Matt, Ben and I were discharged on Sunday, July 19. We were very ready to be going home. On our way home, we stopped at Sinclair. It was the first time we had to think about being normal people and having a baby! Matt ran in for drinks and Ben and I stayed in the car. We spent the afternoon with family and friends checking in on us and loving baby Ben!
I was feeling great after we got home! On Monday night I started to get a headache. I figured it was related to exhaustion, dehydration, starvation, and stress. We had more visitors and a neighbor brought over dinner. Ben was a little fussy and wanted to eat all the time! We had a rough night- I was up every other hour (or less) feeding and Ben was screaming! He was not happy!
By Tuesday afternoon, my headache was terrible. I called my doctor and she prescribed some heavier pain meds, which we picked up on our way to Ben's appointment with the pediatrician. At the doctor's office, they checked Ben over and everything looked good. He weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces, which was 9 ounces less than when he was born. Dr. Brown wasn't worried as long as he didn't lose any more weight. He recommended that we go to the lactation specialist to find out what was going on. After the appointment, my headache still hadn't gone away so I called my doctor again, who told me that I could go to the ER if I needed to, but she didn't think it was an epidural headache and figured the pain meds would take care of it. I had an awful night. My headache wouldn't go away, Ben was starving and screaming, and I was trying to feed him every 45 minutes. Matt had to go to young men's so I was alone for a few hours and got a little emotional. I didn't know what was wrong or what to do! After Matt got home, we talked a lot about what to do. We realized that Ben was starving and that he wasn't getting enough from me. We decided to try giving him some formula to get through the night. He slept so well that night! That was when we realized that I wasn't producing enough milk to feed Ben. It made a huge difference for him (and us) to have a good night's sleep.
On Wednesday, my mom and Jeff came up for the day. I had an appointment with a lactation specialist so my mom came with Ben and I to that, and Matt and Jeff went to work on his dad's house. The lactation specialist weighed Ben and he was back up to 8 pounds 2 ounces after one night of good feedings. She gave me some great advice about nursing and helped us put together a plan. She was concerned about my headache and swollen feet. She thought that my milk hadn't come in because my body was working hard to heal so many other things, and encouraged me to go to the ER about my headache. We spent a ridiculous three hours in the ER and left without any pain relief. They didn't think my headache was bad enough for any treatment other than an IV of fluids. Luckily, we had figured out how to help Ben, so I was able to deal with my headache.
On Thursday and Friday, Ben and I stayed home and rested all day. Matt went to work on his dad's house and we spent the day relaxing. Sleeping really helped! I was almost totally better by Saturday. We even went to Sam's Club and visited Matt at his dad's house. It is definitely easier to take care of a newborn when you feel good yourself!
After the crazy week, I realized that it didn't matter how I felt, all that mattered was my sweet new baby boy! I apologize in advance, but here are a bunch of phone pictures of my baby! It made me so happy when we were able to keep him happy!
On July 17, at 11:58 PM, Matt and I welcomed baby Ben into our lives!
At my 40 week appointment on Thursday, July 16, Dr. Blackett had me dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced. She stripped my membranes and we discussed our options. By the end of the appointment, Dr. Blackett had decided that since she was on call that weekend, that she would have me come in to be induced the next day. So on Friday I called Labor and Delivery at 5 AM and they were too busy to have us come in. They said they would call back so we waited. And waited. And waited. Matt was getting really antsy sitting at home rather than working, and finally they called us at 12:30 to let us know they were ready for us to come in!
40 weeks pregnant!
We got to the hospital and got all checked in by 1:30 and the nurse started me on pitocin around 2:00. She came in every hour and upped the dose. I saw Dr. Blackett at 3:00 and she broke my water. There was meconium with the water, so we knew to be ready for that when the baby was born. The baby's heart rate was all over the place. He was kicking like crazy and wouldn't calm down. My nurse was nervous because she couldn't get a baseline on him. My contractions increased in strength and duration and the anesthesiologist came in and did my epidural around 5:30. He put the medicine in too low and I started going numb too quickly. He had to pull everything out and start over up higher. The whole time I was having contractions and was in pain so he had to wait until each contraction ended before I could relax enough for him to put the needle in! It was super crazy to watch the monitor tracking contractions after the medicine kicked in and not be able to feel them! The baby calmed down a lot after I had the epidural, and his heart rate leveled out. I was very glad to have an epidural. All those women who have babies without pain meds are super tough!
At 6:30 the nurse checked me again and I was still a 3. I was so frustrated! Matt was already sick of sitting in the hospital room for 5 hours and was disheartened when we heard that it was going to be a lot longer! Luckily I still wasn't having any pain so I wasn't uncomfortable at all, just bored and tired of waiting. When the nurse came in at 8:30 and checked me again I was already a 6! Three cm in two hours! At that point, I was starting to feel more through my epidural. My nurse and anesthesiologist said that it was normal to feel pressure, but to push the button for more meds if I was in pain. I wasn't in pain at all, but was starting to feel more. At 9:15, the pressure of contractions was getting stronger, so my nurse checked me again, and I was an 8+. I still wasn't in any pain at this point, but was feeling the pressure of each contraction.
