compression + christmas stockings

Wow - I've been away from the blog for awhile!

I have been learning the ways of my baby. It's been like baby boot camp, but in a really good way.

So I never did post our birth story. It's already been four weeks since Logan has been here. I guess I will post what I can remember here, just so I have it written down somewhere. We had a really grueling birth experience.

November 21 - 9 PM (39 weeks)

I went to the bathroom and noticed a chunk of pinkish gunk after I peed. I was pretty sure that it was my mucous plug and I started to get excited.

November 22 - 12 AM

I went to bed wondering when labor would start and was woken up at around midnight by mild contractions. I could hardly sleep I was so excited. I got up at 3:00 am and took a shower and blow dried my hair. (Because don't you know I wanted my hair to look great on the day that my baby was born.)

At around noon I was still having contractions, they seemed to be getting closer together. At this point was I just excited. I cleaned the house, made dinner and watched the football game with my husband. The contractions started to get strong and closer together. When they were 1 minute long and five minutes a part for 1 hour we grabbed our bags and headed into the birth center. (Luckily it was only 8 minutes away from our house.)

Hospital Visit #1 - 6:30 PM

When we got to the hospital and they checked me out we were told I was fully effaced, but less then 1/2 cm dilated. Home we go. 

November 23 

Hospital Visit #2  - 1:00 AM

I felt that my contractions were getting stronger and and more painful, we went back to the hospital again. Still dilated only 1/2 cm. Home again.

Hospital Visit #3 - 7:00 PM  

At this point I had been in labor all day and had not slept since the night of November 21. They checked me and found out that I'm only dilated to 1-1/2 cm. I'm feeling pretty defeated and desperate. They keep telling us don't come back until you are having contractions that are 5 minutes apart, 1 minute long for 1 hour. That's exactly what's happening to me, but my cervix is not cooperating. At this visit they give me a small dose of morphine and a bed to allow me to get some sleep. I do get some sleep. (3 hours) And I manage to eat something. 

We get sent home again. 

At this point my husband and I have tried everything. We have walked around and around the block. We have done all of the suggestions in Ina May Gaskin's natural labor book to encourage labor. (wink wink) My husband turned up the water heater so that I could have continuous hot water and I basically sat in the bathtub for hours breathing through contractions. This entire time I was having contractions that were 5-1-1 - sometimes my contractions seemed to be 10 minutes long. The baby would squirm around after each contraction - causing me more and more pain. 

The doctor told me later on that I had an irritable uterus.  OMG - It hurt sooooo bad!

Hospital Visit #4 - 3:00 AM - November 24

At this point I was exhausted. I couldn't even walk to the car. I couldn't even talk when we were resubmitted to the labor and delivery ward - I did say one thing actually, I said:

I'm not leaving. 

They checked me and I was 3 cm dialated. We were admitted. So by this point I had been experiencing contractions for around 48 hours. I was exhausted. The contractions combined with my irratable uterus - plus lack of sleep - made the pain so hard to tolerate I finally asked for an epidural at around 9 am on that day.

Blessed relief. 

We held off on the pitocin until it was pretty obvious that I was still not making any progress. They they started me up on the lowest amount and I started to dilate. I made it to 5 - 1/2 cm by 6 pm. Not good enough. 

My uterus was getting tired. 

The doctor came in at 6:30 and said that she didn't think I was going to make any more progress that my uterus was exhausted and that it was time to consider a c-section. I was no where near emotionally prepared to deal with that. After talking it through (by this point my epidural had basically stopped working) we decided to do the c-section. 

I was a mess - shaking and crying. 

The c-section went great though. Baby Logan was born at 8:27 pm.  Birth weight - 7lbs - 1/2 oz. 

He was sunny side up. The doctor told me that seeing how he was situated inside of me she didn't think I would have been able to push him out, even if we had tried to give my body more time.

The one thing that was a real blessing during my entire labor was that Logan was never in distress. If we would have had to worry about that it would have been much more scary. 

In recovery Logan latched onto my breast like a champ and he's been breastfeeding and putting on weight - another really great blessing. 

My recovery from the c-section has been okay. The only hold up has been that I need to stop doing so much so that I don't strain myself and cause myself pain. Three days after the c-section I discovered that I had a blood clot. 

Blood clot in leg - ER visit - November 29 2:00 PM

Pain in right leg behind knee. Swelling in right foot that won't go away. Diagnosed with DVT - deep vein thrombrosis. Put on Lovonox injections. 

December 23, 2015

The blood clot set in motion a whole mess of appointments and tests. Today I am finally off the Lovonox and on Coumodin for the next 3-6 months until we have confirmation that the blood clot is gone. 

Oi! Crazy times - yet I feel so so blessed.

Logan is squirming on the sofa next to me - my husband is crashed out in the bedroom because we had a long night nursing him - he's cluster feeding - probably going through a growth spurt. It's amazing how a lot of things can go wrong, but when the right things also happen, it's easy to manage. Not easy . . . but I think many of you know what I mean. I got a baby and a blood clot. Everything is going to be okay.

It's something I'll have to manage the rest of my life, but bring it on.

Sorry for the super long post. One thing I want everyone to know are the signs of a blood clot. I didn't realize how big of a deal they are, but if they travel to your lungs or your heart that's dangerous. Pregnancy and fertility drugs put women more at risk for a blood clot. Birth control pills and smoking are a major no no.

We also discovered that I'm a carrier of factor v leiden heterozygous, which put me at a higher risk to begin with.

So, bring on the christmas stockings and the compression socks this holiday season, as long as I have my family around me and the good Lord's blessings I am so very blessed.

Merry merry Chirstmas everyone!

xo Jill