The first week with Janie

Oh, that first week with a new baby.  It’s rough. At least in our house it is. 

Janie was a really content baby at the hospital until about an hour or two before we were about to leave.  She was finally getting a little fussy.  We took her home late on Saturday night and luckily the boys were sleeping at my parents house again.  Janie was pretty restless, not sleeping very much and just wasn’t content.  All day Sunday was a similar story – she just wanted to be held and cuddled all day.  Would cry and cry if we put her down.  Wes and I looked at each other with the look of “oh no, not this again {Nate was this way!}.  I called the doctor on Monday morning to book her standard 3 day check-up.  Luckily Dr. Carrie had an opening that morning while Wes was still home so we took her in.  She had dropped to 7 pounds, 12 ounces.  I knew Dr. Carrie was a little worried about that when she asked the nurse to weigh her again.  Dr. Carrie came in and talked about how she was pretty sure Janie was dehydrated {my milk finally came in right before we left for the doctor}.  She advised us to give her an ounce of formula after each feeding and wanted us back the next morning for a weight check.

She was inspired!  Janie downed the entire bottle and was instantly back to her content little self during the day.  The poor thing was hungry and thirsty!  I’d never had that problem with my other two so I just figured the colostrum was enough until my milk came in but not for our little lady.  We gave her bottles for almost a week and then she stopped wanting them after a feeding.  So glad things got better!  She was up to 8 pounds + by the next morning.

We learned after a few days of letting her take a nap downstairs that she needed to be upstairs (even if she slept better downstairs).  We needed to focus on the boys when she was asleep without having to ask them to stop touching her or trying to wake her up.  That helped a ton.

Nights were rough.  She spits up a lot and during that first week she did it a lot while she was sleeping and she couldn’t clear her throat without some help.  She slept in her cozy little chair and for the first number of nights Wes slept on the couch downstairs and she slept in her little chair down there with him.  She cried a lot at night and Ryan is such a light sleeper – nothing was worth having him up in the night, too!  Once she started calming down a little at night her chair was moved to her room which was another great step.  She isn’t a fan of her crib but loves her little chair.  So for now, that’s where she sleeps!  It keeps her elevated enough that she doesn’t seem to gag as much anymore while she’s sleeping.

So, we survived week one.  Wes put it well when he said something to the affect of . . . “it’s just not right . . . a mom has to carry a baby for 9 months, endure labor and delivery, be exhausted from having a new baby that doesn’t sleep very much, whacky hormones, the pain of nursing, recovering from delivering a baby all while being a mom to her other kids.  It’s a lot to ask!”  It sure is.  But we made it and we love our little lady!

Wes took Monday off but went back to work on Tuesday.  The only thing that saved me that week was my sweet mom.  She came over every day around noon and stayed until dinner.  She cleaned up my house every afternoon and took care of Janie while Ryan took a nap so I could lay down for an hour.  It was a lifesaver. 

at the hospital with Janie

Janie was born at 11:57pm.  Sam was really hoping for an October 4th birthday so she didn’t have to share an October 5th birthday with a certain fellow.  She got her wish with three minutes to spare.  But having a baby around midnight really throws you for a loop as far as sleep is concerned.  We were moved to a recovery room around 2am and then had a variety of constant check-ups for me and Janie & then the sun was rising for another day. 

This was my first time delivering at Spring Valley Hospital and I LOVED it there.  They have a nursery! {the other hospital I had the boys at doesn’t have a nursery}.  Janie had her own nurse and they happily took her any time we could find a few hours to rest. 

We had some visitors on Saturday which is always fun.  It was great to see the boys meet their little sis.  They instantly loved her.  She’s going to be one spoiled and well-protected little girl.

{not pictured . . . Christine & Marlo!}

Our friends from our ward – Marlo & Russ - had their baby girl, Erin on October 4th, too.  Their recovery room was 4 doors down from ours so it was fun to see them and visit while we were there!

We didn’t have maternity insurance this time which means we had a limited time at the hospital before we had to pay for another day.  We had to be out by midnight on Saturday.  I would have happily stayed another night but didn’t want to pay for it and since Janie and I were both doing well enough to leave . . . we left around 10pm on Saturday night.  Luckily the boys stayed at my parent’s house another night because that night was rough!  We were officially absolutely exhausted come Sunday morning.  But love our little lady!

