Breastfeeding Wars

I've been stuck in a battle between the Lactation consultants at the hospital and my nurse practitioner at my pediatricians office. The lack of breastfeeding knowledge at my pediatricians office amazes me. I wish I had checked my comments left from my previous post much sooner because I have been in breastfeeding hell.

As I previous posted,Gavin was struggling with weight gain for the first two weeks of his life. He's a sleepy feeder and in the end I just wasn't waking him up often enough to get him to eat what he needed. He went from 7lbs 3 oz's at his two week check up to 8lbs four days later because I started supplementing with formula and I began pumping as instructed by the nurse practitioner. Here is the messed up part: at the two week check up, the nurse handed me a sheet that had the number of ounces he should be taking in per feeding. According to the sheet, from newborn to two weeks old, Gavin shoud be eating 2-3 ounces every two hours and 4 ounces from age 2 weeks to 2 months every 2 1/2 hours. It freaked me out to hear this because I was barely able to pump an ounce to an ounce and half so I thought I had low milk supply.

I went home and began feeding him three ounces per feeding session but Gavin began projectile vomiting after the first few feeding sessions. I thought he might be allergic to the formula but his vomiting stopped after the first day. As ok'd by the nurse practioner, I began allowing Gavin to sleep through the night again. While this was going on, I kept seeing my supply go down. After a week, I was only pumping out an half ounce per pumping session. I frantically tried nearly everything: power pumping sessions, waking him up every two hours around the clock, diet supplements, etc. Nothing seemed to be working.

After a week of trying to improve my supply, I became so frustrated I finally sucked it up and went back to the lactation consultants at the hospital to see what else I could do. The first thing she did was weighed Gavin. In six days he gained another 6 ounces. I explained the back story and the progression of his weight gain. She said there was something wrong with him gaining that much weight in such a short period of time. She asked how often I was feeding and how much formula I was supplementing with. I felt like such a bad mom when she got this horrified look on her face. Thankfully, I brought the feeding amount sheet that the nurse practioner provided me with so I could show the lactation consultant. The lactation consultant was so mad when she saw it. She told me that the sheet was grossly wrong and that I should not be feeding him more than an ounce or two and now that I had been giving him four ounces per feeding I probably stretched out his stomach and am definitely over feeding him.

I was pretty pissed about the whole thing because in the end, my supply was completely fine until they told me to start pumping and supplementing. The nurse should have told me to just step up the number of feedings. After spending an hour with the lactation consultant, we came up with a game plan to try to get my supply back to normal.Because I stopped supplementing completely, I ended up feeding Gavin every hour for nearly three days straight before he started to get back to eating every two to two and half hours. I was exhausted but it was worth it in the end because my supply is back up to were it should be.

If this story can prevent another woman from having to go through this, I will be very happy. I stopped back in to see the lactation consultant yesterday and Gavin has gained another 3 ounces in six days which is much more on target and just shows that I do not have low supply after all. I'm just so happy to get this all straightened out because a week ago I was ready to throw in the towel.

Here are some pictures of Gavin. He is one month old today!! Wow time flies. He is still such a good baby. He only cries if I take to long for a diaper change or when he is getting out of the bathtub. He is starting to smile in his sleep, he just found his voice and has started to coo. He is so alert and observant.

Gavin and Cooper taking a nap together.

I'm this big!

The beach is this way ladies.

Part 3

The first picture is Gavin with his two cousins. Its hard to believe that my neice is only 5 months old yet she is so much bigger than Gavin!! The remaining pictures were taken when Gavin was around 12 days old. I love his feet!!

So I swear I will try to make this post not as long. I couldn't believe all that I wrote in the last post. Hello Novel!!!

