Everett's Story - Part Three

Part one of this series covered Everett's conception and pregnancy. Part two covered his birth. They can be found here and here. This post will cover his 1st week.

The rest of Friday was a blur of nursing and napping. Saturday Summer drew me a herbal bath... so amazing! Sunday more relaxation. It was awesome. We didn’t announced to the world. We just wanted to soak up the newness all to ourselves. Summer was the only one who held him other than me in the 1st 24 hours.

We both practiced kangaroo care for his 1st week. Sierra held him and Deacon came in and got to nurse with him on day 2.

Raiden got him for the first time on day 3.

Monday we had a midwife come and do a newborn and tie assessment, metabolic and heart screening and a latch check.

Tuesday was our first outing.

I was a little nervous because we were going to the Office of Vital Statistics to register his out of hospital birth. You never know how people are going to react when you tell them you birthed without a midwife... on purpose. They were great though. I also went to the chiropractor and got a massage and an adjustment, and we ate out at Planet Thai.

Tuesday(4 days old) we also started EC or elimination communication. We started cueing when he peed and pooped pretty much from day 1. We kept him in a flat diaper with no cover so we would know when he was going and change him right away. We quickly noticed that he didn’t pee in his sleep most of the time and that he would get upset and squirm before he would go. So by 4 days old his patterns were so apparent we decided to just go ahead and start offering the potty. We got our first catch 1st try.

Wednesday, Aunt Tricia(adopted Aunt) stopped by with bagels... lots of bagels. I ate the last one Saturday. They were so yummy. Then Thanksgiving our friends Serah and Jeremiah, and Lynette and Josh came over with their kids to celebrate the holiday.

Joshua(oldest and youngest)

Pretty amazing 1st week. It has been a dream. We will be having a Sip and See at 2 weeks to introduce him to the rest of our friends and family.

Everett's Story - Part two

Part One of this series covered Everett's conception and pregnancy and can be found here. This post will cover the birth.

I knew I still wanted to have a homebirth. In a perfect world insurance would cover whatever kind of midwife you want and there would be more continuity of care between OBs and midwives when necessary. I like very hands off care during labor and birth, so paying thousands of dollars out of pocket for someone to watch me give birth just seems silly. I researched and prepared for all the what ifs and knew that transferring to the hospital was always an option. Some people call this an unassisted birth, others call it a free birth (which I prefer). 

On Wednesday, the 14th of November, at 36+5, I forgot to take my progesterone before bed. I was only suppose to take it one more day anyway and had missed doses before, so I’m not sure if it contributed or not.

We had been passing viruses around since mid September and I still had a cough. My upper stomach muscles hurt so bad. I told my friend Serah that I wasn’t ready for him to come yet. Not to mention I had been having a lot of neck and back pain. Despite this, I had been nesting and Summer helped me get my birth space ready. On Thursday I woke up still a little congested but my cough was better and my stomach muscles were feeling better.

I had a chiropractor appointment with a massage at 10:30. It was the best adjustment I had gotten in my neck and for the first time, I didn’t get sore afterwards. I stopped at the consignment store to get a little jacket suit for Everett since we aren’t using a car seat carrier this time.

While I was gone Summer had taken the littles to the park. Deacon had slept on the way there, but didn’t get a long nap, so around 4 o’clock he got real fussy and wanted to nurse. Because of all the contractions I had been having I had cut him down to once or twice a day and sometimes we’d even skip a day or two. I also kept the sessions short. I figured I was just hours away from 37 weeks though, so I went ahead and let him nurse to sleep.

Before we went to bed I was being neurotic about straightening up. Summer was making fun of me asking if I was going to do that every night until he gets here. I told her I knew it probably wouldn’t be that night, but who knows. I WAS having lots of Braxton Hicks. That was normal for me though.

I thought maybe I’d bounce on my birth ball while watching tv before bed at about 8. It made my uterus just tighten up without relaxing and was uncomfortable. This wasn’t new either. It would happen a lot when we’d go to Costco right after eating lunch.

Everyone had fallen asleep, but I was starting to wonder if maybe I was going into labor because the Braxton Hicks were still coming. I had had them for 4-5 hours before though so I wasn’t sure. At 10:15 I decided to start timing them.

They weren’t regular really, but even getting up would trigger another and they were starting to feel different.... lower. I got up to pee after one that felt stronger at about 12:15 and had a good amount of bloody show. I knew now I was dilating and this was it. I woke Summer up at 12:40.

