My last day of work was Wednesday, November 19th. That night, I planned on getting a good night's rest, since I knew I probably wouldn't sleep on Thursday night in the hospital. Unfortunately, my carpel tunnel flared up that night, and I ended up "sleeping" on the couch. And by sleeping, I mean watching infomercials for the Shark vacuum cleaner from 12:30 until Bailey woke up at 5:30 for work. As soon as he was getting ready to leave for work, I got a phone call from Northside asking us to be at the hospital at 7:30am. Ummm...no. Nothing is ready. I'm not ready. I can NOT have this baby today! I told them we weren't supposed to come in until that evening to start the Cervadil. Apparently, the scheduling nurse read her schedule wrong. Whoops - needless to say, I was WIDE awake for the day. I spent Thursday cleaning the house, grocery shopping, repacking our bags, and getting my nails done. The nail tech asked me when I was due. After telling her I was headed to the hospital in a few hours, I genuinely thought she'd give me my manicure fo' free, or at least wax my eyebrows fo' free. Nope - all she did was ask if I wanted my mustache waxed. Um, heifer - no. Bailey worked until noon, and then came home. We had a late lunch and made a last minute target run. Later that night, we took Cooper to Brooke and Austin's house. I loved knowing that while we were in the hospital, we had someone who was going to love on Coop for a few days!
last picture with just the two of us - he was so sad
sweet text from brooke on grant's birthday
We got to the hospital around 10:00 with all of our bags in tow. I'm a chronic over-packer and packed entirely too much. We only took one bag inside the hospital - I didn't want people to see my crazy showing! After we got to our room about 10:30, Bailey brought in the rest of our bags :) We had a fabulous nurse admit us, but we only were with her for about 30 minutes before the shift change. Our next nurse was sweet, but was a hot mess.
why do some women look like rock stars prior to birth? I, on the other hand, do not.
selfies before babies are not such a good idea - but look at them nails. fabulous!
When we checked in Thursday night, I was at 3cm. I had been at 3cm for about a week at this point. They started the Cervadil at 12:45. Bailey was able to get some solid sleep Thursday night (or as solid as you can get on a hospital guest bed). I literally laid awake all night long watching Food Network. That was torture for a girl who wasn't allowed to eat anything. Once the Food Network switched to NutriBullet infomercials, I started watching the monitors. It was amazing to me to listen to my baby's heartbeat and feel the contractions as I watched them on the ticker tape.
In all of my over-packing, I somehow forgot to pack myself a pillow. I thought I'd be fine with hospital pillows, but by 4:00am I was DONE. I knew my mama would be awake, since they were planning on being at the hospital pretty early that morning (and she was uber excited) so I texted her to see if she would bring a pillow from the house. I [immediately] got a response telling me no problem. Later, I learned that they were already on their way to the hospital. They had to stop at a Walmart to buy a pillow and pillow case. Who has the best parents? I'm fairly certain my parents were at the hospital by 6:30am. There's a good chance they were there earlier, but just sat in the car so they didn't look too eager ;)
At 6:45am Friday morning, the nurse took out the Cervadil. I was able to take a quick shower and "get ready" for the day. Getting ready consisted of a pony tail and some mascara. Whoops. At 8:00, we got the party started with Pitocin. My doctor wasn't on call that Friday, but had to come to the hospital for an emergency surgery. He stopped by the room to check on me and wish us luck. As soon as he left, I told my nurse I was ready for the epidural at 8:45. I'm a wuss and did NOT want to deal with the pain. Several people told me to make sure I asked for it before I thought I needed it, because it would most likely take a while to have it done. NEGATIVE - that epidural was done by 9:30. However, they did give me some glorious meds at 8:45 when I asked for the epidural. It made me so giddy - who knew you could be so happy through contractions? Epidural was pretty painless (relatively speaking). It's not something I would enjoy doing as a hobby, but I think I hyped it up to be so painful, it ended up not being as bad as I thought.
Post-epidural was a lot of waiting time. At some point I was catheterized, and was hooked up to an internal fetal monitor. The midwife broke my water at some point soon after I had the epidural. This is where my memory starts to get pretty fuzzy. I was exhausted from not sleeping the previous two nights, so I began to fade in and out throughout the afternoon. For some reason, I wasn't allowed to lay on my back - I vaguely remember the nurse saying it was because of my epidural, however I could be wrong. Side note - by this point in time, I have a FABULOUS nurse. Karen was amazing - she was sweet, and she was frank. She didn't beat around the bush, and that I greatly appreciated. By the time lunch rolled around, Bailey was obviously pretty hungry. Justin and Ashley Brooke brought Bailey back Chick-fil-A. Bailey was sweet enough to eat that in the waiting room, so I didn't have to smell the deliciousness that I couldn't eat. However, he was mean enough to bring a full glass of sweet tea back to the delivery room, knowing good and well that I couldn't drink anything but ice chips. He also knows good and well that CFA sweet tea is my #1 weakness. Rude!