Thursday, March 1st

Things went really well overnight and I was starting to feel a little stir crazy sitting in the house. I still needed to pick up a prescription from Walmart so I decided I would try to go for our first outing. I was a little worried about people trying to touch my 3 day old baby but thankfully my strollers canopy connected seemesly with the canopy of the car seat so when we were in the store no one could see what I was trying to hide. It took a long time to get ready to leave. I felt like I was going to forget something...diapers...second outfit..etc. I quickly realized I was overpacking for what was going to be a twenty minute trip out of the house. In the end, we survived walmart with no one touching the baby, no diaper explosions and no screaming baby.

Friday, March 2nd. Seriously one of the scariest days of my life thus far.

Again the weather forecaster was calling for more severe storms. By the time Gavin and I got out of bed that morning, things were looking worse and worse to the west of us. You know it's going to be a bad weather day, when they start telling parents that the schools are closing early and releasing kids. Around noon the skies were becoming black as night. We already had multiple tornado reports in the area. Shortly before 1pm our tornado sirens began screaming. I live in a two story townhouse with no basement. I have an end unit where the bathrooms are against the outside wall making them unsafe places to be in the event of a tornado. My only option is to drive 5 minutes to a church that opens it's basement in the event of severe weather or ride it out in the hallway closet under the stair case. I had been watching the weather like a hawk all day and it seemed like a severe storm cell was going to pass to the north of me but it briefly head due east putting it directly in the path to my home. The weather man started to report large hail with the storm cell and then they thought they saw the tell tail sign of a tornado. Multiple reports from spotters started to come in saying that there was definitely a funnel cloud associated with this storm. I knew I only had a short time to make a decision of whether or not I should stay at the house or try to make a run for the church. At that moment, the wind started to howl and I could hear my roof moan and crack with every gust. I grabbed Gavin and my cat (my dog was still with my parents) and hunkered down in the closet with me huddling over Gavin and a thick sleeping bag over the top of us. At that moment I wished I was back at the hospital and not at my house.

The storm took about 5 minutes to pass completely over us. I have no idea how I got so lucky for a second time but I did. Just up the street it looked like it had snowed. There was about 2 inches of golf ball size hail. All the windows were blown out in the houses in the northern part of my neighborhood. There were multiple houses that lost their roofs. Trees were down everywhere. It looked like a war zone.

I think the last count was 81 tornadoes in the region with many lives lost. I hope this will not be a sign of a violent spring storm season.

Saturday, March 3rd - Sunday, March 10th

My parents finally arrived late in the day. It was fun seeing my mom hold the baby. Unfortunately, my dad has never been a baby person. He wouldn't hold Gavin until the last day they were in town and that's only because there were 8 people in the house begging him to do it for a photo. I was kind of offended by it all.

Since my dad was still in a lot of pain from his knee replacement surgery I offered up my bedroom for their stay. I knew the couch would be the best option for me since, at that time, Gavin was staying up all night long and I was afraid I would fall asleep breastfeeding in bed.

Gavin had his first doctors appointment on that Tuesday and offered to allow both of my parents to come. I was a little surprised when my dad said he would go, especially since he was in a foul mood all morning. Looking back, I should have known the signs of my dad about to blow up. My dad has always had a short fuse and when he gets mad he yells, swears, and sometimes throws things. He's gotten better over the years but he still has his moments and it can be a little scary and definitely embarassing when he blows up in public. Gavin's appointment was at 10:50 but they asked us to arrive 10 minutes prior for paper work. We arrived right on time and filled out the paper work. It was only 10 minutes past the appointment time and my Dad was already making comments especially when he saw people, who had come in after us, get called back. I tried to explain that there are 8 doctors in the practice and that was probably why they were getting called back. My mom and I tried to keep the conversation lite and mom joked that Dad has never been in a pediatricians office before so he wouldn't know what it's like to wait with screaming children surrounding you. That just set him off. He started swearing, I wouldn't go as far as saying yelling, and saying that he was tired of everyone saying that he didn't go to doctors appointments when we were kids. There were a couple of other people with kids in the waiting room at the time and I was just praying that the kids couldn't hear what my dad was saying. Here it's Gavin and I's first visit to the pediatrician's office and I thought for sure my Dad would be kicked out. He kept swearing about how he just wanted to go back home. I was pissed but, like my mom, I knew better to not say anything because it would just set him off even more. I offered to let him sit out in the car but he just sat in the waiting room fuming. Thankfully the nurse called us back within minutes of my dad's little episode.

