Grayson James- Sweet Baby M's Birth Story

On June 20th, 2013 we were blessed to welcome Sweet Baby M!  This is the story of his birth.
On Tuesday June 18th, at about 11:30 pm I started feeling what I thought were contractions.  Since I was a few days shy of 38 weeks I figured I was just having some intense Braxton Hicks contractions.  Everyone had been telling me that since it was my first pregnancy I was likely to go overdue rather than having him early so I wasn't totally prepared to be in labor.  I was just hanging out downstairs while J was sleeping and I noticed that the contractions were starting to get stronger.  I started timing them and they rapidly got closer together.  The hospital told me to come in when they reached 2-3 minutes apart for 45 minutes.  At 4 am the pain was getting pretty intense and my contractions were only 2-3 minutes apart so I decided to wake J up and tell him it was time to go to the hospital.  His response was "Are you serious?" He later said that he immediately started going through a list of things that we hadn't done such as getting the car seat installed (I had an appointment scheduled for the next day).  Once he realized that I was indeed in labor, he got up and got ready to go.  We drove to the hospital where they checked me out and they told me that even though my contractions were really close together, I was only dilated to a 2 and 90% effaced and they wouldn't check me in until I was a dilated to a 5.  I was in a lot of pain at that point so I wasn't very happy to be turned away. We ended up driving down to where J works and having a friend help him install our carseat to pass a little time.  We drove back to the hospital two hours later as they had recommended and were told that I hadn't progressed but I was having back labor which is where the babies position causes the mother to have intense pain in her lower back during contractions.  I was sad and felt silly having been turned away for a second time so I asked J to take me home and I told him to go to work so that he wouldn't be sitting around staring at me while I was having contractions. I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for 2 pm so I decided to just push through the contractions until then because I did NOT want to be turned away for a third time.
J came home around 1 and I promptly threw up so we called the hospital and they said I should go ahead and come in again.  When we got there, all of the exam rooms were occupied so we ended up going up to my scheduled doctor's appointment at 2 where my doctor told me I was dilated to between a 4-5.  She called down to labor and delivery and told them I was to be admitted.  I felt a huge sense of relief because I was finally progressing and I was going to be able to get an epidural. 
When we arrived at Labor and Delivery, they got me checked in and took me back to a delivery room where they started blood work and an iv.  I was finally able to get my epidural at about 5:30 and I have to say that it was the greatest relief ever!  I give props to anyone who decides to go without an epidural but I had no interest whatsoever in continuing to be in pain.  Since my labor ended up being 30 hours long, I don't regret that decision at all!  The epidural was pefect and it allowed me to still move my own legs but not feel anything from the contractions.  I was encouraged to try to get some sleep, particularly since I hadn't slept at all the night before.  I was able to get a few hours of sleep while I very slowly continued to dilate.  At about 4:30 am on Thursday morning I finally dilated all the way to a 10 and was told that I would be pushing soon. At 5:15 I finally started pushing and after half an hour our sweet little guy came into the world at 5:44 am.  He weighed 6 pounds 13 ounces and was 19 inches long.  Unfortunately his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck twice which they didn't realize until he was almost out so he ended up getting whisked away from me.  I saw the cord around his neck and I was really stressed about what was going on.  I heard a very small cry but nothing else and more people rushed in to the room.  They decided to take Grayson to the special care nursery.  The midwife who was involved his delivery told me that they were just being overly cautious so I asked to hold him at least for a minute before they took him away.  I was able to have about 1 minute with him before they rushed him out.

First time meeting Grayson

Grayson was breathing in a manner called grunting so they decided to do a chest x-ray to see what was going on.  He was getting plenty of oxygen, but his breathing sounded fairly pitiful.  They had started an IV and were monitoring all of his vitals which were all stable but the breathing was still a concern.  They also put a nasal canula (for oxygen) in his nose but they had him on room air and he was maintaining an SPO2 of 99-100%.

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My blood pressure went crazy after the delivery (like 180/130) so they wouldn't let me leave the delivery room to go and see my baby.  It was really hard not to be able to go and see the Little Man but finally after about 2 hours I was able to go to the nursery and hold his tiny hands. 

About 2 Hours Old

The chest x-ray ended up showing signs of "infiltrates" which the doctors told us could be pneumonia or it could just be amniotic fluid so they decided to keep him in the special care nursery overnight.  We were able to spend most of the day with Grayson down in the nursery and by 1 pm they decided he was doing well enough to come off of the oxygen.  The grunting had resolved itself.  I was able to feed him for the first time shortly after that. Everything you read about breastfeeding says that you really need to feed them within the first hour of life or they might not be willing to do it so I was a little stressed about that but our Little Man did just fine!  Fortunately they had two comfy recliners set up that J and I were able to sit in while we soaked up time with Baby G. 

