Merek n' Dary: Birth Story

4 am and ready to have a baby!

Well now that it's been 3 weeks since I had Krew, I think I am finally ready to tell my birth story. I apologize in advance if it is too detailed, but hey, it's a birth story, so just expect to hear a bunch of really fun stuff!!

The month of March was absolutely insane around here! The first week of March my brother and his family came. We did TONS of stuff. We went and hiked hole in the rock, toured Cerreta's Chocolate Factory, toured the Cardinal's Stadium, went to the Botanical Gardens, and went to the zoo. Mind you, I was 9 months pregnant with elephant feet at this point. I was exhausted! That week when I went to the Dr. I was at a 2. I also got put on a Z-pak because I had an awful sinus infection. I felt pretty poopy. I was having tons of Braxton Hicks contractions and could've sworn I was going to go into labor the following week.

The following week I took it easy since I had totally exhausted myself the week before. The 3rd week of March my sister came to town. We took it pretty easy and she LOVED spending time with Levi every second she could get. We went and got pedicures, it was my first time getting one, went to my baby shower my friends gave me, went to the Children's Museum, shopped, got donuts, walked around WestGate, and celebrated Levi's birthday by going to the train park. I was only at a 2.5 this week and I was pretty upset because I was absolutely miserable. The baby was on a nerve, pains shot through my legs every time I rolled over in bed, my feet had swollen up 5X their normal size and it was incredibly painful. I was so done and beside myself. My Dr was allowing me to be induced a week early because my parents were going to be in town. When we called the hospital they had no openings until April 1, which was 2 days after my due date (I was due March 30).... I was sad because in order for my mom to be there she would have to buy a plane ticket and miss teaching school.

My parents came on Sunday and we had cake and ice cream for Levi with our friends. We went and toured Derek's school, and we went to dinner with them on Monday night. The Dr. office called me on Monday and told me that an opening had come up on Wednesday (only 2 days away) on March 25 at 4 am. I called Derek to see if that worked with his school schedule, then I called them back and gladly told them I would take that induction date!

The day before I was induced I was sooooo nauseous! I was having tons of contractions and all I wanted to do was lay down and sleep for hours. That night I would get a huge wave of nausea, then would have a strong contraction. At 1 in the morning I finally started timing them. The contractions were lasting 30-45 seconds and were happening every 3-5 minutes. I timed them for an hour and the contractions stayed consistent. I was in labor... but I was going in to the hospital in two hours later so I tried my best to get 1 hour of sleep before I needed to get up and ready.

My alarm went off at 3:15 am and I hadn't slept at all. I was feeling so nauseous. I wasn't sure if I was nauseous from the pain, if I was making myself sick from anxiety, or if I had the flu. At 4 am when we were supposed to be leaving out the door, I was over the toilet puking.

When we got to the hospital, the nurse was in no hurry to get things started. After waiting in the room for over 30 minutes, Derek finally decided to go out and tell her I needed a drink so she would come in and get things going. Luckily Derek's tactic worked, she came in and was asking me questions, and got me hooked up to the IV and heart monitor. We discovered that the baby's heart rate was pretty fast. The nurse thought that since I'd thrown up I probably had a virus which was putting some stress on the baby and causing his heart rate to raise. I was freaking out because I was finally healthy and I didn't want to get my poor little newborn sick from me.

My blood work came back a while later showing that my White Blood Cell count was normal, meaning I didn't have a virus. It turns out I was extremely dehydrated from throwing up before, and that's what was causing the baby's heart rate to be so high. They pumped me with IV fluids and finally after 3 hours the baby's heart rate was normal. The Dr. came in at 7:30, broke my water, I gave him a high five, and he was on his way. Then they started me on pitocin, even though my contractions were already regular. It was just going to help things move along faster. And an hour after they broke my water, the Anesthesiologist came in to give me the epidural. He brought a student in with him and had the student find where the epidural space would be. He searched my spine and said, I think it's here, the Dr came over and said, I think you're right.... Well gosh guys, thanks for being so certain! The epidural went smoothly, although I did feel more pain with this one then I did when I had Levi.

