Jonathan's First Doctors Appointments

Monday was Jonathan's first doctors checkup. He weighed 8lb, 14.5oz! Well on his way to gaining his birth weight back before his two week birthdate!! None of our kids accomplished that, so that's pretty cool for me :)

Height puts him in the 81st percentile and in the 71st percentile for weight. 

We switched pediatricians, for a number of reasons. So this was the first time meeting our new doctor and nurse practicioner. I really like them! So glad I switched!

We saw the nurse practicioner Monday, and she tested his bilirubin levels. Jonathan has obviously had jaundice but we haven't thought it worse than any other kids. And he's had no problem being awake and alert enough to eat plenty. But his bilirubin count came back at 15.5. Which was tettering on the edge of too high. Everyone agreed he would be ok if we just continued to feed him well and sun him a few times a day.

Wednesday we went back to the doctors. This time to see the doctor for a little procedure.... Poor little boy. The doctor was wonderful and did a great job! But when she tested his bilirubin again, it had soared to 20! So she ordered him a bili blanket and asked us to start supplementing with formula. That was a rough day.

Poor Jonathan was not feeling well that afternoon, as he recovered. And then we had to stick him in an uncomfortable "blanket" to boot. Poor kid didn't want to let go of me, even while he slept. So sweet.

I hope photos turn out ok, I'm trying to post from my phone since I can't leave the baby alone to go work on the computer. (Since he is attached to the biliblanket, he's not so mobile). I'll post better pics another day. 

Anyways, so Thursday morning we headed back to the doctors to retest his bilirubin again. The doctor ordered a few additional tests, just to play it safe. She's pretty confident that the reason his jaundice has gotten worse so fast is because of those little horns on his head. They're called cephalohematomas. Our midwife, doctor and nurse practicioner all agree that they're nothing to worry about. They're pockets of blood trapped between the skin and bone and will reabsorb over the next few weeks. It's common in babies who needed a vacuum at birth or came super fast and hit momma's pelvis on the way out. It's less common to have two, but not unheard of. The problem is that as the blood is slowly reabsorbed, the blood cells are broken down and bilirubin continues to increase faster than the liver can get it out of the blood. So those "horns" are most likely the cause of such elevated bilirubin numbers. But the doctor played it safe and tested his liver, kidneys, thyroid and hemaglobin just to be sure.

Jonathan's bilirubin test today came back at 18.6. Better than 20! But still not good enough. It needs to be below 15 to get off the biliblanket. And 20+ means hospitalization. So praise God we avoided the hospital! But we will remain in the biliblanket and formula supplements through the weekend. Once his numbers come down, there's almost no chance of them rising agin. 

Jonathan's other bloodwork wasn't all perfect though. His hemaglobin and thyroid levels were elevated and it has the doctor and nurse practicioner puzzled. My midwife is skeptical though. She thinks it's just due to him being a late term baby. The doctor is erring on the side of caution and having him retested in the morning. If the numbers are still elevated, she will refer us to an endocrinologist tomorrow. From what I've read on dr google, elevated hemaglobin isn't unusual for late term babies and the most common treatment is just lots of feedings/hydration. But the elevated thyroid could be contributing to jaundice, if it truly is elevated. The retest in the morning will tell us more.

In the mean time, we wait and pray, and snuggle. And don't sleep... We have to feed Jonathan every 2-2.5 hours. No more letting him take his occasional 4-5 hour stretches of sleep. Which means no sleep for momma either. It's been a long week.....

None of this is life threatening or long term. Well, the thyroid could be a life long thing. But it's not life threatening. His bilirubin isn't high enough to really worry (25+ can cause brain damage, deafness, etc). He's going to get over all of it soon. The doctor just wants to be aggressive and make sure jaundice is gone sooner than later. And make sure that she's not blindly assuming it's due to those 

cephalohematomas. I like her, and the nurse practicioner. And it's been just as great to still have my midwife's input along the way. She was very helpful yesterday! Jonathan is blessed to have three amazing medical professionals working together for his best interest!