Janie Anne Griffeth

Here’s the story of how our little Janie Girl arrived.

My initial due date for this pregnancy was September 25th.  At my 20 week ultrasound, she was measuring a little small so they pushed it back a week in to early October.  I had lots of early pre-labor contractions that got me thinking she would arrive early.  But then September 25th came and passed and we were in to the week of my actual due date when my doctor and I decided to be induced on October 4th.  Ryan was almost 10 pounds and she didn’t want to run the risk of having an even bigger baby so October 4th it was.

We had everything all situated and set up to be at the hospital at 9:30am.  Then we got a call from the nurse that morning saying they were out of beds and they’d call later if one opened up.  So Wes & I decided to kill some time and take Ryan to our ward playgroup and at about mid-day I called to see what the status was and it wasn’t looking very likely at that point.  We went home, put Ryan down for a nap and in the meantime Sam was talking to my dad and my dad mentioned that he was working on a project with the Sr. VP of something for Spring Valley Hospital and he could call her to see if she could make anything happen.  Sam told him to but then he said she was on the golf course and it wasn’t an option.   I didn’t think he was going to call at all.  Then my phone rang 10 minutes later and it was the hospital asking if I was ready to come in.  My dad texted me and said “amazing what a phone call will do.”  Thanks dad.

So at 3:00pm Wes and I headed to the hospital while my parents took over with my kiddos.  After Sam & Ali were done shuffling Nate home, Sam headed to the hospital as well.  She offered to come as a photographer/nurse to the delivery and it was great to have her there {again}.

I checked in and got hooked up to all of the various machines and got my IV put in.  I was told for the 5th week in a row – “you are at a 2”. The started the Pitocin, upping the dose every half hour.  I wasn’t in too much pain for an hour or two and my nurse said the boys could come in to the delivery room to say hi and goodnight.  So my parents loaded them in the car to come and visit.  About five minutes before they came in they decided to break my water which always makes the contractions start coming.  So I was definitely in more pain when they came but not enough to scare the boys!  They loved seeing where I was at and I even got a nice foot rub from them!

Luckily I was next on the anesthesiologist rounds . . . he was just finishing up a C-section.  I had about an hour of pretty good contractions before he made his way in there.  He gave me the epidural {probably my most painful one of all} and my legs started getting tingly so I thought we were in good shape.  It did take away the edge on the contractions but they were still painful.  Twenty minutes later we pushed the green button for more medicine.  Nothing.  My night nurse, Andrea {who was absolutely fantastic} called him back in and after a few minutes of ridiculous questions from the man, he gave me more medicine.  He said things like “you don’t look like you’re in that much pain.” or “your legs shouldn’t feel numb when you deliver the baby.”  or “you’re supposed to still feel a little.”  Needless to say I did not have faith that this “know it all” anesthesiologist  was going to actually give me an epidural that works and at this point I was in so much pain that I just lost it.  The tears came and I couldn’t stop them. {first time crying during labor}.  At this point Sam dropped the camera and went from photographer to nurse to assist Wes in getting me through this.

It had now been over an hour since he initially put in the epidural and when he came back in and saw me with tears and obviously in a lot of pain, it was finally obvious to him that his first attempt didn’t work.  He took out the first epidural and did it all over again.  I’ll never forget the pain when he put the catheter in – ouch.  BUT – this one worked.  Hallelujah.  I was completely numb and was able to relax and enjoy the rest of labor – which didn’t end up being too long!  I was at a 4 when the second epidural went in and shortly after that I was finally at a 5.  I went from a 5 to a 10 in less than 30 minutes.  It was kinda funny – she checked me and I was at a 7 and about two minutes later while she was still in the room I told her I thought I felt her head down there and she was a little skeptical since she just checked me but was such a great nurse that listened to her patient and I was already at a 10 . . . she was ready to come!  Doctor was called and I was told not to move, laugh, sneeze, cough or we’d have ourselves a little girl.  I was able to wait for Dr. Shoenhaus to come and after a few pushes, Janie Anne was born on October 4, 2013.  She weighed 8 pounds, 13 ounces and was 20.5” long.

We were thrilled to meet our little girl.