One Month as a Mom

Well I have survived the first month as a mother!  However, I have loved my new full time job so it has been an awesome month! 

Week One:

It took both Trev and I to figure out how to dress him! Liam so so patient. Who knew it would be so hard to get a onsie on?  It also took both of us to change his diaper. We sure got peed on quite a bit that first week due to our rookie diaper jobs. 

Liam smiled from day one and I am obsessed with his cute little grins, half smiles and ear to ear smiles. My favorite thing is after he sneezes he gives us a big ole smile and coos. It is adorable!! He also smiles after he eats and is drifting off to sleep, and when he has bubble guts. 

He has been a fantastic eater and gained 8 oz his first week! He had his first check up at 5 days and passed with flying colors. He even have the doc some smiles and she was so impressed. 

I don't think we heard him cry once his first week home. He would just let out some adorable whimpers when he got hungry. 

Trev had the whole week off and was AMAZING! I loved watching him with Liam because he loves him so much. I had a pretty rough, painful first week recovering and Trev was so good to let me rest. He cooked, cleaned and ran any errands. He hardly let me do anything but be with Liam and sleep. 

Trev had to go back to work the next week so Grandma Lund stayed with us. She was a lifesaver. She cleaned, cooked and let me sleep. 

It has been so fun spending my days snuggling our little Liam. I take way too many pictures because I can't get enough of him! We are so in love and happy he is part of our family!

Liam's Birth Story

February 28th changed our lives instantly in a way we could have never imagined. I was always told childbirth was nothing like you see in the movies thanks to modern medicine. This seemed especially true after photographing the beautiful birth of little Sierra for my best friend. Everything was really calm and peaceful. Things did not go as planned for us. I never want to forget the details of that special day that our little Liam entered our arms and stole our hearts. 

Tues Feb 24: Trev and I were getting anxious as we watched my due date come and go. 

Wed Feb 25:  I started having contractions 5-7 minutes apart. They didn't hurt, but Trev in his true fashion erred on the side of caution and called the hospital. Since I am group b positive they told us come in to check things out. We went in about 11:30 pm and they sent us home about 1:00 am.

Thurs Feb 26: I started having contractions again about 4 minutes apart around 9:00 pm and they were uncomfortable.  We went in a little after midnight and they monitored me a couple hours. I was only at a 1 so they have me the option to stay and be induced or go home. I decided to go home to try to get some sleep and see if things progressed naturally. We got home around 5:00 in the morning and tried to get some sleep. 

Fri Feb 27: I woke up at 8:00 and was having pretty bad back pain and consistent contractions. I waited for Trev to wake up around 10:00 and he called our doc. He said to definitely come in. My induction date was scheduled the next day so he said we would just move it up if things didn't happen naturally. It was a crazy feeling knowing this was it!

The plan was to have an epidural so that we could relax and have a calm peaceful birth. I imagined they would lay him on my stomach right afterward as Trev cut the cord. Well things didn't quite go as planned...

Around noon Dr Oglesby came to see me and was going to break my water but when he checked me I was barely dilated to a one!  So they started me on Pitocin to get things moving. It took forever but around 4:00 pm I was finally dilated to a 4!  This gave me hope and also was hurting enough for me to ask for my epidural.  I got my epidural around 4:30 and the doc broke my water. There was a little meconium which can be dangerous if it gets in his lungs. 

