Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Labor and Delivery and NICU (days 1,2, and 3)








I moved in with Mellonee on Monday, December 19 since my doctor is in Ogden, UT. She is always worried that if I go into labor I won't make it to the hospital because I usually have quick labors so she has me move closer. I love my doctor so it's worth the drive and worth being away from home. She's so super nice, almost like talking to your mom when you go in and she's up to date on everything new going on with pregnancy. Plus they do ultrasounds at every visit so they are awesome about catching anything and you get to see your baby at every visit. Love love love her! Anyways, that's just a side note since I found out she was retiring in May and I'm so sad that others can't have the experience that I did. I wanted to cry and still want to cry, crazy I know.
Anyway, onto the post. Brad and the boys came down the following Friday and we celebrated Christmas with the Wildings. Our boys loved opening presents with them all and then they had a great time playing with their gifts. We had a doctors appointment the following Tuesday. I had been having contractions on Monday and again on Tuesday but totally random ones and since I'd never really experienced contractions with my others since I was induced and at a 4 or 5 with all of them I got an epidural right away. This time I had decided to go natural so I wanted to go into labor myself but was paranoid that by the time I realized I was in labor I'd be in transition. (after experiencing natural labor I was probably right because I handled it really well and was at transition before I knew it) So we left for the appointment at noon and got there by 12:30, Machel had a delivery so she was running an hour late so we left and came back and then waited some more, I got called back just in time to find out she had another delivery and it would be 45 more minutes. By 2:15 she was back and ready to see us. She checked my cervix and it had changed a lot since the week before, she asked about contractions and got a little concerned for me to be away from the hospital at all. She told us to go to the mall and walk and that she'd probably see us that night but then she got a phone call from the hospital for another patient and told me to wait a minute she'd be right back. When she came back she held up her had and said 5? I had no idea what she was talking about and then she said, "Can you be at the hospital at 5pm?" I said sure and was soooooo excited that I was going to have a baby that night and not be pregnant anymore (my pregnancy was super hard and I was so sick). Brad and I had time to run to Mellonee's house and get all our stuff and then call my doula, Karen Cox (a friend of Mellonee's) to make sure she could be there. I had her plus I used hypnobirthing to prepare for months before. We got to the hospital and I was induced, they started me on pit but after an hour and a half I hadn't changed much so they decided to break my water. This seemed normal to me but apparently if you are going natural it's totally crazy and makes everything more painful. I was able to just breath through all the contractions until I was about an 8 and then they started to hurt and I was shaking like crazy. Karen reminded me to breath and before you know it I was ready to push, can I just tell you that I've NEVER experienced so much pain in my life before as that moment? I pushed for about 5 minutes, I had looked up at the clock right before and realized that our baby could be born on Curt's birthday. I had been teasing him for a while telling him our baby was going to be born on his birthday and then no one would remember his birthday (big joke in the McCoy family that we celebrate Curt's birthday in March). Spencer was born at 12:00:20. Just 20 seconds into Curt's birthday. We decided to name him Spencer Curtis after Curt since they would share a birthday, plus we love Uncle Curt!
Spencer did great during the labor and delivery but because it was so quick he ended up with fluid in his lungs and wasn't breathing well when he was born. He was able to stay with me for an hour but when he was still having trouble after that the NICU nurses took him to transition to try and figure it out. They did a chest x-ray, drew some blood labs, and put him on a machine that blows air into your nose and mouth to open your lungs. Brad and I went to see him and I just cried. I didn't really get to hold him for the next 6 hours since they were doing all of the above. It was horrible and I just wanted to hold him and make sure everything was fine. On a side note though, I felt awesome! After delivery I had no pain really. I was able to walk around, I looked the best I ever have after having a baby (meaning my color and all not my hotness LOL) and I was able to walk around no problem. It was amazing to me how well the recovery was from a natural birth, it made the minutes of pain worth it.
Anyway, at 4:30 in the morning Brad and I got a call from transition saying Spencer was doing good and hopefully would be released in 2 hours but by 6am they had decided to admit him to the NICU. I was so sad since I'd been through the NICU with Blake but this was worse since Spencer was actually hooked up to all sorts of monitors and the like. He had a feeding tube in as well and an IV in his little hand. It was so hard to see him like that even though I was grateful that they were talking care of him. He spent the next 2 1/2 days in the NICU and eventually they were able to take all the tubes out and by late Thursday afternoon they had most of his tubes out, were able to give him a bath and get him dressed. He started nursing that night and has been a champ ever since!
Brad had told the NICU that they had until Saturday to release him because we now have crappy insurance with a $5000 deductible and he didn't want to hit the 1st of January with a new year and end up paying 2 deductibles. Of course all we really wanted was for him to be okay and be able to be released when he could but it was funny listening to Brad joke with them, and he's worth every penny paid!
Sometimes these life experiences are tough but lessons are always learned. I'm so grateful to have my 4th little boy. I'm grateful that he's well and that by having him in the NICU I realized how precious life is and how much Heavenly Father must love and trust me to raise one of his "mighty men of God" as we call them at our house. One of his choice sons. Another thing is I don't really like nursing but having to struggle to get him to nurse in the NICU and trying so hard with him it's made me grateful for that as well. Kinda crazy but I was so happy the first time he actually nursed, it was a stepping stone for him to be released and I was so thankful. I'm grateful for my sweet little baby and I already love him so much. I seriously can't get enough of him and just want to hold him all the time. My boys are wanting the same thing and it's a struggle between Braden and I because we both don't want to share cute little Spencer. Lucky thing Braden goes back to school next week so I'll be able to hold him all day long and then he can have a turn after homework, what a great incentive! I love all my boys and am feeling super blessed!

Monday, December 19, 2011

Pregnancy

I was so nervous to have another baby since there would be a nearly 6 year gap between you and Blake. The first half of my pregnancy I spent in disbelief that we were really going to have another baby. I had taken a leap of faith and trusted that Heavenly Father knows more than I do. I was so sick the first 28 weeks of pregnancy. I wasn't nauseous just everything I ate made me throw up. I'd eat and then get this sick feeling and then puke like I had the flu. It was the weirdest thing. I also had a lot of headaches in the first trimester. Finally at 28 weeks I felt some relief, I felt so much better, I wasn't tired, and I wasn't throwing up every day. I still didn't have an appetite and the things I for sure couldn't eat were tomatoes and garlic. I usually love salsa but I got sooooo super sick after eating it twice while I was pregnant, I vowed not to eat it again until after you were born. I drank a lot of milk because I had so much indigestion. I'm not a huge milk drinker but toward the end of my pregnancy I probably drank between 1/3 and 1/2 gallon of milk each day. Crazy! More than I've drank my entire life. When I would drive anywhere or even just ride in the car you would always snuggle up into my right rib. I guess it was super comfy for you but boy was in not so comfy for me. My back would ache and no matter what I did you wouldn't move until I layed down on my bed. Needless to say we didn't drive very far in the later months. You weren't a super active baby, but moved just enough that I wasn't worried. You were my first baby to measure a little smaller than your due date. Toward the end my doctor just kept saying wow this is a super tall skinny baby. The minute you were born I was so happy to have you, holding you in my arms gave me peace that Heavenly Father knows what he's doing. I feel so blessed to have you in our family and you are such a peaceful baby and I love you so much. Your brothers love you too, Braden wants to hold you the minute he wakes up and the minute he comes home from school as does Ty. Blake will come over by me and point to you and then grin and point to him, pretty much saying, "give him up mom, it's my turn to hold my baby brother." Blake is so happy to be a big brother and always comes to check on you. We love you so much!

37 weeks
1 week old