Nolan Garrett - Birth Story

As stated in my post (Nolan's Pregnancy),  I was 4 cm dilated and 70% effaced at my 37 week appointment. My doctor was predicting baby boy to come early because it was my 3rd pregnancy, my body has gone into labor on its own before, and I was already 4 cm dilated.

I had been having some contractions on and off the last few weeks but none of them had been consistent and I didn't have any other symptoms of labor.

On April 10, 2019, I started having sporadic contractions after coming home from a family walk. I started timing them after the first few (around 7:30 pm). The contractions were timing anywhere between 4 - 8 minutes apart. I continued to time them for the next 1 1/2 hours to see if they would get any closer together or become more consistent. After the contractions continued for the hour and a half, I decided to call the on-call nurse from my OB office (around 9 pm) to get her advice. I waited about 30 minutes and never received a call back. I had a few contractions that were only 3 minutes apart so we decided we would drive to the hospital and go and get monitored. I told our on-call babysitter (a lady from church) that we were going to go into the hospital for monitoring and asked her if she could come over. We told her to plan for the worst and hoped we would be having the baby and we wouldn't be sent home. She got to our home shortly after and we were on our way (around 9:30 pm). The hospital I planned on having baby boy at was only about a 10 minute drive from our house. I continued to have sporadic contractions on the drive to the hospital but I felt as if they were further apart from each other (probably because I was stressing on the drive over).

Once arriving, Steve and I were directed back to the triage unit of labor and delivery. They checked us in and escorted us to a room to start monitoring. The nurse checked for dilation around 10:30 pm and I was between 4-5 cm dilated. The nurse said since my contractions weren't super consistent and I wasn't in active labor yet they wouldn't be able to admit me just yet. She said I could either go home and wait for them to become more consistent or I could walk the halls and she could check me again in 1 1/2 - 2 hours.

Steve and I walked the halls from 10:45 pm - 12:15 am. The labor and delivery unit was a big square and only took us a little over a minute to walk the whole thing. We got a little bored walking around and around, but I really didn't want to be sent home so we kept on going.

We went back to our room and asked to be checked again. It was now officially April 11th. The nurse said I was really close to 6 cm dilated and they wouldn't be sending me home now that I was that far along. They started preparing me for labor and delivery by placing my IV. In the past, nurses have had a hard time placing my IV. I told the nurse that the IV usually works best in my left hand, but she tried putting it on my right hand. She messed up on my right hand which caused the blood to pool under my skin and bulge up quite a bit. She then had to get a different nurse to try on my other hand and got it in on my left. We were then told that a room was ready for us. We packed up our things and moved to a labor and delivery room around 1:30 am.

We got back to our room to get settled and Steve grabbed the remainder of the things from our car. My contractions were starting to become a little more consistent, but weren't causing me any pain at that point. The nurse asked me if I planned on getting an epidural. I had gone back and forth this pregnancy on if I wanted an epidural or not this time around. I got an epidural with Logan when I was 9 cm and didn't get one with Madelyn because I waited too long. Both of their deliveries I had progressed from about 7 cm - 10 cm in a short amount of time. I knew this baby would be bigger than Madelyn and pushing him out without pain medication scared me a little bit. I discussed it with Steve and ultimately decided I wanted to get an epidural. I was hoping to be able to take a nap and just relax as much as I could before having to push.

I got the epidural at 3:15 am and was checked shortly after. I was 6 cm dilated and 70% effaced. My legs started to numb up shortly after getting the epidural. After some time, I really couldn't physically move them on my own without the help of Steve. They felt like a ton of bricks. I really don't remember feeling this way when I got the epidural with Logan (they may have given me a really high dose this time around). It was really hard moving into different positions to fall asleep and I felt bad waking up Steve and explaining to him how I wanted him to move my legs.

