Life after giving birth....

I just published Hadley's baby story if you want to read about our sweet girl making her big debut into this world.  I had severe preeclampsia which led to an early induction at 36 week. Here is a bit of our postpartum story (at least the portion of our hospital stay):

I wish this story was similar to my first pregnancy. With Collin I felt AMAZING after I had the baby. With Hadley I had a small window of feeling okay and I got to enjoy my sweet girl and introduce her to her big brother (one of the most incredible moments of my life! So grateful I remember it).

But that was about it. I quickly went back to feeling awful. The pain was unbearable and I went back to being almost unconscious.  I always feel so guilty and want to cry at this point in the story... but I hardly held Hadley her entire first 24 hours. In fact... I don't even remember much of it. I got very sick. I had to keep in my anti seizure medicine in for 24hr after giving birth (yes... I cried when they told me that. I KNEW that's what was making me so sick and nauseous and miserable). And I spiked a fever that night. I literally kept my head under a pillow and was basically knocked out cold.

Good thing for awesome husbands! He stepped up and played mr mom AND dad!  

 

 He did EVERYTHING for sweet Hadley! He changed ALL her diapers, gave her her first bath, he cuddled her and loved her just like every baby needs those first hours, and when they couldn't wake me up to nurse he worked with her to feed and tried giving her bottles.

 He's the best! I don't know what I would have done without him!! 

All night long the nurses kept coming in to take my blood, give me MORE drugs, and help take care of the baby. I was also on the air compression leg massager because I hadn't been up in days and my legs had retained SO much water (actually my entire body had) and they were so swollen they looked like they were seriously going to split open.  I begged and begged for them to take out the MAG and I knew I would start feeling better. I wanted to get up and use the bathroom normal (I HATE catheters), I wanted to take care of my baby. I wanted to feel like a human again. I didn't want to feel like death! 

August 17th, 2014

Finally at the 5am hourly blood and sugar draw.... I legit had no veins left! Multiple nurses came in to try to find something!! My feet, hands, arms, neck..... every single vein was used and dead (and SUPER bruised) and they would squeeze and squeeze for like 10 minutes and still couldn't get enough blood.  I had nothing left. I think the morning nurse knew I had been through enough and said "I'm going to call the doctor now and see if we can stop taking blood and see what I can do to get you off this MAG." THANK YOU!!

By 5:30 the doctor came in. He talked for a while and mentioned I should really be on the MAG until 2pm. Sometimes they get away with taking the patient off after 12 hours (which it had been almost 15 hours). I begged and pleaded with him and told him I would come around and be WAY better if I could just get off that dang MAG. He was extremely reluctant but finally agreed. OOOOOOOO hallelujah!!  

By 6 the MAG was out! The catheter was out. I ate some food for the first time in like 48 hours. Small victories! I was slowly coming back to life!! By 8 I was able to stand up on my own... and I even took a shower!!! Holy moly. Now we are talking! I was feeling like a whole new woman! I still slept most of the day and was still pretty weak and had a crazy headache but I was doing better. I could hold Hads a little more and worked on nursing with her. 

 She was amazing and perfect in every single way. Our biggest struggle was getting her to wake up! That cute girl was suppose to still be baking and she wasn't having it! This world was hard work!! She attached great when I would try to nurse her... but she would only do like 2 sucks before passing back out.  NOTHING woke that girl up... we would tickle her feet, get her completely undressed, sit her up, put ice packs on her, give her SHOTS. Nothing. Different nurses and pediatricians would come in and try all their tricks, as would the NICU staff, and lactation specialist.  

I know most people would not chalk that up as a problem. But it was so hard and rough!! She kept dropping weight, wouldn't have a bowel movement, and was so dehydrated she had acid crystals in her urine (sad face). They kept threatening to take her to the NICU but I would freak out and tell them we could do it. We spend all day and night trying to wake that girl up to eat. I pumped nonstop to try to get my milk to come in early, we supplement with super fatty formula, and I breastfed. 

*and i'm sure a lot of you are thinking what I was thinking- she was probably drugged up from all the drugs I had been on. I cried about that A LOT and felt awful! I was told over and over again that wasn't the case and it wasn't my fault- I didn't believe them. Except- my newborns do sleep A LOT!! She slept like that for months (like 22 hours a day)..... and Collin was the same way. I don't think they would have been drugged up for that long.... Our babes just like their sleep!**

It took 5 days but she finally stopped dropping weight and had some action in her diaper. So with that.....

August 20, 2014

Our sweet girl was FINALLY released from the hospital at 5lbs 10oz.    

There it is!! Our baby story!! The day that changed out life forever. Thanks for joining our family sweet Hadley (aka Hads, Haddie, Hadders, Hadderson, sis!!!) We sure love you!!

Questions and answers:

Do you wish you could have normal labor and deliveries??

