Savannah Rose's Birth Day

Due Date: August 31st
Birth Date: August 24th

On the evening of August 23rd, we were celebrating Matthew's 14th birthday and I was glad I had not gone into labor yet! Well, about 7-8pm I started feeling...off...just weird. I wasn't contracting yet, but I knew by the way I was feeling I knew it would be any day now.  We finished up presents, cake, and ice cream and sent the kids to get ready for bed. Alaia and I went for a walk around the neighborhood to see if things were going to pick up and I felt like I needed to move about. While we were walking I had a few contractions, but I'd been having contractions in the evening all week so didn't think much of it. We went back to the house and I still felt really off.  Around 9pm contractions started coming regularly and we decided to time them. After about an hour we noticed they were coming regularly every 9-10 minutes. I decided to do laps around the family room. I just couldn't sit still! The contractions started getting longer and stronger, and eventually were about every 6-7 minutes apart. Around 11, Matt called the midwife to let her know what was going on. I was on the fence about calling her cause I wasn't convinced I was truly in labor yet. Everyone else thought I was, but I took a little more convincing! lol  So, I spoke to Nanci, the midwife, and she said she would be leaving soon and be there in about an hour. Contractions kept coming, I would go between walking laps and squatting and being on my hands and knees. I tried laying down, but again, I just couldn't seem to sit still for very long so resting just wasn't gonna happen! Nanci arrived around 1am. We decided to have her check me and that is where things got interesting! She was having a hard time finding the opening of my cervix. She did eventually find it off to the side! She "walked" it back to the center (OUCH!) and I discovered I was only at 4cm. After 3 previous quick births, this was a new experience for me. Not too long after she arrived Matt ran a bath for me and I got in the tub. It felt so nice and relaxing! I believe around this point Nanci called her assistant to head over. I was still not convinced, btw. I was told there was joking that I would finally believe I was in labor when she was crowing (*ahem* Alaia!) I didn't stay in the tub for long because it seemed to slow my contractions down. I labored a lot hanging in Matt's arms, swaying my hips. Did some squatting and labored on the toilet with a stool. I didn't care for the latter, but I know it helped. I tried getting in the tub again, but it slowed my contractions down, again, so I didn't stay in too long. At some point I asked to be checked again and was upset to find out I was only at a 5! My cervix had moved again, but only a little, and she just "walked" it back to the center. After that I labored a lot on the toilet. After awhile I started feeling a LOT of pressure and almost kinda pushy so we thought I was close. I moved to the bed and we waited for a contraction to hit. And waited. And waited. They slowed way down again once I was on the bed. She checked me and I was still at a 5! We discussed it and she stretched me open to an 8, pretty quickly, too! After that she spent some time stretching me open to a 10 between contractions. At this point I still wasn't feeling the urge to push and contractions were still slowed down, so I asked her to break my water. She checked me again sometime after that and discovered I had a cervical lip. Let me tell ya, that was not fun at all! The assistant had to hold the lip up while I pushed to get her past the cervical lip. After that things started picking up more and I finally got the urge to push! At one point I had to stop because my cervix was coming down with her and they had to get it back in place. After probably about an hour total of pushing, Savannah Rose Florence Wallace was born at home at 8:50am weighing 7lbs 8oz and 22" long.

Even though her birth had it's interesting moments, I loved having her at home! It was a very relaxed environment. I was able to move around as I wanted, interact as much or as little as I wanted, and just do what my body needed to do. I had wonderful support with my midwife, hubby, and Alaia! Even with Matt running on very little sleep in a 2 day period he was awesome and very supportive! Not that I ever spoke in some demon voice, like a certain someone (Alaia) claims I did at one point *innocent smile*

         first bath

         Hungry, hungry caterpillar diaper

       Midwife, Nanci, and Paula, her assistant

Samuel

July 1, 2012 I found out that we were expecting our 4th baby....it had been a long time since I'd told my husband that news!!

September 24, 2012 is the day I found out we had lost our sweet little baby.

