Happy Baby, Happy Brother

Oliver really is a pretty happy baby. He is not terrible at night...yet at least. He seems to have a pretty good disposition. Even more importantly, he loves being snuggled.

Elijah loves his baby brother and has been begging to feed him. Since he is still so jaundiced looking, I am still supplementing him somewhat. Doesn't he look happy to feed Oliver?

Jaundice level okay!

Our second pediatrician visit today. He had another bilirubin test drawn. The boys hate watching him get it done. They said our pediatrician was a horrible doctor. I tried telling him that it's an important test that he needs, but for some reason they don't buy that. He is still very orange so she said her number was 15. If it was 15 he was going to be going back to the hospital. Thankfully, his level actually went down slightly (yesterday it was 13.9). So we don't have to go back. Yay!

After we went to the pediatrician's office, we went to eat lunch. I started getting really overwhelmed and unfortunately, on the way home I just really broke down. When we got home I laid down with the baby and just held him and cried. I will admit, I did not have very good feelings. I am having a very hard time. It just so happened that I got a phone call from a woman from the psych department following up with me. I guess it came at just the right time. It helps to talk to someone. But it hurts because I feel like a crazy person. 

First Sponge Bath at Home

Today I gave Oliver his first sponge bath at home. He didn't mind it too much.

Noah wanted to help.

All cleaned and dressed. I remember when Jonah used to wear this. 

He's just so sweet. I forgot what it feels like to hold a just bathed baby. The scent is just amazing.

In the afternoon we went to our pediatrician. Unfortunately, he had to have another bilirubin test. Our pediatrician thought he may need to be readmitted because he is so orange. Not what I wanted to hear. Thankfully they called with the results and his level is high but not high enough to be readmitted. At least today. The bad thing is that we get to go back tomorrow and get another one drawn again. Also, I brought up that he is tongue tied and that I think he is having a harder time breastfeeding. He makes a clicking noise when he eats and he hurts me overtime he nurses. So now we get to follow up with an ENT.  All the doctor appointments are very stressful to me. 

We are home!

Our first night home. It wasn't terrible. Of course, I am tired. I can definitely feel that I am older. I am more tired. I am sore. But I am love with Oliver.

When we finally woke up for the day, we put Oliver in the sun to try to help with the jaundice.

Isn't he so cute?

 While we were in the hospital, Jonah kept asking how old the baby was. When we told him two days, he kept insisting that no, he was five years so how old was he. We told him that it was his birthday the day before and then Jonah got upset. He wanted to be invited to his birthday party. So we told the boys that we would have a birthday party for the baby when we got home. Mom and Dad had the boys at their house during our hospital stay and kept them until dinner time. Mom brought over some dinner for us and we had a cake to celebrate Oliver's birthday. 

While it is very nice to be home, it is extremely overwhelming. I have to be honest and admit the day was full of tears and anxiety. I love the boys but they are overwhelming to me. They are full of constant questions and constantly moving and in my face. It makes me feel like I can't handle them. Like, I just want to hide in my room with the baby under the covers and not come out. I know this is going to be a huge battle. I am very thankful that Jake is home and can play with the boys and help me out because I need it immensely. 

Going Home Day

When I woke up on going home day I had a feeling that things would not go as planned. Oliver looked as orange as a pumpkin. Last night his bilirubin level was slightly elevated so the hospital pediatrician wanted to repeat the test in the morning. My heart sank because I was quite sure that he would be going under phototherapy, especially since his face was so bruised.

It turns out that I was right and the pediatrician wanted him under the lights during the day with a repeat level at 4pm. He would still come out of the nursery every three hours for me to nurse, but I would continue supplementing and hopefully the level would come down. As much as I understand this completely, my hormones were going quite crazy and the day became very depressing to me. Thankfully the level did not go up and actually went down so he came to our room at about 5pm. I was discharged, but he was still in the charge of the nursery. He had a repeat level at 9 and then hopefully could go home at 10pm. When the level came back, it went up slightly and the pediatrician said to put him back under lights. Thankfully the nursery nurse, Lisa, was a nurse I used to work with and she convinced the pediatrician that I knew what I was doing because I'm a nursery nurse and that I was supplementing and had a doctors appointment already set for Monday so he was able to come home. Yay! We were home free. Or so I thought.

We were just starting out the door when a woman stopped us. I scored very high on the postpartum depression scale so they had to have someone from psych talk to me to make sure that I would be safe. I spoke with the woman for about an hour. Frankly, she did not want to discharge me. She felt I was very fragile. I am. I agree. They had to call my doctor to make sure that he felt it was ok for me to go home. She also made sure that Jake was going to be home with me and take care of me for awhile. So we had to have a safety plan and then we finally were able to go home at 11pm. 

