First off, I would like to thank you all for being so incredibly patient as my little family grew and moved. It is so nice to be back and I look forward to sharing the rest of this journey with you!
We have been up to so much that it is sometimes hard to believe that it has only been eight weeks since the birth of my son! And yet, it doesn't seem possible that he will be two months old a week before my twenty third birthday.
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I read far too many blog posts and articles (and unwillingly listened to a lot of personal stories from over sharing and well meaning friends) on how to prepare for and what to expect during the birth of your child. And I can honestly say, most of them gave me very unrealistic expectations. I had this amazing picture in my head of a drug-less natural birth that would involve quite a bit of screaming tear shedding and intimacy between my husband and myself. I was in no way prepared for 26 hours of labor including: horrible back labor that sent my heart rate and blood pressure in a drastic downward spiral, an allergic reaction to a pain killer, three doses of an epidural that wouldn't last longer than an hour each time, no communication from my doctor, the rapidly dropping heart rate of my son, no food or drink for 36 hours, being told that my body was rejecting natural birth and ending in an emergency cesarean where I was knocked out at the end due to too much blood loss. But now that I look back on it, I am pretty sure there wasn't anything that could have prepared me for that.When I finally woke up, I was told my son had been born at 10:27 pm on Monday September 29th 2014 weighing 8 pounds 8.6 ounces. My husband and the nurses were constantly trying to soothe the panic seeping up from within me with stories of his cuteness and how he was already rolling over. It wasn't until 3 am the following morning that I was finally able to meet and hold my monkey. After ten minutes of skin to skin contact the nurse whisked him away for further testing, only telling me that she didn't want me trying to feed him yet due to blood sugar issues. I learned later that they were feeding him formula to try and even out his sugar which also apparently entailed that I wasn't allowed to have him in my room. When I was finally allowed to breast feed, it took nearly a day of trying, crying, and specialist visits to get him latched and nursing. That wouldn't have been bad if I hadn't also been battling my nurse. We would call her for medication when I could feel mine wearing off only to listen to her rant about her children to a colleague outside my door for an hour. By the time she would waltz into my room, the pain would be in full swing as well as the nausea and puking.
Though all of this seemed like enough to color me done, there was yet more. Every time I would fall asleep, the alarms on my monitors and a nurse would wake me up to get me breathing. According to the monitors I stopped breathing several different times each time I fell asleep. The next step from that was to put me on oxygen and prod me every time I stopped breathing. Shortly after being let in to all of that drama we were told that our monkey had a bad case of jaundice meaning we needed to bring him back for frequent monitoring once we were released until it cleared up.
We were released from the hospital on Thursday October 2nd and by Tuesday the 7th this mamma was back in a hospital bed. I had an extremely high fever due to an infection that my doctor couldn't find. Tuesday night, my prince and monkey stayed with me. Then, when my man had to work and his dad came to keep me company. With the very little rest a newborn brings I was not getting any better and something had to give. My father-in-law decided that I needed to rest and the best way to do that is without my son attached to me, so he took my monkey home with him for the night. I felt as if I couldn't breathe and like my heart left with him. As if being in the hospital wasn't bad enough, now I had to let my monkey go and not be the one feeding him. I honestly thought the pain of him not being with me was worse for me than not getting any sleep. My body didn't agree, once the visits stopped I was only awake to speak with the nurses and doctors. All that rest led to my temperature stabilizing and my infection clearing up.
I was released the following Thursday and went to stay with my in-laws. Their help while the prince was working his tail off was very much needed. We went home as a family the following Monday, and it has been a wonderful journey since. Don't get me wrong, having a gassy and fussy baby while trying to find your routine as a family was difficult but so worth it.
Now that that is out of my system, I can get down to the fun part!
Isn't my monkey adorable?
I honestly cannot get over the miracle this boy is. Though the ordeal of his birth was less than ideal, I wouldn't trade it for the world! Welcome to the world monkey boy!
