April's birth story

Both kids are napping at the same time! So, I'm taking advantage of feeling relatively rested today (oh yeah, I had a cup of coffee this morning too) and will attempt to capture April's birth story so I don't forget.

I could not believe that on September 21st, the day before my due date, that I would still be pregnant! The Dr's had warned that we may always have premature babies and so I was prepared for an August baby but understood that if I was careful it may be possible to extend my pregnancy and go longer if not full-term. When Labor Day came and went, then the 37 week mark (full-term), then 38 weeks, 39.... I started wondering if I was going to go PAST my due date!?! My back pain had continued for most of the 3rd trimester and while the beautiful weather helped some, I was starting to feel pretty uncomfortable. I started thinking about what natural ways I could speed things along and remembered that with Bethany my water broke shortly after I had a massage to try and help my severe back pain. They had said they would not use the massage to induce me, but sometimes just being really relaxed causes the body to go into labor if you are otherwise ready. Even if it didn't I'd get a massage out of the deal :)

So, on the 21st I had a wonderful massage and got a lot done around the house that evening while Dan went to sleep early around 8:30 as he was getting over a cold. I chatted on the phone with my dad while cleaning the entire kitchen, doing laundry and picking up the house (can you say nesting?). At about 10:30 I was getting tired and climbed into bed. Just as I got all my pillows situated around my large belly I felt my water break! I ran into the bathroom while telling Dan to get up and 5 minutes later poked my head out the door to make sure he was awake (he wasn't). He called his parents to come stay over with Bethany so we could head to the hospital, and I called Methodist to let them know my water broke and to see if we should come right away or wait for the contractions to be closer together. They were glad I called as they were over capacity and needed to divert me to another hospital. I was not prepared for that and had tons of questions about whether our insurance would cover another place, if my Dr would be there, where was the next closest hospital etc. A few friends had delivered at Waconia and loved the birthing center and it was only a little farther from Methodist anyway so we had them send my files there. They were actually pretty busy too so I started checking with Maple Grove to see if they had room but when I called back to Methodist they said Waconia would be expecting me and it would be fine. I tried to figure out the insurance situation too by calling Health Partners but being after hours I couldn't get an answer and so we ended up just packing our bags and going. At this point my contractions were about 5 minutes apart and remembering stories of other moms quick deliveries of 2nd and 3rd kids made me think it was important to just get to a hospital. Dan didn't want to deliver a baby in our car :)

We checked in around 12:30 a.m. and my contractions started getting farther apart so we tried walking the hallways. It was a long night and I was tired! They wanted to speed things along after I started to stall so gave me a very small amount of Pitocin and it worked immediately. I started having contractions 1-2 minutes apart around 5 am and after my epidural tried to rest for a little bit. Just like with Bethany, as soon as I started to rest I started feeling a lot of pressure and asked the nurse to check me. The Dr. came by at 7 on his way to a twins c-section and said "wow, I wasn't expecting that - you are crowning!" He couldn't do the delivery since the other mom was already ready so they called another Dr. who lived nearby to come over quickly and deliver our baby! I felt like I needed to push but they told me to try not to (ha!) so every couple minutes I wanted someone to make sure she wasn't coming out too quickly - Dan did not want that job so thankfully the nurse stayed nearby. Finally, the other Dr arrived and got on her scrubs and we were ready to push. I tried to remember what to do and 3 pushes later, April Faith arrived! As I was pushing my water burst again and was very memorable seeing the floor flood (Dan jumped out of the way). The other thing that was scary was that the cord was wrapped around April's neck and body twice. They said it was a long cord but thankfully they got her unwrapped and since it was a quick delivery everything was fine. I got to hold her right away and hear her cry... the most amazing sound! They got her cleaned up, she weighed in at 8 lb 1 oz and was 20 in long born at 8:12 a.m. on her due date, September 22nd, 2011. I had a reminder on my outlook calendar telling me it was her due date from 8-8:30 so she came very promptly during that meeting invite to arrive at 8:12!

It was so fun to look at her, her chubby little cheeks and count her fingers and long toes. We were so thankful she was healthy! Big sister Bethany came with Papa and Grandma later that morning and Auntie Amber and Mormor and Morfar came that afternoon. Like a big sister, Bethany shared her cold with Bethany immediately upon meeting her with a big sneeze. I was scared she would get sick, and she did get a cold, but thankfully no fever.

We got to go home on Saturday and while she was jaundiced similarly to Bethany, they expected it was breast milk jaundice and that she'd get better around the 2 mo mark like Bethany did. We had a follow-up pediatrician appointment on Monday that confirmed the high levels and they also detected a heart murmur so we went to Children's the next day for a cardiologist appointment where they showed us exactly where the small holes were. There were two holes but were very tiny and should close on their own within a year. However, we want to document them because any dr that sees April will hear the murmur and want to be sure it isn't dangerous (which it shouldn't be because these holes are very common).

Dan went back to work on the 29th and Bethany, April and I tried to figure out how to all be home together. Bethany thankfully has been very loving to April so far. She has limited listening skills to me, but loves to hold and talk to April whenever she can. We are staying busy with visitors and play dates and are loving the beautiful fall weather. The first 8 days of October had temperatures in the 80's! Bethany is going to be going to Koala Bear one day a week to keep some consistency with her new friends so we don't have another transition in December and hopefully that will be a nice thing for her to look forward to. I know I am looking forward to having a day to catch up on sleep with just April at home. For some reason April hasn't been sleeping during Bethany's naptime so "sleep when the baby sleeps" hasn't been working with the 2nd child at home for me. I'm also hoping that once April's cold clears up that she'll sleep better at night. So far she has been wanting to cuddle and nurse ALL NIGHT LONG. It is sweet to have a newborn so cuddly, but I also know sleeping is important when you have an active almost 2-year old during the day to keep busy. April will be 3 weeks on Thursday so hopefully by then we'll have some longer stretches at night where she is ok sleeping in her pack n play.

April, you are an adorable little girl and we love you so much! Thank you for joining our family and while big sister Bethany may be very loud sometimes and not understand that she shouldn't get so close to your face and point out your eyes, nose and mouth so forcefully, she loves you very much too!