The Fennell Family: February 2012

So here is the story of how are son arrived. Like I said before, he was supposed to be a scheduled c-section on Tuesday, January 17. I was already on bed rest since the Tuesday before due to mainly high blood pressure. I had also had a trace amount of protein in my urine at one point too. But that later went away, but I was still having elevated blood pressure. I woke up on Monday the 16th very early, around 2:30 am, to go to the bathroom. Not unusual at all this late in the pregnancy. When I laid back down in bed, I couldn't go back to sleep. Again, not really unusual at that time. I would frequently have trouble going back to sleep due to not being able to get comfortable. I was, however, feeling a little anxious. I was even jiggling my foot off the side of the bed. You know, like you do when you are nervous or anxious. But I still wasn't thinking much of it. I wasn't having any contractions or anything. Finally, after about an hour, now 3:30, I got up to go the bathroom again. Still not having contractions, but just feeling "off." When I came out of the bathroom, Moss was up. He said he wasn't feeling well and was going to lay on the couch. Sympathy pains? Hmm. Anyway, since he was going to the living room, I knew I couldn't go back to sleep. So I decided to watch TV. After about 15 minutes or so I noticed I was having a few contractions. But at this point they were more like the Braxton Hicks contractions I had been having for about 4 months. So, again, not thinking much of it. However, after awhile, I noticed a few of them were becoming a little painful. Still, I really didn't think I was really in labor, but decided I would time them just for the heck of it. They were about 5-7 minutes apart. I really just thought this would all pass, but I decided to get up and finish packing my hospital bag anyway. I had only half way packed at this point, and I figured I would just finish up just in case. As I was packing, the contractions started getting pretty strong. To the point I would be walking around fine one minute. And the next minute I had to stop and was bent over breathing through the contraction. It was about 4:30 at this point. I had finally started thinking this could possible be the real thing, but still wasn't sure. I went out and told Moss I was having contractions and we may need to go to the hospital. However, I wanted to wait a little while to give Maddi some more time to sleep. Which I think is funny now. I was in full blown labor, as I would find out, and I was concerned about Maddi getting enough sleep. Also, I needed to call my mom. She said she would head right over. But she lives an hour away. So I was giving her some time to get here as well. If we ended up going for the c-section that day, we would need someone to watch Maddi. My contractions were a little closer at this point. About 4-5 minutes apart. And they were really hurting, too!!! Finally, about 5:30, we woke Maddi up and told her we were going to the hospital to have her baby brother! She was so funny! We had been telling her that she would have one day of school that week and then two days off while we went to the hospital to have him. So when we told her, that in fact she wouldn't be going to school and we were having him early, she said "You tricked me!" Too funny! By the time we got her and ourselves dressed and all our stuff loaded in the car, it was about 6:15. We got to the hospital quickly as it is less than 10 minutes from our house. My mom met us just as we got there which worked out perfectly! When we got to the room and I put my gown on, my mom was timing my contractions on her iphone. They were now about 3 minutes apart. The nurse checked me and I was actually 4 cm dilated! At that point, I think, is when I finally admitted, ok, I am in labor! The nurse even said that my contractions on the monitor were a "perfect labor pattern." Great, I thought. But I wasn't supposed to have to go through labor this time I kept thinking!!! I was supposed to get to waltz in and have a c-section and be done! I never got any meds or anything. I had to wait until the doctor got there and then they rolled me back to the OR and I FINALLY got my spinal block!! Oh, hallelujah!! I had been really in some pain by then! They let Moss in and very soon after we had our baby!

Wyatt Hawkins Fennell was born at 8:25 am and weighed 8 lbs 12 oz and was 20.5 inches long. Unfortunately, I started to get nauseous very soon after that. They gave me Zofran but it didn't help much. I had gotten nauseous with Maddi too. They gave me Phenergan with her and it knocked me out and it was a couple hours before I came too. I didn't even get to hold her until about 3 hours after she was born! So I was determined this time I did not want Phenergan. So I suffered through the nausea for a few hours and then thankfully it passed. I got to hold Wyatt very soon after he was born. I had him at a different hospital than Maddi. Not that I had a particularly bad experience at the first hospital, but I had a really good experience at this hospital. They tried to make my c-section delivery experience as close to a natural delivery as they could. They brought him right to my room before they even took him to the nursery.

We had some breastfeeding challenges early on. I had them with Maddi as well and only breastfed her for about 5 1/2 weeks. We were having to supplement with formula with her as well. My milk does not come in for about 5 days after I deliver. Whether that has to do with the fact I have c-sections or maybe that is just how I am, I don't know. With Maddi this caused her birth weight to drop too much which is why we were supplementing. Then it was just hard to get her to go to full time breastfeeding after that. I should have asked for more help then. But being a first time mom and being so tired and hormonones all over the place, I just blamed myself and gave up. With Wyatt, they started supplementing him right off the bat because he had low glucose levels. So with my very first feed with him, I had to supplement. And again, my milk did not come in for 5 days so he learned very quickly that he got more from the bottle than he did from me very early on. So once again, I was having trouble getting him to breast feed. This time, I got help from a lactation consultant after we got home, and within 2 days he was breastfeeding only and no longer supplementing. We were doing great until a week ago when I got mastitis. I caught it early and got on antibiotics pretty quickly, but my milk supply suffered for a couple of days making breastfeeding rough again. But we bounced back after that and are doing good again!

Wyatt is now 5 weeks. I have tried to get him on a routing during the day but he is resisting. We will have a good couple of days and then he gets off the routine and kind of throws everything out of whack. I like having a routine with babies. It just makes things go smoothly. But oh well. We will keep at it and hopefully it will take here pretty soon. He has been doing good at night for the past week. We put him down between 9:30 and 10:00. He will sleep a good 5 hour stretch, 6 hours on occasion, then wake up to eat. Then he will go right back down and sleep until 6:30-7. So I will take that over not having a very good daytime routine for now.

Here are some pictures from his birth day!!