The Mills: August 2014

We can't believe our little Landy is a month old already! I think this is my favorite age.. He's out of the fragile newborn stage and entering the baby stage.. But he's still so little and cuddly!! However I'm excited for him to be able to interact with Ryk more!!! Landon is a more difficult baby for us.. Ryker was soo easy going as a baby and Landon is a little more demanding and wants to be held 24/7.. Which makes taking care of ryk, myself and the house a little more challenging.. He hates to be in his car seat.. We have yet to make a trip in the car to the store or wherever without him screaming at the top of his lungs! I do have to admit it's so different having 2 kids now as opposed to one! Having one seems like a breeze compared to two! I know it will get easier once we get out of this little baby stage.. And I think my biggest struggle was having Jeff away for 6 months and now that I have him back I don't completely have him back because he always has ryk and I've got Landon and by the time the day is over and they are in bed we are exhausted! I'm just longing for that time with Jeff still! I know it will come eventually :) we were SO blessed that Landy did so good on our 20 hour drive to Texas.. And again this weekend on my trip to Laredo with my mom for my great aunts funeral! And he has been so good for me with having to stay in over 4 different hotels in less than 2 weeks with all of this traveling!! And I love the way ryker acknowledges Landon and wants to help hold him and how he loves to kiss him.. I can't wait to watch them grow up as friends and brothers!

Our little Landy is still wearing newborn clothes and newborn diapers... He loves his binki and loves to be swaddled minus his arms he likes to have those out ;)

and we don't know how the heck he can spread his toes out like that! Ryk has that space but Landon's is way bigger!! It cracks us up! And ps I could see that gap in his 4d ultrasounds we had when he was 19 weeks!!

I love how he does that with his bottom lip!