I had a routine check up with the OB, but he couldn't find a heartbeat with the doppler. We went in the other room to do an ultrasound. He said sometimes early on it can be hard to find. The ultrasound confirmed my fears though. I was 15.5 weeks along and somewhere around 14 weeks we had lost our baby. I only felt that flutter of a kick once...so light I wasn't 100% sure that is what it was. I decided to do a D&C so it was scheduled for Thursday. I had to come back in the next day so the dr could soften my cervix. That procedure was difficult (and painful) enough to go through let alone what was to come.

September 26th I woke up at 5am in a lot of pain. I took one of the pain pills they prescribed me but it wasn't going away. In fact, it kept coming in intense waves, like labor. I woke up my mother-in-law and she called the doctor. We were to go to the ER and he would do the D&C now. I got ready to go and felt two big gushes. I had been bleeding so thought that is what had happened. I went to see if I needed to change before we left and that is when I lost my son. Freaking out, scared, panicked...we wrapped him up and headed to the ER; the usual 45 minute drive was made in barely 30 minutes. After being given antibiotics, morphine, and I don't remember what all else, the dr tried to get the placenta out naturally. I couldn't handle the pain of that any longer so I was headed to get the D&C after all. A wonderful L&D nurse came in and talked to me and told me we had a boy and he was beautiful. She tried to get hand/foot prints, but he was too tiny :( 

The night before the story of Samuel came to me. At this point, we did not know for sure our baby was a boy, but I knew it was God telling me my son's name and that is what we call him. Samuel. Although I never got to hold him and he never took a breath he is a part of me...our family...and will never be forgotten!

Anyone Have A Spare Crystal Ball?

After reading my friend, Leni's blog, I decided to ramble on about our recent doctor experiences...

Over 2 years ago now, we noticed our son, Matthew, having trouble hearing. We took him to the ENT and got his hearing tested. He did in fact have some hearing issues because he had fluid on his ears, an ear infection, and the fluid was just not going away! So, tonsils and adenoids came out and tubes went in. Fast forward about a year later. We take him in because one of the tubes was not coming out. Doctor took care of it and said there was still a little bit of fluid on his ears. We went for another check up right before we moved here and yep, still some fluid on h is ears. We were told to keep an eye on it. Then we moved to Goldsboro....

A few months ago we were noticing hearing issues again *sigh*  So, to start the new adventure of finding a new doctor we of course had to start with his pediatrician. He told us that he did not see fluid on his ears and they looked normal. Uh huh. We got our referral. So, we took him to the doctor and he has mild hearing loss, his ear drums are recessed, his Eustachian tubes are blocked, and when tested for allergies only one type of grass came up and it is a mild allergy. So, where do we go from here, I asked? My answer? The doctor named off about 3 procedures that could be done, but they don't do them there, and then named one he could do but he didn't sound real sure about it. So, I asked what the chances were of it helping. He told me he didn't know because he does not have a crystal ball. Those were the only suggestions I was given and you could tell he was really stumped. We left and are not going back.

So, I call the ped clinic and speak to a very nice nurse who tells me I can have a whole new referral and take him to UNC. This was the beginning of September. So, I wait and wait and no referral paperwork gets sent. I go to the Tricare office. She can't find it. She finally finds it and it wasn't pushed through or something, so she says she will make sure it goes through this time. Again, I wait and wait. No referral paperwork. I go straight to the Tricare referral office and she finds the paperwork, prints it out for me, and the date on it was from a month earlier and it expires in December. Great! I call to get an appointment and when is the first available appointment? December 19th!! GRRRRRRRR  So, had to make a call and wait a couple days to get called back to get his referral extended, but only for that appointment. For any other appointments I am going to have to go through this all over again. In the meantime, my son still has fluid on his ears and mild hearing loss because a doctor can't give me any answers other than he does not have a crystal ball....

1 month down...

She packs. She moves. She follows. Why? What for? How come? You may think she's lost her mind. Actually, she's lost her heart. It was stolen from her by a man. A man who puts duty first, who longs to deploy, who salutes the flag, and whose boots in the doorway remind her that as long as he is her Military Man, She will remain his Military Sweetheart.

Sick

The flu and all the icky stuff that goes with it....blah...