Blaine’s Birth Story!
On Friday, August 21, 2015, I was 4 days overdue (doctor had
my due date as Monday the 17th, but we had it as the 18th
– 3 days overdue). My hips were very sore and it was becoming difficult to get
around. Scott and I were both ready for
Blaine to make her appearance so we decided to take action to make it happen!! Scott actually played hookie from work since
I wasn’t feeling the best, and boy am I glad he did! We got so much accomplished with cleaning the
house, organizing, etc – mostly Scott, but I tagged along and helped a
little. That afternoon we decided we
were going to try and wiggle her out! So
we took a 45 min drive in the Bronco (it’s a bit bumpy!) around our back gravel
roads and even up to Scott’s friend Nate’s land too. Then, we took a short nap followed by a trip
to Walmart to walk around for 1 hour and in the process stocked up on bottled
water and groceries. That night we
relaxed at home for a few hours before falling asleep around 10pm.
I remember waking up around 11pm with slight cramping but I
was so tired I just rolled over and went back to sleep till 3am. I woke up at 3am with more cramping and after
trying several times to go to the bathroom with no success I realized they
could be contractions! I started timing them, and after having 3-4 of them that
lasted ~1 min each with 5 minutes in between I just knew it was time to head to
the hospital!! At this time, and for the
last 2 months, I had been sleeping on the couch (closer to the bathroom!) so I woke
Scott up and told him it was time! He
was so excited! As I was getting dressed
and ready, Scott was getting everything put in the car and making sure the cats
were good to go for the next several days.
By the way, the cats knew something was up!! Buddy was following us everywhere and while I
was on the couch sleeping through my contractions, Tiger and Tuffy were
sleeping with me too!
We left for the hospital at about 3:45-4am. It is about a 30 minute drive (but with NO
traffic) to the hospital and on the way we were careful because of any
animals. It was REALLY windy that night
and I remember it was cold outside, maybe in the 50s. We didn’t encounter any large animals, but we
did have a skunk (our first live WY skunk we’ve seen) and a jack rabbit that we
maneuvered around.
We arrived at the hospital about 4:15am. It took about 10 minutes to check in at the
ER (I had called ahead that we were on our way) and then we headed straight for
labor and delivery, room 30. First they
wanted to check all my vitals and hooked me to 2 monitors – one for my
contractions and one to monitor Blaine’s heart rate. After confirming I was in labor, they gave us
1 hour where we could get settled into the room and do whatever we wanted until
they came to do blood work and go over things with us. During this time they let me take a nice long
shower that felt so good!
When they came back in the room, they checked me (dilated
4cm, 80 effaced, baby at -1 meaning she was still really high) then said I had
to walk the hospital. This was
interesting – The hospital is very small and was so quiet and peaceful. We walked the halls for about 30-45 minutes
and the whole time Scott and I were joking with each other! We kept passing empty wheelchairs and we
joked he could push me around in one instead of me walking! And we even came
across a ‘Quiet Room’ and we said we should just go in there an hide! Haha I’m so glad I had my ‘partner in crime’ with
me there! Scott was incredible!
They also had me use a birthing ball several times
throughout the day – basically it’s just an exercise ball that I had to sit on
and bounce to help progress everything.
One of the ‘bad parts’ of my experience was actually when
they put the IV in my arm. I have hard
veins to find and they put it in my left wrist and had to dig around to find my
vein! OMG it hurt so bad I was
crying! Also when they had to check me
for dilation, because Blaine was so high up, it hurt so bad that I was crying
during that too.
By about noon on Saturday, August 22, I was only dilated to
a 5-6cm and had stalled on progressing, but my contractions were getting closer
together and more painful to the point they also made me cry! So I finally gave
in to an epidural. First they had to
give me a bag of fluid and then the anesthesiologist came in. Of the entire experience, getting the
epidural was by far the worst part for me!
Maybe because I was so tired at this point or nervous/scared for
everything, but I started panicking!
They had me sit up on the edge of the bed and bend my back out like a
cat would. I was panicking so much at
this point that I was having trouble with my breathing and my BP was over
200! If it wasn’t for Scott, there is no
way I could have gotten through the epidural.
He stood in front of me, holding me still while I had a death grip on
him too (and they had me hugging a pillow at the same time). He coached me through breathing and did a
great job helping me to hold still.
Finally when it was done, within 20 minutes I could feel the epidural waiting and that
was when I was happy I had one! I was so
out of it that I actually fell asleep for 3-4 hours! And Scott did the same! While sleeping, they began with a Pitocin IV
to help the contractions and dilation progress more. I couldn’t feel anything for quite a while
(so thankful!), but they had to continually up my CC’s of Pitocin all the way
to a 14! They did this at about
6-7pm). Within about an hour, I went
from being 6-7cm dilated to ‘Oh my gosh I’m ready to push!’ And I began feeling
the contractions so strongly through the epidural that they made me cry every
time. During this hour, I had another not-so-fun experience. The high amounts of Pitocin made me sick,
several times! Then, I started shaking
all over – like when you are cold and your teeth chatter, well, my entire body
did this! They said that’s a sign I’m
ready to go! So thankfully they turned
down my Pitocin.