A while later a nurse and a student came in to put in my catheter. The student was going really slowly when all of a sudden I got extremely dizzy and felt like I was going to pass out. I told them I was dizzy and the nurse told me I was probably just nervous and needed to just take deep breaths. I tried taking deep breaths then suddenly felt cold and lost sensation in my hands, and things started to go black. I looked at Derek and he mouthed if I was ok, I shook my head no and said, "I'm going to pass out right now!" The nurse frantically told the student to hurry up and she took my blood pressure. My blood pressure was 80/59! That is extremely low for those of you who don't know, you're blood pressure is supposed to be 120/80. The nurse hurried and pumped me full of IV fluids and eventually my face turned back from grey to pink and I had feelings in my fingers again.

From that point on things were pretty boring. I just tried to sleep the rest of the day and they kept coming in and rolling me from one side to the other. At one point my nurse was in the middle of another delivery and I was left on my right side too long. I couldn't move my toes on my right foot, and I started feeling contractions on my left side. I called the desk and my nurse came and turned me to my left side. I was at a 9, but the baby's head was the wrong way. The nurse put my leg up on a ball to open my pelvis up so the baby could get down into the correct position. At this point I was miserable, I was feeling contractions on my low stomach, the left side of my body, and there were sharp pains shooting into my low back. I called the nurse and she told me that the baby was on a nerve so she had to flip me back to my right side. I was at a 9.5, she told me to just give a push and see if we could get the baby's head into the correct position.

Well I pushed through one contraction, and not only was I then at a 10 with the baby in position, but I was already crowning. The nurse called the Dr. and he got there within 3 minutes. He asked if he had time or if he needed to set up immediately. She told him that I was already crowning just with one push so he quickly got all ready and set up. I pushed through probably 5 more contractions and then I had my sweet little Krew in my arms.

Krew Miles Dawson was born March 25, 2015 at 3:32 p.m. He was a whopping 9 lb 8 oz and 22 inches long. I immediately fell in love with my handsome little guy. I cried when they laid him on my chest and we wiped him clean with towels. I loved his dark brown hair and features and noticed everything about this boy was long long long. He had the same cry as Levi but slightly different, and I saw that he had the same receding chin and pouty upper lip that Levi had. I love his squishy cheeks and could seriously kiss them all day long.

My HUGE baby. Also, you're welcome for the censoring! :)

When we weighed him and found out how much he weighed my nurse told me she knew he was well over 9 lb but didn't want to scare me. She said that my next baby will probably be a 10 pounder. Gee that's awesome!! After I found out how huge he was it all made sense. No wonder why I was so huge and miserable and having so much nerve pain. This boy had put quite the strain on my pregnant body!

Every new nurse I had asked if I had gestational diabetes because Krew was SOOO huge. They had to give him shots every time before he ate to monitor his sugars since he was so big. And Krew wanted to just sleep all the time and I couldn't get the boy to eat longer than 5-10 minutes. Because Krew wouldn't eat he didn't poop or pee within the first 24 hours so we didn't get released and had to stay 2 nights. I was kind of ok with it though because I was so exhausted, I knew I wasn't ready to go home and help a lot with Levi.

My recovery is going a lot better than it did with Levi. My Dr. did a really good job at helping me not tear. I only had a tiny little tear so only ended up with 1 stitch. That is WAY better than what happened with Levi. The hardest part with this recovery was because Krew was so big he bruised my tailbone coming out. I had to sit on 2 pillows in the hospital bed, and when I came home I had to sit on a pillow at the kitchen table. Also.... the first poop is a scary thing you guys. The pain is real! Haha once I got past that it has all been uphill from there.

Krew is the sweetest thing ever!! I call him my gentle giant. When he looks at me with those sweet soft eyes it melts my heart every single time. He is calm and can sleep through Levi's crazy screaming hyper crazy moments. He isn't as mellow as Levi was as a baby, but he is still pretty mellow and calm. When the boy wakes up though, he is ready to eat and he will let the world hear it until he gets fed!! That boy can sure make noise my word!!

Levi hugging Krew for the first time

The hardest part has been with Levi. He is so cute and so good with Krew it is the best thing ever. The problem is Levi misses the attention. He has started acting out and being naughty to get attention. He also has anger which he never really had. Levi never used to hit or kick, and now he's hitting me or Derek everyday since we've had the baby. It's been so hard to know how to handle it. Right now i've just been telling him that it's ok to be angry or sad, but he needs to talk to mommy about it instead of hit. It has been getting better, and I think it's because of me and my reactions that he got worse for a while. I tried to change my approach and my reaction and he turns around and makes better choices. I just honestly was not prepared for Levi to change so much. I hope Levi can be his happy go lucky self again, and I hope I can help him get there.