We Survived the First 2 Weeks!

I had forgotten how crazy the first few weeks with a baby are... the constant nursing, the no sleeping, getting used to hearing crying again...

And then you add in having a toddler... and life very quickly got really crazy. We made it though, and here is how little Owen checks in at 2 weeks old..

Day we came home from the hospital

-Weighs 6lbs 14oz (8% for weight)... 20.5" long (42% for length)... So he's still our little dink. He gained 11oz in just a little over a week! More than they expect newborns to gain, so I feel proud of both of us for getting that weight piled on!

-Is exclusively breastfed! It may seem silly, but I'm proud and overjoyed to have made it even this far. We had to supplement Austin with formula 3 days after he was born because I didn't have any milk for him to eat... so making it 2 weeks of just me and my boobs... that is a huge accomplishment in my world.

-Is a crazy-arm flailing sleeper just like his big brother. Those long skinny arms get into all kinds of weird positions.

-Is not the best sleeper... he usually takes a few good long stretches in the morning, and then is more awake and erratic in the afternoon and evening. His days and nights are mixed up. Sometimes he eats and immediately goes into a milk drunk sleep.. sometimes he has to be soothed to sleep and is a little more difficult to get down.

-Speaking of nights... we've had a few legit sleepless ones. We will go to bed around 9pm and Owen and I are still awak at 4am... constantly nursing, trying to soothe him, shush him. To be honest, I get close to loosing my mind on those nights. A person can't function on no sleep at all. And to have him be so fussy and cluster nurse like a piranha is exhausting.

-He's very oral and talkative like Austin was. A lot of grunting and groaning and whimpering noises.. even while he sleeps. He makes the same "eee-yah, eee-yah" noise Austin did when he's hungry.

-Speaking of hungry... this is my boob kid. Wow. He was a little piggy on me the first few days of his life... trying to get my milk to come in, and come in it did. Holy porn boobs!! I had to sit with ice packs on my chest, they hurt so bad.

-He is a pretty erratic nurser as well... we are definitely NOT on any kind of "nurse, then 2 hours later he'll be hungry again" schedule. So that has made having visitors over a bit hard. Everyone wants to come see us, which is awesome... but Owen is not that content to be with anyone but me for very long. Sometimes we get a few hours between nursing, sometimes only 20 mins.

-He has long skinny chicken legs and long skinny funny feet and toes. I totally adore them!

-He hates diaper changes, and wasn't that impressed with taking a bath, either.

-Austin seems to be adjusting ok. He wants to "see Baby Owen" a lot so I have to show him his face and usually confirm that yes, that's Baby Owen, and no, he is no longer in my tummy. We've had some sweet moments with Austin giving Owen kisses, we've also had some "be careful!!" moments where Owen has almost gotten squished...

So there we are... life in a nutshell is all about nursing, boobs, grunting, soothing and more nursing.

We are surviving.. and enjoying getting to know Owen!!!

Owen's Birth Story- Part 2

***Same disclaimer as with Austin's birth story... retelling the birth of a baby requires details and the use of words like cervix and dilation and so on and so forth. Don't blame me, it's science. I don't make the rules..***

Tuesday, August 12th...

We woke up in the hospital at about 6:00am... well, I woke up anyways and woke Neal up by saying "hey, are you awake??"

I was ready to get the ball rolling!!

The normal hospital stuff all got under way... IV was put in, vitals were taken, monitors on my belly to monitor my contractions and Owen's heartbeat were strapped on... awesome mesh granny-style hospital panties put on.

Check, check, and check. I was looking good in those panties and hospital gown, let me tell ya.

My Doctor came in a little after 7am to get my induction started... and told me to eat breakfast (mmmm flavorless hospital soggy pancakes.... )

Bulb thingy full of saline (same technique we did with Austin) inserted to get me to dilate to 3cm, and we were off!

The morning passed with some pain, for sure. I had a couple of hours of pretty intense contractions and my awesome husband rubbed my back.

morning contractions looked promising!!