Gavin was down to 7lbs 6oz by the time we left the hospital. By this appointment, which was 6 days after being released from the hospital, Gavin was down to 7lbs 3oz and still stayed at 19 inches long. The ped said I needed to wake him up more often for feedings and to come back the next monday. I started supplementing a 2oz bottle once a night because I felt like although he was sucking, I didn't hear him swallowing anything when being fed. I asked if I should pump to see how much milk I was producing but the ped said it wasn't necessary.

I love my ped, she's so nice! We got to talking in the middle of the appointment and she asked me if I would mind if she gave out my information to her sister who has been starting to look into becoming a SMC. I agreed and am kind of excited more women are looking into doing it. It's funny but in the last week, I've had multiple women (older family friends who never had children, co-workers, a nurse) who said they had wished they had made the decision I had. It was really reassuring that I made the right decision.

By the time we got to the waiting room my dad calmed down but didn't really say anything to us the rest of the day. He just sat upstairs in my room on his machine to increase the mobility of his leg. I was a little worried that his behavior wouldn't change and it was going to be a looooonnnnggg week.

Gavin began only waking up once during the night that tuesday, which allowed me to get enough sleep to do our Wednesday trip to cincinnati. It was a 3 1/2 hour trip to see my Grandmother. Gavin did really well and slept the whole way there and the nearly the whole way back. I think the trip screwed up my breastfeeding though. We were on the go so much that day, I never had time to pump and I wasn't quite comfortable breast feeding in public so I kept supplementing with formula that day. My grandmother was hilarious. She's so damn feisty. We went out for lunch and I kept Gavin in his car seat while we were eating. She said"Kids these days spend too much time in their car seats". Later that afternoon, Gavin was sleeping on my chest while we sat around and got caught up on things. All of sudden she turns to me and says "your going to spoil him if you hold him all the time". Haha. I totally called her out for giving me contradictory criticism. Everyone got a good laugh.

My sister, her husband and her kids arrived on Thursday. They stayed at a hotel. It was kind of cool that day but we all headed out to the park with the kids. My sister takes some amazing photos so we spent the rest of the day trying to get some good photos of Gavin and her kids.

The rest of the family arrived on Friday. Man did I have a full house!! My other Grandmother ended up getting the flu so she couldn't come down with the family so that was one less person and my uncles decided not to come down. In all, we still ended up with 12 people (including Gavin and I) and three dogs huddled up in my living room and kitchen. I don't think I held Gavin for more than 30 minutes that day. He was awake and alert the whole day. My family must have worn him out so much that he slept through the night three nights in a row!

Everyone left on Sunday. It was sad to see everyone go but I was ready to have my place to myself so I could start getting into a good routine with Gavin. My mom was bawling that morning that she didn't want to leave Gavin and I. I offered to put a futon in the baby's room so she could move in :) That would definitely solve my daycare dilemna. My dad was in another one of his pissy moods and was barking orders at my mom to start packing the car. I wanted to strangle his neck. I'm glad Gavin won't remember what he was saying because that is not what I want to expose him to. I feel bad for my mom but she needs to get a back bone and stand up for herself.

At the beginning of the week, I wasn't planning on going back home to WI during my maternity leave but my family convinced me to come for Easter. Now I'm trying to come up with an extra two hundred dollars. Anyone have any school research papers that need to be written??? :)

Monday, March 12 to today.

This house has become so peaceful. Gavin's such a good baby. He almost never cries and is a good sleeper. We take the dog for a walk every day and he seems to like it. The dog has been really good with the baby too. Every once in awhile I catch Cooper licking the baby's toes and he get's this guilty look on his face. It's kind of funny, it's my dog's guilty pleasure.

