Garrett Anthony Adams

April 6-12, 2015

A friend of mine commented a week ago how each of her four babies’ births were so different from one another. Caleb and Leila’s births were very different so I thought this one would probably fall somewhere in the middle category. In some ways it did… but the labor was definitely a less pleasant experience than either one of theirs. Don't read the rest unless you want lots of birth information.

Thursday’s doctor appointment I was dilated to about a three and Dr. Syal said he thought I’d have the baby over the weekend. I was surprised to be dilated by his due date and at the possibility of him coming sooner than I expected!

Friday and Saturday were consistent contractions 20 minutes apart. Saturday I also caught the stomach bug my kids had had earlier in the week with diarrhea and vomiting, low fever and achy body. Saturday night any time I had a contraction during my sleep, I vomited. If I was awake, I could keep it down so I had a pretty sleepless night.

Sunday morning I felt better than I had Saturday and kept down some crackers and Sprite. By around noon my contractions were about every 7-9 minutes and weren’t getting any closer together than that but were definitely getting stronger. After the kids woke up from naps, we did a quick Easter egg hunt, ate Sunday dinner and Allen and I headed to the hospital.

We checked in at 4:15 pm and my contractions were about every 5 minutes but only one out of every few contractions was really strong. The nurse seemed pretty sure they wouldn’t send me home but then checked and I was only dilated to about 3.5 cm… not much more than I had been dilated on Thursday. They had me walk but when I stopped walking, my contractions were back to every 7-9 minutes.

By 7:15, after talking to Dr. Syal, they decided to keep me at the hospital (even though they didn’t believe I was in labor) because Garrett’s heart rate had dropped pretty low with some of my strong contractions and they wanted to monitor him. It was not the ideal scenario… they didn’t consider me far enough in labor to admit me but wouldn’t let me go home. They were keeping us for the night to observe and then Dr. Syal would come see us in the morning to determine what to do.

My contractions kept getting stronger and stronger but were still 7-9 minutes apart. I could tell the nurse thought I was being a wimp as I was trying to breathe through the contractions and offered some ambien to help me sleep since she still didn’t think I was in labor.

Finally being admitted

Finally, at 10:45 pm I had Allen go ask the nurse to please check me because my contractions were already making me shaky even though they were still about 7 minutes apart. I didn't get shaky with contractions until I was dilated to an 8 or 9 with Leila). They were as strong and more painful than I had remembered them ever being in Leila’s whole delivery and I wanted an epidural. That was the whole reason I had come to the hospital sooner than I thought I needed to… I didn’t want to miss out on getting an epidural like I had for Leila!

After checking me, she said she needed to get someone to double check because my contractions were still 7-9 minutes apart and she didn’t think I’d be dilated much more than I had been four hours prior. The second nurse confirmed that I was dilated to 6 or 7 cm and they quickly began trying to get me admitted to the hospital. Then they had to get two bags of fluid in me before they could get the anesthesiologist in there for the epidural.

In the 45 minutes that passed to get admitted and get fluid in me, my contractions went from 7-9 minutes apart to 2 minutes apart. My water broke. With my other babies, the doctor broke my water for me and it was a like a trickle of water that came out with each contraction. This time it was more like an explosion… there was a strong contraction and then BAM! There was meconium when my water broke so they called in a prenatal team to set up in my room to suction his lungs (at least I’m pretty sure that’s what they do) right after birth.

It was 11:30 pm when the anesthesiologist came in. Holding still for the epidural was tough but I was pretty adamant about wanting it even though the nurse told me that if I didn’t get the epidural, that I could have my baby in the next half hour and the epidural would just slow things down. I didn’t care… it gave my doctor time to get there anyway.

Reasons I really wanted the epidural:
1) I hadn’t enjoyed holding Leila after she was born because I felt way too shaky. All I had wanted to do after giving birth to her was go take a shower, so I did as soon as I breastfed her. Then when all the nurses were gone and Allen had gone to get food, I just lay in bed and still felt too shaky to hold her, so I let her lay under the warmer next to me and felt guilty that I wasn’t enjoying these first moments with her. I wanted to enjoy the first moments with Garrett like I had with Caleb.
2) This labor was more painful than Leila’s had been and I wasn't really able to breathe through the contractions this time for some reason.
3) Giving birth in a hospital where they make you lay flat on your back to push is not comfortable. I had been fine on my hands and knees with Leila and was ready to push until they laid me flat on my back and broke my water, then I wished I had an epidural.

The epidural worked like a charm on the right half of my body but did nothing for the left side! I had the same problem when I had Caleb but had forgotten about it and didn’t ever really consider the possibility of it happening again. I lay on my left side and pushed the button to release more drugs… more contractions and it still wasn’t effective. The nurse had me practice pushing for two contractions and then called Dr. Syal to see how far he was from the hospital and forbade me from pushing anymore, which would have been impossible had I not gotten the epidural.