And then for some reason.. the pain subsided around 10:00am and we walked the maternity ward a few times, I paced around in the room quite a bit, laid in the bed for an enternity to try and get progress to come back.

This labor was so different already than Austin's... Austin's was fast and furious and I was in terrible pain as soon as I was induced and BOOM he was born.

Owen... well, sweet little Owen was in less than a rush.

When Dr. B came in to check me at noon, I hadn't had a contraction or any pain in several hours. Nice, since I wasn't in pain.... but not exactly promising when the point of the day was to get a baby out of me.

I told Dr. B that I wasn't in pain, so there wasn't much he could do.. the bulb thingy needed to do it's job, so we had to keep waiting.

Right after Dr. B left, I went to the bathroom... and lo and behold.. there was the bulb! It fell out of me because it had done it's job and got me to 3cm dilated.

I yelled through the door to Neal to tell them the bulb fell out and my nurse went out of the room to try and catch Dr. B in the hallway... he said to start me on pitocin.

Ho boy.

I braced myself for the worst. As soon as I got pitocin with Austin I was pretty much sick with pain instantly and could barely catch my breath between contractions... so I was expecting the same experience this time.

They started me at the lowest dose- .5- and we waited.

Nothing.

They upped me to a dose 1... and we waited.

Nothing.

We were upped to a dose of 2. Then 4. Then 5. Then 6.

I kid you not.... nothing.

No pain. No contractions. Nothing.

It was almost 4:00pm at this point and my Mom had texted me wanting to know when they should head up to the hospital to meet Owen.

Umm..... don't pack your bags quite yet, Mom.

I called her and told her that I was not progressing quickly, if at all, and that Owen wasn't going to be born anytime soon. With the 2 hour drive from Springfield, and Austin's bedtime and all that, it wasn't going to make sense for them to come up to see us at all that day.

I think everyone... our families, the nurses, my friends, and even Neal and I, expected this labor to go really fast since Austin came fast and this was my second pregnancy.

Lesson #1 learned in "Each Child is Different"

So here we are at 5:30pm.

Still no pain or contractions, and Dr. B came in with Dr. Kelly who would be working the night shift to get us all introduced.

Dr. Kelly checked me and I was (surprise!!!) still at only 3cm.

WHAT. THE. CRAP.

10 hours of labor so far and I'm at 3???? That's it???? Oh help me lord this was going to be a long process.

Dr. Kelly wanted to break my water to get things going a bit more, so we agreed.

I also got my pitocin increased to a dose 7... and... wait for it...within about 15 mins...

I STARTED TO GET CONTRACTIONS!

I forgot to mention Kenzie came to visit at this point because she was a few minutes away at her gym... thank you Kenz for helping me pass some time as we waited for things to happen!!

So. Here we are, starting to have contractions. I was ready. After all day of pretty much nothing, I really wanted this kid out.

Every nurse I had all day, plus both Doctors B and Kelly all advised me to not wait for an epidural if I wanted one. Since this was my second pregnancy, they had seen too many women try and "wait a bit longer" and then dilate way too fast and miss their window for getting an epidural.

I went for a little over an hour with contractions just to make sure I was really ready to be numb and stuck in my bed. When I was to the point where I had to squeeze the crap out of Neal's hand, close my eyes and really breathe through the pain, I knew it was time.

They called the anesthesiologist and I had Neal help me go to the bathroom before he arrived... and that's when I completely lost it.

I started sobbing in the bathroom, and shaking... telling Neal "I don't want to do this. I don't want to, these scare me. I don't like epidurals, I don't want to..."

He was amazing and tried to soothe me, but my sobbing turned into huge, body-wracking shaking with fat tears running down my face as I was sitting up and getting prepped for the epidural.. and it got to the point where my nurse had to check my mental state by asking me what my name was, if I knew what was being done to me and if I consented to it.

That's me... the crazy lady sobbing uncontrollably.