I'll keep you updated as we learn more. Please pray for our little guy. He's still sore from his circumcision yesterday, and now he has lots of sores from pokes and needles. He will get another tomorrow... Poor little guy has been through a lot in 9 days! But he's still content and happy! We are blessed!

Jonathan's Birth Story

Introducing Jonathan Levi.

Born Sept 16, 2014 at 5:57am

9lb, 4oz    21'' long

He's named after his late Grampa, John. With a "th" added to make Gramma smile (because all our kind unintentionally share the "th"). And his middle name is a complicated version of his Daddy's middle name, Mathew. Because Daddy is a complicated man and knows his Scriptures well enough to know the disciple Matthew also went by the name Levi.

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On to Jonathan's birth story...

Tuesday morning, Sept 16, we welcomed our fourth child into the world in a very unexpected way. Certainly not the way I imagined it! Here's the full story. But a word of warning, there may be a bit TMI for some of you. It is a birth story, after all ;)

Back up to Friday. I had a 41 week sonogram, where baby scored a 6/8 and worried my midwife a bit. She wanted him out within 48 hours. So stripped my membranes (for a 2nd time) and started me on a regiment of tinctures. They tasted horrible, and after two days (and 8 hours) of taking them, with zero signs of labor, she had me give up. And she called her back-up OB to get his opinion and give him notice that she had a stubborn baby that needed an eviction asap... 

Monday I saw the OB. He was very nice and wasn't too terribly concerned about the slightly lower score on baby's 41 week sonogram. But he agreed that the baby needed to be evicted sooner than later. He scheduled me for an induction Tuesday morning at 6am.

After examining me, the doctor was floored that I had not yet given birth. He couldn't explain it. He understood my desire to have a home birth and so he stripped my membranes (for the 3rd time). I didn't have any side effects that time... and almost zero discomfort. Not a good sign...  Because of the sonogram results, being late term, and having stripped membranes, the doctor put me on a fetal monitor for a half hour. And the baby did awesome. Again, the doctor was confused - baby had almost no signs of being such a late term baby. Yay! The doctor had me sign in at hospital admissions office and then sent me on my way and gave a 50% chance of seeing me at the hospital in the morning. 

So, in a last ditch effort to try anything to get this stubborn boy born naturally, I tried castor oil... again. I said I'd never take that stuff again. Never say never.... I took 2oz, twice (5 hours apart) last Monday and nothing happened. So this time I tried 3oz. 

I took my castor oil milkshake about 2pm on Monday. By 4pm, I was regretting it. haha! It worked well this time around... So well, I wondered why people pay so much for weight loss or colon cleansing potions - castor oil is just $2 ;)   

Anyways, by 8pm I was empty but still cramping and there was not a single sign of a contraction... My midwife told me I could take a 2nd dose of castor oil... But I couldn't bring myself to do it, I was still a bit too uncomfortable from the first dose... So I went to bed, knowing it would be an early & busy morning. I couldn't fall asleep until about 11:30pm, though. And at 1am, I woke to mild back labor. Nothing new, unfortunately. After 3+ weeks of false labor, I'd learned to wait at least an hour before calling my midwife. So I got something to eat and curled up on the couch to nap. 

By 2am, the back labor was gone. And contractions started on the right side of my belly only. Ug... I assumed they were braxton hicks since they were one sided and varied in time from 3-6 minutes apart. They also didn't last more than 45 seconds. I assumed it was more false labor.... 

By 3am, the one sided contractions stopped and new contractions started. They were relatively mild, and I couldn't tell if they were contractions or kickbacks from the castor oil.... Since they varied in time from 4-10 minutes apart, I was just left confused... 

I was feeling a bit of stress to figure out what was going on in my body.  We needed to leave for the hospital in 2 hours. So, unable to sleep/relax, I took a bath. And the contractions continued to be very irregular and not painful. Boo.