The nurse continued to watch my contractions after getting the epidural and they really seemed to slow down. She said they weren't as consistent as they had been before the epidural. This had also happened with Logan's labor - the epidural really slowed down my contractions. Not being able to move into a comfortable position really made it difficult to fall asleep. I had to get my blood pressure checked every 15 minutes or so because the alarm kept going off saying it was too high and they had to watch it - that also made it very hard to sleep.

After a few hours, the nurse discussed starting me on pitocin to start my contractions back up since they really slowed down. My OB agreed that it would help start them again. At 6:15 am, I was started on pitocin.

The pitocin started my contractions back up again, but I really wasn't progressing in dilation as they had hoped. My OB discussed breaking my water to hopefully get things moving along. She broke my water at 8 am. I didn't feel a thing when she broke my water, which was weird. After she broke my water, I was 7 cm and 80% effaced.

My contractions started to pick back up and become more intense now that my water was broken. I really couldn't feel much, but watched them on the monitor. The last time I was checked, my OB said baby was still in the posterior position (not recommended for a good delivery) and would make delivery a little more difficult, but not impossible. She was hoping he would turn as he moved down a little more. 

I really started to feel more of the contractions and told the nurse that I think the epidural had worn off. She had said that sometimes when the baby moves down in the birthing position, your body will feel that pressure. She gave another dosage of the epidural and it kicked in just in time for me to push. I could feel the pressure of each contraction (but it wasn't painful) which really helped me to be able to know when to push. Since he was "sunny side up" it took a little bit of extra effort to push him out, but after 25 minutes he was here and with lots of brown hair! My OB said that if he was in optimal position he probably would have been out after a few pushes.

He was born at 9:51 am. He was immediately placed on my chest and the nurses noticed he had a little bit of a hard time breathing and his coloring was a little concerning. He had a little bit of a hard time crying and had a little bit of a raspy cry as if he had a lot of stuff stuck in his nose/throat. The nurses discussed possibly having him admitted to the NICU if he didn't improve after some skin to skin time.

He was placed back on my chest for some skin to skin time. He immediately started nursing and didn't want to stop for at least 45 minutes. He had a really good latch and wasn't tongue tied (unlike Logan and Madelyn). His coloring really improved and he was cleared to stay in our room and not have to go to the NICU.

After some good time with mom, I passed him over to Steve and he snuggled with him for a little bit.

He was then brought over to the weighing table and was 7 lbs 7 oz - our biggest baby yet! Logan was 7 lbs 2 oz and Madelyn was 5 lbs 6 oz.

We didn't have a name solidified until a few hours after he was born. We had a few names in mind during his pregnancy, but we really wanted to see what he looked like before officially naming him. We went through the names we had liked on my phone and we liked Nolan the best out of all of them. We then were thinking of middle names that went with Nolan and one of the names I had liked was Garrett. We both agreed that it would be his name and it just stuck. We kept the name to ourselves for a few hours before telling family to make sure we really liked it. Neither his first or middle names are family names, in case you were wondering.

Our third baby: 

A few hours after he was born we were moved up to a room on the second floor of the hospital. We requested a nurse to wash Nolan's hair in preparation for photos later that day.

Madelyn and Logan came up to the hospital to meet their brother and their reactions were the cutest.

 Here are some other photos from the hospital:

We were able to go home less than 36 hours after he was born because he was nursing great and my recovery was going well.

Nolan's Pregnancy

Steve and I have always said we wanted 4 kids. He wanted two boys for sure and I wanted at least one girl, if not two. We really liked the spacing of Logan and Madelyn (they are 2 years 8 months apart) and thought that spacing or more would be good with the next baby. It was really nice to have Logan potty trained by the time his sister was born. One thing I knew is that I didn't want to be pregnant during a HOT Texas summer. We thought, "well we can plan to get pregnant this year and Maddy and baby will be 2 years apart or we can get pregnant next year and they will be 3 years apart." I didn't really want to wait another year or take the chance of being pregnant during the summer, so we started trying for baby #3.