We took Gavin back to the ped's office for a weigh in on Monday and he didn't gain a single ounce in a week!! They told me to start pumping to see how much I was producing and to step up his feedings. I was also instructed to not let him sleep through the night anymore. When I started pumping at the beginning of the week I was getting 2 oz per session but by Thursday it was down to an ounce. Thankfully I received a lot of free formula from the hospital and registering with enfamil. The low milk production is so frustrating! I am now taking Fenugreek 3 capsules, 3 times a day to help my supply. My sister also suggested drinking a beer a day but I'm going to wait to see how the fenugreek works.

We went back to the peds office on Friday and Gavin is up to 8lbs!! I can't believe he gained that much in four days. They told me I should still pump but I can start letting him sleep through the night again. I'm still waking up twice a night to pump though so it's not really helping me get more sleep. I'm hoping by the next time I post my milk production will have increased. Wish me luck!!

Part 2

Sunday, February 26th

Saturday was completely uneventful. I spent saturday and most of sunday doing final things around the house. My best friend, Sara, arrived mid-afternoon from Chicago. It was really strange looking back, but I wasn't nervous or anxious for my induction. Sara and I hung around the house for a bit and then headed out for dinner around 6pm. We talked and got caught up on things during the meal. Typical to our friendship, we lost track of time. I just happened to glance down at my cell phone and realized it was 8:47 and I needed to report to L&D for my induction at 9pm. We quickly threw everything in Sara's car and headed to the hospital. Unlike my visit on Friday, the place was a ghost town. They had me checked in and in my room with 15 minutes.

My first nurse, Cheryl, was awesome. I could tell right off the bat that she had a good sense of humor, which was good because Sara brings out the funny side of me. Earlier in the day I had made a pan of brownies for the nurses. When I handed it to her I told her that I was afraid I was going to be a overly demanding patient but I hoped the brownies would help my image, ahe got a good chuckle. Cheryl sent me into the bathroom to change into the hospital gown. While I was in the bathroom, I saw this big poster on the wall with facial expressions demonstrating the 10 levels of pain. I came out of the bathroom and summond the nurse over to the poster and told her " you see this" pointing to the smiling face with the number 1 under it. " I want to stay between this smiling face to the 'just wiping the smirk off my face' number 4 during this induction". "This is my birth plan". She told me it could be arranged. I thought Sara was going to pee her pants she was laughing so hard.

At 10pm on the dot we got the induction rolling. The nurse put a tiny pill, cytotech up against my cervix to begin to soften and dilate my cervix. Although I was told previously that I was 2 cm, when they checked me when I arrived I was only at 1cm and the baby was really up high. I don't know what's up with that. Instead of making Sara suffer through sleeping on an uncomfortable hospital couch, I sent her back to my house so she could get a good nights sleep. After Sara left, Cheryl walked back in and told me I should take an ambien to help me sleep. I agreed, and must had fallen fast asleep with minutes after taking it.

Monday, February 27th

Around 2am, Cheryl woke me up to check me and to see if I needed another dose of cytotech. I was only at 1.5cm and was having contractions that were about 5 minutes apart although I couldn't feel them at all. She put in a second dose of the cytotech and I fell back to sleep.

It was around 5am when Cheryl woke me up again. I still wasn't feeling the contractions but I couldn't stop shaking. When I was checked I was only at 2.5 cm so she contacted my doctor to come into break my water. The doctor didn't arrive till 6ish. I still couldn't stop shaking and was just starting to feel the contractions. They still weren't that painful but they were definitely getting closer together. My doctor broke my water only discover that Gavin had already had his first bowel movement. The doctor explained that they were going to do an amnio infusion to help flush out the meconium and that when the baby is born, he would go straight to the warmer where the respiratory team would suction him out first. Once they got the amnio infusion started, I just felt gross. I could constantly feel large gushes of fluid come out of me. This continued up until I gave birth. At the time of the amnio infusion, they also placed an internal monitor on Gavin. He was still really high so my doctor told me that I would probably not have him to really late that evening. This wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear at 6am.

