birth. round 3.

Beck Charles Stratton

June 10, 2015

7:03 am

7 lb 9 oz

20 in

Beck's birth went literally as smoothly as it could go. Which was wonderful, since I was extremely nervous about it. My surgery with Quinn was horrendous. PAINFUL as hell. (Sorry, but it was) Part of me kind of expected the same thing this go around, and I am more that thankful that wasn't the case.

Tuesday night I made a last minute appointment with Lisa Vick to get the boy's haircuts, and while we were there, labor and delivery called and let us know that I was the first procedure of the day and we needed to be there at 5 am. So instead of going to dinner and swimming at my mom's like we had planned, we grabbed subway, threw the kids pjs in a bag and took them down to my Grandma's.
**Side note, the previous weekend my sweet Grandma Jolley had a stroke (or should I say multiple strokes) so my mom was over there with all of her siblings.
Beau and I went home after dropping them off, and started to do last minute prep for baby! Which really just meant cleaning everything that hadn't been cleaned yet. ;) About 30 min after we got home, Beau got a call from work about a power line that had exploded, so he had to leave and take care of that for a few hours. I swept, mopped, vacuumed, cleaned toilets, finished packing the hospital bag, and everything else that needed to be done, and when Beau finally got home, he did my honey-do list, installed the carseat, gave me a blessing (I get one before every birth) and we finally got to bed around 11:30.
I didn't sleep much, and we were up at 4:00 to get ready. We were out the door at 4:30 and on our way. I hate that drive. I know it could be worse, I could be in labor and miserable, but it's such a long drive when you're nervous! and I was nervous!!
We got there right at 5:00 and went up to labor and delivery. They showed us to a room and told us we would have to wait a bit for a nurse because they got slammed about an hour before that with deliveries. We sat for about 1/2 an hour before a nurse finally came in to have me change into a gown and start my IV. Can I just say that I hate getting those things. She started in my right arm and the first time she said I pulled away and she missed, but the second one in that arm she didn't get either. Ouch. She finally got one in my left arm and we finished paperwork and questions. I was having regular contractions about 2 minutes apart the entire time we were there. They weren't terribly painful, but I felt them. It didn't surprise me that I was having them because the same thing happened with Quinn.

Dr.Ott came in to say hi, and then we talked to the Anesthesiologist. I was really glad he came to talk because I had major concerns. He was super great about everything I asked, and we opted to use morphine, even though I am allergic, he also used benedryl to help with the allergy reaction and then zofran to help with the nausea I felt. Our labor nurse was Brittani, and she was completely amazing! We also had a nurse from Africa! Tanzania to be exact! His name was Stanley and he was there with a group shadowing american nurses. It was so cool having him there, even though there were a few times I felt guilty with my high maintenance "I don't want to feel ANY pain" and "can I have some ice chips" requests. It made me grateful that I wasn't delivering in an African village with an elephant outside my window. 
They took us back to the operating room a little before 7:00 and started my spinal. Um. OWWWWW. I won't lie, I cried this time. I don't remember Quinns being bad at all, but this one hurt like a mother. They don't let husbands in until later, so I had to hold onto the nurse, but the poor girl was trying to multi task while I was squeezing her arm and crying. I honestly felt like I was falling off the table, and they kept telling me to bend over further! I was SO glad when it was over, and was already partially numb in my legs when they had me lay down. Once I layed down I got a little more nauseous, and the anesthesiologist was so great and gave me more zofran. At one point he told me to "Go to your happy place" and I said to him, "You have my happy place standing out in the hallway!" I was so glad when they finally let Beau come in. After that I was a lot calmer. Literally like 2 minters later I casually asked Beau "Have they started?" He said "I don't know and I'm not looking." Haha! Then the anesthesiologist asked "Do you really want to know whats going on?" I said "um. No." But then he said "they're suctioning his mouth out right now!" 3 seconds later I heard him cry! I was shocked! I had no idea they'd even started! Which was so great! Surgery started at 7:04 and he was born 7:08! I cried of course, and then it was all a blur. They brought him over to me and let me snuggle his sweet (gooey) face. It was so sweet, he stopped crying as soon as he heard my voice. I love that first moment. then they took him and got him cleaned up and weighed. 7 lb 9 oz 20 in. a LOT smaller than I expected!

They brought him back one more time for photos and then Beau went with him to the recovery room while I finished up with the last 20ish minutes of surgery. All I can say is that I am so grateful for the anesthesiologist! He was SOO nice and chatted with me the entire time! At one point Dr. Ott asked "So are we tying your tubes?" I though he was kidding and said "Uh, no!" But then he said "okay, well you're only going to be able to carry one more baby, MAYBE. I would suggest no more, but you may be able to get away with one. You're uterus is really weak and won't handle much more." I was kind of shocked when he said that. And a little sad! Not that we are planning for more kids, but to be told you actually have a limit, it stings a little. 