By lunch, I had progressed to 5cm, and was at an 7 by dinner time. My doctor and midwife (Dr. Grogan & Wendy) kept checking my progression throughout the day. I stalled out at 7 for a few hours. At that point, they started talking to me about a possible C-section. I knew that this was a possibility, as Dr. McDaniel had discussed this with me in the office the week before. I know that a C-section is not the end of the world, and plenty of beautiful, healthy babies are born that way. I didn't want to go that route, however I was willing to do whatever was going to be the best for Grant and I. At 7:15, I was still at a7, and the C-section was looking more and more favorable.
At various points throughout the day, our families began to filter in. Let me tell you - our families will never know how much it meant to know that we had everyone in the waiting room praying for and supporting both Bailey and I. I told Bailey to text our families and ask them to pray that I would dilate and we could have this baby naturally. After Grant was born, I learned that our families prayed at 7:30. By 7:45, I was at an 8, and by 8:15, I was a 10! Woot Woot! It was go time!
I was obviously in a lot of pain. My epidural was refilled 6 times throughout the day, and I was given some sort of anesthetic block. I remember the very first epidural - I could not move ANY part of my lower body, and couldn't feel anything. Exactly how I wanted it. As it began to wear off time and time again, I could feel those contractions. I don't know how people do that completely naturally - no, thank you! Around 9:30 Friday night, I was in a LOT of pain. My midwife, Wendy, asked me to push just once to relieve some of the pressure. After pushing once, she told me I was ready to go, and I would have a baby soon. Um, what? No ma'am. I am not ready for this! I pushed for about 45 ridiculously long minutes, and baby Grant was born at 10:21pm. Bailey was my biggest support through the pushing - there is no way I could have done it without him. Exhaustion doesn't even begin to describe the feelings I had, having not slept in over 36 hours. I was hungry. I was thirsty. I was whiney. Wendy told me to envision baby Grant's face. My response? "heck with the baby, I'm envisioning a huge bottle of water!"
After Grant was born, I don't remember much. I vividly remember them laying Grant on my chest. Oh, that sweet, slimy, screaming baby. I held him for a minute, maybe two. They asked Bailey if he wanted to cut the cord, and he commented "it's like cutting steak fat". Yum? I remember the nurses saying I had lost a lot of blood (come to find out, I'd lost 1/3 of my body's blood). I began to feel sick and remember saying "someone has to take this baby". I got pretty sick, but was able to pull it back together. Bailey went and got our families, so they were all able to meet Grant. I was still feeling pretty puny - more so than just the normal puniness that comes after a delivery. At some point, by pulse sky-rocketed and my blood pressure plummeted. From what I'm told, after eating some clementines and drinking too much water, my body revolted. I got sick while laying down and choked myself. The rapid response team, as well as my doctor and midwife were all called back into the room. Long story short, they were able to get my blood pressure and pulse under control. I received two blood transfusions overnight. I don't remember anything after the rapid response team was called, until about 6:30 the next morning when they changed out my IV bags.
first picture of Grant Thomas Garner
love this picture of daddy and his boy
he still makes this face after he's been crying and is calming down - I love it!
I finally got to see baby Grant again about 8:00 Saturday morning. They had taken him to the nursery, since I was unable to feed him. Mama and Daddy were our first visitors on Saturday morning. They brought chicken minis for our fabulous nurses, and CFA breakfast for Bailey and I. Hey, I needed nourishment to feed Grant, right? They also helped us move our 3912847 bags from the delivery room to our normal room. Once I was able to go to the bathroom on my own and stand up and walk around, they let me out of the delivery room. I was SO sick of seeing those same 4 walls - plus, it was costing me money. Ha! Grant had numerous visitors throughout the day - so many people were so excited to see him!
