September Snippets

My last moments as a mother of 1. I had lots of Braxton Hicks all day and went for an evening walk in hopes that things would get started. 

While I lay on the couch recovering from the hemorrhage Tim "Walked a Mile in Her Shoes." 

 Remembered 16 years of life missing my Dad. We have decided to celebrate all we have accomplished and the good in our lives. Too many tears have been shed to spend any more time doing that. With all that had happened it was a good reminder to slow down and be grateful for what you have. Love you Dad! Normally I order in some food but because ward members brought us supper I opted to celebrate with a caramel apple. 

We continued to try and spend every day outside. It is the place where Jack and I are the happiest. Hopefully Phoebe loves being outside as much as we do because she doesn't have much of a choice. 

 I really want to potty train Jack but he won't even put underwear on. We tried to talk him into it by putting Phoebe in a pair. We even gave him a kinder egg one night but he promptly took them off after he got the egg. 

 Jack still won't eat fruit but he will eat packages of ketchup... 

 Tim is currently serving as as Young Men's president. That means bedtime and Sunday mornings are a little more difficult. I am slowly finding my groove with both kids. Some days that means we conquer the world and other days that looks like Paw Patrol on repeat. 

 This kid. I don't even know where to begin. He can't sleep past 6:00 AM but but can't stay awake 12:30 PM. Frequently I give him a Nutella sandwich and he falls asleep mid bite. 

 We were too busy chasing sunsets to go to bed. I am going to be really sad when the weather cools off and the snow flies. 

 Teaching Jack about shadows.

 We went to a friends football game. We are fare weather fans. They lost but we had fun cheering. 

 Playing an intense game of hide and seek. 

Hospital Round 2

On September 11, at 9 days postpartum, I had a regularly scheduled doctors appointment to check up on me and Phoebe. Because the appointment was during nap time Becky so graciously took Jack. I went to the appointment and told them I was feeling really good and had stopped bleeding in the last 12 hours. They checked over Phoebe and let us know we looked good and could head on our way. As I was getting Phoebe packed up to go I had a sudden gush of blood. I called the doctor back in and let her know that I had soaked a pad in minutes. She said that if I soaked another in an hour I should give them a call and think about going to the hospital. I went to the bathroom to change my pad and started having intense pain. I sat in the bathroom for about an hour not really knowing what to do. I was in too much pain to drive home. The pain eventually subsided and I realized I had passed a large amounts of clots. I figured it was just a big gush that was over. I headed to the pharmacy that was in the building. While standing there for the 5 minutes it took to fill the prescription I soaked another pad. I decided that I really couldn't go home with out talking to my doctor again as I would just worry. I went back into the clinic and talked to my doctor. My blood pressure had spiked and I was continuing to soak pads. The decision was made that I needed to go to the doctors office. I called Chrissy to come pick me up as I was starting to have a headache and feeling dizzy. By the time I reached the emergency room I really wasn't feeling good. I was light headed and the pain was starting to ramp back up. Tim arrived shortly after I did and was able to take Phoebe as I didn't feel safe holding her. After going through triage and waiting to get seen the pain really intensified. I lay down on a little couch and shed a few tears while trying to breathe through the pain. It felt like I had a contraction that wouldn't go away. Tim was really stressed out and trying to find somebody to get me seen as fast as possible. The kindest lady approached us and held my hand. She said she had also had a postpartum hemorrhage long ago with her daughter and she knew how scared I was. It helped to take my mind off the pain. She said, "I know how weird this is but I am going to leave you my pillow for a little bit of comfort." She had been a patient and was just being a kind human. I couldn't have appreciated her more and the pillow was super nice to have while at the hospital. We were finally taken in and seen by a doctor. The ER doctor felt that I had a bit of retained placenta. I was given some pain management, dilaudid, and sent for an ultra sound. While at the ultra sound I could hardly move I was in so much pain. Going from the wheelchair to the table was more than I could take and put me into full shakes. Unfortunately nothing was seen on ultrasound so the ER doctor did an internal exam and removed a bunch of clots. This helped to relieve some of the pain but I was still bleeding. Dr. Albrecht, a high risk OB, consulted and made the decision to admit me as I would need a D&C. She was fabulous and managed to get me a private room so that Tim and Phoebe could stay with me. This was great so that I could continue to nurse Phoebe. 

