We were scheduled to go into the hospital on April 3rd. We were told that they would call us when they were ready but by midnight I called to see if I could get an idea of when we could come in cause I knew I wasn't going to sleep cause I would be scared of missing the call. The nurse said they had us scheduled for 5 AM, so with that knowledge I was able to get some sleep. My alarm went off and about the 3rd or 4th time hitting the snooze button I decided I should probably get up. I got ready and then woke James up; we gathered up our stuff and headed out. We got down the road when we got the call from the hospital to come in. :D Perfect! We got to labor and delivery and checked in at 5:30; it took an hour to do paperwork and to get my IV in and the plutocin going, then James and I were left alone to try and sleep. I really liked that the plutocin this time around was in liquid form and that they just put it with my IV; the nurse couldn't believe that that's not what they did when I had Avery. In liquid form it started working much quicker. Doctor Chalmers stopped in to check on me before he went into work and he broke my water. By about 8 or 9 the nurse was asking if I wanted to have my epidural. It took about 15 to 20 minutes for the anesthesiologist to come in, but he got my epidural in and I was able to lay back down. I was able to sleep then and James left to go with mom and dad to get some breakfast. I had woken up and I wasn't 100% sure if James was back but I was feeling very funny the nurse came in to see how I was doing. I told her I wasn't feeling well then it got worse from there, my blood pressure dropped, I got a headache and I started to feel panicky. I started to come in and out of conscientiousness and my heart was racing. At one point there were about 4 or 5 people in the room with me, I think they were nurses. They stopped the epidural medicine and did some other stuff. through one of my panic attacks I happened to look over and I did see James sitting on the couch with a very worried look on his face. I felt so bad for him, I though it must have been very frightening to see me that way. During one of my panic attacks I started to try and pull myself up and reaching for anything, one of the nurses grabbed my hand and held me down while she was trying to talk to me and get me to calm down; she would ask me if I could feel my toes, no, could I lift my legs, no what was I feeling, all I could say is out of control and panicky. at one point even my tongue was numb and it was hard to breath or swallow. After awhile they were able to stabilize me and I was able to calm down. I was happy to hear that through that whole ordeal it didn't effect the baby at all and he was fine. They said they had stopped the epidural and they wanted it to get worked out of my system before they would start it again. The cause was because the epidural was set to deep into my spine. So after the drugs were worked out of my system he could come back in and reset the epidural. It did take some time but I was able to get completely calmed down and once I knew I was ok I was able to talk to James and make sure he was ok. After what I think was an hour or two and I could lift my legs and feel my toes the anesthesiologist came back in and reset my epidural. it was MUCH better the second time. After this next one was set I could still wiggle my toes but I couldn't feel them very well and I couldn't lift my legs hardly at all. My nurse said that that's how it was suppose to be. After that is was just a waiting game, James and I would watch my contractions on the screen. After awhile the nurse said she wanted to try a pillow called a peanut. It looked like a giant yellow peanut...or minion. :p She had me lay on my side with it between my legs. James was asking me if I would be ok if he left to go get some lunch. The nurse told him that if he wanted lunch he should go now cause she thought I was going to dilate a lot quicker now and then the baby could come at any time. So James ran and got some lunch with mom and dad. He came back and a little while later Mom and Dad showed up with Avery to visit and see how I was doing. Avery was really concerned about me having the IV in my arm and the fact that I was still int he hospital. They had to leave the room for a moment when the nurse came in and wanted to try sitting me up in bed to see if it would help me get dilated more. I was so close I was already dilated to an 8. After visiting with mom and dad for awhile some of the epidural started to wear off and I was really feeling the contractions. It was making it hard to be social. Luckily they could sense it and decided to go. Mom came back to stay with us for the birth. The anesthesiologist came back and gave me another dose of the epidural which felt much better. I once again wasn't feeling the contractions; I think it helped me to relax so I could dilate the rest of the way too because before I knew it my nurse was getting me into position to try and start pushing and then doctor Chalmers was back. He had checked in a couple times during the day which was nice. The epidural was working so well this time around that the nurse and Dr. Chalmers had to help tell me when to push. Doctor Chalmers was really great he kept me informed about what was happening. At one point he was telling me that the head was coming and then he said "Oh I see hair." then he looked at me and asked if I wanted to reach down and feel my baby's hair. I couldn't believe he asked me that I told him no I just wanted him out of me. James told me after that Dr. Chalmers laughed and thought that was funny. Now looking back its actually kinda funny.
Finally at 6:48 he was here at a whopping 9 pounds 3 ounces and 20 inches long. He was a BIG boy. :)
After he was born mom called dad to let him know so that after I was all cleaned up and just resting him and Avery came in to meet the baby.
After awhile we were able to be moved from labor and delivery to our own room where James and I got to spend some time with just us and the boy and we were also able to get some dinner and eat. I was so hungry I was glad I could finally eat. While we ate we watched a little tv but then went to bed ourselves. Our first night went really well, baby boy seemed to latch on ok and eat through the night and it seemed to be a fairly good night.
April 4th the next day after breakfast James left for awhile so it was just baby boy and myself for most the day. We spent the day trying to get him to breastfeed but he was having problems for most the day so we were trying to supplement with formula. For the most part he spent the day napping.
I was visited by a lot of different people and was working on getting up, moving around and going to the bathroom. Mom, Dad, Avery and James came to visit me throughout the day as well. It was at that time that I told them that I had made a decision. I had been going back and forth between the name Jackson and Kilian. I would decide on Jackson but Kilian kept coming to mind. So finally I decided on Kilian and then I prayed about it. I told Heavenly Father that I chose Kilian to be our baby's name and asked him if that was the right choice to help me to know for certain. Before that I had been praying a lot for him to help me to know which name I should chose. I had a thought that I should chose the name I want and then ask if its the right one. After I did that the name Kilian just felt right the name Jackson wasn't even a choice anymore. So when Mom, Dad, James and Avery came back for one of their visits I told them that I had decided on a name and I introduced the baby as Kilian Gregg Armstrong. James was SO excited; he liked both names but he really like the name Kilian. After that we did some research on the name Kilian and found out he was a saint back in Ireland. That night James came after Mom and Dad left and he had some dinner. He said he wanted to stay the night again, which was shocking because I didn't think he had a very good night sleep on the pull out couch.
April 5th our day started early with a visit from both Dr Chalmers and Kilian's pediatrician Dr. Merkley which James slept through both. :p Today was the day we were planning on going home. We had to wait for some tests to be done on Kilian and James and I had to watch a couple video's.
Finally at Noon we were given the go ahead to check out of the hospital and go home. So we packed up all our stuff and James went and brought the car seat in. We signed all the papers and had the nurse check Kilian in the car seat and then walk us out to check the car seat in the car.
Waiting for daddy to bring the car around.
The nurse gave us the thumbs up and then congratulated us again and we were on our way. We had to stop by a medical supply office to pick up the breast pump that Dr. Chalmers had prescribed to me. Kilian was still having trouble breast feeding and we still needed to try and supplement him to get him on the breast and eating. The doc thought he would do better if I just pump the milk because Kilian seemed to take bottles just fine. After that quick trip we were going to try and pick up my prescriptions but I was tired and a little worried about Kilian being out for so long. So we headed home to introduce Kilian to his new home and to see Nona, Grumpy and Avery.
Settling in. :)