Shortly after they broke my water, the contractions really started to pickup. I asked if I could get my epidural but because I wasn't 4cm, they told me I would have to wait. Thankfully it was shift change, because my next nurse, Kirsten, offered me some Stadol around 7am to tide me over until I could get an epidural. Sara had just walked back into my room but I was so focused on the contractions, it took me a few minutes to realize she was in the room. My shakes were so bad, my teeth just rattled. Shortly after receiving the stadol, I stopped shaking and fell back to sleep for an hour and half.

Kirsten woke me up around 8:30am to check me and I was at 4-5cm. I was in a total haze from the stadol but I was really starting to feel painful contractions. Still shaking, I couldn't stop myself from doing these low moans. Kirsten asked if I was ready for my epidural. Hell yes!! It seemed like only minutes later the anesthesiologist was preping me for the epidural. They had me sit up at the side of the bed,facing the nurse. The stadol made me so dizzy, all I could remember saying over and over again was that I was going to fall and that I felt like I was going to black out. At 9am my epidural was in and within minutes the shaking stopped and I felt great.

Sara and I talked for the next hour and watched some tv. We also began talking about baby names. Sara began telling me her favorite names but I told her to not share her boy names because I didn't want a "Friends" incident. You know, the one where Rachel asks Monica what her favorite baby names are she ends up stealing the name "Emma" for her little girl. I was starting to get groggy again so I fell back asleep around 10 am.

I woke up to Sara taking a picture of me around noon. Although I wasn't in any pain, my shakes had come back with a vengence and I was starting to feel nauseous. Within minutes, I started to vomit. Kirsten came in to check me and I was at 9cm. I could move my legs again and could feel a lot of pressure in my bottom. Kirsten said I could probably start pushing in the next hour, about 6 hours before they thought I would be ready. I was so terrified that my epidural would wear out before I started to push that I asked for Kirsten to top of my epi. I fell back to sleep within minutes.

At 1:30 I woke up to more shaking. I could feel Gavin's head work its way down with each contraction and could tell his head was really close to coming out but I decided to labor down a bit longer. I was afraid it I waited to long his head would come out on his own before the nurses and doctors could come back into the room to suction him out. I sat there with my eyes closed just waiting, trying to decide if I should say something or wait a bit longer.

Around 3pm, I knew I couldn't wait any longer and told Sara to get the nurse. Ironically, Sara was watching TV and what was she watching? The Friends episode where Rachel has her baby. I couldn't believe it was on tv after we just got done talking about it. As much as I thought it was ironic that it was on, I told Sara to turn it off because I didn't want to use Ross as my focal point :)

Kirsten came in and checked me. As she pulled my legs apart she said she could see his hair!! She had me do a couple of practice pushes and then told me to stop. Unfortunately, I kept vomiting which seemed to push him down even more. It seemed like only a minute or two and my whole room was full of people in blue. They broke down the bed and my doctor entered the room. I pushed twice and his head came out. He was already crying. I pushed a third time and delivered the rest of his body at 3:38 pm. I asked Sara to have the honor of cutting his cord. She's been my best friend for 27 years, I couldn't imagine anyone else doing it. Gavin was 7lbs 13 oz and 19 inches long. I had a second degree tear. The doctor and the nurses kept joking around that he shot out of me! They suctioned him out and placed him on me. I think I was just in shock looking down at this little puffy face. I recognized his nose immediately. Everyone in my family has the same nose. He has long toes that definitely did not come from our side of the family but they are so adorable I can't stop kissing them.

Within minutes of having him put on my chest, the lactation consultant came in to help me begin nursing him. It only took a few minutes to get him to have a good latch. Unfortunately, his latch would start off great and then he would some how slip into an incorrect latch which was pretty painful. Through the night I developed suck blisters on the top of my nipples which hurt like crazy but we worked through the pain and they disappeared within a few days. He also had a tendency to fall asleep as soon as he latched on. It's kind of cute but he likes to cuddle up to my nipple, with his little lips just touching it. He still does this. I have to undress him down to his diaper to get him to stay awake while feeding him.

