The Harvey Family: Happy Birthday Brett!

Welcome to the world Brett Daniel Harvey! As with Blake, we had no idea that Monday would be as eventful as it was. I had planned on going back to the hospital to return my 24 hour urine and get put on the monitor for my 2pm appointment (and possibly be induced afterward if my blood pressure was still high), but Brett had other plans. I woke up at 5:30am to use the bathroom and something was off. It seemed like my water had broken when I used the bathroom but I didn't feel the "popping" like I did with Blake so I wasn't convinced. After I got back in bed I started having contractions. I didn't think much of it at first since it was normal to get 1 or 2 after getting up in the middle of the night and then they would normally go away. These didn't go away, so I started timing them and they were coming every 5 minutes. After half an hour I woke Chris up and told him that we might need to go to the hospital earlier than planned. We showered up, packed our bags, ate some breakfast (this was errily similar to the morning Blake was born) and headed to the hospital. We checked in around 8am and I got checked about an hour later and they confirmed that my water had broken and I was 1-2cm dilated and about 80% effaced. Then the fun began.

I got moved into my official labor and delivery room and the contractions were getting much stronger. When I arrived to the hospital they asked how bad my pain was on a scale of 1-10 and I was thinking it was about at a 5. Once I got into my room it was up to a 6 or 7 and I knew that we needed to start preparing for the epidural since that was most definitely part of my birth plan after my experience with Blake. It just really helped me relax and make it through the most painful part of labor and delivery. Before you get the epidural you have to get an IV in your arm and push a bag of fluid so I started getting a little anxious to get that started. The nurse wanted to get everything in order before getting the IV into my arm but I knew if we had any chance of getting the fluids pushed and then getting the epidural in time that we'd need to start moving quickly. I hadn't had much to drink since I'd gotten up which ended up working against me. I had started getting the body shivers so I had a feeling I was at least 4cm dilated at this point since that is when I started getting them with Blake. Around 10:30am I was checked and had dilated to about 5 cm, then my nurse tried 2 times to get an IV in my arm and was unsuccessful. Then another nurse, 2 times, unsuccessful, then another. Then they called in the anesthesiologist and she was unsuccessful. Then they had to bring in the special IV unit with a machine that looked like they were doing an ultrasound on my arm and they got one in my right arm but said it was up against a valve so they could only push medication, not fluids, so they they had to do a last resort IV up near where I get blood drawn on my left arm. This spot was the most painful but they were able to get it in and start the fluids finally... this was at about 11:30am. My contractions were about 3 minutes apart at this point I think and my pain level was up around a 9. I wasn't sure I was going to keep the baby in long enough for the epidural to kick in once I got it.

The epidural went in pretty smoothly after that but I was having more frequent and super strong contractions at that point (which I felt 100% of) and I knew at this point that even once the epidural was in that it wasn't going to be a huge help... I just hoped it would take some of the edge off. They pushed some sort of medicine but didn't have time to connect me to a drip because minutes later I felt the urge to push. The doctor had just gotten there and I told the nurse with 3 different contractions that I couldn't wait any longer and no practice pushes would be necessary. After 2 contractions and maybe 5 minutes or less of pushing, Brett made his speedy entrance into the world at 12:23pm on Monday May 19, 2014, weighing in at 7lb 4oz and 19.5 inches long. I'm so glad he was able to come on his own without the need to be induced!

It was so surreal having another baby in my arms (on my chest) and it not being Blake. It has taken some getting used to but after a few days it has finally sunk in that we have a brand new baby and he is beautiful and perfect (and in some ways does remind me a lot of his brother). He checked out with a clean bill of health and even I have had minimal pain and the recovery has been fast. Since things went so well, they cleared us to check out of the hospital the next day which was amazing news (I hadn't seen Blake since he went to bed on Sunday night and missed him like crazy)! After getting Brett's last few tests and circumcision done we were discharged and got to come home and introduce Blake to his new baby brother. We were expecting that Blake wouldn't take it very well, but he was surprisingly welcoming and even wanted to read books and sing songs to "Baby Brett". It is going to take a while to make sure Blake knows his boundaries and that he needs to be gentle, but I'm excited to see the boys grow up together!

From Brett's first hour of life he's been doing really well with breastfeeding! He latched on very well and it was so comforting not having to poke and prod him constantly to keep him awake like we had to do with Blake. Since then he has gone through some sleepy feedings and awake feedings (he stays awake to feed better at night right now, boooo) but he definitely has been getting a lot of food and has produced a LOT of soiled and wet diapers. Hopefully things continue to go well and we can beat jaundice this time. We took him for his first pediatrician visit on Wednesday (day 2) and he only seemed to have yellow from his neck up which is acceptable for that age. Then he went back again on Friday (day 4 - which is when billirubin is supposed to peak) and he had some yellow down to his chest. He had already dropped to 7 lb 1 oz on Monday evening (after a couple huge poops) and at the doctor on Tuesday afternoon he was down to 6 lb 13 oz (6% drop) and then we went back on Friday to check his weight again and he'd gone back up to 6 lb 15 oz which is amazing (avoiding the 10% weight loss is key). My milk has most definitely come in (engorgement is quite painful!) so as long as I can pump him full of food, hopefully we can keep his weight increasing and billirubin levels down. I think I was so stressed out when Blake was born that my milk didn't come in very quickly and it wasn't a large amount so I never experienced engorgement with him. This time I feel much more relaxed in general (maybe I'm just glad to not be on bed rest anymore?) and perhaps it has helped with milk production... or maybe it's just because my body remembers how to make milk since it has done it before.

And now to the part everyone has been waiting for, here are a few pics from Brett's birthday and first few days.

Laboring in the rocking chair. It felt better to rock through the contractions than lie in the bed.