the back of my leg to pinch off the cramp, but no luck. I was lying on the bed with my entire left side of my body in one cramp. Kyle was out on a quick errand, and my mom was feeding Logan. I think it took about 3 nanoseconds for my brain to go through all my options. I gave up and yelled for mom to call an ambulance. Again - yay for Grandma Leona being here!

Kyle got home just as they were putting me on the stretcher. (Wish I had a picture because I don't remember much of that day, but I remember Kyle's face peeking over the shoulder of the EMT as they picked me up.) They literally scooped me out of bed in my pajamas and rolled me out to the ambulance. Grant thought it was cool because there was a firetruck in front of our house. I got a dose of pain killer on the way to the ER, 2 doses of something else plus a valium in the ER, and then after 30 minutes of lying there asking for more help, I got morphine. Ooooh...morphine. Turns out this happens more often than you think to ladies who either are pregnant or just had a baby (you get better drugs if the baby is out already). They sent me home with a nice cocktail of pain killers, steroids, and muscle relaxers, and then I was in bed for the rest of Tues, Wed, and Thurs morning. Kyle was a total saint. He literally had to walk me to the bathroom, feed me, make a chart to keep track of all my meds, work with Grandma to watch Grant and oh by the way we have a newborn in the house who was so small we had a chart to track his food intake also by the ml (not even oz yet).  He basically held the family together when we could have so easily fallen apart. 

I remember staring at Grant and how much fun he was having with grandma and it broke my heart that I couldn't play with him. I know I cried 2 big cries, might have been hormones, or being tired or frustrated or angry...embarrassed? Probably a good mix of everything. Again - proof I married the right person - Kyle came over, gave me a hug and said I get one quick pity party, then I have to worry about getting better. Right. On it.

Either way, Fri, Sat and Sun I got better every day. The ER doc said my saving grace was that I wasn't breastfeeding because they would have to give me different drugs that don't work as well. Seriously? If this was 1000 years ago with no meds, I would have been asking for someone to hit me in the head with a shovel and just put me out of my misery. 

All in all a few bad days strung together, but we are good to go now. Mostly I am left with a sore hamstring and calf from being cramped for a few days. I have my exercises from the physical therapist to stretch out the leg and bring it back up to normal again. 

Silver lining: If you have to get injured, do it right after you have a baby. That way when the physical therapist says you can't work out for 6 weeks, you can say "Great! Just had a baby. Doc said I can't work out for 6 weeks from that either."

Silver lining #2: The dogs used to sleep on our bed. They haven't slept on our bed since "the firetruck incident" as we are calling it. They quickly got used to sleeping in their beds on the floor, and Kyle and I got our bed back. 

Since then, life has settled in to the new normal. Logan eats about every 3-4 hours, but at least we don't have to wake him up anymore. Grant is a great big brother, and happy to give Logan hugs and kisses, but also happy to ignore him and go play trains by himself. As for me, I will work on my blogging discipline and try to catch up from before and keep the pictures coming. Logan has only been on Earth for a month now but we already have so much to share!

Until next time, keep exploring!

Love and hugs,
M, K, G, L, T and O

Note: full credit for the title "Sabie, Party of 4" goes to my friend Megan H. I wish I thought of it, but I didn't. Thanks Megan!