horribly swollen mama, but still a special picture as a family of three :)
flowers from uncle cale
Saturday night, they took Grant about 10:30 to run tests on him after he was alive 24 hours. The nurses brought him back at about 11:30, only to come back in around midnight to tell me he had jaundice. They put him under the lights, and brought him back around 12:45. During this time, housekeeping kept coming in to clean our bathroom. Instead of doing it all at once, she would come in, announce what she was doing, do it, then leave. Repeat. "HI, I'M HERE TO SWEEP." "HI, I'M HERE TO TAKE OUT THE TRASH." "HI, I'M HERE TO CLEAN THE TOILET." Somehow, Bailey managed to sleep through this ALL. Not a peep until about 1:30am, when he rolled over and said "Brittoni, what's that blue light?" "Honey, that's our baby.." I swore that I wouldn't send our baby to the nursery, especially after not being able to have that time with him right after he was born. However, I think the night he was born was exactly the reason we asked the nurse to take him to the nursery Saturday night. I was still exhausted after all of the craziness my body had gone through Friday night, and not resting at all on Saturday. We sent Grant to the nursery around 2:30am Sunday.
our little glow worm
At this point, we weren't sure if we were going to get to leave the hospital with our baby. It all depended on his jaundice numbers that evening, and they weren't testing him until 11:00pm. It was already determined that I would be discharged prior to midnight. My doctor told me that because of all that I had gone through during labor and delivery, she would justify me staying an additional night to make sure that I was there with Grant. Unfortunately, somewhere along the communication line, that didn't get relayed and the nurses couldn't get in touch with her (her shift had ended) to confirm that. So I was a hot mess Sunday night waiting on Grant's numbers, thinking that I may not get to take my baby home with me. At 11:45pm, the nurse came in to tell Bailey and I to get our things together - Grant was able to go home! Woo hoo! By the time all of the paperwork was processed, we loaded up the truck and left, it was about 2am when we got home. This made for one exhausted mama, daddy, AND baby.
Our first night, I put Grant in a newborn onesie. He kept his little legs sticking straight out, but I assumed it was because he thought pants felt weird - he'd only ever been naked or worn gowns. Ya'll - the kid NEVER bent his legs. The next day it dawned on me - he COULDN'T. That poor onesie was so small on him, and it was putting pressure between his legs where he may or may not have just had surgery. Poor guy - mommy fail #1.
Our first week at home began - Bailey and I decided we wanted to forge ahead through this week on our own, and bond as a family of 4 (including Coop, duh). We were a hot mess of tears and laughter and not having a clue what we were doing. I knew that parenting would be hard, but I just assumed it was because you were so tired. FALSE. It's exhausting because you have no clue what you are doing, and it's all complete trial and error. Granted, the no sleep thing isn't very fun either :)
Brooke brought Cooper home Monday afternoon. Ya'll - watching them together was the funniest thing. Cooper was so excited to be home. He couldn't handle it! I sat down on the couch with him, trying to introduce him to baby Grant. He wanted NOTHING to do with him. As the weeks have gone by, I'm quite certain Cooper has grown to like Grant. When he starts crying, he runs to Grant then runs to me and will keep looking at Grant like "MOM, please fix him!". Cooper HATES when I burp Grant. He will stand right in my face like "WHY ARE YOU HITTING HIM?" Hopefully as time goes on they'll both learn to love each other :)
Tuesday was Grant's first pediatrician appointment with Dr. Molock of Gwinnett Peds. Most babies lose 10% of their body weight. Not our chunk. He lost 1 oz. Always the show off, that one.
He had lots of visitors his first week :)
Thanksgiving fell before Grant even got to experience his one week birthday. I said from the get-go I was determined to celebrate Thanksgiving - it's one of my favorite family holidays! People thought I was crazy, but we made the trek from Buford to Conyers to Perry on Thanksgiving day. Ya'll - packing for a newborn is ridiculous. Our backseat was loaded down with a baby, rock & play sleeper, and 3 bags. Ridiculous. Grant was the star of the show, and did great all day! We spent the night in Perry, and headed back to Buford on Friday after stopping in Macon to pick out our Christmas tree!
By the end of the week, I thought "man, we may have the hang of this after all". Grant slept so much as a fresh newborn and easily fell into a 3 hour feeding pattern. Little did I know, this "easiness" I thought was having a baby was about to come to a screeching halt.He was pretty fussy after each feeding, which we attributed to the formula we were supplementing with. He hated having his diaper changed (I would too), but loved the warmth of bath time. Saturday, Bailey's family came over to see Baby Grant. He had literally been crying ALL day. And continued to cry ALL night. It was hands down, one of the worst days we'd had. Luckily, Mama Dean was able to sing him to sleep!
Sunday afternoon, our photographer came over for Grant's newborn pictures. Luckily, he was way less fussy on Sunday, so she was able to get some fabulous shots!
Stay tuned for the next installments of Grant's life as I try to get caught up :D
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