Breastfeeding...might be TMI

     So breastfeeding. With Raelee, it was easy breezy once my milk came in. Never had latching issues or sore nipples, or all the things that make breast feeding so hard. I never had an abundance of milk, so that was a bit stressful. You can be sure I was super paranoid to never, ever spill any. Raelee nursed until 15 months, never receiving any formula supplements. I am extremely proud of this due to working full time as a nurse doing 12 hour shifts. It is not easy to find time to pump to keep the supply up, but I made it. And loved it. It was soooo easy to go anywhere with her, and never have to worry about bottles and formula, etc. So I expected breastfeeding to be easy breezy this go round too. Guess again. The first day was great. Fenway latched and fed a ton in the first 12 hours. Then around 2am, he totally forgot what he was doing and starting biting and tongue thrusting. I did not let him nurse that way, but with all the off and on, I still ended up with sore, blistered nipples. Fun! By the next day, he was latching correctly again. Super weird. My milk came in on day 3. I was really happy, because it didn't hurt like it did with Raelee. Fenway was back to his birth weight by day 5. By then end of week two, things were not going so well. Fenway was still latching great, but my milk came in again(?) and hurt like the dickens, still does with let down. It feels like knives going from my armpits out my nipples. This happened for a week when my milk came in with Raelee and is still happening with Fen. There was waaayyy to much milk for Fen to handle, he would choke and scream, milk spraying everywhere. Once I pumped after feeding him and pumped 9 oz's...after he'd ate! A few times he went on nursing strike. I couldn't get him to latch no matter what. He'd scream bloody murder for hours every night, he was super gassy and fussy. It was a very stressful time. After a few weeks of block feeding, and letting the milk spray out before latching him, and not drinking any caffeine or consuming dairy products, and trying not to pump unless I was dying,  we have our sweet baby back. I finally feel like I can nurse him if I'm out and about, even though he is a noisy eater. AND I went shopping for a dress for church, since I am very far away from my normal clothes and I found a super cute dress, on sale, that zips down the front. The front people! I was so excited when it fit. It made nursing at church so much easier. I've always found church the hardest place to nurse due to the fact that most dresses are not breast feeding friendly. So finding a front zipping one was a big deal to me :) Fenway will be 6 weeks old tomorrow. It's been a very stressful and tiring 6 weeks, but I feel that we're normalizing out now. I'm not as fatigued. I hoping once I'm off the Lovenox, I'll be up for more strenuous workouts.Tonight is the last Lovenox shot I have to take( insert happy dance). When all the bruising on my stomach goes away(along with the fat please!) I'll be ecstatic.

Halloween

Raelee and Fenway had fun trick or treating with their cousins, Makenna and Lillian. Raelee was really wanting to be Izzy from Jake and the Neverland Pirates,  but i waited to long to buy a costume and was really lazy and didn't feel like putting one together for her, even though it's probably the easiest costume ever to assemble.  So Rae ended up being a girl captain hook and Fenway became the crocodile.  Lillian was a possum, because she apparently plays possum alot, and Makenna was a bumble bee. My brother matt showed up 45 mins before we were leaving to go trick or treating needing help with his costume.  He was going as a red sox fan, but could not find any sox apparal anywhere in town, so then he decided to be a ball player but again could not find any socks apparel or beards at any shops in town so he showed up wanting me to make him a jersey out of a plain white t-shirt and draw a beard on his face which I did and turned out fantastic.so we took the kids trick or treating and then by my grandparents house which is a tradition we've had ever since I was a kid and after that they would definitely ready for bed as were we!

