Logan's Birth Story

On Sunday August 28th, we had plans to join our church Trinity UMC and attend my only baby shower that afternoon.  However, Logan had different plans!  I began spotting on Saturday morning, but even though we had a birthday party that morning, we went anyway.  I took it as easy as I could, propping my feet up the rest of the evening.  Jonathan was great and took care of everything for me!  I was really hoping to make it a few more days, but I was still thankful that I had made it 5 more weeks than I did with Leighton.

Sunday morning at about 6 AM, I woke up to go to the bathroom.  Unfortunately, I noticed that the spotting had returned, so when I went to get back into bed, I tried to go as slowly as possible.  However, as soon as I had completely laid down, I felt a little trickle.  My water had broken!!  I knew this was it!  I immediately went to the bathroom as soon as I could, in case I completely lost my water like I did with Leighton.  I didn't, which was good, since it didn't make a mess! lol I called the on-call dr, who was Dr. Hensarling, and she told me to go on to the hospital.  I asked if I had time to take a shower and she said sure, since my contractions hadn't started.  (On a side note, I was determined to be clean while in labor w Logan.  Bc of the circumstances of L's birth, I hadn't showered in a couple of days!) It worked out anyway, since we had to get Leighton up and ready to take to the hospital.  We arrived at the hospital, and I was all settled into a room about 8:15 AM.  Since L wasn't allowed back in L&D, J stayed in the waiting room for his parents to arrive to take L back to our house.  We didn't have to wait long, they arrived about 20 minutes later.  My mom arrived about 30 or so minutes after that to stay w/ J and I in L&D.

Here I am waiting on Logan and opening presents from Mom

At about 10 AM, the contractions finally started picking up, but they were still tolerable.  I was open to an epidural this time, even though I had previously wanted a natural birth.  I had that w Leighton and knew how bad pushing hurt, so I didn't exactly want to feel that again! (Also, I figured, I already proved to myself I could do it. lol)  By 11:30 AM, the contractions were SO BAD.  I had been 2-3 cm and 80% effaced at check-in, but now I was 4 cm and 100% effaced.  I asked for the epi then and Dr. Harris (who was the new on-call dr on shift) ok'd it.  However, I had to finish my IV bag and go through an entire other one, before I could get it.  The contractions were now coming every 2 minutes and hurt SO BAAAD!  It took until 12:00 PM for that, then I had to wait til 12:30 PM for the anesthesiologist to come.  But while sitting on the edge of the bed getting the epi, I suddenly felt Logan drop and was ready to push!  The nurse rolled me over and felt the top of his head.  They prepped me for delivery, while we waited for Dr. Harris to get there.  10 minutes later of pushing (and not painful at all thanks to the epidural!), he was here!!

Jonathan got to cut the cord this time!  Bc L came so fast, J missed being able to do that w her. :(

And since he was a little early, they had to send him to the Special Care nursery. 

 

Logan James Parish

5 lbs 6 oz, 19 in

August 28, 2011 1:08 pm

After a couple of hours, the nurses finally let us go visit him in the nursery.  For some people, seeing their baby in the nursery hooked up to all the monitors might really affect them.  Well, we had that experience already with Leighton.  All the nurses, I think, kept expecting us to be basket cases, but we were actually quite happy.  With Leighton, her prognosis was much scarier and she's turned out so great (she amazes us everyday with how much she already understands and can do), so I guess we knew that there really wasn't anything to worry about (and if so, it was in God's hands).  I don't mean to seem like it was nothing that he had to be in the nursery, but 5 more weeks of pregnancy makes a HUGE difference in the outcome.  He was what they call a "feed and grow baby."  We knew there was hardly any risk whatsoever for longterm issues or developmental delays.  We only had to wait for him to regulate his temperature and gain his birth weight back for him to be sent home from the hospital. 

One of the downsides to having a preemie is having to become attached to a pump.  I lived through 6 months of that with Leighton, and I knew him being the second child would be much harder on me trying to live with a pump for that long.  L was never able to BF, bc by the time she was strong enough and big enough to try, my milk was already drying up.  I pumped as much as I could with her, but we had to start supplementing with her at 1 month old.  I did keep pumping for 6 months, although towards the end, she wasn't getting much.  I just figured that a little is better than nothing at all.  So, this time I was determined to make it work.  It did help that he was able to try nursing on day 1.  He did pretty well with it, but the nurses warned me to not try too long, bc it would tire him out so much more quickly, and we'd risk him burning more calories than he'd take in.  Even still, I was thrilled that I got to try and be successful on his birthday.

I stayed in the hospital the regular two days.  Leighton came to visit Mommy and see her new baby brother through the nursery window.