I have NO idea why I responded like that. I had an epidural with Austin and I knew they worked, they don't leave people paralyzed, and I would feel so much better after I got one... I just... lost it and couldn't stop shaking.

I'm blaming stress, hormones, and just being tired.

After the epidural was in, I calmed down and the medicine started working.

We passed several more hours like this.. me watching The Food Network (why I tortured myself with images of food when I hadn't eaten in over 12 hours I don't know....) and taking little cat naps.

Around 10:00pm my nurse checked me and I was at almost 6cm dilated. Sigh... things were still progressing slowly... very slowly.

So she went and got this peanut-shaped yoga ball thing and told me it was a miracle worker for getting your pelvis to open up and baby to drop.

So that was put between my legs as I laid in my bed and we passed another hour...

I was checked again at 11:15pm because I was starting to feel some pain and pressure in my cervix.... and the magic words!!!!!!!

"Oh! His head is RIGHT THERE!!!!"

YES!!!!!

Thank you peanut ball thing... I was fully dilated, Owen was in my birth canal and it was time!!!

People started coming in, getting the doctor's tools ready, baby station table ready, they had to wake Dr. Kelly up from sleeping to come in and I was prepped to push.

I still wasn't feeling much pain or pressure, so I had to ask when I should push... the nurse told me to just start and take deep breaths in between... so I started...

And I pushed for 7 mins.

I know, I know.. hate me if you must. Labor the second time around... little bit easier for sure.

Right before Owen came out though, his heart rate dropped severely because he was coming out wrong. Instead of the back of his head presenting itself first, he had his head tilted back and his forehead was coming out first... and it was putting him in distress.

Dr. Kelly was not thrilled to do so, but she gave me an episiotomy to help get the little guy out, so his heart rate didn't continue to drop. She simply stated "we've got to get him out... now."

On the last push out came this tiny (oh so tiny!!!!) perfect, beautiful little creature... he was put straight on my chest and the flood of ugly-crying-sobbing came out of me.

I couldn't stop kissing his little face and thanking God for another gorgeous little baby... how I ever got so lucky, I'll never know.

They had us do skin-to-skin for awhile before they took him to weigh him and I was shocked at HOW tiny he was.

Just 6lbs, 5oz and 19" long. Another reason I didn't have to push long.. he was a little dink!

It was a long day, 16 hours of labor, plenty of tears, more Food Network shows than Neal would care to watch in a day... but our family is complete.

My last baby..... the one that will fill my heart, and fill our home and change all of our lives yet again.

Little Owen.. my sweet little piglet... welcome to our family... we couldn't love you more.

We did it!

Daddy's first diaper duty

Welcome Owen Kyle Glynn!!!

My sweet peanut

Listening carefully to Daddy talk about how to hold baby brother gently

Little brother doesn't seem so bad!!

Heading home.. let the madness begin!!

Owen's Birth Story- Part 1

Our little peanut has arrived!

I am officially a mother of 2 children... the immensity of that responsibility and thought haven't even sunk in yet, but I do know that I feel happy and complete.... and oh so very, very blessed.

The first part of Owen's birth story starts on Monday morning at 8:30 am...

My 38 week doctor appointment.

The end of the road... right before my 38 week appointment

Neal went with me, and we dropped Austin off at daycare and went and got a coffee before my appointment. I told Neal I was feeling a bit off and nauseous that morning, but didn't think too much of it.

We met with the doctor and all was good... no protein in the urine, good blood pressure, good weight gain... but then he measured me.

I measured 36"... and at 38 weeks pregnant, I shouldn't have been that small. Unless Owen had dropped. My Dr. checked me and said that Owen was low, but not that low. I wasn't dilated at all, and my cervix was still at 0%... it hadn't thinned at all. So him dropping was probably not the cause of my small belly.

So the other cause of measuring small would be low amniotic fluid. My Dr. was getting me scheduled to have an ultrasound at my following week appointment to check my fluid level and mentioned I should call if I noticed Owen's movements declining.