The first night I had to get up every three hours and go down five floors to the special care nursery to feed the Little Man but the next morning he passed several tests so they let him come up to our room for the rest of our hospital stay.  We were hoping to be able to leave the next morning but unfortunately his second chest x-ray was still inconclusive so to be safe the doctors decided that Grayson needed to stay for an extra three days to receive antibiotics for in case it was pneumonia.  We were sad to have to stay at the hospital longer (especially me since the shower was freezing) but G seemed to be doing really well and we definitely wanted to do whatever we needed to to make sure that he came home healthy.  Unfortunately with newborns, by the time you see symptoms of a problem at home things can already be pretty bad so we settled in for an extended stay at the hospital.  The Naval Hospital was awesome and let me keep my room as a "boarder" even though I was discharged because I wasn't having any complications.  This was such a huge blessing for us because we didn't have to either sleep in chairs at the hospital or try to go back and forth between home and the hospital.  All of the staff was awesome and his nurses were especially great!  Finally, on Tuesday the 25th we were able to go home.  Here are a bunch of pictures that we took while in the hospital.

About 8 Hours Old

Our first family photo!

Sweet Baby Boy Gazing at His Mama :)

Love those cheeks!W

Silly faces!

Furrowed Baby Brow

These two make my heart melt :)

Love Baby Snuggles!

Ready to go home!

We are so grateful to everyone who prayed for, called, texted, and sent messages on facebook supporting us during this exciting time in our lives!  Baby Grayson is very lucky to have so many people rooting for him and we are so blessed to have a healthy happy baby boy! 

37 Weeks

Happy Father's Day!  I am so grateful to have been blessed with the best dad a girl could ask for!  My dad has always been an amazing role model to me.  My dad really gave me a good example of what to look for in relationships and showed me the way a man should treat someone he loves.  He is incredibly intelligent, loving, and funny.  My dad and I have always been close and I cannot wait to watch him build a relationship with our Sweet Little Guy.  I also can't wait to see J as a dad.  Based on the type of husband he is to me, I think that our Little Man is going to be incredibly lucky to have him for a father!

Love my dad!

So this week is exciting around here because I am now officially full term!  At 37 weeks, Baby M is now considered to be fully developed and he is welcome to come any time he wants.  Hopefully he will decide to make his appearance on or before the 4th of July! 

37 Weeks

Our week started with a doctor's appointment where we were able to confirm that the Little Dude is head down which is a relief.  I was fairly certain he was head down with the amount of time he spends kicking my ribs but it was fun to see him on the ultrasound and have that officially crossed off the list of concerns.  Everything is looking good and I will go back next week to see if I am starting to make any progress toward labor. 

My family was in town until Thursday so we were able to spend time together, go out on wave runners (I watched from the side), and go to Sea World.  It was great to spend time with them and I'm so glad they were able to visit one final time before Baby M joins us!

Today I got a very fun surprise when I was supposed to meet my friend L to go get pedicures.  When I arrived at her house to pick her up she surprised me by answering the door with her computer with several of our close friends on a multi-way Skype call.  In the past year, three of our closest couple friends in the Marine Corps have moved away to Japan, Brooklyn and Missouri but they wanted to be able to celebrate our upcoming little guy with a shower even though they couldn't physically be here.  L had set up cute decorations at her house and they had all shipped gifts to her house so that we could have a virtual baby shower.

It was so much fun to see some great friends!  We all had cake at our different locations so we were able to eat cake together and everyone watched me open all of the gifts that they had sent. We got so many cute and fun things for the little guy.  He is already so spoiled! It really is amazing what technology allows us to do! Thank you so much to all of you who were involved in this fun surprise!

I miss these great friends!

 

Now onto the regular update:

How far along: 37 weeks
Baby is the size of a:  watermelon
Total Weight Gain: 25 lbs

Maternity Clothes: I have still been wearing mostly comfy dresses or yoga pants. 

Sleep: I have been waking up several times a night for bathroom trips.  I'm still getting a decent amount of sleep but I would love to wake up a few less times every night!

Best Moment of the Week: Seeing our Little Dude on the ultrasound and my surprise shower!

Miss Anything:Being able to sleep through the night and also the ability to put my shoes on easily.

Movement: He is still a pretty active Little Guy but now he seems to be trying to escape through every side of my stomach.  It is really strange to watch my stomach moving around now that he is strong and out of space.

