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Stitched In Blue Birth Announcement

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Grant Kenneth Garton

On Thursday, March 31, my mom and sister and I headed to Hillcrest Hospital at 6am. I had already preregistered, so I was not happy to find out I still had to wait in the lobby to talk to someone in registration... this lady was annoying, to say the least, and I about lost it. Didn't she know that I was there to have a baby?! She was soooo slow and kept telling me that she wasn't good at this. I was glad to have my mom and sister there to help keep my sanity.

We finally got into a room around 6:30 or so, and then it took awhile for the nurse to come in and get me set up... but once she did, things started progressing rapidly, and I am not sure of all the exact times things happened, but I will do my best to explain it how I remember it.

A nurse came in to put in my IV, but the valve in my wrist blew! Oh man, that was very painful. While she was tending to that, my labor and delivery nurse put the IV in my right wrist. I am not sure when, but I started to pass out, and they put a cold wash rag on my neck and within a few minutes, I was back to normal.

My doctor came in around 7:30 or so and said I was dilated to 4cm, was 100% effaced, and the baby was at a -1. He added, "I don't know what's been holding this baby in there!" He broke my water and was optimistic that I would have the baby soon.

Not too long afterward (8:30ish?) the anesthesiologist came in to talk about the epidural and said when I wanted it to let him know... seems like only 30mins later the nurse checked and I was dilated to a 6, so she got him in there and he started the epidural process... that didn't go so well. Apparently I was "very fit" and had lots of muscle in my back, which made it difficult to get the right spot - or something like that. He pricked the spinal sac and fluid came out, which meant he had to try again above that one. After a couple more tries, he finally got it. I was having some pretty hard contractions during all of this, but after some time, the epidural started kicking in and I wasn't feeling any pain. I did, however, start to get really tired. What I didn't know was that my blood pressure was dropping, so the nurse and anesthesiologist went to work on me via the IV and some oxygen. Apparently the epidural meds were a little too strong and were affecting my heart.

After that episode, I could feel the baby had moved down. The nurse checked me and I was ready to push!!!! This was about 8:45 or 9:00, I think... right about the time Roy got there! He had come in later because he was dropping Warren off at Piper. They called for my doctor and started working quickly to prep for the arrival of Grant. I pushed for 17mins and out he came at 9:37am... all 9lbs 2oz, 21" of him!!!! When I heard his weight I said, "Holy crap!" out loud. I did have an episiotomy, but my doctor said not it was not as big as the last one. I was also glad to notice that my hemorrhoids didn't get worse and I didn't poop on the table during labor like the first time - hmm, is that TMI??? LOL.

My sweet Grant Kenneth (named after his papa - my dad).

I was supposed to have my tubes tied the next morning, but because my spinal sac had leaked fluid during the epidural, they were going to do a spinal patch, which means drawing blood and inserting it into the sac. To do this, they had to keep in the epidural catheter, so they decided to go ahead and do the tubal at 1pm that afternoon and use the epidural for anesthesia. Here I am right before being wheeled out... for yet another mishap!

The surgery went fine, but coming off the medicine I felt totally out of control and like I couldn't breathe. My blood pressure dropped again, and I was panicking uncontrollably, if that makes sense. They decided to take out the epidural catheter because they "didn't like the way it was acting" and seeing that I hadn't gotten the horrific migraine that is associated with a spinal sac leak, they were going to wait to see if I needed the spinal patch - 70% do... thankfully, I was in the 30%, and I never got a headache! I was in recovery for about an hour and a half, then moved to my room. From there things went very well, and while I had some pain, I felt really good considering all I had just been through in such a short amount of time.

Meanwhile, Grant was doing great, and that afternoon Roy brought Warren up to meet his brother! He did so great with him, and seemed to understand that the baby was no longer in my tummy, but the doctor had taken him out. I just love this picture of my three guys!

Super proud mommy of two boys!

Warren got to watch as the nurses gave Grant his first bath. He didn't like that Grant was crying, and kept saying, "Grant no want take a bath."

My mom stayed the night at the hospital on Thursday. She made sure and got some "grammie kisses" from her newest grandson.

On Friday morning Grant had his circumcision, and by that afternoon, we were headed home.

This was supposed to be Grant's going home outfit, but he christened it, so we just let him wear a hospital shirt home.

The checkout process was worse than the check-in... seriously, it took over an hour for them to get the wheelchair to us! We finally got home about 5pm on Friday.

Warren was excited to "hold it" when we got home!

Seriously, Warren is doing so well adjusting to Grant. He is kind and gentle to him, and for sure knows Grant is his brother.

On Sunday, my sister left to return home to Oklahoma. She was a huge help and Warren had a blast being with her.

After a couple nights without much sleep, we were all feeling sleep deprived...

The day we checked out of the hospital, I requested a bilirubin count blood test because Grant was looking a tad yellow. His count was only a 5.9, so the doctor said to just watch him over the weekend and call if it got worse... which it did! We took him in yesterday (April 6th) and the bilicount was 13, so Grant has to be in the bilibed. This afternoon he was wide awake for about an hour and wasn't crying, but just looked at his Grammie who was right by his side. We go in tomorrow morning to see if his count has lowered to 11 or less.

Having a second baby has been incredible! It's weird how I can love Warren so much and yet already be willing to lay my life down for Grant. I have not had the emotional roller coaster that I had with Warren, though I did cry last night (and some today) when we had to put Grant in the bilibed. Not being able to hold him is a bummer. We are hopeful his count will be down tomorrow... then we can take his newborn pictures!!!!!

Warren's Party

Our firstborn is officially 2 years old!!!! Grammy and Auntie Kim came down for Grant's birth, so they got to come to Warren's birthday party at Piper. Of course as soon as they got here, they started giving Warren presents...

Papa and Grammie gave Warren a "tar" for his birthday! Ummm, I think he likes it.

They also brought present from Grandma Brown and Nina!

Tuesday night we went to work assembling Warren's party boxes.

The little girl in this picture is Warren's dedicated playmate at Piper... or girlfriend, we like to call her. They play together all the time, and they both have an advanced vocabulary and talk a lot. I wouldn't mind haven't a cutie like this for a daughter-in-law!

For the party we had fresh fruit and cake pops from Starbucks. Warren actually shared a bite of his with Auntie Kim!

The party was right after nap, so Warren was a bit cuddly and shy at first... Can't say I really minded that much. I'll take all the cuddles can get.

Wednesday night Grammie and Warren made his birthday cake!

He loved to eat the icing off the cake! He had never blown out a candle before, and he sure got a kick out of doing it! He would blow it out then say, "again!" I think we lit that candle and blew it out five times! I also loved it because when we were singing "Happy Birthday," Warren was just giggling. It was definitely his day, and he knew that. I was so glad, especially seeing that the next, his actual birth day, was going to be taken up by the birth of his little brother.

Warren, mommy and daddy are so proud of you we don't even know how to express it. Every day we just can't wait to get home from work or school, so we can see and hear you. You really light up our lives.

On Saturday after Grant was born, a fire truck came to our street to flush the hydrant. Warren loves fire trucks, so when he saw it through the window, he had to go outside to check it out. Roy took him outside and the fireman called them over and let Warren check out the truck. He even let him drive!!!!!

I was upstairs napping with Grant, but when I found out about the fire truck, it brought tears to my eyes. I was so glad there was something fun just for Warren to enjoy after having to share our attention with his new brother.

On a funny note... Warren has never liked to wear hats, despite how many times I've tried to get him to do so. Last week though, he said he wanted to wear one, and so he put mine on. His Grammie then bought him his own hat, and now he wears it when we go out! He's so funny!