She started running my bath. Once I got in she got the bed ready and made my labor-aid. I was just watching tv from the tub. At 2:00 it started getting more intense and I told her to go wake up Scott.

Deacon woke up just before 3 though and he went up to get him back to sleep and fell back to sleep. I started feeling nauseous around this time and thought maybe I was getting close to transition.

Around 3:30 or so I started getting really tired and started to doze between contractions. I thought the contractions might be spreading out some. I thought maybe I was complete and my body just needed to rest a little. This was different for me. At 4 I decided to get out of the tub and rest in the bed for a while. I threw up as soon as I laid down. Then got as comfortable as I could. That lasted an hour. I barely moved and slept between contractions.

At 5 I went back to the tub. I started feeling the contractions in my back an thought maybe he was posterior and that was why I wasn’t getting the urge to push. This is when it would have been nice to have a midwife on hand. I don’t regret freebirthing, but I did have a moment of weakness. I knew I could push him out sunny side up, but was afraid of pushing and not being complete. If I wasn’t complete and he wasn’t lined up just right... I could still have hours to go and I was tired! I told Summer I wanted to go to the hospital. I was mostly thinking I wanted an epidural and a nap! Lol But I also could have done like Emilee, the founder of the free birth society, and got checked and if I was complete.... just go back home and finish birthing. Of course it also entered my mind that I’d have him in the car. As all this was racing through my mind, I got sick again. When my stomach muscles engaged I felt a lot of downward pressure and decided I would give it one good push before I committed to going to the hospital. I had told Summer to turn off the camera, so I had her turn it back on. I waited for the next contraction and pushed him right out! He was born at 5:41 am. He was perfect.

I started having after pains pretty quickly but waited 30 minutes to be sure it was fully detached before I birthed the placenta. I knew I had a succenturiate lobe placenta (and extra lobe) and there can be a risk of retaining the extra lobe. It all came out perfect too. Then we got out of the tub. He nursed at about 1 hour old. We had considered doing a partial lotus birth and leave the placenta attached for about 24 hours or until the cord had dried enough that there was no need to tie it off. His cord was so short though, I decided to go ahead and tie it off and cut it. Summer did the honors. His stump fell off at 3 days old. We weighed him at some point, 6lbs 1.5oz.

For Part Three - Everett's 1st week click here

Everett’s Story - Part One

This is the story of our 9th baby, Everett Virgil’s, conception, pregnancy, birth, and 1st week. I am breaking it up into parts:

Part One - Conception and Pregnancy
Part Two - Birth
Part Three - 1st Week

Conception has never really been easy for me. You can read about my journey with fertility issues and conceptions here, here, and here.

Deacon FINALLY started sleeping through the night at 11 months and my cycles came back almost exactly a month later. I knew that I wanted Deacon to have a close in age sibling, so I started charting right away. Since I have PCOS(polycystic ovarian syndrome), my cycles are irregular. The one after my 1st flow was 58 days. My app on https://www.fertilityfriend.com/ picked up ovulation, but my temps were kind of weird. My dip was at day 45, but my spike wasn’t until day 53. Then I started at just 7dpo. I was using one of the more expensive OPKs(ovulation predictor kit) that also measure estrogen. It had started showing “high” around day 22 and stayed that way with no LH surge for 11 days. I gave up. Our timing was still good, but my hormones just weren’t. 

The next cycle I decided to just get cheap LH surge strips off Amazon. It was $20 and had 50 LH strips and 20 pregnancy tests. 

I didn’t show any signs of fertility until day 42. The strip was negative that day. I tested again 2 days later and it was positive. We attempted conception both days. On day 45, Summer and I were at Whole Foods and I was having some discomfort and had a strong feeling I was ovulating(03/16). I started taking pregnancy tests at 7 dpo(days past ovulation) and got a Big Fat Positive on day 10! That conception date gave me an EDD(estimated due date) of 12/07/2018... 12 days after Deacons 2nd birthday 🎂

A little background for those who don’t know... Everett is our 8th live birth. My 9th pregnancy. Joshua was a hospital birth with the works: stadol, AROM(artificial rupture of membranes), epidural, and pitocin. Jacob and Summer were natural hospital births with the exception of AROM that I labored in the bed with. Ronan and Raiden were the same as Jacob and Summer, but I labored in the tub. Also with them I planned and did catch them myself. Actually with Ronan, my OB didn’t make it in time for the birth. Sierra was my 1st homebirth. It was a 19 minute precipitous labor after a few days of pre/prodromal labor that just felt like more frequent Braxton Hicks. My midwife didn’t make it to her birth either. Dani was my 10+3 week loss. I birthed naturally at home a week after finding out our precious baby no longer had a heartbeat. With Deacon, I planned(and partially paid for) to have a homebirth, but had a difficult pregnancy with kidney stones, glucose intolerance and an extremely irritable uterus. My water ended up breaking at 35+3 and I decided to go to the hospital. The labor went great, but the delivery ended up being a bit traumatic for me(baby was fine). 