At 4:20am, Jacob's alarm went off and I started to get ready for the hospital. But my contractions were getting worse, some stopping me in my tracks for a second. But, again, they were irregular and not longer than 45 seconds. More confusion.... so I called the midwife.

My midwife asked me what my gut said, and I hadn't a clue. I was confused. I still wasn't sure if it was false labor, castor oil or the real thing. So she asked me to wait 30 minutes and see what happened, then call her back. 

I waited 25 minutes, but it was time to leave for the hospital and I couldn't wait longer... In that 25 minutes, I had 10 contractions and they were barely increasing in strength. I looked over at Jacob, who was ready to leave for the hospital, and tried to make him decide what we should do. It certainly didn't feel like I was in labor, but I didn't want to get to the hospital to learn we were 7cm and could have stayed home... I also didn't want all this to stop on it's own and regret missing our induction date, knowing baby had to come out that day. We decided to see if one more contraction came in the same time frame as the last few (every 2.5 minutes). It did. So we called the midwife to come over. And called the hospital to cancel our induction. The whole time I'm thinking, "this is crazy... I'm still not sure if I'm in labor!" That was 5:20am.

Around 5:35ish, the contractions got worse. FAST! I was very much regretting not being at a hospital where I could have had an epidural. Because things intensified so quickly, I was certain this was the START of labor and I was just 5cm. I was sure I had hours to go. And that thought was the hardest part of the pain. I only remember 2 really bad contractions. After the 2nd, I ran to the bathroom. The castor oil was working again. I wasn't in there a minute (that I recall) when I heard keys jingling, my midwife had arrived and was asking if I could make it to the bed. No way. I was stuck. 

My midwife checked in on me. I stood up and there was a little blood in the toilet. Great sign. But I didn't realize how good of a sign. I couldn't walk, so I sat back down while my midwife prepped the bed for delivery (because the birth pool had only 6'' of water in it by now - remember, everything started FAST, there was no time to prepare!). While she worked, I tried to think about how I'd get off the toilet... That's when I reached down and felt the baby's head!! I was in a relieved panic. Relieved that I wasn't just starting labor, but paniced because I'm sitting on a toilet giving birth!! The last place I wanted to be (well, besides Walmart)... I think I had to say something twice before I was heard, "The baby's coming!" I was just too terrified I think, unable to shout.  

Within seconds, my midwife had the bathroom floor covered with the big absorbent pads. I remember thinking that she was paving a way for me to walk to the bed, so I lifted my hips off the seat, leaning them forward and I hear, "Baby's out!" And a gush of relief went through my body.  Then it started to sink in... I just had a baby in the bathroom!!! 

Poor little guy will always be known as the boy born on a john. Guess it's fitting that we named him Jonathan. His Grampa John sure would have gotten a kick out of that. Well, he would have groaned at the joke ;)  Maybe Jonathan will take pride in it one day, that would be such a boy thing to do ;)

My midwife checked the baby out, and we took our time waiting for the cord to stop pulsing. Then Daddy did the honors and cut his son's cord. Someone took the baby - the nurse assisting my midwife? Jacob? I really don't remember. It was all a crazy fog. And I waddled to the bed.

Jonathan was born at 5:57am. My midwife figured it was approximately 14 minutes of active labor, transition and delivery. If only I had known those two horrible contractions were my body reaching 10cm, I never would have run to the bathroom. And I would have been much more calm in the face of excruciating pain had I known it was just for a second. But I was just convinced I was in the first stage and had a long road ahead! Oh well. We got a crazy story to tell out of it...  

Jacob found Faith not long after the birth. She'd woken up and was (oddly) laying on the couch. So she got to be the first sibling to meet her baby brother! Strangely enough, we didn't wake anyone with the delivery - not even with my midwife and her nurse coming in our house. Everyone slept through it.

After some clean up and stuff, the other kids came in to meet their new brother. Ruthie did a little dance/cheer that was adorable as she sang "baby brother!, baby brother!". She loved the idea of being a big sister, too! And Nathan was tickled! He went to school telling everyone he had a new baby brother.

