Our Table for 4...Plus One More: August 2011

I'm going to be updating my blog with Brody's growth stats since this is the only place I have for journaling.

Two week appointment: 8-29-11

Height: 21.1"

Weight: 8.2 lbs

Head: 14.75"

So in only two weeks Brody has gained 1 whole pound from what he weighed the day we left the hospital and has grown .6 inches. He's already starting to look older with a fuller face which makes me really sad. I want to hang onto him being a newborn for as long as I can!

As far has his personality and moods, I think he is a really good baby. He doesn't cry a lot other than when you take off his clothes or mainly his diaper. He does NOT like his diaper off and screams bloody murder every time. I'm so thankful that he lets me sleep for good stretches of time. He'll usually go between 2 and 3 hours between feedings and is sleeping in the bassinet. Yay! One goal Chris and I had for him was that he was not going to sleep in the bed with us. We made that mistake with the two older boys and had them in our bed until they turned one. Knock on wood, so far Brod Man has slept in his bassinet every night except our second night home from the hospital where we slept in the recliner together.

I'm so very thankful for this sweet healthy little boy! We are all adjusting to life as a family of 5, some of us are adjusting easier than others but overall it's been great. I love these three boys with all my heart and cannot imagine my life without one of them.

Brody Christopher Carpenter! Little Brody made his grand arrival on August 15th at 5:50 pm weighing 7 lbs 8.5 ounces and measuring 20.5 inches long.

So here's the birth story for any of you that are interested. It's definitely a long one...jump to the bottom for more pictures.

We scheduled an induction so my Dad and Gloria could be here to help with the boys. We decided to set it up for August 15th because I would be 39 weeks at the time and to also spread Colby and Brody's birthday's out a little. The hospital called around 6:15 am and asked me what time we could be at the hospital. I told them we'd be there around 7:45 and woke Chris up so we could get ready. Once we got to the hospital they took us right back and our nurse came in to talk with us. We originally had a nurse named Lisa but a few hours into the process she had to go take care of a patient that needed special care so we got switched to a new nurse, Jacqueline. I'm so glad we did because she was absolutely amazing!!

After getting settled into the bed Dr. Froerer came down to check me and I was only 50% effaced and dilated to a 2.5. He decided it would be best to start me on the pitocin and let the contractions start doing some work before he broke my water, this was around 9:30 am. I think around 11:00 am he came back and broke my water and man did the contractions get much worse immediately. My nurse called for an epidural and I had that within about 20 minutes. I'm not going to lie epidurals are the absolute worst thing about giving birth, they hurt so so bad! Thankfully my anesthesiologst was great and did everything he could to make sure I was comfortable, well I guess as comfortable as you can be getting an epidural.

Things were going well then all the sudden I started getting really nauseous and kinda feeling like I was not really there, it was the weirdest feeling in the world. The nurse asked if I was ok and I burst into tears completely out of the blue. She took my blood pressure and it was 80/40 which was really low. She called the anesthesiologist and told him what was going on, he came immediately and gave me a shot of epinephrine. In a few minutes I was feeling back to normal. I have to say that was a really scary feeling and I don't even know how to describe it.

So now that things were good with me the nurse came in to roll me to my other side so we could see if that would help the baby descend some. As soon as she rolled me over I have no idea what happened but she called for another nurse to assist, put oxygen on me, and immediately rolled me back to the side I was on. The next 15 minutes or so are pretty much a blur to me. They had me on my left side with the oxygen on all I could see was Chris while the 2 nurses and my doctor worked frantically. Like I said it's all a blur but I remember just looking at Chris with this terrified look on my face not knowing what was going on and no one telling us. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity my doctor asked me if I was ok, I said I just don't understand what's going on. Apparently when she turned me to my right side they completely lost the baby's heartbeat. They turned my pitocin off completley and put a monitor right into the baby's scalp to better monitor him. The doctor explained that there may be a cord issue and if the baby's heart rate doesn't stay stabilized they may have to do a C section but he said for now everything was stable and they were going to take me off everything for 2 hours so the baby could rest. So I laid there for two hours with no pitocin and my contractions stopped completely. This all happened around 1:30 pm or so.

After a while the nurse came back in and rolled me to my right side again to see what would happen. The baby's heart rate was good so they decided to start me back on the pitocin to see if there would be any other episodes. They also inserted something that would pump water back into my uterus to help cushion the cord. Thankfully whatever was going on with the cord resolved itself and we had no more episodes of that. We will never know what happened but they said it could have been something as simple as him smashing the cord between his arm and his body.

During all that drama I was still only 80% effaced and dilated to a 4. So we were back to square one starting the pitocin again from the beginning. They had to raise my doses very slowly to make sure everything was ok.

All was well again until I had another episode from the epidural where I got nauseous again and my blood pressure dropped so they had to call the anesthesiologist to come give me another shot of epinephrine.

Around 4:45 pm I started feeling pressure and the nurse said that was the best thing she could hear. She checked me and I was zooming right along. I told her that once I got to a 6 I usually delivered really quickly. Her shift ended at 7:00 pm and I told her we were going to have this baby before she left. I think in her head she thought yeah right but I know my body and knew little Brody would be here soon. The next time she checked me around 5:15 pm I was complete so they started getting the table ready and called the doctor. The only problem now was that the baby was face up so they turned me into some awkward positions to hopefully make him turn the right way. They got him turned but when they laid me on my back to deliver he turned over again. They had me go ahead and start pushing and said sometimes they will turn on their own. Sure enough he did and after about 4 or 5 series of pushes out came little Brody as perfect as could be. This time was different they laid him on my chest for a long time and did all the work on him right there in front of me so I could watch it all. That was the first time they did that and it was so amazing to have the baby right there on top of me for his first 15 minutes of life.

After the doctor got done working on me Chris went out and got the boys and brought them back. They were so excited! Brody still hadn't been cleaned off completely and I'm sure they were wondering what kind of brother we were bringing home. We spent some quality time together just the five of us then let the rest of my family and Chris' family in. I don't think they were in there more than 10 minutes and I started vomitting again. I tell you that's one way to clear out a room!

Around 7:00 pm they moved me to my room. Everyone was dying to hold the baby but the nursery needed to check him so off they went with him. They said they would be back in about 30 minutes. After an hour he still wasn't back so I sent Chris to the nursery to find out what was going on. Chris came back and said, the baby won't be back for a while, he's having a little labored breathing and has a low grade temperature so they think he may have an infection and are going to draw blood to see. My first thoughts were "not again" since this was the same thing that happened to Colby which caused him to have to stay in the hospital for two extra days and come home with an IV. While they waited for the blood work to come back they brought Brody to the room for his bath. This is the first time I'd seen any of my kids get their first bath because they usually did them in the nursery and only Chris was able to go. It was so neat to watch, especially for the boys.

After his bath they took him back to the nursery to await the blood work results. So again we waited and waited and waited and still no Brody. I sent Chris down there again and he came back with the baby and good news-no infection, yay! By this time it was close to 10:00 pm and people were still waiting to hold him and my friend was there to take some candid photos of us all. They all took a quick turn holding him, my friend snapped a few shots, and everyone headed home.

This was the first time Chris and I were alone with Brody and it was absolutely amazing. It's weird how in a split second a little boy can absolutely steal your heart!

The rest of the hospital stay was uneventful thankfully and we brought Brody home on Wednesday around noon.

Meeting Brody for the first time.