Their birth stories can be found at these links: 

Natural Childbirth - Part One

Natural Childbirth - Part Two

Prodromal/Precipitous Unplanned Unassisted Home Waterbirth 

Deacon's Birth Story - Part Two  

That brings me to some unconventional decisions with Everett’s pregnancy and birth. I didn’t want to pay thousands of dollars to a midwife again to plan a homebirth that quite possibly wouldn’t be attended anyway. Since I am a healthy, knowledgeable woman, I felt I could do my own prenatal care as long as there weren’t any concerns. I tested my urine, weighed myself, checked my blood pressure and sugar, measured my belly, and listened for baby just like they would do at any prenatal. 

At around 14 weeks I became aware that not only was I still having some glucose intolerance (which never went away after Deacon’s birth), but I was also having some fasting lows. I started seeing an Endocrinologist to monitor me for this.

16 weeks

Before I was able to hear baby’s heartbeat at 17 weeks, I was able to hear and locate my placenta with my fetoscope.... pretty cool. 

At around 20 weeks, I started having more of an irritable uterus again. Crampbark helped, but I was having more discomfort with these Braxton Hicks so, I decided to go ahead and start seeing an OB to have my cervix scanned to make sure it wasn’t shortening or funneling which could cause preterm labor or my water breaking early again.

20 weeks

I hadn’t planned on having any ultrasounds or finding out the gender, but since they were going to be using ultrasound anyway I decided to go ahead and to a full anatomy scan at 23 weeks. I just requested no 3D/4D images and to do it as quick as possible. We found out we were having boy #6.

At my 1st appointment before the scan we decided to try progesterone shots to calm my uterus, but it was so painful and gave me a horrible migraine. I opted to discontinue them and put myself on more of a bed rest on top of the pelvic rest and no lifting that my doctor recommended. 

My endo expected me to get more insulin resistant and have less lows as I entered my 3rd trimester, but just the opposite happened. 

I read an article online that said sometimes low progesterone can cause hypoglycemia along with an irritable uterus. I asked my OB to check my levels. They did come back a little low. I decided to try suppositories instead of the shots this time. Unfortunately it didn’t help with the lows. They did seem to help a little with the contractions on a daily basis though. I was still having episodes every now and then, but it was manageable. 

At my 32 week appointment my OB suggested a growth scan the next week. I didn’t think it was necessary, but I wanted to have them check my cervix again so I agreed. Cervix was still looking good and baby was growing perfectly. 

Click here for Part Two

Deacon's Birth Story - Part One

Of course I couldn't dive into the actual birth without the journey there, so I've done it in parts again. If you want to skip straight to the birth click here.

Deacon is 3 weeks now. His birth definitely wasn't the serene home birth I had imagined. This whole pregnancy was challenging. He gained the title Rainbow Baby because that is what babies born after a loss are called. Something beautiful after a storm. That name has been amplified for Deacon for sure. 

A shortish recap is that I became pregnant after trying for a couple years in September of 2015. We got a positive pregnancy test on October 4th . November 17th we went in for our 1st midwife appointment. No heartbeat could be found. They did an ultrasound where we saw that our tiny baby had only grown to 10+3 weeks. It took another week for his/her body to be born naturally at home on November 24th. Here is my complete miscarriage story.

I got pregnant again with Deacon in April of 2016. At 10 weeks I started spotting. I went in for an ultrasound and saw that everything was fine. I spotted on and off until 18 weeks. More here.

Kidney stones were my next bump in the road. I started having mild flank and bladder pain at 12 weeks, the beginning of July. On September 11th, I had the worst pain ever and when to the ER. Morphine didn't touch it so they put me on a dilaudid pump. That lessened it but didn't stop it. I started having non painful contractions every 2-3 minutes, so they gave me terbutaline. It stopped the contractions and my pain went away as well. I had a few little episodes over the next month, but on October 15th, it got bad again. Not as bad as last time, but bad enough to send me back to the hospital. This time one shot of dilaudid knocked it out. Thank the Lord it never got that bad again, a few minor episodes, but my CT after he was born showed it had passed at some point.