Just as he was about to leave, I piped up "well, he already has stopped moving a lot. Yesterday he didn't move at all."

So that alarmed Dr. B a bit and he decided to give me an ultrasound right then. He wheeled in the machine, took a look around and declared (in his matter of fact way)- "yep- you have no fluid in there. You're done... we'll need to induce."

I started laugh-crying and going "you've got to be kidding me. You've GOT to be kidding me????"

How is pregnancy #2 ending the same way??

Both pregnancies ended at exactly 38 weeks to the day, both ended abruptly, both ended with inductions, both ended with complications.

So.... apparently my body doesn't like to be more than 38 weeks EXACTLY pregnant.

I started panicking a bit.. this can't happen yet!!! What about work? I have so much to wrap up... Neal was supposed to help a friend run a football training camp... my maternity leave paperwork wasn't quite settled at work....so much still needed to happen before baby.

Dr. B wanted to hook me up to a NST (non-stress test.. it monitors baby's heart to make sure they aren't in distress in there) for 30 mins.

As he was hooking me up I asked... "So... when are we going to need to induce then?" thinking it would be in a few days or a week or so, like we when we made that decision with Austin.

Dr. B looked at me and smiled and said "today."

WHAT THE HELL??????????????????????????

The NST would determine the course of A) we go over to the hospital that minute and get going (if Owen was in distress) or B) we'd have the day to get ready and we'd go in to induce that night.

The NST came back that Owen was fine, so Dr. B called the hospital and got us scheduled to go in that night.

Ok.

Panic time.

We called our parents and my mom was like "WHAT????"

Um, yeah, my thoughts exactly.

She and my Dad going to be up that night to get Austin to take home with them, so we could not worry about him while we were in the hospital and then have some time to settle at home after, too.

I rushed to work and told my boss what was going on, set up a "do not disturb" message on my email and frantically tried to wrap up 2 weeks of projects in about 5 hours.

I was frantically sweating the whole time.

Neal went home and cleaned, did dishes, changed our sheets (bless him... seriously) and got our house ready.

I felt so bad leaving my job so suddenly... I know things will be fine, but still... to all my co-workers reading this, I'm sorry!!!

I headed home around 2:30pm.. meaning to stay longer but I was starting to not feel well, and was having some pretty good cramping... the thought of "what if my body knows this is the end and I'm actually going into labor??" definitely entered my mind.

I woke Austin up at the tail end of his nap over at daycare and headed home. My parents arrived around 4:30 and we got my hospital bag packed, Austin packed up for Camp Grandma.... and the hospital called and told me they wanted me to check in at 9pm that night, not 8pm like Dr. B stated earlier.

Dang... more time to just try and waste and be anxious.

After Austin and my parents left, I tried to relax... I took a shower, ate some food... Kenzie came over for some moral support and delivered magazines and candy.

Finally it was time to leave. Neal and I headed off and went to his parents' house to drop off the dog and we just hung out there for a bit since they live 5 mins from the hospital.

Beautiful sunset as we headed to the hospital

Since I'm vain, I did my hair over at my in-law's while we waited. The last thing I wanted was my frizzy skanky air-dried hair in all our birth pictures.

Ok...finally time to go to the hospital. We got checked in and settled into our room... and the doctor on duty that night came in to tell us the somewhat bad news...

We would not be getting induced that night.

The hospital was at capacity and they had me check in basically just to secure my spot and room. They were under-staffed and had 4 women that night in active labor. Understandably, their attention and staff needed to focus on the women who were in the middle of giving birth. They didn't want to start my induction and risk a complication arising that they didn't have the staff to help with.

We understood, but were a bit disappointed. That just meant we wouldn't start the induction until the morning, and that would extend labor quite a bit.

But, what could we do..

So they gave me a sleeping pill, said good night and we got to just sleep....

Tuesday was going to be a busy, life-changing day.

Baby Yeah- 37 weeks- Full Term?!?!?!

