Meet Baby Sons!

The past few weeks have been so busy as you can imagine from the title of this post!  

Michael and I have been preoccupied getting to know our sweet little girl :)

Here is our birth story :)

WARNING: This story has real details of childbirth; readers beware.

On Tuesday the 2nd, Michael had the day off due to the first Tuesday of every month being a training day.  On this Tuesday, his school had scheduled a captains cup for all the company's to compete in.  I was feeling large an in charge but good and went with him to see him compete.  I ended up walking at least two miles in the hot sun, so when I started having contractions that afternoon I thought it was because we had been out and about all day.  It wasn't until 6pm that evening that they started to get regular and were coming at about 6-7 minutes apart.  I also had a horrible headache that Tylenol couldn't shake so I decided to take a bath and try to relax.  I ended up falling asleep in the tub and Michael woke me up and helped me to bed.  I fell back asleep for about and hour and woke up due to my head pounding.  I took more Tylenol and tried to go back to sleep but nothing was working.  I ended up waking up Michael and telling him we needed to call L&D.  In the weeks before, my blood pressure had been high and a headache that wouldn't go away was something my midwife had warned me I needed to call about.  Michael called and spoke to a nurse who said that we should come in due to my history of high blood pressure, so Michael called his SGT and we headed to the hospital on base.  

We had everything packed in the car just in case but we really didn't think we were going to end up staying and having a baby.  When we got to the hospital they hooked me up to all the monitors and I waited for the Dr. to come in.  The Dr that came in was actually my midwife which ended up being awesome because at a military hospital it's very rare for you to get your Dr.!  She told us that my blood pressure was higher than she would like it to be and it looked like I had gestational hypertension so to be on the safe side they were going to go ahead and deliver me.  I looked over at Michael and saw his mouth hit the floor.  

I was 38 weeks and 2 days pregnant and was scared to death of what the day was about to bring.  

She told me she was going to check my cervix and see how far dilated I was and then to help speed the labour process up, she was going to insert a Foley bulb into my cervix to help me dilate then when I got to 3 or 4cm it would fall out on its own.  She checked me and I was 1cm so then she went to insert the bulb and then gush bam boom, my water broke!  That was at 7:45am on Wednesday morning!  She finished putting the bulb in and then they got me moved to a labor and delivery room and started the process into getting me admitted.  They took blood work, started a IV line and then pumped me with fluids.  During this time Michael went to go get our bags from the car and we both called our moms to let them know what was going on.  My mom left Asheville and headed home to get her bags so she could drive 9 hours to be present for the birth of her second granddaughter.  We then got settled into to what we knew would be a long night.

Around 2pm my midwife came in to see how I was progressing and sure enough I was 4 cm! At this time she could tell I was having contractions, but she couldn't tell how strong my contractions were so she inserted a internal monitor.  I had asked for IV pain medication because they were strong to me but it ended up making them a lot worse.  I couldn't find a comfortable position and was clutching on to the bed rails with all my might every contraction.  Three hours later they had a shift change and I was checked again and I was 5cm.  By this point, my contractions were right on top of each other.  I had to have oxygen because I couldn't catch my breath and my heart rate was making the alarms go off.  I couldn't handle the pain anymore and so I asked for an epidural.  An hour later my mom had made it, and I had the epidural and was feeling good! I was able to relax and let my body do what it was supposed to.  At 8:30pm I was checked and she asked if we were ready to have a baby because I only had a little lip of cervix left!  At 9 I started pushing and at 10:15 the nurse called the Dr's in the room for delivery.  

Two pushes later I found my purpose for living.

At 22:22 Military time,

Ellisyn Mae Sons took her first breath in this crazy world and was laid right on my chest.

I ended up pushing so fast the last two times that she basically flew out!  I had a second degree tear and so after the Dr delivered my placenta they sewed me up while the nurses were cleaning up Elli and taking all her stats. 

 She was 19 inches long and weighed 6 pounds 6 ounces.  

We ended up staying in the hospital until Sunday the 7th because Elli had a little bit of jaundice, so she had to be under the lights from 10am-6pm on Saturday.  Talk about heartbreaking!  As if I wasn't emotional enough because I had just had a baby, my little girl had to lay in a bed under blue lights all day!  Thankfully she just needed a little phototherapy and her levels didn't rebound so we were able to take her home the next day!

Lulu has been nothing but sweet to her!  She will lay on my lap when I am feeding Elli, she will jump over me in the mornings to see her and she will lay on her back beside her and kiss her head :)  It's the sweetest thing!

The night before I had Elli, I only had a bowl of cereal for dinner and nothing for breakfast before we went to the hospital so I was starving and of course you can't have anything but clear liquids while you are in labour.  I went almost 40 hours without eating anything!  That was pure torture!  After she was born I finally got to indulge in a breakfast sandwich my mom brought from Dunkin Donuts the next morning!  Oh and you can bet it was the best meal I have ever had!  

I was so thankful that my mom was able to come! She was an amazing help while she was here and I didn't want her to leave!  I hadn't seen her in two months and it was great being able to have her there.

Labor and delivery was nothing like I could have imagined or planned for.  My whole pregnancy, I had this idea of what it was going to be like in my head and it was a complete 360 from that.  It was hard, painful, stressful, but had the best reward in the end.  Postpartum is also the hard thing I've ever had to go through.  Your body goes through hell during labor and then to top labor off, you get the opportunity for the next 3-6 weeks to continue to feel awful.  

You cry over everything, you're bleeding nonstop, your newborn has sucked on your boobs and made your nipples completely raw, and to top it off you have to stay drugged up on Motrin because you feel like absolute crap all day! 

Thankfully I am finally feeling back to normal!  I can sleep on my stomach again, pop my back and finally get out of bed in the mornings!  

I hope you enjoyed reading!  Sorry I haven't posted in awhile but I will be capturing her monthly birthdays and posting them so be sure to keep an eye out for those!

with love and baby kisses,

Now for TONS of pictures ;)

Enjoy!

<3