FYI, csection babies are gorgeous! Perfect heads, perfect faces! We got a million comments while we were in the hospital about how perfect he is!! 
Once the surgery was over they took me back to recovery where Beau was waiting with the baby and my Mom, who had gotten there just a few minutes earlier. Scott and Nicole had, thankfully, been able to take work off and had our kids all day long. I was REALLY REALLY tired and SUPER thirsty, but no pain, so that was good! I hadn't planned on breastfeeding at all, but he latched on first try, and nursed without a problem for about 40 minutes straight! I was surprised!

They took us down to the recovery floor pretty quick after that and we got settled. The room was SUPER hot, I was miserable! I finally had them bring a fan in to cool things down! I tried to sleep on and off that whole day, but we had so many visitors I didn't get more than a few minutes, which was okay because we loved all the family who came to see beck!! 

I was starving by the time lunch time rolled around, and Beau's mom brought Beau and sandwich and I asked the nurse if I could order lunch, but they would only let me have chicken noodle soup. Which made it even hotter in that room! I mostly at jello until they let me have solid food haha! 

Scott and Nicole brought the kids over pretty soon after that. Quinn immediately wanted to hold him, hug him, kiss him, squeeze him, you name it! Blake was interested, but didn't want to get too close, he wasn't too sure of me either, hospitals make him nervous. We spent that first day visiting and relaxing. I wasn't able to get up and walking as soon as I'd hoped because we had so many visitors, but once I got up i felt so much better, even though I only got down the first hallway before I had to turn around and go back.  Beck didn't eat pretty much all day, only right after he was born, and then at 2:30 for a bit. The lactation consultant bugged me, and she scolded us for giving him a binky so I didnt ask her to come back. I ended up having Beau stay that night, which wasn't planned, but I was really nervous about staying by myself since I hadn't been out of bed much that day, so my mom took the kids home and had them stay with her.

I got my IV out early, thankfully. I don't remember what they'd been waiting for, but I must have bugged them enough, because the nurse told me once I finished the last bag of fluid they would remove it, but it was taking forever so they just took it out early. I was so glad to have that thing gone! 

That night we had the nurse take Beck to the nursery on and off, so we could get some sleep. He did okay, but they said he wanted to be held all the time, which they were okay with ;) 

We ended up giving him a bottle because he was having too much trouble nursing consistently. I wasn't too sad about it, because I hadn't wanted to nurse in the first place. 

This may be a little TMI, so if you don't want these kid of details, skip the next paragraph. :)

I woke up around 1 am having to pee SOO bad! Like, hurting bad. which was weird because I had a catheter in still. I tried waking Beau up, but the poor guys was out of it. I finally called the nurse, who took her sweet time coming in. She thought maybe my bag was full, which had been my first thought as well. But she said that it was pretty much empty! She messed with the tube a bit and finally got things going and filled two bags! TWO FULL BAGS! youch!! That later caused a bladder infection, which also sucked. After that, she just took the catheter out, 

Day 2 in the hospital was pretty busy as well. They cleared me in the morning to shower, which was absolutely wonderful! Seriously, doing my makeup and hair and getting into real clothes made a world of difference! We took a quick walk down the hallway with a quick stop to visit Bridget (Beau's cousin) who had her baby girl just a few hours after Beck was born. She was just 2 doors down so that was fun! We had to make it a quick trip because we had visitors on the way. Kade and Jocelyn came to visit right then, and then my mom, Scott and Nicole, the kids, Sandy, my G&G Carlson, and my sweet friends Lisa and Chelsey came to visit all at the same time! Haha! It was a little crazy because we ordered lunch while they were all there, and I was way behind on my pain meds, so I was in a lot of pain. But we were really so grateful for all the love and support we had around us! It was so fun to have so many people come visit! Blake finally warmed up to both Beck and I and even climbed up into bed with me. 

I took a few photos of Beck that morning.

Beau went home with the kids the second night. I ordered food before he left, and took my pain meds before I ate, which was a big mistake. I started to feel really light headed and nauseous, so I had the nurse take Beck to the nursery and then she called Dr. Chalmers to get me a prescription for some more zofran. That finally kicked in and I was able to get some sleep.
I woke up pretty early (like 5 am) and watched the discharge movies because I wanted out of there asap. Those are so boring, but in all actuality they remind you of a lot of things that you forget! Dr Chalmers came in around 7:00 and discharged me, and then Dr. Moon called in and discharged Beck over the phone because all of his tests came back perfect. So I got up and dressed and ready so we could leave as soon as we could. Beau stopped at Target on his way to the hospital to pick up some newborn diapers since all we had at the house were size 1. (I had really expected another 9lb baby)
Once he got there, we called the nurse and got the paperwork filled out and we were out of there around 11:30! 

We stopped at Walgreens to get my prescriptions filled, and then headed straight home. The kids were with my mom, or sandy, I can remember which, but we had a few hours to ourselves before chaos broke out ;) I took a nap with Beck, while Beau went back to wallgreeens to pick up the prescriptions and then stopped at Albertos to pick up some lunch. 

This birth was had a lot in common with my others, but at the same time, there were a million differences. I can say, I am grateful for modern medicine, for capable doctors, for modern medicine, for the power of the priesthood, for prayer, for family, and the opportunity I have to be a mother. I would do every part a billion times over, to get these sweet babies here. Every pain, sleepless night, hospital bill... every part.