remington's story

i had no clue that the contractions i was feeling as i finished up the previous blog post would lead to this... a long few days that ended in all of us at home as a family of five last night!

so... obviously, monday i was having contractions. that was nothing new, though, since prelabor had been going on for almost a month. i noticed around 10.30 am that they were definitely closer together (every 2-3 minutes) and more pronounced. just before noon i decided to lay down on the couch to see if they'd go away, crossing my fingers that they wouldn't.

the contractions didn't slow or regress, so i attempted to get up to get lunch for the kids- and that's when things got started!! i thought i'd pulled a muscle because i got a sudden excruciating pain in my entire abdomen, from my diaphram all the way down to the tops of my thighs. i assumed it would go away, but after using the bathroom and moving very slowly to the kitchen, i knew it wasn't going to leave. it was horrible- it took my breath away, and the contractions on top of it made it next to unbearable. i threw some leftovers in the microwave for the kids for lunch, then laid back down on the couch in tears. as luck would have it, kelvin got out of work early that day, so before the kids were done, he was through the door. right away he told me to call the on-call nurse, so i did. her advice was to call 911 and take an ambulance in to the hospital, but with two small kids with very good memories, i didn't want them to get scared.

instead, we all got into the van and hoofed it down hwy 45, madi sitting oblivious in her carseat, cole saying "daddy, you are driving faster??", kelvin mentally shoving every other vehicle on the road out of the way and me just trying not to scream.

once we got to the e.r. (in record time, i do believe), we went up to labor and delivery, where they strapped me up to the monitors. baby's heartbeat was fine, and i was still having strong contractions every two minutes. an internal check proved difficult, so we had to wait for dr h to come up. he said i was only 2 cm dilated, then ordered an ultrasound. the tech looked in silence for a minute, then said, "oh my, that is one BIG head!". then right away she said, "wait, this baby's breech...".

ummm, what now??

the tech did a few more quick measurements, and in an hour or so (contractions still 1.5-2 minutes apart), dr h came up to tell us that yes, our little guy was breech. he also said that there was far too much amniotic fluid, which was what enabled the little stinker to float around all willy-nilly... and that was also the reason that even though i was in active labor, things weren't able to progress like they should. attempting to manually turn the baby and then break my water to bring him down wasn't the best option, because there was a significant risk of baby landing on the cord, so after consulting with an o.b. specialist at amc, we decided that the best thing to do was a c-section.

not really in my plans, let me tell you!!

obviously, though, it was the safest option at the time, so that's what we did. at 8.23 pm, the dr h and the team delivered remington aaron! he weighed in at 7 lbs, 15 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long.

his daddy wasn't proud at all, of course... ;)

right away, it was evident that he shares his big brother's pout!

any surgery has risks, and mine proved that true. we had a few setbacks...

as soon as the incision was made and my water was broken, mr remington flipped sideways instead of remaining breech. all that extra pushing and wiggling caused some extra bleeding, which wound up being bad enough to require a transfusion.

(for those in the med field, you may have the specifics: my blood count prior to surgery was just over 9, it dropped to about 6.3 after surgery, and was at 8 at discharge.)

hello, little man!

because of the c-section and the blood loss, it was about 16 hours before i finally got to hold our newest little guy. fortunately, i was pretty out of it for most of that time, otherwise it would have been unbearable torture. i was worried that it would cause bonding and feeding issues, but so far, we haven't had any difficulties! in fact, he nursed the first attempt, so i knew it wouldn't be a problem. :)

after the transfusion, a fever developed, which meant several rounds of antibiotics.

then came the spinal headaches.

oh.my.word.

there is NOTHING like a spinal headache, and mine were on the more mild end. after several rounds of tordol and then morphine, we settled on doing a spinal patch because even though they eventually resolve on their own, a spinal headache with two small kids AND a baby just wasn't an option. the patch was effective right away, but somewhere between discharge and the drive home, the headaches returned. the good thing is that the patch has had SOME effect, because they do resolve with motrin and tylenol, an icepack and laying as still as possible. in a day or two, they should be pretty much gone.

despited the setbacks and the weather, we had a few people swing by to meet remington...

like my dad,

proud uncle tedly,

kayla and levi...

... and my mom.

kelvin's parents stopped by the next afternoon, but kelvin was home with the kids and i was in the middle of a lovely headache, so i didn't get any photos on my camera.

bummer.

cole met his baby brother for the first time thursday evening...

he couldn't have been more proud!!

madison could've cared less, really, but she's showing more interest now.

i expect a few bumps in the road the next few weeks, but for now i think the kids are adjusting reasonably well.

while labor and birth couldn't have gone more opposite than what i'd have hoped with remington, in the end, we're all happy and healthy (or at least, on the mend). rem had to be on oxygen for 15 hours, but has been holding his own incredibly well, so they didn't keep him any longer. he's a sweet little man, doesn't cry unless he's hungry and gave us an easy night last night.

we are SO blessed... <3

remington  aaron
4 days