Oh Baby!

   Tonight felt like a huge victory.  Abe and I had Van and Lyza asleep in bed by 8:30 and Louis was asleep in my arms.  We could actually sit down and relax.  I had already picked up the upstairs but the basement was still a mess and I probably should have started some laundry or folded some clothes but I didn't.  I just sat there holding Louie.  Life is pretty crazy with three little kids, two of which are constantly on the go.  Especially when your 2 year old can now climb out of her crib making bed time a huge challenge.  She is pretty cute and entertaining but there comes a time in the day when she is the cutest when she is asleep.  

 
   Louis Matthew Bromley is now four weeks old.  He was born on December 21st at 10:30 am, the day before Lyza's birthday.  They say each pregnancy is unique and each delivery is unique and I can definitely say that statement is completely true for me.  We decided not to find out the gender of this baby until he was born but looking back, I feel like I always kind of knew.  At the time of delivery i didn't feel shocked or surprised.  Mainly I was just relieved to have had and awesome, fast labor and delivery, and I was now holding this new little person.  I had gestational diabetes with this pregnancy, and the few weeks before it was confirmed I felt like crap.  I had no energy, I was swollen (i know most pregnant women are), I sometimes felt dizzy, but once I started getting my blood sugar under control all of that changed and at the end I can honestly say I felt better at 38 weeks than I had with my first two pregnancies. However now that I really did have GD I was worried about how big this baby would be and if I would end up having a C-section.  My doctor felt confident about breaking my water 10 days early to see if we could get labor going so we could avoid the baby get too big.  I liked that plan so on December 20th we went in at 8 pm to start that process.  My doctor wasn't able to be there but the midwife that was didn't feel quite like I was ready.  She thought I was still a 2-3 and the baby was still a little high so I should walk around to see if we could get contractions going (i was having constant contractions anyway-just not progress).  My doctor's plan behind having me come in at night was to break my water, walk around, get labor going, sleep a little, and have a baby in the morning.  In the past my labors have all been about 18 hours so we weren't too concerned about things going rapidly.  After walking for a bit I went back to my room where my nurse informed me they were just going to start really low dose of pitocin through the night and break my water in the morning.  This was not the initial plan and I did not want to start pitocin which to me meant a long slow labor in bed with an epidural, the way my first two had gone.  With Van my water broke at 38 weeks so we went in, started pitocin, i labored 5 hours without meds and was only a 2 so then i got the epidural at 8 am and he wasn't born until 7 pm weighing 7 lbs 3 oz but it was a good delivery.  With Lyza I was induced at 39 weeks because I was HUGE and so tired, my labor again took all day and into the night and when we started pushing she never made any progress, was stuck, and eventually born at 3 am via c-section weighing 9 lbs 1.8 oz.  Big baby.  This is why I was so worried how things would go this time.  Because of my fatigue and it being almost midnight, I gave in to starting pitocin, taking an ambien and sleeping through the night.  Pitocin never went higher than 5 and  at 7 am the midwife came in and broke my water. I was still a 3 but contracting and about 30 min later my water really broke all over and that is when I really started to feel labor going.  My doctor came in at 9 am to see me, he never checked me but said he would be back at 12 to check me and see where we were at.  About 30 minutes later my contractions were on top of each other and I told my nurse I really needed the epidural then.  I had never felt contrations this strong but I had also always had the epidural prettly early on in my labors so in my mind I was still going to be laboring like this for a while.  It never occured to me that I could actually be getting close to the end.  It had only been two and a half hours since they broke my water.  Just after they got the epidural started my nurse could tell I was fighting the urge to push and she checked me and sure enough I was a 9 so she went to call my doctor and prep for delivery.  Baby would be here soon.  I had just enough medication to help me breath through those last contractions before my doctor got there and we could start pushing.  I was so relieved when i saw him come through the door!  He was surprised it went so fast too,  and after maybe four contractions out came our new little boy.  It was so cool to hear my doctor say you just moved baby an inch after i would push.  Having a baby is such an incredible thing, i totally felt an adrenaline surge after he was born and i just couldn't believe it had happened so quickly. My mom had come by the hospital that morning to see us and had she not, she would have missed it.  I had invited her to come to the delivery.
   So there we sat with our newborn, nameless, but sweet as can be and he did not weigh 9 lbs.  He weighed 7 lbs and 12 oz and was 191/2 inches long.  A good healthy size.  After a little while our nurse Marci, who was with us for Van's birth, noticed his nostrils flaring a little and he was making some grunting noises.  So she took him down to the nursery to have him checked out.  And there he stayed for the next eight days.  The started him on oxygen because they initially thought he had aspirated fluid and blood during delivery and that would clear up in 24-48 hours.  When it didn't and he didn't make any positive changes over the next couple days, that's when the worry started to creep in.  He was breathing really rapidly about 80-100 breaths per minute which is twice as fast as normal.  He also needed a lot of oxygen saturation to keep his oxygen levels normal.  They had done some x-rays and could see a little spot on his lungs so they even started antibiotics  in case it was pneumonia. By Saturday (he was born wed morning) we were pretty ready to know what was really going on with his lungs but even our pediatrician was stumped on why he was still breathing so fast.  It was so hard to sit and watch that little body work so hard to breath.  Our Ped made a call to Primary Childrens to consult other doctors who reassured her they were doing everything they should and he just needed time.  They decided his lungs were just a little immature and needed more time to fully pop open, and this was probably due to me have gestational diabetes because high blood sugar can slow developement. That night, Christmas eve, was when he turned the corner and started to breath slower.  Abe stayed at the hospital that night in the vacant room at the end of the hall they let us stay in for free (but you really end up paying anyway accept now it had 2 beds) and just held him and rocked him.  I was so happy the next morning when he called to tell me the great news. I couldn't hug and kiss Van and Lyza enough that week Louie was in the hospital. I started be able to nurse him Christmas day and so I pretty much stayed at the hospital all that week until Thursday morning when we was ready to come home.  Wednesday night the nurse turn his oxygen all the way off and Abe and I just watched the monitors as his levels stayed where they needed to.  I was so happy the next morning when i went in and his tubes were off and the IV was out and he was just laying there disconnected and free to go home!  We could finally really check this little guy out and hold him without being connected to montitors!  When I think back about that week in the hospital with him, I really cherish it because we really got to spend some quality time with him without the distractions you have at home and just sit and rock, also Abe and I got a lot of time together to just talk and be so grateful for our little family, as well as all our extended family who checked in on us and helped take care of Van and Lyza while we were there.  It was really humbling and helped us remember to not take anything for granted.  It's so good to have Louie home now though and he is growing so fast and breathing and eating and sleeping and pooping as perfectly as any newborn does.  We are really crazy about him!

All hooked up

 On Christmas day...Christmas hat credit goes to the nurses

The monitor we stared at constantly.  This is after oxygen is turned off and his numbers held where we wanted them.  Big sigh.

Hospital visit from two sleepy mom-deprived kids. 

Little Louis

 Getting ready to go home!  He's all disconnected.  Yay.

 Why is a group shot the hardest to get?  Finally a shot taken of all of us when we finally got home, tired, greasy, but home.

Van gives Louis two thumbs up.

After his first bath at home.  I think he is a good combination of Van and Lyza.