Before I start this post, I’d like to introduce you to Cameron Frederick Forster, born February 20th, 2017, at 6 lbs. and 6 ounces (a mere 3 ounces less than his big sister).
I was so excited to be pregnant again, and when I found out in June 2016 that I was starting my nine month journey, I couldn’t wait to start getting a bump and living it up for my last time (most likely) as a pregnant lady! My first pregnancy was so easy, it was like I wasn’t even pregnant. I literally did 100 lunges with my mom the night before my water broke and I went into labor. This time around? Not so much. I had a difficult pregnancy, one that made me continuously say to friends and co-workers, “I’d be ok if I had this baby early!”. While I was mostly joking (no one wants to have a premature baby) I was also dead serious, I was miserable. I was still working out, but it was tough, much more difficult than before. Really, the worst part of my pregnancy was; my gestational diabetes, which had me counting carbs and testing my blood sugar four times a day, my constant heartburn (worse than last time, maybe because Cameron was born with twice as much hair?? Who knows), my trips to the bathroom to “pee” (dribble) every 30 minutes, my hemorrhoids (I’m being candid here), and my constant crankiness (I was just cranky, all-the-time). My co-workers were ready for me to have this baby, as was, you can imagine, my husband! Oh, and lets not forget this time around I had a two and a half year old to take care of (who happened to get her two year molars right at my last 4 weeks of pregnancy, she was a wreck!).
For a while I’d been preparing for baby two to arrive, I would actually say I started nesting about a month and a half before his arrival. There was a part of me that really thought I was going to have this baby early. I’d always thought my due date was actually a week ahead of what my doctor’s had guessed (and after having Cameron I think they finally agreed!) and I was thinking I’d have him two to three weeks early (I’m not sure why). On February 17th at 12 am I woke up to what I thought was my water breaking (Note: I was barely 36 weeks at this time, or 37 weeks according to my own calculations!) so I was a little freaked out thinking my water had broken…it was a bit early. I went to the bathroom and noticed it wasn’t my water, it was blood. Lots of blood. I screamed and Nick came running into help. He called 9-1-1, I laid down in our bathroom thinking the worst; I’d lost my baby. I put my hands on my belly hoping he would prove otherwise, and bless his heart, he started kicking like crazy. What a wave of relief, at least he was still moving in there, it was an amazing feeling, although we were both still terrified wondering why I was bleeding so much. The ambulance arrived within minutes, it was amazing. Nick scrambled to find someone to come over to stay with Paige, but since it was in the middle of the night (about 1 am at this point) this proved difficult. I went in the ambulance alone, to the hospital, as Nick stayed behind trying to get a hold of someone. He finally got a hold of my dad who came to the hospital and met up with Nick and Paige. He took Paige and Nick stayed with me. In the ambulance they had given me an IV and tested my baby’s heart rate right away, it was 140. That was good, I was so relieved once again. But, still wondering, “why am I bleeding?!”. In the triage of the hospital they confirmed my bleeding had slowed. They discussed different scenarios with me; emergency c-section, the possibility of a blood transfusion, a lot of not-so-fun things. The nurse did an ultrasound to estimate the size of the baby, her estimate was 5 pounds 1 ounce. This scared me, so small! Thankfully they did a non-stress test and decided I wasn’t in labor, the baby was fine, and I was no longer bleeding. They kept me overnight and through the following day to make sure I wasn’t showing signs of labor and/or bleeding. They asked me questions such as “do you use narcotics or heroin? Have you been in a car accident lately?”…ummm, no and no. They had deduced that I had experienced a placental abruption. This basically means my placenta had started to separate from my uterine lining. This is not good. Thankfully it was only partial and there was no indication that is was still separating. They were going to send me home, which scared the crap out of me (what if this happened again and it was a full abruption this time?!). The next night I noticed a tiny bit of fresh blood on my toilet paper when I wiped. I told my doctor and he insisted I stay one more day. So, I stayed Sunday. Monday morning they were going to discharge me but they did one more stress test first. The stress test apparently showed that I was having small contractions and the baby’s heart rate was dropping with each tiny contraction. “We’re going to induce you”, my doctor said. This was one hour after Nick had left to go to work. I quickly called him, crying, and he came right back. I was terrified thinking about having my baby at 36/37 weeks, and knowing that the nurse had estimated he was 5 pounds. I of course focused on the worst…why do I do that?! I also remember my doctor saying “you may need a C-section”, which was another thing I really did not want. I was a mess!
At 10:30 am they broke my water, at 11:30 am they started pitocin, at 1:30 pm I got en epidural, and at 5:18pm (after three hours of moving all around in my bed in order to get Cameron in a position that he liked and that wouldn’t cause his heart rate to drop!) Cameron was born.
My “late preterm baby” got a 9.9 apgar score and was simply perfect. He needed zero time in the NICU and was thriving by the time we made it home two days later (we did have to stay one extra day because he needed circumcised. His platelets were a little low so they needed to wait one extra day to do the procedure). The best part about Cameron? He’s a breastfeeding pro! Although many late preterm babies have latching issues, Cameron did not. Whereas with Paige, I had to pump exclusively because even after having her tongue tie fixed, she still didn’t latch, Cameron latched from the get-go. That has made all the difference this time around. So, difficult pregnancy, not so fun labor (compared to first time) but extremely easy first few weeks home! Whereas before I would have to set up my pump, pump for twenty minutes, and feed Paige a bottle, now there is no pump involved and I’m just breastfeeding. Occasionally, since Cameron eats so little, I have to get out the hand pump to relieve the pressure of my “milk goddess” milk making abilities, but that’s not so bad. Another great thing about this time around? I didn’t tear at all! So, I can pee and walk around in comfort. Wow, what a difference that makes.
Paige is fascinated by the fact that when baby cries, I can whip out my boobs and feed him to soothe him! She always says “Baby is hungry mommy!”
Similar to Paige, Cam sleeps all day long. I literally have to wake him up every two to three hours to feed him (most of the time). At night, of course, he wakes on his own. However, I’m actually sleeping well because he takes a binky (Paige did not), I discovered the Halo sleep sack and he can’t get out of it (unlike with Paige, with whom we used swaddle blankets and she easily maneuvered out of them in minutes). I know Cam still has a slight amount of jaundice, which is why he’s sleeping all the time, but I’m hoping when that goes away his calm demeanor remains (I won’t hold my breath). So far, so good, the second pregnancy sucked, but the second postpartum time has been nothing but amazing.
I hope to do more posting while on maternity leave. We shall see! I got a new pressure cooker and would love to start posting some simple pressure cooker recipes (low FODMAPs of course).
