Our sweet boy is here! He was born on Monday, 8/21 at 9:08pm. He was 8lbs 6oz and 20 1/4 inches long. I had such a great labor experience and I credit a lot of it to all the great information we got in our childbirth class.

I had a prenatal massage on Sunday evening and then labored through the night. I was able to sleep through a lot of it. On Monday I was still kind of assuming that labor had started but would progress slowly. Thomas went to work and I snuggled the pups, took a bath, ate some food, and tried to empty the dishwasher. It was only after I got in the tub a second time and really started timing my contractions that I realized they were lasting 30 seconds or more every 5 mins. I called Thomas to come home and followed up my bath with a shower. By the time Thomas got home things were really picking up and he called our doula, Ali Teeslink, who reassured us to relax and that we had plenty of time. We relaxed and watched a movie until Thomas timed my contractions for 60 second’s every minute or two apart and quickly got us in the car to head to Patewood Memorial Hospital. When we met our doula at the hospital at 6:40pm and I was already 8 centimeters dilated. I was able to labor in the birthing tub right up until he was crowning and he was born at 9:08pm. We had such a great team between our doula and the delivery nurse, Amanda. Our doctor was Kelly Kline with Parkside OB. I feel like the whole thing was such a miracle and we got the birth I had really worked for/wanted.

Wendell was born healthy and nursed within the first 30 minutes. We were all doing so well at the hospital on Tuesday and were set for discharge Wednesday, but Wen spiked a fever that afternoon and had to be moved to the NICU out of an abundance of precaution. It was incredibly difficult for me to be apart from him. They ran a lot of tests and gave him antibiotics and an antiviral while they tried to figure out why he had a fever. Thankfully it came back down quickly and he continued to thrive in the NICU. We were able to continue breastfeeding and I began pumping as well to avoid the need for any formula since we had to make sure that he was getting enough and his kidneys could process all the medication. It really sent me into overproduction. The only good thing about being in the hospital so long was that all the nurses we had were great. We learned a lot, they really respected our choices around what we wanted while he was in the NICU, and we’re great about texting me anytime he was ready to nurse day or night. The lactation consultant at the hospital was really great and visited me every day to make sure we had a good latch, supported me through pumping/nursing, and helped me manage the overproduction as my milk came in.

On Thursday, 8/24, we got the news we had been waiting for that all tests came back clear and he hadn’t had another fever so he was able to come back into our room. We finally got discharged on Friday around noon and got to bring our boy home. We are just in awe of how good it feels to be home as a family of 3.

We are so thankful for all the great nurses at Patewood, for our doula, Ali Teeslink, and all the prep work we did ahead of time. It really made all the difference as we welcomed our sweet Wen to the world.