Size of baby: 

A bunch of Swiss Chard (??)- 6 1/3lbs and 19" long.

I read conflicting info about this week.. some sites say this is Full Term week, others don't claim that happens until 39 weeks. I'm siding with the sites that claim it's this week, naturally. I want to feel one step closer!

My total weight gain: 

I don't know. It changes daily, and sometimes drastically. Last week I was 29lbs+ one day, the very next day I was almost 36lbs+. I don't think it's humanly possible to gain 7lbs in a 24-hour period... soo.... let's say 33lbs. That sounds good.
I think the fluctuations are due to what time of day I weigh, what I have or haven't eaten, how hot it is how swollen I might be.. etc.

Stretch marks: 

Not yet.. my skin is still holding out..   

Movement: 

Quite a bit still for this being near the end and him supposedly running out of room. Sitting in the car is the worst, something very strongly jabs at my cervix and bladder the whole time. Yesterday I had to lean over to the left (I was the passenger), hold onto the bar at the top of the door, and try and stretch out. That was the only way I was going to make it. Sometimes it feels like he is trying to claw out of me. 

Sleep: 

So... yeah. I jinxed myself last week with the whole "heartburn is better!!" statement. Big fat "NO IT IS NOT BETTER!!!" The acid is back with a vengeance, especially at night while I'm sleeping. Even Tums and Zantac aren't really that effective at this point.
Last night Owen decided to get a massive case of the hiccups at 12:40am... and have them last for an hour. I will not miss the hiccups. They have gone beyond the cute "aw... baby has the hiccups!!" to a full-blown annoyance. He gets them so often they've lost their appeal, I guess. I had to get out of bed and sit in the recliner and basically rock him to sleep to get him to stop.

So in a nutshell, sleep is very hit or miss again. 

What I miss: 

I've said it before, I'll say it again.. NOT HAVING HEARTBURN OR ACID REFLUX. If I could make it 5 minutes without burping up acid, I'd be a happy camper.

Food cravings: 

Still on my carbs fix. I could live on blueberry pancakes right now. I just want stacks of blueberry pancakes, or cereal... mmmmm... carby-carbs.
Eating is also getting a bit hit or miss. On Saturday I was starving and ate a ton at a party, but then Sunday I couldn't really eat anything. I was hungry but nothing appealed to me and it was hot and I was uncomfortable so basically ate only watermelon all day. I even skipped dinner.


Symptoms: 

Contractions!!! yeah!!
Ok, but before anyone panics and thinks I'm going to give birth tomorrow... we are still in the Braxton-Hicks false labor stage. I'm getting several period-like cramps throughout the day and night. Nothing bad, but definitely a bit painful. Just a sign that we are progressing!! I'm sure he's camping out in there for at least 2 more weeks though.
I didn't get painful Braxton-Hicks with Austin, so it's kinda exciting to feel them and know my body is gearing up!!

I'm Excited About:
The idea that I could go into spontaneous labor. At  37 weeks with Austin, going into labor on my own, or even getting to my due date wasn't an option. My Doctor flat out told me it wasn't an option, and that was sad and hard to digest at the time.
As much as I'm a planner and I like to know what is going to happen and that side of having a set induction date appeals to me... that primal "earth mama" part of me really wants to know what it's like to just go into labor.
How will I know? What happens? This may be my second baby, but it's my first experience with an un-complicated full-term pregnancy. Now, I do know that I still have 3 weeks until my due date. I still could have complications come up in that time. Absolutely. But there is also a great chance that I won't, and I'll get to ride this ride to the end.
I'm excited to see what happens in the next few weeks!

Austin is: 

Very much into his new favorite pastime... tennis.
I got this little paddle ball play set as a sample at work and it's all he wants to do! Thank goodness he has an active Daddy who will play with him for hours while his large Mommy sits and observes with a cold glass of water and her camera.

Gotta make sure the equipment is in proper working order... 

Eye on the ball there son!!!

Got it!!!