I worked with the lactation consultant off and on for two hours until a nurse came in to take Gavin for his first bath. I kind of regret doing this but I allowed the nurse to take him and sent Sara along to take pictures while I stayed in bed to be checked by another nurse. After Sara left with the baby, the nurse asked me if I wanted to try to get up and go to the bathroom. I could feel my legs and move them without any weakness so after I said yes I quickly sat up and tossed my legs over the side of the bed to get up. The nurse freaked out and started to yell wait. She was afraid I would jump out of bed and crumble to the floor so I had to wait until a second nurse arrived to help. Besides my lady bits being a little sore, I felt great. They slowly helped me out of bed and I then I walked to the bathroom without any problems. I guess women normally need a lot of assistance their first time out of bed so the nurses kept telling me to slow down. They also kept trying to convince me I needed to take a loratab for pain. I refused.

Tuesday, February 28th

I've had just about everyone tell me to take advantage of the overnight nursery so I could get some sleep. I'm so glad I did. They brought my little man in every 2 1/2 hours to feed but as soon as he was done they would wisk him away and I would crash immediately. I was amazed how these little mini naps would energize me.

By the next morning, I felt completely fine. No soreness. Very little bleeding. I couldn't wait to get out of bed and take a shower and change into my clothes. I must have been on a new mommy high because I seriously felt like I slept 12 hours the night before even though it was probably only 5 hours.

I still hadn't picked out a name by the end of the first night. Although the nurses seemed ok with it at the beginning, I was definitely feeling pressured by the end of the night and even worse in the morning. I've always hated the name Brody but for whatever reason the name stuck out and I started to really consider it along with the name Gavin. I spent most of the night trying to "try names on". Around 10 am on tuesday, the record keeper came in for the second time that morning to see if I had come up with a name yet. I made a snap decision and said his name. The record keeper looked up from her paper work and said "that's a good name, that's my three year old son's name". It made me hesitate for a second but then I realized maybe this was a sign. Seriously, how many kids could there be out there with the name Gavin Thomas? So I kept the name. What also sealed the deal was Sara laughing at his initials GT. She thought it was fitting GT = Grand Torino = him tearing out of me so quickly.

I purposely hadn't told many people that I was going for an induction so that my phone would not be blowing up during labor. I had Sara call my Dad and my sister to give them Gavin's stats and iniate our phone tree. I really thought this would help to cut down the number of phone calls I would receive the first and second day but boy was I wrong. I received 63 texts and phone calls within the first 24 hours of his life. Once I hit the mid 30's, I turned off my phone. Granted, I only talked to my mom and my dad during the first 24 hours and let the rest go to voice mail, I still felt so overwhelmed everytime my phone vibrated. It's nice to know everyone is so supportive but I was a little amazed by the number of people who thought I would have time to sit and talk on the phone within hours of giving birth. Maybe some people can, but I was so wrapped up in getting to know Gavin and learn how to breast feed that there was no way I could talk on the phone for more than 20 broken up minutes through out the day. The biggest culprit was one of my aunts. We made sure my Dad called her first because she somehow got forgotten when my sister had her first son and this caused her to be so mad about it she didn't talk to us for two years (kind of extreme but whatever). I'm assuming as soon as my dad got off the phone with her, she texted me three times. The first saying congratulations and asking length and weight (which I know my dad provided this information to her) and the final two asking why I'm not responding. I finally posted a birth announcement on Facebook around 9pm with a picture. I turned off my phone about an hour after the FB posting. When I woke up the next morning I was stunned by the number of messages. Again, there were four more additional text messages from my aunt so to calm her down I briefly responded with the requested info and said things are going well. As soon as I hit send, my phone rings again and it's my aunt wanting to sit around and chit chat. This of course coincided with the baby beginning to cry to be fed so I told her I would call her back wednesday night when things settled down. I couldn't believe it but she said no, this is the only time she had to talk. I was pissed!! I stuck to my guns and repeated I would call her tomorrow and that I needed to feed the baby. I hung up before she could respond. I also turned off my phone again. When I turned on my phone again a couple of hours later to start responding to other peoples texts and messages, she had texted me 4 more times! I still haven't talked to my sister or brothers, other family and close friends and was starting to get really angry about her monopolizing the little time I had. Worse I told her I would talk to her the next day yet she still couldn't wait. It's like she doesn't understand any boundaries. It was really getting me worked up when I should be enjoying this momemt with my new son. I finally just turned off my phone again so I wouldn't have to deal with it which sucked because it would have been nice to talk to other people.