The epidural kicked in and tried to got a little rest. I thought it was weird that I could still move my legs so I started getting nervous.  I slept for a couple hours and Trev and I just hung out watching shows. About an hour later I started having intense contractions a minute apart and I could feel them--this was not fun!  Dr O came in and said he should check me because the pain I was feeling and portraying seemed like I was at a 9 or 10 with an epidural, but when he checked me I was only to a 5. I felt like such a wimp! He said he would have Bobby come back to check my epidural. Bobby came in about a couple hours later because I was in a lot of pain. They checked me again and I was at an 8 and having strong contractions a minute apart. When he pulled the first one out he said it had slightly pulled out so I was only getting about half the dosage. All I remember at this point was being in so much pain. My whole body was shaking from nerves and adrenaline. He then gave me a second epidural in a different spot. I remember being so scared of having a contraction as he was inserting it but I think that was a tender mercy moment because I was able to relax as it happened. He also gave me a spinal block and said it should kick in after 5 minutes. Well nothing was working so he gave me a really strong dose of epidural. Finally I had some relief! My legs were completely numb and I remember thinking thank goodness!  At this point it was around midnight and we were both exhausted and fell asleep. As soon as I fell asleep I was woken up by a beeping noise.  The babies heart beat kept dropping after I had a contraction so the nurses came in and had to keep moving me from side to side to try to help. I felt bad because I was so numb and couldn't help them move me around. They discovered laying on my left side made it better so they kept me there. After that all I could do was watch that little yellow squiggly line that represented my babies heart rate. I prayed it would stay up above the red line. Trev calmed me down and reassured me the nurses were monitoring it and talked me into getting some sleep.  I fell asleep again and again was woken by a beep. I woke up and it felt like someone was pushing on my chest and I realized I couldn't breathe very well. I couldn't sit up to call for Trev so I panicked and frantically tried to find that remote that called the nurse in. I finally found it and hit the button and squeaked out that I couldn't breathe. They rushed in and Trev hurried over to hold my hand. The epidural medicine had spread up and started numbing my lungs. The nurses sat me up and let the gravity carry the medicine down.  I still had to think about breathing which made it really hard to sleep. Every time I dosed off my oxygen levels dropped and the beeping would wake me up. My nurse, Althea, came and sat by me so that I could try to sleep. This helped a little. Until I looked over and she had fallen asleep herself. About 2:00 I started feeling my legs again. I knew right away it was wearing off again. I stayed calm and pushed the booster button and waited 15 minutes to see if it helped. I remember I could feel the pins and needles creeping up my legs until I started to feel the contractions again. I woke up Trev to let him know. We called the nurse in to see if there was anything that could be done. On top of all of this I started running a fever of 100.5. The nurse said that was the cut off point of having a C section so if it went any higher that's what they would need to do. I would have been devastated to have a c section after everything I had been through.  The nurse left the room and I laid my head down. I remember feeling Trevs hands on my head and thought he was comforting me. I opened my eyes and realized he was giving me a blessing. I was so grateful for that and felt so blessed to have a husband who relies on our Heavenly Father to get us through tough times. I remember watching the clock and it took about 45 minutes for the medicine to really wear off. I was in a lot of pain again and called the nurse in. She checked me and we had great news, I was fully dilated!!! I was in so much pain so she had me try pushing. I guess sometimes the pain subsides when you push so she wanted to try that. At this point it was about 2:45 am. The birth plan was to get to a 10 and rest an hour before pushing to let the baby work down a little further and prevent tearing.  The was no way I could rest an hour with how much pain I was in. The nurse called in Bobby and he gave us two options. He said he could try giving a little more medicine to help me rest, but he thought I wouldn't be able to push because of how fatigued I was and I would probably lose all feeling of it worked making it harder to push. He couldn't give me anything too strong since I already had so much in me and for some reason my body rejected it. He thought I would end up needing a C section with that option. The other option was to start pushing now. Both options didn't seem that great sounding to me and I was so out of it that I couldn't decide. They kept turning to me and I made them repeat the options a few times because I couldn't focus let alone make that decision. I turned to Trev to make the decision; poor Trev, either option wasn't great so it wasn't fair to make him decide. Luckily my nurse stepped in and helped us decide. The plan was to start pushing to see if adrenaline would kick in and see if I had the energy. They also didn't want my fever to affect the baby. I pushed from about 3:15-4:30. This was the hardest thing I have ever been through. This is the part that was like the movies, only worse. The pain would make me lose control of my body at times and I had to really focus to regain control. Trev was my rock through it all.  He kept telling me how pretty I looked and when I would start to lose it he would make me look into his eyes and take deep breaths. He fed me ice chips, held my oxygen mask on and got a rag full of ice to pat me down. He held my leg and coached me through the whole thing. Neither of us were mentally prepared for a natural delivery and I told Trev I didn't think I could do it. My whole body was shaking, I was fatigued and tired, my fever was making me sweat like crazy, and I was swollen from eye lids to toes because of how many fluids they pumped in me. He reassured me I could do it and I know he meant it. The only thing that kept me going was how excited Trev was when he saw the head. I felt like I had been pushing and pushing and made no progress then the nurse had Trev look at the head and he lit up and had the biggest smile. She brought in a mirror to help encourage me to push. I always thought I wouldn't want to see myself deliver, but it was encouraging to see that I was making progress and helped me keep going. 

When the head was to a certain point they called Dr O.  He came in and told us that a respiratory team was lined up and ready to take the baby as soon as he was born because he wouldn't be crying due to the meconium he swallowed. He also said the cord was around his neck. I was trying to listen but was pretty out of it. I'm not sure how long this last part took but it seemed like forever. All I could do to keep going was push and had to forget about the pain. It was as if my body new what to do and I had to get my head out of its way. The final pushes I remember so clearly. I knew I would soon be holding my baby and the adrenaline kicked in. I remember the relief I felt as the head finally came through and I felt the rest of his body kind of flop out of me. It was the weirdest feeling! I laid back, looked at Trev and said "I did it!"  

Trev quickly cut the cord and the respiratory team snatched him up to get him breathing. He was a dark green color. I kept trying to look at him, but I had to deliver the placenta and get stitched up. I just remember wanting to hear him cry. It took about 2 minutes but they got him breathing. He stayed pretty calm and didn't really cry much.  Trev held him and kept saying how Liam just kept gazing into his eyes. I was finally able to hold him skin to skin and warm him up. I was so happy to have him in my arms.  All the work it took to get him here was well worth it. I couldn't believe how perfect he was. 

I have relived the craziness of my delivery over and over. I'm not sure why things happened like they did, but I must say I am pretty proud of myself for making it through that and I truly believe I would have given up and opted for a C-section if it weren't for Trev.  I saw his true colors that day as he kept calm through the storm, relied on our Heavenly Father, and gave me the strength I needed to keep going. We learned and grew so much. Going through that together has brought us closer than we have ever been. 

We spent the next couple days in the hospital. It was our little heaven on earth. I love watching Trev be a dad. He has so much love for our little Liam. It makes my heart so happy. I love our little family and can't wait for the adventures ahead.