Brothers

Merry Christmas!

My Greatest Gifts. These two. I couldn't ask for anything more.




Time to begin our Christmas traditions of breakfast, hot chocolate, opening presents & emptying out our stockings in our jammies.

Later tonight, my family will come over and we'll have a nice Christmas dinner. This year, Adam is making a prime rib, yummy, can't wait!

The Greatest Gift

I was scheduled for an induction on 12/13 at 8pm. I'd been hoping and praying all weekend that I go into labor on my own and my prayers were answered when my waters broke at 4:30am. I called L&D and asked if I needed to come in right away and they said no, it was fine if I waited for a couple of hours. So I cooked breakfast, took a shower and got Caleb ready for school. Adam & I dropped Caleb off at school then headed to the hospital at around 8:30. I was having contractions but they weren't painful yet. They admitted me and hooked me up to the monitors, they checked me and I was at 4cm. Adam & I walked around, and by noon my contractions were becoming more consistent, intense and painful. I took a shower and tried breathing through my contractions. By 3pm my contractions were coming on strong & on top of each other. They checked me and I was still only at 4cm!! They thought I'd be dialated even more by now since my contractions were coming on so intensely and on top of each other. At around 6, I asked them to check me again because I was in so much pain, I was still barely a 5. I couldn't handle another 3 hours of no progress so I asked for an epidural. 6:45, got my epidural, didn't feel that much pain, just the pressure of the contractions. Around 9, I started feeling the urge to push, but when they checked me I was still only at 8cm. At around 10, the pressure was getting to be too much and they checked me again, I was there!!! After 45 minutes of pushing, Liam was born. Due to the epidural and my exhaustion my pushes weren't very effective. When Liam was almost out, the midwife had to really get stern with me and told me to make the last push count. I found out later it was because the cord was wrapped around his neck. He had swallowed some fluid so they had to suction it out shortly after he was born. After that, they brought him to me for skin to skin and I was in LOVE.

Adam was a great partner throughout the birthing process and I couldn't have done it without him. I reached a new level of love for this man. My sister and his mom were also there and they totally helped me out too. But Adam, he stayed so strong for me and I am so grateful.

I ended up with a postpartum hemorrhage during recovery and lost 1000ml of blood. It was so scary!! I was pumped full of meds to try to stop the bleeding and they kept pressing on my stomach, it was so painful!! Adam said the blood clots were as big as my placenta! They monitored me for 24 hours to see if the bleeding would subside on it's own but had me ready for a transfusion or surgery just in case. Thank God it didn't come to that.

Liam ended up being a little jaundiced so he had to stay in the hospital another 24 hours under the bili lights. That was so hard for us to do, we had to go home and come back to the hospital every 3 hours to breastfeed. :(