Wednesday, February 29th

I knew the night before they were calling for some severe storms in the area but didn't think much about it. They continued to bring Gavin into my room for feedings that early morning. They brought him into my room around 5am and while feeding him I decided to turn on the TV to check the morning news. I was shocked to learn that Harrisburg,IL had been ravaged by a tornado only a hour or two before. It's a town that is not to far away from me. The weather man was talking in a bit of a panicked voice and started saying the storm was heading towards my town. I still wasn't all that worried but then they started reporting multiple tornado just south west of the hospital. Just then my new nurse ran in to tell me that I needed to get into the bathroom with the baby as soon as possible. She helped me bring a rocking chair into the bathroom with chair close enough to the bathroom door so I could hold it shut. I tried to stay as calm as possible but I could hear the storm sirens going off and the wind picking up and blowing across the roof on the hospital. I didn't want to stress the baby out so I decided to try feeding him. Shortly after 6am my town was hit by a tornado. No lives were lost but our downtown was damaged and there were many houses completely destroyed. Gavin and I really dodged a bullet because the tornado just passed a 1/4 mile from my home and 1 mile south of the hospital. I called my apartment complex in the morning just to make sure I had a home to return to. Thankfully, we only lost some shingles off the roof. What I didn't know at the time was this would not be the last tornado Gavin and I would experience that week.

If that was tramatic enough, the pediatrician came into the room around 8am to take Gavin for his circumcision. It seemed to go well but I really felt bad for him. The first time he peed after the procedure, he screamed like someone was trying to kill him. It still breaks my heart thinking about it.

Gavin and I were released from the hospital at 4pm that day. I was told they wouldn't let me drive home from the hospital so my a co-worker offered to take us home. I definitely felt like I could drive especially since I didn't require any pain medication after Gavin's birth. During my discharge, they still told me not to drive for 1 week which I kind of laughed at. I think I pissed the nurse off because she said "I know your not going to follow any of these instructions..." She did try to joke with me while they were walking us out the door. She asked me sarcastically not to skip down the hallways when leaving because it would make the nurses and doctors look bad :)

My co-worker only sat at my house for 10 minutes after bringing everything in from the car and then we were on our own (she had to go pick up her son).

