When it Rains, It Pours

It's been an eventful week to say the least...

Cooper had his very first dentist appointment. It didn't go well. The good thing is that he has no cavities and his teeth look good. But he was super nervous at the dentist and they had to hold him down just to brush and floss his teeth. He is a strong little man and he screamed and kicked and put up one heck of a fight. The pediatric dentist that we went to was kid heaven. There were all sorts of fun things for kids to do there. Cooper was particularly interested in this giant ball rolling thing.

Carter got some sort of rash that we thought were hives so we had to visit the doctor already. Of course it was at like 3:45 that the rash showed up and my doctor was leaving his office at 4 so they asked us to take him to the urgent care clinic where our doctor would be starting at 5 that night. I skipped class and we went to the urgent care clinic, which was super packed and we had to wait for almost 2 hours. It turned out to be just a common rash that babies get and it'll migrate around his body and then go away on its own, but they were still glad that we brought him in after everything he went through last week.

The next day my Great Aunt passed away. She had been struggling for quite some time and is in a better place now. She was a wonderful lady and will be greatly missed.

Carter also had his 1 week wellness check-up. He is doing great! This was my first time attempting to go somewhere with both boys by myself and it was a success. Cooper loved telling Dr. Sean about his baby brother, Carter Wilson. He loves Carter so much. He asked if baby Carter could sleep in his bed with him. haha. What a cutie!

That night Cooper came down with the stomach flu. It was a long night for all of us, with me waking up to feed Carter and David dealing with sick Cooper. I totally got the better end of that deal. There was a middle of the night bath, tons of laundry and a quick shampooing of the carpet. Finally the morning arrived, and that's when I started throwing up, too. I also got really bad body aches, was super weak and tired, and had the worst headache all day long. Cooper was still sick all day as well. It was a whole new bonding experience for me when I ran into the bathroom to throw up, only to find Cooper on the potty going #2... so I grabbed his bowl that he'd been carrying around and started throwing up in that, only to have him start throwing up at the same time. Never thought I'd share a barf bowl with someone, especially not while they were pooping! We were sad to miss Cooper's last soccer game, but obviously we couldn't go with him and I being so sick.

Thankfully there have been some good times this past week as well. My parents were doing their traditional Presidents Day weekend stay with the Nelsons at a local hotel. Cooper got to go swim in the pool, which he loved, and he also got to run around and play with Elizabeth and Becca. Cooper loves to stand on his step stool next to the changing table while we change Carter's diapers and he is constantly holding his hands, rubbing his head, and talking to him. Of course he also wants to wake him up when he's sleeping and put blankets on him when he doesn't need them. For the most part, he is really good about the new baby situation.

The boys getting some sun - Carter was supposed to be getting some direct sunlight because of his jaundice.

His face has changed so much now that the bruising and swelling have gone away. This is still really swollen and bruised here.

Cooper loves him.

Our Valentine's Day baby!

Rocky the guard dog. He used to sleep in Cooper's room, but now he plants himself in the hallway right in between their doors at night. I almost trip over him every night when I walk to Carter's room to feed him in the dark. But it's really cute that he wants to sleep right between their doors.

Baby Carter is Here!

Carter Wilson Gussenhoven

Born on February 14, 2011 at 3:30 p.m.

9 pounds, 4 ounces - 21.5 inches

We knew Carter was going to be a big baby, so the doctor scheduled us to be induced 2 weeks early. This turned out to be a very good decision because none of us expected him to be this big.

Here I am right before we went to the hospital at 38 weeks pregnant:

We arrived at the hospital at 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 13th, and they started me on a tablet about an hour and a half later. The tablet is supposed to help start labor by thinning out the cervix. So I had one around 9:30 p.m. and another at 1:30 a.m. The tablet was enough to make me have regular contractions every couple of minutes so they didn't think it was going to be necessary to put me on pitocen. My doctor was going to come around 5 a.m. but they were short on nurses so he didn't end up coming in until 9 a.m. to break my water. I was pain free up until that point and he said that I'd start being really uncomfortable in about half an hour, so we got the epidural right away. Then we waited... and waited... and waited some more. Around 1:00 p.m. they determined that I had peaked at 5 cm and that pitocen was necessary to get things moving along. At some point between then and when Carter was born I started to feel some pain and pressure. The anesthesiologist came and gave me a boost of some sort and I was back to being pain free just in time. My doctor had a flight to catch at 3:00 p.m. and we had all hoped that Carter would be born well before that, but having the shortage of nursing staff bumped us back a few hours and the time came for my doctor to leave. His replacement was his wife. She came and checked on us around 3:15 and after a few short pushes Carter was born at 3:30.

This is when things got a little rough. This next picture is super scary and my Mom didn't take pictures for awhile after this one.

Carter was having trouble breathing at first and what a relief it was when I finally heard him cry. He had some really bad bruising on his face and shoulder. They thought that he might have broken his clavicle, so they took him in for an x-ray and said it looked good and it would just be tender for a little while. We thought everything was great and were all really happy.

Everything was good until bright and early in the morning. It had been a few hours since Carter had eaten and he wouldn't wake up for anything. We tried everything to get him to wake up so he could eat, but nothing worked. They checked his vitals and determined that he was breathing very quickly and they took him away for some chest x-rays and blood work. They determined that there was fluid in his lungs that he needed to work out and that his white blood cell count was up, which meant that he was fighting off an infection. They started him on an IV of antibiotics and said he'd need to stay in the NICU for a minimum of 48 hours. They also wouldn't allow him to eat for an entire day because they said that breathing was more important and it's really hard for a baby to try to suck-swallow-breathe when he's going breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe very quickly.

This was a lot for this Momma to process and I basically cried non-stop for the next 2-3 days. The hormones didn't help any. I would stop crying just in time for someone to say, "Hi Jessica, how are you doing?" and then I'd instantly start bawling again. I was a serious emotional rollercoaster. I was discharged, but they put me on boarder status, which meant that I got to keep my room and 3 meals a day (complimentary) but if they filled up and needed my room, I had to leave ASAP. I spent a lot of time in the NICU sitting with Carter and crying. I missed being home. I missed Cooper and David. I came home every now and then when Carter was sleeping so that I could see Cooper, who wouldn't even acknowledge me. He totally ignored me and acted like I wasn't even there. That made it even harder and the tears kept on rolling down my cheeks.

The 48 hours came and we were super hopeful that we'd finally get to bring him home, but they decided that they wanted to keep him for one more day. He was doing a lot better, but they really wanted to make sure he was good to go before they discharged him. He had also started to look a little yellow and had to spend some time under the lights.

The next day was a great day. He was more alert, eating great, and breathing better. The blood work came back clean and he was finally released. WOO HOOO! We were so excited!

To be continued...