My midwife's nurse assistant checked out baby Jonathan after he'd had some time with mommy and daddy. She did all the tests they do in the hospital. He got a 9 and a 9 on his apgar tests (equal or better than all our other hospital born babies). And all others tests were completely normal!  

Both the nurse and midwife were amazed that Jonathan didn't look or act like a 41week, 4 day old baby. Apparently late term babies tend to have breathing irregularities and leathery skin? Our baby was perfect! And we're certain of dates... so God just knew he needed a little extra time to bake :)

Jonathan weighed 9lb, 4oz at birth. And was 21'' long.

Here he is with my amazing midwife!

And an equally amazing, but exhausted, Daddy!

Everyone got turns to hold the baby as the morning progressed.

Big sister is in love with him. Day two, she woke to an alert baby brother and apparently ran to him and exclaimed "Baby brother, do you know how special you are?!" aww!

And little big sis, Ruth, adores Jonathan too! So far there's been no apparent jealousy. But then again it has only been three days and Gramma is here to spoil and distract the bigs ;)  She leaves in the morning and then the real tests begin.

I think the kids get frustrated sometimes because they love holding their baby brother but most of the time when they're ready to hold him, he's not ready to be held. He's a very slow eater (1-2 hours) at a time. Although today, he's picked up his pace a bit - yay! And he's a pretty good napper, too. In fact, he's in no hurry for anything really. Imagine that... after all he was 11 days late. Although once he made up his mind he couldn't have been more speedy! 

My midwife dressed Jonathan in a little onsie that says "I'm special, I was born at home".

And a sweet little hat to cover his horns. Yes, horns. Its hard to get a photo of them.... I'm not sure if you can tell in this photo or not?

None of our other kids really had cone heads. But Jonathan has two bumps on his head. My midwife said they're bruises due to how fast he was delivered. She recommended some things to help and said they'll go away in a week or two. 

So that's Jonathan's birth story. Would I do it again? In a heart beat! IF I wanted to have more babies. However, I am done; no more pregnancies for me!! But if God decides to play a dirty trick on me, I'll call my midwife again and plan another home birth! And that time, we'll get a heated tub and keep it filled and ready to go at the drop of a hat. ha ha

Speaking of birthing tubs... I've heard from many moms that a birthing tub is better than an epidural. I can kind of believe it after Tuesday. But I still would have liked to have experienced it. Call me crazy. It certainly would have been better than giving birth on a toilet! ha ha  

We've had the tub set up in our room since I was 36 weeks along. We fully expected baby to come early. Little stinker. Our bedroom feels empty without the tub now. But here's a few funny pics of it. Jacob and I had a mini photography lesson so he could learn to use the camera in the low light and get the picture I was hoping for. Little did we know we'd end up with almost no time for photos, and certainly not time to be sure we got good ones! But I thought you'd think our test photos were funny anyways, he played in the tub while I played with the camera settings. ;)

Well, they make me laugh at least!

So if you're still reading this, I'm impressed.

We had quite the birth experience and I wish I'd had home births before baby #4! Midwives rule! If you're pregnant, I encourage you to check into a local midwife - regardless if you're planning a hospital, birthing center or home birth. What a great experience it is! Far surpasses OBs on so many levels! And I never ever ever thought any of this would be something I'd do!!! 

Never say never :D

Baby #4 Update

I'm 41 weeks pregnant today. Can you sense the excitement in my words? I never thought I'd be this late. We were all certain baby would be here by the end of August. Guess he's stubborn. But I'm more stubborn. I will win. He will not stay inside much longer.

This was me at 38 weeks.

