Will and Charisse: June 2014

This is my birth story, so feel free to scan through the images if you don't want to know the details. I will never know :)

I had been having small contractions off and on for the past week and a half. The past 2 weeks she had been dilated at a 2.5 and 80% soft. I kept waiting for you to come hoping you would be here by your due date so you could be 3 weeks old before going to a family reunion.
Monday had been pretty boring, and I was tired. While big brother Brady was taking a nap, I did too. I woke up around 2pm feeling like you had kicked me really hard. So I want to the bathroom, then laid down again. About 10min later it happened again. Brady woke up from his nap and came to lay with me, and I continued feeling the contractions about every 10min. After eating snacks, while I was reading to Brady I was noticing they lasted longer then 1 ½ hours, and seemed to be getting a little stronger. Around 3:30 I decided to start timing how long they were. They were lasting an average of 30 sec. Dad made it home from work about 4:30 and I was still feeling them the same timing, maybe a little bit stronger. We ate dinner, gave Brady a bath, I took a shower, finished packing and decided to go ahead and drop Brady off at Grandmas because they seemed consisted and getting stronger.
We got to Grandmas around 6:30 and laid Brady down to bed. By then they were getting strong enough to hurt, and everyone once in a while they would only be 2 min apart, or last 40-50 sec. After puking up dinner and starting to feel a little shaky, we decided they would probably admit me to the hospital and headed over there. Sitting the the car is so BAD! Luckily they were more 3-4 min in the car, but were lasting 40-50 sec,

very uncomfortable in sitting position though. We made it to the hospital. We got to the hospital at 7:25pm. After having to pause 6 different times to tolerate a contraction, and telling multiple people “NO! I don't WANT a wheel chair” We finally made it to the room. By then the contractions were still only 30sec apart but coming every 1-2 min.
After changing, and surviving another 2 contractions, I jumped on the bed and they checked me. They told me I was dilated at a 9 and was calling the doctor. Really, I was at a 10 but they didn't tell me and want to scare me. I was worried because I was starting to really get the urge to push and didn't think I could hold the urge for 15min. They asked me to try, but if not it was ok to push. They tried twice to get an IV in but contractions were coming to quick that they didn't succeed. After trying twice, with the next contraction my water broke. Soon there were 4 nurses in the room busying around. They were great while I was very demanding that it was hot and I needed something to drink. Will was great to let me squeeze his hand till it almost fell off. After my water broke it wasn’t' more then 2min later I decided I really just had to push no matter what they said. Since the doctor wasn't there, I didn't get any local anesthesia and I felt this immense burning. Lucky the head was stretching me out a bit so I didn't tear. Pretty soon with the next push out came a head, followed by the rest of him with the next contraction. 7:53PM Baby Boy Merrill was born! (not more then 30min after pulling into the parking lot). 7 lbs 14 oz. 20.5 cm long. Head 13cm. His face was pretty purple and bruised because he came so fast.

Nurses said baby was doing fine, I got to hold him for a bit before sending him away to be washed up. I was still having some intense contractions because I hadn't delivered the placenta because they really needed the doctor to be there for that because I tore a little bit. It was a very LONG 10min waiting for him, but I survived.

Will was lucky enough to dodge more and squeezing (because he was watching out for baby) while the doctor numbed me up for stitches, lucky there was a nurse willing to sacrifice her hand :) While Doctor Besse was stitching me up, we went over our 6 names for baby boy. Baby frowned at 3 of the 6, so we took those off the list. We asked baby about the next 3, and he was ok with 2 of them. Mommy liked Tanner better than the other name, so we called him that for a little bit, then tried the other name. Baby decided he liked Tanner better. And that’s how we cut our list from 6 names we couldn't decide on to Tanner! We love the name Tanner Walter Merrill and he looks just like a Tanner to us. We couldn't be happier!

Tanner was born with his tongue tied, so we had that clipped the day after we got one. 1. because he was very painful to nurse and couldn't quite get a good latch all the time, and 2. Tanner reserves the right to stick his tongue out at his brother if he so chooses, and since his frednulum was all the way to the tip of his tongue, he never would have had that opportunity.
After about 1 ½ hr in the delivery room they transferred us to post-pardum where we got to enjoy our time with him. We didn't discharge the hospital till 9pm Wed night because Tanner was getting jaundice and had to be under the lights for 12hours. Since he was really bruised he had increased risk of Jaundice, and had trouble coughing up some flam because it didn't get the good squeeze of the birth canal. Unfortunately this meant lots of heal pricks with painfully long time to get enough blood out of him. We had to continue this procedure Thursday and Friday morning at the Doctors office until his levels got high enough for Insurance to cover Home Health. After one day on the lights at him, Tanner was finally able to discharge from the blue lights! We all were so happy! We have learned through many different nurses that not EVERYONE knows how to get blood from a foot...they just like to cause babies pain because they never learned the right way.

Brady liked to try to poke Tanner in the eye, and loves to go over rand watch him; but isn't too big on wanting to hold him, or learning how to be soft yet. We are working on being “soft” and when Brady feels like he wants to hold him, we will defiantly let him, until then...let him look on :)
I am so grateful that we made it to the hospital in time, and for all of my family's help, and churches help in bringing in meals. I have been blessed with quick healing which helps me continue doing my daily stuff around the house and helping Brady learn and grow while keeping track of Tanner too. We are so blessed to have these 2 little boys in our life!

*Disclaimer: Yes, I did deliver him all natural...I thought I did that with Brady, but apparently local anesthesia does a little more then I thought it did. I love the fact that I can calm myself to not need an epidural, but next time local anesthesia before the crowning would definitely be more comfortable :)

Brady gave me flowers when I got home. Love them!

Will and Charisse

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Baby Boy Merrill

Birth Story