Monday, May 2, 2011

Welcome Baby Hollyn Lenore

*written last week*

It’s so exciting to have little Hollyn with us. So far, she is being a VERY good baby. She has had some issues when it comes to nursing (see my Musings blog-if I ever get around to it), but otherwise being a perfect little Angel. Hollyn loves to sleep – so much so that I’m perhaps a little concerned. When she is awake though, she likes to look around and especially at my face. She is just so content and I love her! Now, she’s not even a week old yet, so we’ll have to see what happens, but here’s hoping she stays so relatively content.

Her birth story is funny to me because it is SO similar to Brennan’s, AND, she looks very much like him. It’s like we had a Brennan again! Asher is now quite the outlier in the family. (Black sheep?)

I’d been having prelabor symptoms for at least a week. I found that I could get contractions going about every 3-5 minutes apart by walking or pumping, but when I stopped the activity, the contractions eventually stopped. Finally, the evening before my due date my Dr. told me to get the contractions started, then meet him at the hospital where he could break my water for me. We were anxious to just get this done before my Dr. left a couple days later for a 2 week trip. Mom graciously watched the boys during my Dr.’s appointment at 3:15, and kept them until the next morning. In the mean time, Brian and I ate out for a “last supper” and enjoyed having a date. We then rested up (Hah. Like we could sleep at that point) for about an hour before taking off on a nice long walk. By the end of the walk I thought I was having pretty regular contractions (4 minutes apart) but they were often very mild and I was having trouble deciding if they were in fact contractions. With a hope for not embarrassing myself with a lack of contractions, we headed to the hospital. Interestingly, we almost hit deer - twice! – along the busy stretch of road. I hoped it wasn’t a bad omen. Anyway, we checked into the hospital and I felt silly because I didn’t really feel like I was in labor. (As opposed to with Asher where it turns out I was in active labor-8cm dilated and 15 minutes away from pushing him out!) My Dr. was waiting for me and broke my water shortly after I settled into the bed.

Then we waited for things to progress. I could feel that they were, slowly. Not long into it, Brian and I started hearing another woman yelling and moaning from another room in the ward. She was in serious pain. After an hour of that nice reminder of the joys of labor, I had made up my mind that I was probably going to go for that epidural. Not long after that, the contractions progressed to my “breaking point” and after what seemed like hours I finally did receive that blessed epidural. I had been dilated to a 6 I think at the check before it was administered. When the anesthesiologist left, the nurse immediately decided to check me again as she could see that my contractions were very strong. Surprised, she said, “Oh, you are fully dilated. I’ll go get your Dr.” Hollyn was so close to just sliding out, I only pushed about twice, plus a “slight push” once or twice. I had been told during the week previous that she was VERY low, so it wasn’t really very surprising that she just slid right out rather effortlessly. Brian got to catch her, which he was glad for. My nurse jokingly asked me if I thought the epidural was worth it since I didn’t have it very long before Hollyn came out. It was a resounding YES! Relief from even just one contraction would have still been worth it. Those things are KILLER! (For some reason the contractions with Asher never reached the same level as with Hollyn and Brennan – just Heavenly Father looking out for me I guess. However, consistent with all three labors is that my contractions get VERY close together. As in, the “break” lasts maybe 45 seconds. The nurses have always commented “Wow, she is just not getting a break!” with each. Also, the break is not really that anyway because I continue to be in very deep pain, only slightly less than the excruciating contractions themselves.)

Anyway, labor was 5 hours from the breaking of my water to delivery. Maybe 6 if you count from the too-mild-to-decide contractions during our walk. Not bad for being “induced” to some extent. She was 7 lb 8 oz and 20 inches long.

*Update*

Hollyn will be 2 weeks old tomorrow. Things are going just swimmingly. She is quite the sleeper, going for an average of 3-4 hours at a time – often 5 at night. I’m still not getting up until after 9 or 9:30am since she’s asleep and the boys are happy to play in their room. (They often ask to keep playing instead of going downstairs for breakfast even then.) Since Hollyn wouldn’t nurse, I pump every couple hours which is a pretty dreaded chore, but much better than suffering through nursing even at it’s best, so I’m enjoying having a newborn like I never had before. I am SOOOO thankful that Hollyn is healthy and so far, easy.

1 comment:

The Hulls said...

Aw, she's so cute! And so much dark hair! Congrats Stevenson family! We had our #3 a month ago. Isn't life wonderful?!! Miss you guys.