Saturday, October 15, 2011
Hospital Stay
Thank you to our wonderful family that came to visit us during our longer than anticipated hospital stay.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
My Turn
I have been a little busy the last few days and thus I have not been on the computer...but I know that there are a few people waiting for "the story," so here it is.
We will start with Tuesday, October 4th. That afternoon we had a doctor's appointment. At this appointment we were hoping to have my membranes stripped to get some contractions going. Unfortunately, this didn't happen because I was still not dilated at all and I was not at all effaced. So after the exam we went into talk with my doctor in more detail about our options. Richard's mom had been here since October 1st and was leaving on October 11th, she was quickly running out of days to spend with her grandson. We discussed our options for induction as both us and our doctor were starting to think that my chances of going into labor on my own were very low. She said we could wait and be induced until sometime early the next week, but we decided that we would rather do it sooner, so she said she would call the hospital and see what they had available and get back to us later that evening. So we went home from the doctor's appointment feeling very discouraged and pretty upset.
The doctor called us at about 7pm telling us that the hospital had an opening for us the next day! So we jumped on it, we were feeling good about the decision we had made and were just ready to meet our sweet boy.
Wednesday morning Richard went to work and I rested and took it easy for most of the day knowing that I was about to start losing sleep each night. In the afternoon I went on a walk with Richard's mom because I had been having some contractions so we wanted to try and see if we could get them stronger and closer together. The contractions continued for much of the day, but never got painful or regular. After calling the hospital 3 times to see if they were ready for us to come in they finally had a bed for us at 9pm. We left our place at about 8:00 so we could drop Richard's mom off at his brother's house and then Richard and his brother gave me a blessing and his brother gave Richard a blessing, then it was off to the hospital. We got there at 9, got settled into our room and the Cirvadil was started at about 9:50. At about 10:30 my contractions became more regular and noticeable. We went to sleep for a little while and then I had to wake Richard up at about 2:30 because I could no longer handle the contractions on my own. I was pretty uncomfortable and we were both very tired, but we were feeling very excited and optimistic that the contractions were coming so regularly.
At 7:00 on Thursday morning the nurse came in to take the Cirvadil out and check for any dilation. I was dilated to a 2!!!! We were EXTREMELY excited about this because my doctor was just hoping I'd start the day at a 1 considering nothing had happened until this point. So when the doctor came in she told us how excited she was with how well things were going and that she would be back around noon to check in on us. Then the nurse started the pitocin. I was on it for about 1 1/2 and was not coping very well with the contractions because I couldn't move from the bed and I was hurting pretty bad from being stuck in the uncomfortable hospital bed. It was also hard because I had so wanted to do this part of labor in the comfort of my own home, but because of the circumstances this obviously didn't happen. The morning continued with Richard helping me through the contractions, they were about 3 minutes apart, painful, but not incredibly intense. After being taken off the pitocin I was able to get up and move around, I got in the shower and felt really rejuvenated. My contractions continued on their own so I didn't have to get back on the pitocin. The doctor came in and checked me at noon and I was dilated to a 4!!!! WOO HOO again! We were making good progress and the doctor told us that dilating from 0 to 4 is the slowest part and that it should speed up from there and she asked if we wanted my water broken because it could cut a few hours off of the process so we decided to go for it as we had been discussing it before she came in. So break my water she did. After having my water broken at about 12:30 the contractions became extremely intense and I was really struggling. My goal had been to have an all natural birth with no epidural but as time went on I was beginning to wonder if I would be able to make it. So finally I decided it wasn't worth it and had the nurse call the anethesiologist in, but then when he got there I kind of freaked out and sent him away. So I had the nurse check my progress...still at a 4. Boo. For an hour after sending the anesthesiologist away we tried many different coping techniques and did everything that we could to make it through this naturally, Richard was wonderful in encouraging me and doing everything he could to help because he knew how badly I wanted to do this all natural, but in the end I decided it wasn't worth it and Richard was supportive every step of the way. So we had the nurse call the anesthesiologist back in and this time I didn't chicken out, I got the epidural at about 3:50. Getting the epidural was painful, but boy was it worth it. Labor from this point on was much more enjoyable and I was even able to take a nap. After I got the epidural they ramped up the pitocin because there was no reason not to.
Unfortunately dilating to a 4 is as far as I ever got. I was on pitocin for about 4 hours and getting checked about every hour or so. My nurse and doctor were determined to get this baby out vaginally, but unfortunately at 8:30 we all had to come to the realization that this was not going to happen. We tried everything we could, but in the end this baby would be coming via C-Section. Richard and I were both sad because this is the exact opposite of what we wanted our birth experience to be. But in the end we just reminded ourselves that the most important thing was that this baby came out happy and healthy. And that he did.
Soren Brett Christensen was born via C-Section on October 6th at 9:02pm. Weighing 7 lbs 15 oz and measuring 19 3/4 inches.
He came out as a stunned baby so he had to be taken straight to the nursery instead of to the recovery room with us, but we finally got our baby at about 12:30 am and he is the most beautiful baby we have ever seen.
Despite the fact that it seems nothing in our birth story went according to the plan, the most important thing did. We are now a family of three and we have a happy, healthy, beautiful baby boy.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Are you my facebook friend?