We had a sonogram today. It's standard procedure at 41 weeks, to be sure baby and placenta are all ok and it allows the doctor or midwife to decide if it's safe to keep waiting as long as 42 weeks, or if they should induce right away. The placenta looks good. And fluid levels are fine. But baby didn't do as great on his test. A perfect score is an 8. 4 means trouble. Baby got a 6. He lost a point for lack of movement - which is NORMAL for him that time of day. He's a mover and a shaker, but only during certain times of day and at the time of my sonogram, he's usually sleeping... I wish I'd known he was expected to perform, I would have downed a chocolate shake before the appointment ;)  So, anyways, my midwife isn't concerned about losing a point for not moving much. But he lost the other point because he's "breathing" more than he should be. I didn't know, till this pregnancy, that babies practice their breathing while in the womb, and our little guy is a bit too good at that trick. My midwife said it's actually a good thing. It means he's very ready to come out! The bad part comes in waiting much longer, because babies this ready tend to start declining in health in the next 48+ hours if not born. So we have 48 hours to have a baby. If he continues to be disobedient, my midwife will call her backup OB Sunday night and schedule an induction or csection at the hospital. Which I'd much rather avoid!

Here's some photos from our sonogram. Disappointed? Yeah, us too. We knew we'd see very little because he's squished in there. But I had no clue we'd not be able to make out anything! The tech said it's because his bones are denser now and cast shadows. Interesting.

On the left is his heart, on the right is the top of his head.

Baby is measuring right on schedule, and guesstimated at 9lbs even. We shall see if the sonogram machine is right - I've never met a mom who was told anything even close to the actual weight of her baby based on a sonogram. I hope it's right. I really don't want a 10pounder! And this late in, that's my fear.

The tech was unable to get a picture of the baby's face, as he's in the proper birthing position, head engaged and facing downward. Don't get too excited. He's been in that position for 5 weeks now. Yeah, that's not a typo. FIVE weeks. We had good reason to think he'd be here by now, huh?

Baby just hasn't been ready. Or maybe mommy's been too stressed? Maybe both. My body is more than ready. Without getting into all the TMI details, lets just say my midwife said she hasn't seen a cervix as ripe as mine in years. So what's the hold up, buddy?!

I've had whats called prodromal labor for 3 weeks now. It's more than braxton hicks, its real labor. That just stops for no reason. Almost nightly I have contractions that are 5 minutes apart for 2 hours, and then stop, regardless of how I try to keep it going (and I've tried just about everything). This last week all has been eerily quiet though... making me wonder that maybe next time it starts up, it'll be the real thing?

Monday night I took castor oil. Uh huh, I was desperate. It's one of the two things I hadn't yet tried. Castor oil milkshakes... not so yummy. And the 2nd one tastes worse than the first. Lucky for me, or unlucky, not much happened. I had contractions for a while that evening and then all stopped. No explosions. But I did have an interesting conversation with the cashier who asked me why I was buying castor oil. What is up with nosy cashiers!? Do they really want to know about their customers bowel movements?!?

Anyways, all has been too quiet since Monday night. Baby is moving at his normal times, and no weird symptoms for me. So all is well in that regard. For that, we're grateful! But Gramma came to meet, and help, with baby. And her flight is scheduled to leave tomorrow - and still no baby. Did I mention stress? No pressure.

So I met with the midwife again today and she's no longer a happy lady. She had her game face on. She's serious today. Baby WILL come this weekend. Or else. She left me with a boat load of "goodies" to take every 15 minutes. Awful tasting stuff that should kick-start labor. It's the last thing I haven't tried. So, bottoms up.

My midwife said once I'm having good contractions, she will break my water. It's kind of her last resort. The most severe thing she can safely do for a home birth. But, unlike OBs, she won't do it till labor has begun. I'm 4cm, bag of waters is bulging and baby is at the 0 station, so I'm right there on the edge - hopefully these tinctures push me over and baby comes fast tonight.

So if you're reading this and haven't heard yet that there's a newborn in our family, would you say a prayer for baby and I? That I can relax, labor starts soon, and baby comes safe and fast. Pray for the kids and Gramma, too ;)

Hopefully I'll be sharing photos tomorrow of the 6th member of our family :D