At 28 weeks I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes for the first time. I was able to stay diet controlled, but it was hard. I'm not sure I would have made it without medicine if he hadn't come early. 

Next was the threatened preterm labor. At 33+4 I started having more contractions 2-3 minutes apart. I went to the hospital and they gave me terbutaline again to stop them. It slowed them down, but didn't stop them so they also gave me procardia. They sent me home with another dose in case it picked back up when the medicine all wore off. 

I'm going to insert a bit about my home birth/provider struggle. When I first found out I was pregnant again, I was going to go back to the same midwife I went to when I had my loss, but I just couldn't do it. It was still too fresh to go back there. The only other CNM in town was pregnant too, and due around the same time as I was. I made a few appointments with local CPMs, but decided to interview with a CNM out of Danville as well. I sent her a list of my questions and she was very through. I ended up canceling my other appointments and going with her. She asks that you also establish care with a provider with hospital privileges. I decided to go with the doctor in Stanford that signs off on her because I knew the he was supportive of homebirth. My other pregnancies and deliveries had been so smooth, I really didn't think I'd need him anyways beyond ultrasounds. But after struggling with GD and being afraid of going early on top of kidney stones and everything else (by this time it was November and I was dealing with all the emotions of it being a year since my miscarriage), I had decided to transfer care to a hospital midwife. Since I wasn't 35 weeks yet, it made the most logical sense to go to someone who had privileges at the closest hospital with a NICU. I went and saw two. I decided to go with the 2nd because I thought she would be able to empathize with me because she was a homebirther herself. In the office, she gave me a steroid shot to help develop Deacon's lungs in case he did come early. That same evening, at 34 weeks, I started having contraction again! My care did not go how I had envisioned it though.

I'm just not a big hospital fan when it comes to labor and delivery. First of all when I started having contractions, I didn't even get to talk to see the MW I had just transfered care to. The OB she works with was on call. I hadn't planned on having any vaginal exams during pregnancy, but this whole preterm labor thing had thrown me for a loop. Cervical checks are very subjective and don't really tell you much unless you are assessing change with the same person checking. In the office that day I let my new MW check me so if I went back into the hospital, she could tell if there had been any change. Little did I know, she wouldn't come to the hospital unless I was confirmed to be in labor. Homebirth spoils you. I had to see another hospitalist when I arrived. I had found out there is a test for preterm labor called a fetal fibronectin test, but being checked in the last 24 hours can give a false positive. He decided to go ahead and do it because if it was negative it would mean I wasn't in preterm labor, and wouldn't likely give birth in the next 2 weeks. If it came back positive, they would have to redo it because I had let my new MW check me that day... grr. Of course his shift ended and I had to see yet another hospitalist. They tried to stop my contractions with just procardia this time and it wasn't working. They thought maybe the steroid shot triggered them and wanted to keep me that day on magnesium while I got my 2nd dose. That was awful. I was on it for 12 hours. I couldn't get out of bed. They had to catheterize me, put air compressions on my legs to prevent clots, and check my blood pressure every 30 minutes. It makes you feel like you're burning from the inside out. Turns out the test they had done got messed up at the lab so we decided to just wait until the next day to redo it. The mag didn't stop the contractions, so before it ended, they put me back on procardia and gave me something to help me sleep, but it didn't work. The procardia made my blood pressure drop and my heart rate go up, making sleep impossible. The next day I thought I was going to finally get to see my midwife, but apparently it was her day off so the OB came in and redid the test. It came back negative. PHEW! The contactions had finally stopped overnight, so I went home with a diagnosis of irritable uterus.

The next day I called my homebirth midwife and asked her if she'd take me back :) We thought that I wasn't going to give birth until at least 36 weeks. At that point I could give birth at home or at the hospital in Stanford, if I thought I could make it. If I could make it until 37 weeks, I could have my homebirth no question. Everyone said I didn't need to be on bed rest, but I was afraid that if the contractions started again, that they would cause my water break. Turns out I was half right....

