Growing up Owen

Day to day fun with our sweet boy and he is doing so awesome being a patient big brother. Some of his latest things that make me smile...

• cereal fiend - seriously on a cereal kick for breakfast, lunch, and dinner - his favorites? Cheerios and Special K
• cooking - he loves to sit on the counter and help me cook, stir, measure, whatever it is, he wants to help be a part of making our food!
• using the stool for everything - especially when he might have to wait while I am feeding Emmy, he will grab the stool or a chair and get it himself.
• wanting to talk on the phone - he wants to call his friends and talk to them on the phone. The conversations are pretty hilarious since he and his friends are just learning and often talk over each other!

Welcome Emmy Maree

My friend Meghan recently became a certified doula and we were excited to have her support during the last few months of the pregnancy. We were getting weekly ultrasounds from week 28 on, and were finally able to find out that a baby girl was joining our family! We narrowed the names down to Emmy and Addy, packed our bag just in case, and watched as Little Miss continued to switch positions back and forth, primarily presenting breech. She gave us a few scares and we were sent for a non-stress test, as well as for some indepth looks at her leg movements as she was holding in some weird positions with one leg stretched out and the other curled up. Even with diet and exercise, we ended up having to use a small amount of glyburide toward the end of the pregnancy. It gave me scary lows, so I ended up splitting the dose in half to find the right match. With Emmy continuing breech, Dr. Zwiesler said we would plan for a version to turn Emmy at 38 weeks if she didn't turn before. At her last ultrasound, she turned and we cancelled the version! And scheduled an induction for 39 weeks.  Because the hospital was so busy, we had to check in at 12:01 a.m. to on 2/11 instead of early evening on 2/10, so the hospital would have time to prep for each mama coming in. It was crazy to be driving the empty, snowy streets so late, but it was great to be prepared, Owen was tucked in by us and Nana and Papa spent the night to be with him. We checked in, Meghan was on-call to head over as soon as we needed her, and the on-call resident came in to do an ultrasound before we started the Pitocin. He said 'uh-oh' and asked the nurse to come over. They both agreed that Little Miss had obviously flipped again and was back to breech presentation! They called the on-call doc for Northwest OBGYN  who said to put everything on hold until Dr. Zwiesler came in for morning rounds. Meanwhile, Meghan set up essential oils in our room to help me sleep and stay calm, and we all tried to settle in for a good night's sleep. It was a beautiful snowy night, but it was piling up. Dr. Zwiesler had to dig out of his driveway to get to us! He came in at 6:30 and gave us the option to try a version or go straight to a c-section. We opted for the version and were a really popular room for the next two hours. Since they are not that common, every student nurse and doc came in to observe, my blood pressure kept dropping, and Dr. Z and the resident had to work around me taking breaks to not pass out (the epidural kept dropping my blood pressure). They turned Little Miss in about 10 minutes, then immediately broke my water to help her drop down and stay head down. Pitocin on board and I hadn't eaten for almost 18 hours, so our awesome nurse brought in some soup and crackers, turned off my epidural, and was 100% supportive of me moving as needed to help labor progress. We were able to talk and joke through most contractions until around 1:00 when I had to really start focusing. My back hurt the most and Meghan did an awesome job targeting pressure points, and showing Todd how to do that to help with pain management. By 2:30 I felt her drop, but it seemed uncomfortable and a lot of pressure. When they checked, her arm was coming out first. At that point, I was super nauseated and starting to feel stressed about why I wasn't progressing. I don't remember them telling me that her arm was heading down the birth canal first, I think they didn't want me to panic, but I had to move back into bed onto my side and they just kept having me turn side to side every 5 minutes. Dr. Z even pinched her fingers to try to get her to pull her arm back. In the midst of all this, the nurse and Dr. Z were discussing the very real possibility of having to do an emergency c-section and they started giving me oxygen since I was having trouble catching my breath as they was almost no break between contractions and I was ready to push, but couldn't because of her position. It was probably a good thing I didn't know why they wanted me to wait, but I was definitely frustrated and having trouble focusing with the pain so high. They tried some fentanyl, to take the edge off the pain, but it didn't help. Then, suddenly I had the green light to push (again, I didn't know but the frequent turning had finally helped Little Miss pull her arm back), they set me up to push and in 3 pushes she was out and very quiet. The nurse was just asking if they should grab suction when she let out a wail. Todd cut the umbilical cord and then she was wrapped and in my arms.
A few stitches and hugs from everyone and a sweet conversation with Dr. Z, and we were ready to head to Mother/Baby. Once we were settled in our new room, we facetimed with Owen (quarantine at the hospital meant no kids allowed), and I had a nice hot shower! Todd went home to spend the night with Owen and Emmy and I snuggled the night away with her tucked in my tanktop for some skin to skin.