If your facebook account is anything like my facebook account it consists of exactly 300 friends of which you truly keep in contact with about 10. The rest of your friends are people you used to see at somewhat regular intervals during high school or college and when you moved away life continued without slowing much and with only the occasional thought.
At times I enjoy seeing where these people are because you never know, you might, hypothetically, run into a singles ward friend in the Dallas Temple who you haven't seen in 3 years and wonder what they were doing during that time which brought you back together. You could then find them on facebook and discover that while you got married, went to gradschool at the UW and then found full-time employment in Dallas and moved to Carrollton TX they graduated from BYU, got married, and decided to get a Ph.D from UT Southwestern and are living in Copell. Facebook can fill in the gaps between the two meetings. But that's just hypothetical of course.
The real reason I bring this up is that Jess and I have decided Soren is his own person and one day, if he chooses, he also can have 300 friends on facebook, or whatever holographic equivilent is available in the 2030's. But for now he cannot make that decision and we don't want to make it for him. We can however, make the decision that he belongs on the family blog, and for this reason we are going to severly limit the number of pictures and updates about him on facebook and keep those to the family blog of which you are reading. This way those close friends can keep abreast on what is happening without sharing it to the world.
In order to appease parents, siblings, friends, and our own desire to take thousands of pictures of our child we've decided to make a picassa album with pictures of Soren which we will update and you can look at as often or infrequently as you would like. The link to this album is here: http://bit.ly/ppkwGm
Soren is great and we are quickly learning exactly why there are thousands of pictures of peoples children on facebook. They are always cute and each new pose or friend which comes to visit deserves a photo of it's own. We are thrilled to have people coming to visit and look forward to when Jess's mom comes down and sees him with her own eyes. Keep your eyes posted for the multitude of pictures which will surely come when this happens.
Soren says "HI"
Soren is doing great. Jess is doing great. Everyone is doing great. Jess has been absolutely exhausted today and often times struggles to stay awake. She's gotten in 1 short and 1 medium length nap and is doing better but still tired. She also brushed her hair so it no longer looks like she's from in the twenties or some other decade when they had bad hair. Her incision is tender, but looks to be healing OK. The nurse has made her get up and walk to the bathroom twice now, there was a marked improvement on the second trip in her ability to walk and move around. We're not completely sure what her diet is. The doctor this morning said clear liquids and some crackers (mmm saltines), but the nurse said she was on the all fluid diet (with saltines of course). Pretty much the only difference is whether or not she can have a milk shake but so far she hasn't been hungry enough to eat more than a cup or two of jello.
Soren has been doing well. He was born at 9:02, but was 'stunned' when he came out. Pretty much he had no idea what was going on or that he was supposed to be breathing. This is fairly common in c-sections, but they had to force oxygen down his lungs so that he realized what was supposed to be going on. Because of this small hiccup (no one was worried, a fairly routine procedure) he was not allowed to spend time with us before going to the nursurey. My poor family (Paul, Jess and Sudie) found a baby-sitter for the girls to come see him but never got to hold him before they had to go. We're glad they came anyways, because we got some sweet balloons and flowers and IBC rootbeer (for me not jess) out of the deal. He finally made it to our room at 12:30 and after having baby orientation and learning how to make sure we know what to do if he chokes and a first try at breastfeeding (he did pretty well) we held him for another 20 mins before we were just too tired. He stayed the night in the nursery so that we could get some sleep. He came back for a feeding at about 4:45, he didn't eat much but he did enjoy some cuddle time with mom. Nurses say that it some times takes a day for him to get his appetite as he's confused, tired, and still full from the umbelical cord feeding him.
Pediatrician checked on him at about 8, he came and saw us and said "he's great!" and that was about it. Asked if we had any questions but we are still too new at being parents to know what our questions are. I'm sure that'll come with time. With that he left, he is only our temp. pediatiricion, we're going to change to a different doctor once in Carrollton which is closer and which about 1/2 the ward uses and loves.
My familiy showed to try again at around 10:00, which is right when the nurse came in to help Jess get up the first time. Man their timing is bad! They waited outside for 5 mins while the process was completed and then finally came in to see and hold Soren. Soren was great (probably because he was asleep) and let himself get passed from person to person. The picture of Ella holding him is sweet beyond measure. Yay Cousins!
The rest of the day has been breastfeeding and trying to get him to sleep. He was a little fussy in the early afternoon at around 4:30 he is down good and fell fast asleep. At 5:00 Carolyn and Tyler came to visit from Austin and came with Mom and Jess and the girls. Mom bought pizza and we had a little pizza party. Just as they showed up a small procedure needed to be done on Jess. We went into the hallway for twenty mins with a laugh about their bad timing. Dinner was fun, and as Jess and mom and the girls left Carolyn and Tyler stayed and talked for a long time while Carolyn held Soren.
I have been good. Yesterday was a long day, and the couch that turns into a bed is perhaps the worst surface i've slept on (which is saying something because I've spent some time camping and sleeping on rocks), but I have been so tired the uncomfy couch doesn't matter.
Soren is a miracle and we are so glad he is here. C-section wasn't the plan, it wasn't plan B or even plan C. Although that is how he ended up coming it makes no difference to us. We are so glad he is here and are humbled (read scared out of our wits) that Heavenly Father has entrusted such a beautiful son of his to us.
Monday, October 3, 2011
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