Thanksgiving fell on November 24th this year, Dani's birthday, the baby we lost last year. I decided I didn't want to go to Louisville this year. I wanted to stay home and mourn where I had birthed and buried my baby. We have a few families at our church that are from out of town and don't have family close by. Some of them couldn't make it home for Thanksgiving. Our church is a family. When we lost Dani, they prayed and they cried with me. They give me strength through Him. We invited over a couple of families with the understanding it would be nothing fancy. Summer prepared the turkey breasts. Scott and Joshua did the rest. We used paper plates and throw away serving trays. What little dishes were dirtied, were washed by Jacob. Summer had cleaned the house in the days prior. I am truly blessed. I took it easy. I even did the shopping through Kroger's click list. It was a good day. I went to bed with no contractions. 

Read Part Two Here 

Deacon's Birth Story - Part Two

To read Part One click here

I woke up on November 25th, 2016 at 8am with no contractions. I took my blood sugar as normal for the last 7 weeks or so. It was just a little high, so I thought I'd go wash my hands and take it again. When I stood up, I felt fluid soak my panties. I was 35 weeks and 3 days pregnant. I knew I hadn't peed myself. I'm 39 and have gone through seven pregnancies, this one with kidney stones.. I've peed myself before. I started looking for dry panties with toilet paper tucked between my legs. I woke Scott and told him I was pretty sure my water broke. I knew it had, but there's always a little doubt. I felt more fluid come out and remembered I have depends. I got on the couch on my left side. I was trying to keep the fluid in and I didn't want the contractions to get stronger. I was having a few, but I wasn't in labor yet. I called and texted my midwife. Then called the hospital in Stanford to let them know I was on my way in. My MW offered to come in with me for labor support, but I declined. I figured it would all be smooth sailing and I'd have a baby in a couple of hours. Not quite... 

We got to the hospital(an hour away) at 10am.The 1st stage of labor was fine. I didn't want to be checked when I first got there because of course I was GBS positive and I didn't really want to risk pushing that bacteria up into my cervix without knowing if I'd get enough antibiotics in. I got the 1st dose at around noon. They were really good about me declining the eye ointment. The nurse was also very nice about me not wanting to be checked, but I let curiosity get the best of me. After the antibiotics finished, I was going to walk and if the contractions picked up I wanted a reference point to know if I was progressing. I knew being in the hospital with ruptured membranes was putting me on the clock, and I was feeling the pressure. I was about 3cm. 

We walked for about an hour. Scott went and got Arby's for lunch. I ate half Summers sandwich :) When we got back to the room I started bouncing on a ball. 
waiting for my ball
I could trigger some decent contractions there, but still not in labor. At about 4 they did my 2nd dose of antibiotics. I went ahead and laid down to rest my back and legs while we waited for it to finish. Then it was back to walking. 

We walked for close to another hour. The hallway made a square it took about 3 minutes to get around it. I started having a contraction about every lap. We went back to the room. They had my dinner waiting for me. All liquid, but better than what most hospitals will feed you during labor, which is nothing but ice chips. I had the chicken broth. The other stuff was sugary: juice, jello, sherbet, 7up, so I skipped them because I didn't want to chance a glucose spike and Deacon's insulin be too high and his sugar crash after birth. I asked to be checked at 5:30 to see if the contractions were doing anything. I wanted to get in the tub before it got intense. I was 4.5 cm. Progress. Finally in labor! 

I got in the tub and munched on some cashews. I browsed FB for a while then Summer and I watched watched a little Supernatural on our laptop :) At about 8 I guess, they started me on another dose of antibiotics. This is the part I don't like about being in the hospital though. I start feeling like a watched pot. They'd say, "You'll let us know as soon as you start feeling a change, right?" So like a good girl when it finally started to feel just a little more intense... like I couldn't focus on Sam and Dean anymore... I asked to be checked. I got out of the tub and found out I was just 6cm. This was at about 8:30 maybe. Time starts to get blurry. But it goes into fast forward from here.

I got right back in the tub.  I started a low moan to help me focus on opening and to stay relaxed. The doctor, who by the way ended up not being the doctor I had established with (he was out of town for Thanksgiving), came in shortly after and asked if he could check me while I was still in the tub. I was 7. Summer was by my side the whole time. My belly was sticking out of the water a bit, so she would pour water over it during a peak. Then I had 2 contractions that were really intense and I didn't feel like my uterus was relaxing all the way in between.

I got out of the tub and asked to be checked again at 9. When I walked out of the bathroom, it felt like there were a million people in the room, all staring right at me. My anxiety was rising. The doctor was there with his tool box of supplies. 