My mom called within minutes of us walking in the door to make sure we got settle in ok. As soon as my co-worker walked out the door, my crazy aunt began texting me again. Her texts sent me over the edge. I have another aunt on my dad's side that we disowned. The last time I talked to her was well over 25 years ago. I was 9 and my Dad and her started to argue. Tina wanted to borrow money and my dad said they could afford to help her out. She got so mad about it she told my Dad and "your bitches" (my sister was with us) to get out of the house. She then started to swing to hit us. I remember racing to the car and getting out of there as fast as possible. Well my crazy aunt and Tina still talk to one another. Tina has never made an attempt to contact anyone in my family in the last 25 years. For whatever reason my crazy aunt decides to text me "Is it ok that I give your aunt your address". I decided to play dumb, I have a lot of aunts but the rest of them have my contact information, and wrote another aunts name down with a question mark. She then responded with the name Tina and then said this would be the perfect time for me to get in contact with her!! Just what I want to do after giving birth 48 hours ago. Ugggh. Yes let me reconnect with a abusive family member (who has never had a job her whole life, has a history of fraud and says horribly inappropriate crap). Just who I want my son around. I tried to stay calm and told her that I didn' know and I needed to think about it. I thought this would get her off my back but no. She responds with another text that that was ok she won't give her my phone number just my address and email address. GAHHHH!! Pushy are you? I responded that this was not the time to have this conversation. I think she could tell I was pissed and I made it another 24 hours before I received another barage of texts from her. I finally just called her on Saturday morning and told her that taking care of a new baby is a bit time consuming (she doesn't have children) and I appreciate her support and hope she wont get upset but I don't have time to sit and talk or text much. I also told her it was really upsetting that she would try to push my other aunt on me right now when she could have tried to contact me at any point, on her own, in the last 25 years but hasn't so there fore I don't feel inclined to pay attention to my new baby less so I can reconnect with someone who hasn't treated me or the rest of my family well in the past. She seemed really concerned that I would not ever talk to her again but I tried to reassure her that I just needed some space. Ahhhh family drama, but little did I know there was more to come with my parents arrived.

Part 1

It's been a crazy whirlwind for the last two and half weeks but things are going incredibly well. I'm going to have to break Gavin's birth story and other happenings into multiple posts because there is no way I will be able to get all down at one time, so bear with me.

Friday, February 24th

I began having contractions that were anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes apart shortly before going to work. They weren't painful but as the morning continued they began to become slightly closer together (10 minutes apart) and more painful. It was my last day at work and I just wanted to make it through the day without anyone catching on. A couple of the girls that I work with offered to take me out for lunch so we headed to a mexican restaurant for lunch. Our waiter was hot (not important to the story but I'm just saying ooohh lala). Towards the end of the meal I had a contraction that was much more painful than the ones I was experienced earlier. The girls told me I should head up to the hospital but I was afraid to go because I thought the contractions were still not close enough together to warrant going to the hospital. I convinced the girls to take me back to work but that was short lived. A couple more people heard through the grapevine that I was having contractions that were about 10 minutes apart so the next thing I know I've got five women telling me I NEED to go to the hospital immediately. My two lunch companions decided to escort me to the hospital.

Upon entering the L&D, I instantly started regretting sticking to my guns and refuse to go to the hospital. The place was packed. There were a couple of women laboring in the waiting room while waiting to get into their birth suite. Surprisingly, I got into the triage area immediately. Once hooked up to the monitors, the nurse Kathy confirmed that I was having contractions but they were not close enough together. She told me to walk around the hospital for an hour to see if they would pickup in intensity. After an hour I could tell nothing changed before they put the monitors back on. My co-workers were entertaining at least. They had me laughing so hard, a nurse walked in to see if we were ok. She thought she heard crying coming from my room only to find out it was really laughter. Nurse Kathy walked back in to begin work to discharge me. This will be one of the most memorable moments of my pregnancy. As she was going through my chart she began to ask me about my pregnancy and how I decided to conceive through the use of donor sperm. She must have liked my answer because she began to ask me if I was dating anyone or if I was interested in being in a relationship. Not knowing where she was going with all of these questions, I told her I was about to have a man in my life and wasn't sure if this was the right time to start dating. She then begins to tell me about her 35 year old son, a fire fighter, and how she thinks I would fit into her family and how this would be perfect because she would instantly have a grandchild!!! She then writes down her sons name and phone number and tells me I should really consider giving him a call. LOL!! Holy crap, I just got picked up in L&D two days before the birth of my son!! She was so nice and funny, I took the number but still haven't called and really don't think I'm going too. I wonder if she does this to all the single pregnant ladies?

I left the hospital and continued to have contractions until 8pm that night only to have them completely stop again.

Im so in love!

Gavin Thomas is here. He was born at 3:38 on monday weighing 7lbs 13 oz and 19 in long.  Birth story to come.