Side Note: The med student with Dr. Albrecht took my history and asked what meds I was on. I told him what I had been on for pregnancy and that now I was just taking the prenatal vitamin. He was shocked and thought we were trying to get pregnant already.... The next day I was taken in for the D&C. I was told that the procedure would take about 10 minutes. I came out of the OR about 2 1/2 hours later feeling like I had been run over by a bus. Dr. Birch had taken over my care from Dr. Albrecht. During the D&C, the blood and clots were cleaned out but I started to really bleed and they couldn't get it stopped. They had to put in a Bakari uterine catheter. This applied pressure to my uterus to slow the bleeding. Dr. Birch estimated I lost 500ml- 1000ml of blood. When I went into the OR the my Hgb was 83. When I came out of the OR my Hgb was 63. I received 2 units of blood. The 2 units were incredible and made me feel so much more alive. The next morning I was taken for another ultrasound. Due to the large amount of blood loss during surgery Dr. Birch wondered if I had an atrio-ventricular malformation (AVM). This is where an artery and vein grow together and eventually rupture. They saw a bright spot of bleeding but not necessarily an AVM. Regardless they couldn't get the bleeding to stop so they decided they would have to do an angiogram with ablation. I went down to the angio suite where they did the procedure. It was super crazy to see all my arteries light up. They were able to locate my uterine arteries and shoot this foam in that blocked the blood flow to stop the bleeding. They mentioned in the beginning that it might be slightly painful when the foam went in but I could possibly have something for pain. When the time came I asked for more pain management. My body was exhausted and I did not want to deal with anymore intense pain. Through out this entire process we kept thinking just this one more procedure and I will be fine but things kept getting worse. Tim and my Uncle Mark gave me a blessing of peace and comfort before I went for the angiogram. I was starting to get stressed and panicked. I had a lot of postpartum hormones coursing through me and all I wanted to do was feed and care for my sweet little baby. Tim was amazing from the very beginning. He went to the NICU and knocked on the door to the RT room. The RT's took care of us and gave us diapers and bottles. My family also stepped in and cared for Jack. Tannis came down that night and stayed with Jack. Tannis then packed Jack up and took him to Edmonton where he stayed for a week with the Dudley's. I missed Jack and was really looking forward to our family being together but I could not have Jack with me as I was in far too much pain and things were changing too fast. People from our ward brought meals and took care of our food drive route. We were blessed beyond measure and truly had a village taking care of us. 

Not too sure what to think of the bottle. She took it like a champ. Unfortunately once I was able to return to breastfeeding she was no longer interested in a bottle. 

 Grandma to the rescue. 

After 4 days I was so ready to go home. 

We sure love cousins. Apparently Jack slipped right back into his old routine. He is obsessed with Quinn going to school and continues to tell us on the regular.

Massive thank you to all those who came to our rescue. We literally couldn't have survived without all the help. 

Week 1

Jack is so obsessed with Phoebe. He continues to call her Harper. We have even tried Facetiming Harper and it just throws poor Jack for a loop. 

 First bath for Phoebe.

 This little lady is lovely. She snuggles in so nicely, is very bright eyed and eats like a champ. She slept really well her first night home but it has been downhill from there. She has a bit of day/night confusion and insane amounts of gas. I have to rub her tummy regularly and she really explodes! We are still getting to know each other but I am seriously in love with her. 

 I still can't believe these two are mine. 

 You know you are loved and accepted by your brother when he shows you his guns. 

 The weather is still so nice and I have been feeling really good. In the evenings Jack and I have been going on short walks/quad rides to the park in the townhouses. It is nice to get out of the house. I will be so sad when the weather cools off and the snow flies. 

 So grateful to the Dudley's. They made a speedy trip to Airdrie to pick up Jack and meet Phoebe. Erin wanted to come to my delivery but unfortunately she was working another night shift. Maybe next time....??? 

 While Jack was gone Tim and I went out for supper and played games. It is amazing how easy it is to go out with a baby that sleeps all the time and can't run away. We might as well enjoy it while we can! 

We also soaked up all the baby snuggles. 

 On Friday we made a quick trip to Edmonton to pick up Jack. Quinn and Tannis were pretty excited to meet her.

 Having a girl is a pretty big change. We are going to have to up our bow game. 

 Family time on Sunday. We made caramel popcorn and enjoyed hours of football. 

It still hasn't really sunk in that I have two kids. I am a little nervous to be left alone with them but I am looking forward to finding our new normal.