Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Welcome Blaine Akley Adkins!!!


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.

 I will do my best to post newborn and one month photos next time I get to the library.  My computer here is too slow to upload.