The birth of our boy

     I just realized that my last post was back in January announcing that we were preggers. Well, now that it's October, let me announce that our little boy was born September 25th at 1103 am. His name is David Fenway Wonsch, we're calling him Fenway. Brad's name is actually David Bradley, so we're continuing that tradition, plus David Fenway sounds better than Fenway David. At least to us. Why the name Fenway? Brad is a HUGE RedSox fan, he suggested the names Boston or Fenway as options for our little guy, I was not so keen on the idea, but on the list they went...at the bottom. As the pregnancy progressed, we could not decide on a name, and the early front runners kept dropping off the list, then I had some friends and family that started calling him Fenway just to have something to call him, and the more I heard the name, the more I liked it and the less I liked all the other names. So Fenway he became:) We have come across some very strong reactions to the name, people love it or really, really, really hate it and are very vocal about telling us that:p. But whatev...our kid, our choice.
     So anyway, back to the birth story: With Raelee, she was overdue and I was induced and it took 37 hours before she was delivered, and it was not fun at all. This time I wanted to go into labor on my own and try for no epidural. I had to stop working at 38 weeks, I was swelling soooo bad after 12 hour shifts, it was ridiculous. My hands would be so swollen, it hurt to bend my fingers. My lips made it feel super weird to talk. Not good. Well at 41 weeks, I was still preggers. Due to the blood clotting disorder that we found out I have, I was seeing the specialist every week for BPP's. I called that Monday to set up an appt, they had an opening that day in 1 hour, so I rushed to get Raelee and I ready and out the door. At the appt, Fenway was measuring 9 lbs 5 oz by ultrasound, and the amniotic fluid was starting to get low, so the doctor called my OB, they had a phone conference and it was decided that I needed to be delivered. I was shown the graft and stats on big babys and shoulder dystocia's, and given the choice of just having a c-section to lower the risk of baby being stuck, but I really, really did not want to go that route. So I met my my mom for lunch, then rushed home to pack and head to the hospital for an induction.
     I had cervidil placed the first night to ripen my cervix. Same as with Raelee. The problem I've had both times now, is my cervix likes to stay posterior, so it's really hard to to to do a vaginal exam and place the medication, and it does not feel good at all. Also due to this, when I have contractions, the baby's head does not push down on the cervical opening, so I don't dilate. Awesome.So I started with cervidil, had mild contractions from that, and then the next morning Pitocin was started. Just like with Raelee I was quickly to the max level, and contracting every 3 mins, with no dilation happening. One of my OB's was throwing around the c-section word again, telling me that I really needed to pray and listen to the spirit, it's not worth it if the baby were to get stuck, 9lbs 5 oz US could really be a 10 lb 5 oz baby, etc. I decided that by noon the next day, as long at Fenway was still doing okay per the monitor, if nothing had changed, I would consider a c-section. So that entire day, I was on Pitocin and contracting, didn't feel great, but I was handling it okay. Then that afternoon, the contractions really ramped up. They checked me and I was 4 cm's, Whooohooo! But I still had a posterior cervix. The nurse was able to snag it and pull it to the front. Yes, that is painful. That was done with Raelee too.So now I had been on Pitocin all day and it was time to turn it off. What? So off went the Pit, but I continued contracting throughout the night about every 7 mins. and they hurt. The you can't talk or walk hurt. My nurse checked me again prior to shift change( I always tease her about having magic fingers at work. Her patients go from like 2 cms to complete crazy fast. I was hoping some of that magic would work on me), I was the same and had gone back to posterior. So my cervix got pulled on again. I was on night 2 of no sleep at this point. The next morning at 5 am, Pitocin was restarted. I was still handling the pain okay, but around 6 am, I started having really bad pain in the lower front of my abdomen right over the pubic bone, It felt like a knife was being stabbed into my bladder, constantly, not just with contractions. And the contractions were really bad at this point, but I could have handled that. The other pain though was ridiculous. I asked for an epidural around 715am(I was being nice and waited for shift change, looking back I shouldn't have been that nice lol). Around 830ish, anesth. arrived to place the epidural. I was dying. The pain in my bladder was horrific. They asked if I wanted to be checked prior to the epidural, because I was showing all the signs of transition, and I was like heck to the no, put the needle in my back! After it was placed, I was 9cms and my water broke. It took a good bit for the pain in my bladder to decrease, even with the epidural. I couldn't feel contractions at all, but that pain was still there. It finally decreased enough that I could tolerate it. Once it was time to push, I pushed for 35 mins and Fenway was here. He came out nice and easy, did not get stuck at all thank goodness. The cord was around his neck and once around his body. It was 42 hours from when I first started contracting, to delivery. About 20 hours of that was really painful contractions. Then afterwards I ended up bleeding a bit more than normal, so I was very weak and shaky for awhile. That honestly lasted up until the beginning of this week. I did some research and found out that some women who have stubborn posterior cervix's, can have a really bad pain right above their pubic bone from the uterus trying to get into the right position for delivery, ligaments are having to be stretched that normally wouldn't be during labor. So that explains the pain I was feeling. Also due to the blood clotting issue, I have to give myself a lovenox shot every night for 6 weeks. I can not wait to be over that 6 weeks.
     Fenway's doing well. Breast feeds like a champ, maybe a little too good. He wants to eat all the time. He sleeps pretty good, just wakes up every 2-3 hours to eat for about 30-60 mins. We left the hospital on a Friday, he was 8 lbs 4 oz, by Monday morning he was back up to his birth weight of 8 lbs 11 oz. That's impressive for a breast fed baby. Raelee loves him to death. The first few days home were kinda rough because Raelee had been gone from home for 4 nights and was really out of her routine, so there were some tears and time outs, but she's doing better now. Oh and the night after we got home from having Fenway, Raelee was helping Brad change Fen's diaper and Raelee lost her balance and fell off her step stool, hit her chin on the dresser and bit her lip, inside and out. To the ER she went, had the outside bite glued shut. So that added more excitement to the week. All in all, I think we're starting to settle into being a family of 4.

Fenway at 2 weeks

2013

     I'm a little late with my New Years post. No party for us this year, I worked on Jan 1st, so I was in bed nice and early to end 2012. I'm off orientation now and am flying solo as a labor and delivery nurse. My first day on my own was one to remember...the doctor didn't make it to my patients delivery. For that matter, no one else did either, including the nursery nurse because that baby seriously flew out! All the deliveries I've been to in the last 7 1/2 years as a nursery nurse, I have never seen a baby come out that fast! To give ya'll a time reference, I didn't even have time to get gloves on...yuck! I was telling the grandma to hit the call light, but she was so caught up in the delivery that she didn't hear me. Luckily I had left the door open when I went in to check on my patient, so my co-workers heard the baby cry and quickly came to my assistance. Momma and baby were great! It is definitely a day I will never forget :)
     I'm going with an old fave for my resolution this year. Work out! No excuse, some sort of exercise on my days off. Today was my first day off of 2013 and I just completed my first workout. Welcome back 30 day shred!
     Today was a fun day, Brad and I had a date. He's finishing up his two weeks off and since I wasn't working today, Raelee went off to see her friends at Pre-School and we went out for lunch and a movie. Les Miserables...wow! That was a movie and a half. This is bad to admit, but I honestly did not know the story line...like at all. Not really sure how I missed out on that all these years. But back to the movie, I'm really impressed with the actors. Those were some serious emotions being conveyed. It was fun to have a date with the hubby. I've been spoiled with him being off work for the last two weeks, next week is going to be an adjustment for sure.