NThis is a long story but here we go...Sunday the 20th I woke up and felt a little gush.. I ran to the bathroom and noticed my pants were wet.. I went to the bathroom and went back to my room and it happened again. We decided to call labor and delivery and see if they could check to see if my water was leaking. We got there and they hooked me up to monitor Landon and I while they ran the tests. The nurse came back and asked if I had been having any contractions and I told her not that I knew of.. And she said well you have had a few while you have been here! She checked me and I was dilated to a 3..which the last time I was checked I wasn't dilated at all. The test came back negative for amniotic fluid but they said they think it was me loosing my plug and they sent us on our way. Later that day I would see my plug coming out when I would go to the bathroom ect and later that night I lost a huge glob of it! I went to bed and kept getting woken up by contractions I could actually feel this time. They were very sparatic but I knew he was coming soon! The next day I woke up and they would come and go.. Super mild.. And by late morning I decided to start timing them with an app on my phone! They were coming evey 15/20 minutes but they were beginning to start to hurt bad enough that I would stop what I was doing until it passed. Later that afternoon they were coming every 7/10 minutes and it would hurt for me to stand or walk.. But they said not to call labor and delivery until they were 5/7 minutes for an hour straight. Finally by 3 pm I told my mom to come home from work and I called labor and delivery to tell them that even though my contractions only lasted 30/40 seconds they were coming every 3/5 minutes and we lived 40 minutes away from the hospital on base and I wanted to be checked. We hurried down to the hospital went into the triage room and got hooked up... They checked me and I was at a 4 and they decided to send me walking for an hour to see if I would dilate to a 5 and be admitted! I could hardly get dressed to walk around without stopping for a few contractions. At this point I was ready for an epideral.. I have a very low pain tolerance and it was getting to the point that I was starting to moan and yell "owe" when a contraction came. A midwife saw me out in the hall and told us it would be best if we drove across base and got some dinner because it would be a long night. So we drove to the exchange and walked around to where they had food.. I pushed a shopping cart so that when a contraction came I could buckel over and lean on it. While my mom was ordering food I embarrassingly had a couple guys come over and ask me if I was okay.. And I would just tell them I was in labor.. It was so embarrassing! After we ate I told my mom I wanted to go back right away to get checked.. I was in so much pain! When we pulled up to the hospital my mom dropped me off while she parked and I would hold onto the wall while my contractions hit.. I didn't realize the emergency room was on the other side of the window and an emt ran out to check on me. He said my contractions where coming every 2 minutes and he insisted on wheeling me up to labor and delivery. When we got up there they put me in a labor and delivery room and checked on me.. I was dilated to a 5! I was so happy to have progressed and wanted an epideral ASAP! The nurse came back in and told me unfortunately while I was out the staff had a shift change and the new dr on shift.. Who I really didn't like... Wasn't going to count my 4 I was dilated at when I first got there. He wanted to see me dilated to a 6! I was so upset! I couldn't get an epideral until they officially admitted me so they gave me an iv with morphine to help me try to relax during contractions! They had me bounce on a ball.. Which brought Landons heartrate up too high so they had me relax.. Then we walked the halls.. They checked me again and both nurses said I was at a 6 and they would admit me! I was sooo happy and the dr came up before I could get my epi to check me himself.. This Is when things went south.. I don't know what his problem was but he came in and said I know for a fact you aren't in active labor because you aren't dilating a cm an hour.. And I'm going to check you and I'll tell you what you are really dilated to.. So he did and he said no you are still at a 5.. So you aren't being admitted.. I was just beyond tears.. I was in so much pain and felt like I was being tortured! I felt like if i would have been at any other hospital or with any other dr they would have admitted me.. But he was there making my life hell! I was sooo out of it.. It was close to midnight or later by this point.. And my mom kept saying to him I can't take her home like this! We live 40 minutes away! He kept telling me it was all about pain management.. And at this point we were ready to leave the base hospital.. And drive to a civilian hospital as an "emergency" and deliver there.. I did not want this man delivering my baby!! Finally he decided to give me another dose of morphine and see where things went. My mom tried to sleep and I would doze off and wake up yelling in the worst pain ever! I was having so much pain in my hips I begged for my mom to have the nurse check me around 3 am...he checked me and I was at a 7! Before I knew it people were running in my room setting everything up for Landon to be born and all I was thinking was where is my epideral?! I'm not doing a natural birth no way! Finally the anestiaologist got there and did my epideral.. I had to have it done twice AGAIN like I did with ryk because of the way my back is I guess! He said next time I have a baby to sit Indian style when they do it to open up my back more! Finally I was feeling good and dozed off for a little bit.. Then they dr came in around 5:30/6 and checked me and had to throw in that he was right i wasn't in active labor because I was still at a 7.. So he popped my water and started me on pitocin. I was sooo happy to hear at 6:30 was shift change and he would NOT be delivering my baby!!! By the time I got to a 9 around 10:30/11 I started to feel my contractions again.. I could really feel my legs again and felt like my epideral was not working! The next thing I know my mom hardly touched my hair and noticed my epideral catheter was not attached anymore!!!! By the time they got the anestiaologist up there to fix it I wanted to kill someone! I give major props to people that can do a natural birth! Pain is not my thing!! He told me he could either re do the whole thing or he could just cut the top of the catheter off and hope there was no bacteria in there that would get in my spine! I knew I couldn't wait any longer or hold still at this point for a new epi so I took a gamble and just told him to cut the top off and reattach it! After I decided that..he looked at it and said he could still see all the liquid at the top and if I was his wife he would feel okay with just cutting the top off! They came in to check me afer he fixed me but the epi still hadn't kicked back in yet and they said I was ready to push.. I told them I wanted to wait until my meds kicked in! When I started to feel that "urge" again I paged them to check me and we did a practice push and they said I was ready! I pushed for 20 minutes ( and we had a complication.. His shoulders didn't come through my pelvis at the same time which could have had serious consequences) but our sweet boy was born at 12:01 pm on Tuesday July 22.. His due date...weighing 7lbs 15 ounces and 19.5 inches long! We Skyped Jeff right after so he could see him... The timing didn't work out so he could watch the delivery but my mom took a lot of pictures for him :) we were happy to be able to go home 24 hours later and so happy Landon was only 5 days old when Jeff met him for the first time!