With Maddy and Logan's pregnancies, Steve always found out at the same time I did since I can't keep many things a secret from him. We had been trying to get pregnant and I miraculously got pregnant right away again (as did I for Logan and Maddy's pregnancies) and it was such a surprise. With this pregnancy, I was somehow able to keep it a secret from him for about a week. He had planned a date night to go and see Rascal Flatts and Dan + Shay in concert. I thought that would be the perfect time to tell him while we were out to dinner. I wrote him a little note that said, "Just wanted to let you know you're going to be a daddy again! Baby Boyd #3 expected April 26, 2019." I attached the pregnancy test at the bottom. I handed it to him in the car after dinner and he was totally blown away. He had no idea I was pregnant and it took him a little bit to really let it sink it. I was around 5 weeks at the time I told him. We didn't tell the kids for a while later because Logan is at the age where he understands what you tell him and will tell other people.

I scheduled my first appointment around 6 weeks and they confirmed pregnancy. I came back when I was 8 1/2 weeks pregnant and had my first ultrasound. The baby was measuring on track with the dates I had provided and the estimated due date was April 26, 2019.

The nausea started to kick in around 7 weeks. It was pretty bad. Most days I didn't have an appetite and just had no energy to do anything around the house. I'm glad Logan was in school and Maddy was still taking naps so I could sleep when I needed to. I asked my OB if I any medication could help to ease the symptoms. I didn't get anything until around 12 weeks because there were insurance miscommunications. My nausea didn't fully go away until I was around 14 weeks. 

At my 11 week appointment I was able to do some blood tests for genetic testing. The nurse said as part of the blood test they could tell us the gender. I was really surprised because we have never been able to find out the gender this early before. I got a call about a week later with the results. I was 99% sure I was having a girl. My pregnancy from the start was almost identical to Madelyn's except for the increased nausea. My ring test I did even said I would be having a girl next. The nurse said I was having a boy. I was floored and asked her if I had heard her correctly. She said it was a boy again and I could not believe it.


We announced to family when I was close to 13 weeks and announced on social media shortly after.

 

So funny story. We took these announcement photos below at the pumpkin patch before I had gotten the gender results back. I was so sure that we were having a girl that I had only written out the words with baby sister and not baby brother. Much to our surprise we weren't having a girl and I had to edit it to say baby boy :)  I bet you didn't notice the edits til now ;) 

Since Maddy was born small, I was monitored pretty closely during Nolan's pregnancy. I had ultrasounds at 8.5 weeks, 20.5 weeks, 28.5 weeks, and 35 weeks. Baby boy measured on track at every ultrasound but they really wanted to keep a good eye on his sizing since Maddy's IUGR (intrauterine growth restriction) came on as such a surprise at the end.

20.5 week ultrasound. IT'S A BOY. It wasn't until this ultrasound that I really believed I was having a boy. There was no denying it though after they got these images.

This was my first pregnancy having an anterior placenta. Because of that, I didn't start feeling his kicks on the outside until around 23 weeks.

28.5 week ultrasound - baby boy had his face in a bad position the whole ultrasound so this is the best photo they could get

 35 week ultrasound

At my 36 week appointment they did my first cervical check. To my surprise, I was 3 cm dilated and 50% effaced. I was having contractions on and off the days following my appointment, but nothing was consistent and I had no other symptoms of labor.

37 week appointment: 4 cm dilated, 70% effaced. At this appointment my OB told me baby boy was head down, but in the posterior position (sunny side up). She gave me a list of positions/exercises I could do to try and get baby boy to turn. I washed the floors on my hands and knees, did lunges, squats, read books to the kids on all fours, etc.

Baby boy decided to come early at 37 weeks, 6 days. Read Birth Story!  

I gained roughly 22 lbs this pregnancy and only had 2 new stretch marks on my stomach. I craved mostly sweets. Besides the nausea in the beginning of the pregnancy, I was blessed with a pretty easy pregnancy again. 


Bump pictures from my pregnancy:

12 weeks

15 weeks 

24 weeks

29 weeks 

31 weeks

33 weeks

36 weeks 

37 weeks