I had to labor through the contractions a bit longer, then
finally they said when I felt ready I could start pushing. It was very tiring to push, but doing so made
me not feel the contractions, so I really didn’t mind this part. I pushed during each contraction I had for 45
minutes. Then the nurse said it was time
to get the doctor!! He was 15 minutes
away, and this was probably one of the most difficult parts of the experience –
holding and not pushing at all during the contractions for the 15 minutes till
the doctor came! Once there, I only had
to push through I believe 2 sets of contractions until Blaine arrived!!
It was an instant feeling of relief! But I got so nervous once she was out that I
actually didn’t cry! Blaine did not cry
at all – not for her shots or with getting her foot pricked for her DNA testing
– not at all!!
Our hospital insists on placing the baby directly on the mom
for skin to skin contact. I have to
admit that before I had her, I wasn’t sure about this because I’ve seen
pictures of babies where they are slimy or funny colored. I was pretty sure I wanted them to clean her
up first, but I went with it! And to my
surprise, she wasn’t slimy and she was beautifully colored!!! She was on my chest with her eyes open and
holding both my finger and daddy’s finger too!
That moment has to be one of the most amazing moments of my life!
Now while this was happening, I actually was getting
stitches – 15 of them from second degree tearing. But it wasn’t too bad and after the first day
I really wasn’t that sore.
Blaine Akley Adkins was born at 9:31pm on 8/22/15, was 8 lbs 2 oz (then a week and a half later was 8 lbs 13 oz!!!) and she was 19.5 in long. Her first doctor's appointment was a week and a half later. Not only had she gained weight but she was up to 20.5" long and was in the 75th percentile for both height and weight! Like I said, she's growing so fast already!
That first night was tough – I was so physically exhausted
and unbelievably hungry. I wanted
desperately to sleep but Blaine wasn’t a very happy camper. I tried to breast feed her with no luck. She latched perfectly but I had no milk and
she was not happy because of that. It
tore me up inside to see her unhappy so we made the decision to just go to
formula so she could eat something. Once
we did that she was such a happy baby!!!
That first day we realized that Blaine would actually be
staying with us in the hospital room the entire time we were there. She was never taken to a nursery and the only
time she left the room was to do her hearing test (she passed with flying
colors!) and for her newborn pictures (the nurses do this for free!! And they
turned out so great!). Scott stayed with
me the entire time, even sleeping at the hospital to be with us! We had to feed and change her all ourselves
the entire time we were at the hospital, but if we ever had questions or needed
help, the nurses were great. Scott was
so nice to me – my hospital bed was really uncomfortable so he let me sleep in
the lazy boy chair and he slept on the hospital bed! And most of the time we were in the hospital,
I held Blaine and she slept on me.
Now the first time Scott held Blaine was pretty
comical!! Scott had never held a baby
before in his life so this moment was really special to us! It was funny because he didn’t know what to
do. He had the boppy on his lap and sat
her in it, then he proceeded to ‘pet’ her head! I just had to laugh!!
I have to say just how wonderful my husband is! He was
amazing through the entire experience and I have to say, I don’t know if I
would have gotten through it without him!
Before hand he said he didn’t want to see anything happen at all (during
the labor/birth) but after a few hours he was a part of it all and watched the
whole thing happen. (probably a little
TMI, but part of the story). During the
entire time he did so much for me from rubbing my shoulders and my back during
my contractions, to coaching me on breathing during my panic attack with my
epidural. I’m so lucky and so blessed to
have such an amazing husband and now father to our daughter!!
We were finally able to come home from the hospital on
Monday around lunch time. We had to make
a few pit stops first – to get my iron pills (after having Blaine, my white
blood count was off so I have to take iron pills for 100 days) and to get
Blaine more of the Similac liquid formula that she was on at the hospital.
The First Week
As expected, the first week was very tiring!! Scott stayed home with Blaine and I on Monday
and Tuesday, but had to return to work on Wednesday. I am a very light sleeper to begin with and I
was already sleeping on the couch (because of needing to go to the bathroom so
often while pregnant!), so I continued sleeping on the couch with Blaine’s bed
next to it.
For the first few days, she was up hourly to feed!! By the end of the week she was getting better
but still very inconsistent, not knowing her days from her nights. By Friday, I was so exhausted I had Scott
stay up with her so I could get some sleep and wouldn’t you know it, Blaine
slept 5 hours straight that night! Scott
looked up information on getting her on a good schedule so now, every night we
have the same routine at or around the same time and it works!!