From that point onward, things progressed even more quickly. Jenny was coming down to take some pictures after the baby was born, and was an hour away. Our nurse told me to call Jenny because she wasn't sure how much longer I would hold out. At this point, I was fully dilated and feeling the pressure of every contraction. I also felt that I would have a bowel movement, although the nurse said it was just where the baby was sitting. I gave myself a dose of the epidural at 10:30 and we waited to see if that would help. Around 11:00, the epidural was still not doing anything to stop the intense pressure and the only relief I found was by pushing. My nurse checked me again, and a lip on my cervix was in the way of the baby so we did some practice pushes to see if the nurse could push it out of the way. My nurse suggested having the anesthesiologist come back and give me a heaver dose of the epidural, and then wait an hour before starting to push. I was feeling so much pressure that I didn't think I could wait for the anesthesiologist! We decided to start pushing and my nurse called in Dr. Blackett. I pretty much just closed my eyes and pushed whenever I felt a contraction.
After about 20 minutes, Dr. Blackett arrived. She was so calm and really helped me to focus. The baby crowned and got stuck. Dr. Blackett kept saying, "One more push," and then I'd push and nothing would happen! After five or six "one more push", he finally slipped out! The whole time I was pushing, the nurses would tell me how many more minutes to midnight because they wanted him to be born on his due date. So when he was born at 11:58 PM, everyone was pretty excited!
He was covered in meconium and all the other stuff and Dr. Blackett started suctioning him out. Matt cut the umbilical cord and then she passed him to the 4 nurses there to get him all cleaned up. He was screaming the whole time they were cleaning him up.
He had a pretty bad cone head after getting stuck!
Baby boy was 8 pounds 4 ounces, which surprised all of us! We didn't expect him to be so big.
Matt was so supportive the whole time. Even though I didn't really look at him or talk to him, I knew he was there the whole time.
We hadn't picked out a name, so for a while he was just baby boy.
The nurses who came in were concerned about his heart rate. He was breathing a little fast, but not so much that they needed to rush him to the NICU. They handed him to me so we could do some skin-to-skin but told me to pay attention to his breathing and if it didn't slow down they wanted to monitor him in the NICU.
After 20 minutes or so, I called the nurse in and Matt took the baby to the NICU. They hooked him up to some monitors to keep an eye on his breathing. I was all cleaned up and ready, they brought me to the NICU to see him and by then they were confident that he was ready to go to Mother and Baby with us.
By the time we were all settled, it was 3:00 AM. I had a list of names on my phone that I liked and Matt looked it over and narrowed it down to Ben and Travis. He let me pick, and we decided that baby boy would be named Ben Hans Fischer. Hans is Matt's grandpa's name, which we had picked out months ago. We had a lot of visitors on Saturday! Baby Ben is so loved!
Ben's first bath- He didn't like being naked and cold but liked having his head washed and getting all wrapped up!
My sisters were so excited to visit their new nephew!
Grandma Pamela!
Uncle Tim and Aunt Kamie
Aunt Kendra and Uncle Lance
Matt was a trooper and stayed with me both nights. He slept on this super uncomfortable couch. He put one of my shirts over the pillow so he couldn't smell the "hospital smell" as bad.
My mom and Alex brought these flowers
Jenny brought the balloon and a box of doughnuts, and Diet and Myrna brought the roses
My mom brought the Krispy Kremes, which were a hit
We were discharged on Sunday afternoon after a few hours of sleeping and lounging. Ben is a pro lounger. Definitely our child.
We've had a ton of visitors throughout the week! My dad and Laurie came up on Sunday afternoon to see Ben at home.
Kenzy, Devin, and Whitten and Molly, Andrew and Ellie came by with dinner and dessert for us on Sunday night. Whitten and Ellie were both born in May and have been patiently waiting for Ben to join the group!
Randy and Jenny came by later on Sunday after the kids were in bed. Randy hadn't seen Ben yet so he got some extra holding time.
The next day, Randy and Jenny brought the kids over to meet Ben. Claire was so cute holding him! She is going to be an awesome babysitter in a few years!
Brad couldn't believe how small Ben is. Harrison really wanted to see Ben AKA "super powers" but he had a cough and will have to wait until he gets feeling better. We showed Harrison the baby through the window though. Poor guy!
Matt and Ben are already so good together. Ben likes to be cuddled after his morning feeding and Matt has the magic touch.
All our hospital bands. It was so nice to come home!
My mom and Jeff came up on Wednesday to visit. Jeff is not very familiar with babies so he's still getting comfortable. My mom changed a wet diaper and Jeff wrapped it in a paper towel before putting it in the garbage. I reminded him that the outside of the diaper wasn't dirty. He's going to be an awesome grandpa!
We are so excited to have our sweet baby boy healthy and home. We love him so much and have been overwhelmed by all the love from friends and family.