The camera didn't focus fast enough so this was all I got of Allen cutting the cord.

By the time my doctor came in, my left side was not as numb as my right side but the pain had definitely dulled. He took one look and said, “Let’s get this baby out in three pushes (one contraction)…. Naw, I bet you can do it in two pushes.” He then predicted Garrett would be quite a bit bigger than my other babies had been. When the next contraction came, it took one push and Dr. Syal said, “Stop pushing! His head is out.”

And Garrett was born at 12:47 am on Monday, April 6th, weighing in at 9 lb 7 oz and 21½ inches long.

They whisked him to the NICU table to suction his lungs, weighed and measured him, put a diaper and a hat on him and gave him back to me to lay on my belly as Dr. Syal stitched me up. I loved holding him and he kept scooting himself up, trying to get some milk. As soon as I was stitched up, I nursed him and held him and loved it! (My other babies they had cleaned up and swaddled before I ever got to hold them. With Caleb I didn't end up getting to hold him until almost 45 minutes after he was born.)

My first time holding him! Poor baby with swollen, puffy cheeks

Being stitched up...

Allen holding Garrett for the first time!

Burrito baby sleeping at night

Allen's set up

Post middle of the night nursing. He's a quieter sleeper than my other kids were. I could actually sleep with him in the hospital room next to me.

I have three kids 3 and under!

And then there were five.

Jenni had to fight Caleb for a chance to hold Garrett. After he held Garrett for 15-20 minutes, we said it was Jenni's turn. After about one minute he said, "Why does she get such a long turn?!" 

Garrett is a cutie! His cheeks are so chunky and his hands are huge! They are almost the size of Leila's already!! We attempted getting a picture of their hands but it didn't work very well.

Caleb and Leila have been awesome so far. They ask to hold him again and again. Caleb sings to him and prays for him. They've been missing my attention more as the newness of having Garrett wears off but they are loving all of the attention they get from Jenni (back in Utah now), Grammy and Daddy Allen.

The second evening and night were rough. Garrett cried and cried and cried. Allen ended up walking the hall with him for at least an hour so I could sleep a little. Eventually one of the nurses came and got him to let us both get a little sleep.

The swelling in his face has gone down some.

To my dismay, after my shower the second day, the T-shirt I brought for me to wear was tight... I think I'm bigger postpartum the third time around. 

Leila insisted on trying to go potty in my bathroom. :)

Caleb couldn't get enough of holding baby Garrett. 

The day we were leaving Garrett was being really fussy too. I think he was just hungry and my milk hadn't completely come in yet. The only thing that would keep him from crying was being skin-to-skin so Allen stripped his shirt off to take a turn holding/napping while I got things ready to go home.

Going home!

Garrett's home

Sleeping in his crib! I can't get over the size of his fist.

Olaf shirts!

A tired Leila with her baby Garrett.

Leila's response to how are you/how did you sleep/how was nursery is, “Bonk a head" whether or not she had actually bonked her head. Sometimes she'll add in that she's okay or that she was crying. She woke easily to Garrett's cries the first week but she was also already overtired from not napping and waking up early while I was in the hospital. She dislikes his umbilical cord and always pulls his shirt down to cover it back up when she's holding him or next to him. She alerts us when Garrett is sad or crying or blinking. 

Watching for a train

Showing me the pictures from their trip to the park while I was napping.

The first couple of days home I slept when Garrett did while everyone else went to the park, Chuck E Cheese, etc. It was nice just to get time to cuddle with him and enjoy newborn baby time and sleep while Caleb and Leila got to play with more energetic people.

Caleb can jump up and climb onto this platform.

Wednesday I took Garrett to the doctor for a check-up since he had lost a bunch of weight in the hospital. Meanwhile Allen took the civic to get new tires because one was leaking air and they were all really worn. Yay for Mom and Jenni babysitting the other kids!

How did he fit in there?!

Caleb didn't want to stop holding Garrett to point to things in his book, so he used his tongue.

"He tickled me!"

Leila needed to pump, she was feeling a little engorged.

Jenni left on Friday evening so she had to get in her last newborn snuggles. She was a lifesaver! It

I love holding him and looking at him. Sometimes I can't believe that such a beautiful human being developed and grew inside of my body.

On Saturday Allen had an indoor soccer game that he wanted us to come watch, so we did. Five day old baby and all.

When we got to the soccer game, Allen ran in to play while my mom got shoes on the kids and I changed Garrett's diaper . . . mid-diaper change, he pooped, peed and spit up all over the back seat. It was quite the clean up. I was very thankful to have leather seats in our van. On Saturday Allen and my mom also re-tarped and mulched our tree areas in our yard to save me from having to weed so often.

He seems to have his days and nights mixed up and will hopefully figure it out soon but we're all so glad to have him in our family!