After a very emotionally draining day, we pulled into our driveway at midnight. I am very thankful to be home.

Hospital Visitors

One bad thing about the delivery date, is that the following day Elijah had a cardiology appointment. That meant that Jake had to leave the hospital early to go pick up Elijah and go to the appointment by himself. He picked up Mom, Jonah and Noah too and they visited during the appointment time. They were all so excited to see the baby.

Elijah was so in love. He cried when he had to leave and wanted to make sure that he could hold Oliver again.

Mom got to hold Ollie before Papa. That's a first. Usually he gets to the hospital first because he comes from work.

Ha ha. I look a little more tired than I did yesterday.

Another special thing happened. When Jake came back from dropping the kids back home, he brought up the carseat. He told me I needed to check the straps because he thought he messed them up. In there was a box from Jared. He bought me a beautiful birthstone ring for September. It is so pretty. The picture just does not do it justice as it is super sparkly. I love it. It made me feel very loved and appreciated. 

Happy BIRTH Day!

Today was the day! Finally! I got to meet our new little guy. I have to admit, this experience was incredibly different from my other deliveries. Yesterday night was surreal going to bed knowing that we were going to be getting ready for our baby to come today. I was able to pack everything up in the car and get the kids ready for school and dropped off at Mom's house. I ate a light breakfast. I put makeup on. There was no rushing. No craziness. It was just a calm morning...well, as calm as it can be with three kids and a dog.

Here I am. The last picture of me pregnant...ever. I think I got pretty round, but not quite as big as I was with the twins. I gained about 40 lbs.

Here's labor room 18...our home for the next few hours. We had waited in the waiting area for about 45 minutes and I was really hoping that they wouldn't cancel my induction because they were very busy. Thankfully we were called back by Cinnamon, my labor nurse. What a relief to know that things were going as planned.

First, I had my blood drawn and IV started. Then my doctor called to let my nurse know all of the orders for me. The plan was to start some Pitocin and then at around lunch time break my water and hopefully get labor going. Cinnamon said that she had two of us that she was starting for inductions and the nurses were guessing who would go first. Ha ha. Typical nurses.

So at around 10am I had the Pitocin started and at 1130 one of my doctor's partners came in to break my water. I hadn't progressed too much from when I started and the baby was still sitting really high. After my water broke I started to feel the contractions a little bit more. Cinnamon said that I could have an epidural any time that I wanted, and considering my history of relaxing and dilating quicker with an epidural, I decided to go ahead and have her give me the fluid bolus so that I could get it. About 1:30pm I got my epidural and my doctor came in to see how things were going. The baby was facing up and high still so we used a peanut ball and continued upping the Pitocin hoping things would progress. It did fairly quickly. I started to feel some pressure and Cinnamon checked and I was 9cm. At that point she sat me up a bit to let gravity help and she called my doctor. 

Through all of this time, I was looking at labor affirmation cards that I had received in my baby box. Jake and I were just relaxing and watching some Netflix. With Elijah we slept and the twins came so quick, that this was an entirely new experience. We were able to enjoy each other's company and just have a great time. Funny thing to think of when you think of delivering a baby. Ah the joys of epidurals. 

Anyway. My doctor arrived and set up for delivery. I was very focused on what I was doing and Jake was great about coaching me through everything. A few pushes and our little boy was out. Originally I hadn't wanted him on my chest but I changed my mind at the last minute. We were just overcome with emotion when he arrived. He had a head full of hair and was a long skinny boy. Looks were deceiving and he actually is larger than Elijah was at birth. He was so much like Elijah. Not only in looks, but he also didn't want to cry. He needed to work out some fluid and cry but he wouldn't cry for me, Jake or Cinnamon. My doctor was the one who finally got him to let out a good wail.

Introducing Oliver Govanni.

He was born at 4:04pm

Weight 8lb 12oz

21.5 inches

Because he was facing the wrong way for so long he got a bit bruised on his face. Poor little guy.

Look at all the dark hair! The other boys were bald. This is just amazing to me.

Here's our white board. I love that I have zero pain tolerance. Jake knows me too well.

Here's my doctor holding Oliver. He's delivered all the boys.

Me after delivery. Makeup pre delivery and an epidural make a huge difference in photos.

My nurse Cinnamon. She was amazing. I would recommend her as a nurse to anyone. 

Little Ollie

Proud Daddy.  

It is so nice to have a baby to cuddle. They fit right into your arms.  

What an amazing day. We were able to go to our postpartum room at about 630pm and got settled in for the night. Time to return to the waking-up-at-all-hours-to-feed-a-baby stage. 

Finally settled down for the night.