Food Cravings: I HAD to have Wingstop on Tuesday :)

Symptoms: This week I got really itchy, apparently from all of the extra blood flowing in my body.  I haven't really been enjoying that but still no swelling or heartburn so overall I'm still pretty happy.  

Labor Signs: Just a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions

Belly Button In or Out: In but almost flat now.  I'll be interested to see if it actually pops out or just stays flat.

Looking Forward To: Our Sweet Little Man making his arrival!  Also, spending some time with J since we have had a lot of visitors and he has been in the field a lot the last few weeks.  We are going to try to really soak up our final weeks of alone time before life shifts drastically!

Baby M's Nursery

Over the past few months I have slowly been working on projects to put together Sweet Baby M's nursery.  At this point it is pretty much finished and I'm kind of proud of the work I did. I started out with a fabric swatch and then chose the color palette based on that. 

Since we had just started trying to get pregnant when we moved in to this house, we left this room pretty much empty which was a good thing since we found out we were expecting about three weeks later.  This is what it looked like before:

 And this is what it looks like now:

The first project that I did was refinishing the dresser.  I followed this very helpful tutorial though obviously I still haven't gotten to the white trim.  I am still hoping to add that before Baby M makes his arrival but I have been procrastinating it for months so we will have to see if I can manage to get it done.  I bought the same Ikea dresser used in the tutorial (obviously mine is the lower version) and even used the same paint color that they used.  I'm not very creative :)

From this...

to this.

Eventually I decided to paint a hutch that we already owned the same color and we added it to the top of the dresser.  I had considered putting a changing table on the dresser but ultimately decided that I would prefer to change him on the floor since he can't roll off of it.  I love the look of the hutch so I'm glad I made that choice!  I ended up finding some cute little bins in the dollar section at Target that now have assorted toys in them.  I love this dresser because it is super roomy and can store a lot of stuff.

After I finished the dresser, I started a bunch of sewing projects for the nursery.  You can actually purchase nursery bedding in the fabric that I had chosen but the set was over $400 and included bumpers which I didn't want.  It also had curtains that looked really thin and I wanted blackout curtains for the nursery so I decided to sew everything myself.  The fabric only cost me $75 and I still have two yards left even after making the curtains, crib blanket, crib skirt, wall art and some pillows.

 I followed this tutorial for the crib blanket and I love having it backed with Minky!  It is SO soft.  Then I used this tutorial to sew the crib skirt.  For the pillows, I just cut fabric to the approximate sizes that I wanted and sewed them together leaving a hand sized gap to stuff them with polyfil.  Once they were stuffed I finished the last edge. 

I used this tutorial to make the curtains.  I used blackout fabric to line them and it works really well.  I'm hoping this will help him sleep later in the mornings since I really hate getting up early :) 

I

I bought the rocking chair for $20 on craigslist and then I primed and spray painted it (don't worry I was outside with a mask on and I took frequent breaks) to match the nursery colors.  I picked up a $6 unfinished wood footstool at Hobby Lobby and I spray painted that as well.  The small table next to the chair was from Ross and I painted the top of that to match the footstool.  The little basket by the window is my changing center and it has a changing pad, diapers, wipes, lotion, diaper rash cream and powder in it so that I am all set to handle Baby M's messes. 
J painted the walls while I was out of town and I added a few frames from Hobby Lobby.  I'm probably going to add a bookcase over by the door but I'm not in a huge rush to get it.  I really like how everything has turned out and now we just need the Little Man to make his arrival so that it can get some use!

As we get close to our due date (19 days!) we appreciate all thoughts and prayers for a safe and healthy delivery for our Sweet Little Guy!

Maternity Pictures

36 Weeks

Last week while my good friend JS was visiting, she was kind enough to take some maternity pictures of J and me.  I had originally planned on trying to have a professional photographer take some photos around 32 weeks but I let the ball drop and by the time I thought about it, it was too late to contact someone plus I was feeling big enough that I really didn't want to pay someone in case I hated the way I looked in all of them.  I asked JS if she would be willing to go to the beach with us to snap a few pictures and she agreed.  J was only home for one evening last week so even though it was cloudy and windy we went down to the beach hoping to get a couple of good ones.  The clouds turned out to be a blessing because the made the sky look really cool in the pictures.  I am so grateful to JS for taking the pictures and also to J for agreeing to be in them!  J doesn't really enjoy taking pictures but he is an awesome husband who is willing to humor his wife :)

A goofy one :)

We are so lucky to live here!

Another silly one

We love this boy so much!

Thanks for visiting and taking such great pictures!

 I am so glad that we got these pictures as a fun way to remember this pregnancy!