I dream of the day I go into labor like a normal women.  I dream about timing out my contractions..... taking a warm bath before applying makeup and doing my hair (for picture ops of course!). Drinking some hot chocolate. Bouncing on a ball. Calling my mom to come be with Collin. And then... when my contractions get a bit closer I would wake up my hubs and say "It's time!" And we would calmly yet excitedly grab our hospital bags (I have yet to have my hospital bags with me going into labor and delivery) and make our way to the hospital breathing together to get me through contractions. I dream of that day haha. I have experienced nothing even similar to that! But as long as there is that healthy baby on my chest at the end, it's all the same! I would do it again, and again, and again a million times over as long as that's the case!!!! 

Are you going to have any more babies??

EVERY one asks if we are having anymore babies. My answer? I hope so. Call me crazy.... but I've always wanted a big family and I'd be heart broken if I couldn't have any more kids. I don't know if I can- it has been said that it is almost guaranteed I will have preeclampsia with every pregnancy of mine tho (although the increased severity of it was a coincidence). We understand the severity of that and do NOT take that lightly. We will have lots of doctors appointments (with lots of questions and seeking out lots of different opinions), prayers, and discussions as husband and wife before we make the decision. So with that..... If we do decide to have a baby- please do not judge or lecture us. There would be a lot that went into that decision. And if we decide we can't have another baby..... please don't ask me a million times if I'm going to have another baby. I will be heartbroken. But will always feel so grateful and blessed for the 2 I have!! And hey- who knows?? Erik and I are both very open to adoption.

What was Hadley like as a newborn?

Honestly??? As easy and sweet as they come! I have NO clue how we lucked out with such a sweet girl! She slept ALL the time! And when she did wake up she would just look around and would be so content. She nursed like a champ. She slept like a champ (was sleeping 6-8 hours straight at night from almost day one and slept all day long). And we NEVER heard her cry except maybe when we changed her clothes- she wasn't a fan of that. She was and still is perfection!

 

p.s. we can't NOT mention the hair! She had a ton and we got stopped ALL the time when we were out! Everyone stopped or at least pointed and said "look at that hair". Apparently a teeny premie WHITE baby with all that hair was quite the sight! We sure adored it!!

 

 

 

What was it like adjusting to 2 kids?

Some moms may want to punch me for saying this but it was honestly a breeze! I did have quite a bit of help those first few months so I'm sure that was a big reason. But I loved it from day one: I made sure I did not focus on the "guilt" of having another baby and just really focused on the blessing of having a sibling for Collin and having another sweet blessing join our family (I think that REALLY helps!!). The best advice I got in the hospital was from a random OB who came in because she heard she had to "check out the hair on this teeny premie baby!!". She mentioned she heard I had a 2 year old and she said "he will not want to be left out of ANYTHING! And he shouldn't- make that a priority. Make sure he knows there is always room for him. This baby is not replacing him... just joining him. If he wants to get up on the rocker with you and the baby- let him.... even if there isn't any room- make some! He NEEDS to know there is still room for him. He may even want to nurse. Just tell him 'sure bud! The baby doesn't get to have any cool food like you do because she doesn't have teeth. She just has to drink this milk so let me make sure she gets enough and then you can have some. It sounds weird but he will lose interest before you are done nursing and will be satisfied you didn't deny him something the baby gets to do with you." It did sound weird but it totally worked! 

Erik and I just really focused on having Collin help and join us for everything and he was def not replaced! It helped that they both slept A LOT! So we could still play and read and do what we normally did with Collin when he was awake and Hadley was ALWAYS asleep. And when Collin would go down for his naps (every 2 hours) we would love on Hadley and give her our undivided attention (even if that meant she just slept on our chests). It somehow just works! But of course I would fear "what if they both are crying at the same time and I'm the only one around?? Do i just choose my favorite for the day?" Nope- you just know as a mom what each kid wants and which one needs IMMEDIATE attention, or who will take the shorter time to calm down. And it's VERY okay with letting one or the other cry for a second Ex: When Hads cried it usually meant she wanted to nurse which would take me about 20 minutes. When Collin was crying he usually just needed to take a nap which took me about 30 seconds to put him down. So I would hurry and put Collin down then tend to Hadley. 

 

As far as Collin: we read LOTS of big brother books to him before the baby came, we talked to him about it and made sure he was excited to have a new friend and his own baby. He practiced changing diapers and rocking his baby elmo. When he came to meet her we had a present for him "from hadley" and he was so excited and knew she was here to be his best friend and not take his place. We made sure we called her "his baby" and with that you could always see his eyes light up and was so proud of that little baby (instead of jealousy). We were very careful to not jump all over him every time he wanted to go see her and touch her or put the binks back in her mouth, etc. He held her as much as he wanted and "help" with everything. Of course we would always keep him in the corner of our eye and were certain to keep Hadley's safety at the top of our list with a crazy 2 year old around... but it just worked out for us as long as we didn't jump and scream "be careful!" every 5 seconds he was around her... he was very gentle and loving and VERY aware of where she was at all times. (We did make the mistake once or twice and did yell our of concern to "watch out!" when he was around Hads and he almost turned on her thinking it was her getting her in trouble. So that's why we made sure we weren't doing that) 

I know it's different for every family but this is what worked for us!!  They adored each other to no end and were immediate BFFS!! 

 

 

 

 

These two sure melt my heart!!

 

Thanks for reading!! We love sharing these life changing moments with our friends!!