The First Month
Now, at the end of the first month, Blaine is sleeping
stretches of ~5-6 hours then another 2-3 hours and on/off all day. She has fallen in love with the WabbaNub
(pacifier attached to a stuffed animal).
The first time we gave it to her she wanted to cuddle it so she had to
have an additional pacifier just to suck on!
She is now getting better each day at holding her head up and steadying
it when she’s against my chest. My
parents came to visit for 8 days and she was a rock star!! She didn’t fuss or cause any problems during
the day. But there were a few nights
where she took longer than normal to ‘chill out’ before going to sleep. We think that was from a growth spurt she
had! She’s really good at focusing on
people and things with her eyes now too.
Scott has even been left alone with her on 2 occasions for about 2-3 hours
each time and I have to say he did wonderful! The first time was quite comical
because he said as soon as I left she was in her crazy mood and he said nothing
he did would settle her down! When I
walked into the door he looked at me and said, ‘She’s all yours!’ and later
told me how thankful he is that I’m the stay at home parent and not him!
Blaine has been a wonderful blessing on our family!! We are so happy to have her and she really
does make our days more interesting! She
is growing so fast! She doesn’t have
another doctor’s appointment till 2 months, but I would guess she’s about 9-10
lbs now! Her newborn sized clothing is
really tight, so I’ve been putting her in her 0-3 months and even some of her
3-6 month clothing already. She’s so long
in her torso and the 3-6 month fit her very comfortably (plus they are easier
for me to put on her!). She has the
biggest personality already! It’s funny to touch her when she’s asleep because
she ‘freaks out’ by throwing her arms into the air with her fingers spread wide
apart! We think it’s the funniest
thing! And she absolutely LOVES going
outside! Every night we take her for a
walk in her stroller and she just loves it!
And if she gets fussy, that’s the one thing that always cheers her up –
taking a ride in her stroller!
We fall more in love with her with each passing day and are
so thankful she is a part of our family!
My First Doctor
Appointment
I have my first post-partum appointment coming up here
soon. I’m feeling basically 90% back to
normal. I had gained 21 lbs overall with
her and I’ve lost nearly all of it so far.
Last I checked I only had 2-3 lbs to go!
However, my belly is still all over the place from being stretched out,
so that is going to take a while to get back to where it was before. I’m too scared to try on my pre-pregnancy
jeans, so I’m still wearing my maternity pants right now! Haha! I don’t anticipate there being any issues
from the doctor and I expect to be able to go back to normal activity here very
soon. I’m looking forward to helping
Scott more! I’ll keep you posted in the
next few weeks how that appointment goes.
House Updates
We have been working really hard on our house updates, or
rather finishing up projects we have started (trying not to spend any money until
after we get Blaine’s hospital bill!).
Scott is back to work on the cellar to get it completed by winter. He has 3 full rows of blocks completed all
the way around (with the solid concrete foundation below those blocks). Once he gets 5-6 rows completed then we can
go ahead and get the cistern and hook it up (because at that point he will be
too short to complete from the inside anyway).
When he wasn’t able to work on the cellar, he was inside hooking up all
our plumbing!!! Everything is hooked up or
in place except for the plumbing for the kitchen sink. We have it ready to go, it just needs to be
threaded through the wall and have the on/off valve put on it (we are
procrastinating this because we would need to move all the stuff away from that
kitchen wall). We also have our washer and
dryer hooked up and working!!! No more
going to the Laundromat anymore!!! You
may be wondering how we are able to do this without having our cistern hooked
up?? Well, we are doing it the hard way –
2 5 gallon buckets for the wash cycle and 2 more for the rinse cycle! But it’s better than trying to figure out how
to get all our laundry and a baby to the Laundromat!
Scott has additionally cleaned up and organized all the
stuff outside! For the last year, we’ve
had some stuff here and some there scattered about the property. We like things neat and organized and so he
moved the trailers away from the house, stacked all the good wood and building
supplies in one area, moved the scooters and stored them inside (and not in the
house!!), and drug the driveway again
too.
Current project: It’s
imperative that we focus on finishing things up before winter, which will be
here before we know it!! Our number one
concern right now is getting the cellar and cistern completed so we don’t have
to worry about water freezing this winter!
Next on our to-do list is to stock up for winter – we need to get lots
of wood pallets to be used for kindling and we need to get at least a full
pallet of the compressed wood bricks to use in the wood stove. Since we have electricity this year, we will
also have the use of our infrared heaters plus the heat generated from using
the dryer and the stove/oven too. I
expect we will be nice and toasty warm all winter!
All around us the farmers are finishing up in the
fields. Right now they are harvesting
alfalfa seed, sugar beets, and corn for silage.
Our sage brush is changing colors to fall colors. And the temperatures have finally started
dropping from the 90s/100s to 80s/90s at the moment – very soon though it
should drop to around the 60s/70s.