He checked me. I was 9, but Deacon wasn't liking these contractions. His heartbeat was dipping after them and he was still high in my uterus. I got out of the bed to try to get him to come down. I heard the doctor say to grab the vacuum. My anxiety went up another notch. After a few contractions, I started to feel a little more pressure and asked him to see if I was complete at 9:11. He said to be prepared, that if Deacon kept showing signs of distress and wasn't coming down, they would have to help him out with the vacuum. I was complete, but he was still high, so I didn't have the urge to push. His heart rate started dropping again, but he did better when I was standing, so I got back out of the bed. In hindsight, I should have squatted or got on all fours in the bed. When I stood back up, I'm not sure if I started having an anxiety attack, or my sugar was low, or what, but I started feeling a little faint. I started thinking I should just try pushing, but of course as soon as I laid down, Deacon's heart rate went down. They had me turn onto my left side. I was torn between not wanting to "purple push" and deprive him of even more oxygen and just trying to get him out. I was grunting through the contractions, looking for the urge to push, but it wasn't happening. They had me turn over to my right side and gave me oxygen.  The doctor was checking me during every contraction, which was super painful, and distracting from my task. I sort of yelled/cried out after one, "why do you keep doing that!?" He said he needed to know if I was making any progress because Deacon heart rate wasn't coming back up between each contractions and we may need to act soon. There wasn't an in between at this point though, they didn't feel like they were really going away completely before another peak would start. I decided in my mind I was going to have to either push with everything I had and get him out, or give up, and let them vacuum him out. So with the next contraction I held my breath and pushed. I felt him come down and kept pushing until his head was out. I asked if he had his cord around his neck, which he did pretty tightly.  The doctor looped it off then I reached down as I pushed the rest of his body out and pulled his slippery body to my chest at 9:34. I did it. 

He was breathing, but his heart rate was still low, so I let them take him across the room to get a little ventilation and oxygen after Summer cut the cord. 

His apgars were 6, 8, and 9... so he recover quickly and was back in my arms in less than 15 minutes. 

I took his blankets off as soon as I got him and put him back to my chest. I had let the doctor manage my 3rd stage, by pressing on my fundus and putting just a small amount of traction on the cord, mostly because I knew the sooner the placenta came, the sooner the room would clear and I could relax with my baby. It came quickly, with minimal bleeding. 

We cuddled and nursed for over an hour then Summer got to hold him at 11:12. 

We took him to the nursery to be weighed and get his Vitamin K and Hep b shots. I don't really think hep b is necessary, but we fully vaccinate and don't think it's worth finding a new pediatrician for. He was 4 lbs 15 oz and 17 3/4 in. His blood sugar was also great.

Summer took the 1st shift to let me try to get some rest a little after midnight. She held him skin to skin in a babywearing shirt. I probably slept for an hour. She woke me at a little before two.

I fed him, changed him and cuddled him until 4 something, then woke Scott (he had been asleep since midnight) for his turn to hold him skin to skin. I slept another hour and a half or so, until about 6. 

I fed and changed him, then woke Summer back up for another cuddle. This went on most of the next day. I slept an hour or so here and there when I could. Scott left at around 10 to pick up the other kids minus Joshua, who had to work. My parents came the same time as them. Everybody took a turn, then were ready to go, which I was thankful for. 

Scott stayed home the 2nd night to be with the littles. Summer stayed with me. I had napped a lot during the day, so I let her get a little more shut eye that night. ;) I did wake her up to go with me to get him reweighed. Instead of losing any, he gained 2oz. I had told them my milk had already started coming in! 

His last hurdles as a 35 weeker the next day, to get to come home, were his bilirubin and car seat tests. He passed both but his bilirubin was a little elevated so we had to follow up with our pediatrician the following week. He ended up on a biliblanket for one night, but it has been slowly coming down. At his 2 week check up it was 12 something. They'll check it again at 3 weeks. He's still been gaining weight like a champ. He was 5 11.5 at 2 weeks :)

Everything I went through was so worth it. Deacon is awesome and perfect in every way. Of course I wish that he could've cooked a little longer. Maybe he wouldn't have had such a hard time at the end of my labor, and maybe he wouldn't have had to have had his poor little foot lanced so many times, but he is my rainbow and for that, I am grateful. God is so good. Maybe him staying in the womb longer wouldn't have changed those things. Maybe it was God's intervention for me having a homebirth. It apparently wasn't meant to be this time. I think I knew deep down. I always write an in depth birth plan and this time I just couldn't.

Just pictures from here that Summer took :)