All about Maks!

I am a horrible blogger...very inconsistent! But, I do have a good excuse.


After a hiatus of a little over 2 months, 9 days, I am back and excited to be blogging again!


2 months and 9 days is the age of my sweet son, Maksim!!! I honestly can't believe how much he has grown up since he was first born! This Mom thing has really changed my life! I am in love and it's increased my love for my husband, too...which I didn't think was possible. It's cool to see God through this child...what a miracle birth is. Tissue, please.


Here are a few pictures and you will see why my attention has been taken off of blogging onto this baby!

Here is a picture of him on his play mat... he will just lay there and squeal and laugh looking at the mobiles, ceiling fans, and lights! He's a bright baby! 

 Here is a picture of Maks in his Baby Bjorn and Grant at a Mercy Me and Phil Wickham concert! Maks was so great during the concert! And, Grant is an AMAZING Dad! Truly! I could not be more blessed! I am very thankful that Maks doesn't mind loud noises considering a lot of our time is spent at church listening to the band or around loud (but EXTREMELY fun) youth students! Maksim seems to love the busyness of our lives...he fits right in!

And, last but not least, I love Maksim just chillin' on his Daddy's legs at church this past week! I found this sweater for sale at Target and just had to get it! 

Someone asked me yesterday about my hospital experience for when I gave birth and it made me want to make sure I documented it (mainly so I wouldn't forget a thing!) And, I wish I had someone to tell me all of the details so I would be prepared. I am not going to say anything gross though.

Ok, the day Maks was born at Baptist Women's Hospital. Here we go. Skip this if it doesn't interest you...

Well, rewind two days... I went in that Monday before for my 39 week check up and everything was ok in the office but the doctor called me later that day and said some levels in my body were up and he was nervous that if we didn't go ahead and induce then I would have preclampsia and be sick by that time the next week which was my due date when I was scheduled to be induced. I have told my doctor since day one that he is the doctor and I completely trust him. He had told me before that they never induce before the due date unless there is a medical reason to do so, so that made me comfortable that he wasn't just doing this out of convenience or anything like that. So, he scheduled me for that following Wednesday, September 1st. That happened to be the day he was in labor and delivery, too. He knew that I wanted him to deliver Maks if at all possible. I go to Ruch Clinic and they have several different doctors and you are not guaranteed that the doctor that you see every week will be the one to deliver. It's who ever is on call. Some people see multiple doctors at the clinic, but I saw Kennedy from the beginning and really liked him. He was straightforward with me (which my detail oriented self LOVED) and he was laid back (like I LIKE to think I am). I saw another doctor twice on days when I had to go in for unexpected things and I liked the other doctor too, but still preferred Kennedy. That's my little tangent on how much I liked Ruch Clinic.

We got to the hospital about 5 a.m. if I remember correctly. They sent just me back to ask me some questions and get my IV put in. It wasn't until about 7:00 that they let Grant back. I didn't understand why it took so long to let him back. I started out with these two nurses but a shift change was about to happen so I only had them for maybe 2 hours at the most. I liked them. The main nurse asked me where I worked and I told her Camp Electric and she proceeded to tell me how much she loves K-Love. They aren't connected but we advertise on K-Love. The other nurse seemed like she was a beginner. She was about my age, maybe younger and one of my fears came true that morning when she was trying to get the IV in and couldn't do it. The other nurse had to come poke me for like the 3rd time. Oh well. It wasn't too horrible.

Then I got my new nurse who I LOVED! She was great! They started me on the pitocin at probably about 8ish and then my doctor, Dr. Kennedy (GREAT Doctor!), came in and broke my water...a little bit of a yucky thing then but not too bad. Kind of like pouring hot tea in your lap. Ha! Probably about 9:00, I got my epidural. I was more scared in anticipation for the epidural than the actual epidural. I cried before but it was because I was nervous. I heard that pain was HORRIBLE. But, honest, it was not that bad at all. It felt kind of like a bee sting. Then it was over. 

Besides the after effects of my C-section, the pain beforehand was very minimal. I really didn't have strong contractions and I never had to do a vaginal delivery...so if you look at it that way, I was pretty blessed with a very pain free PRE-delivery. Not so much POST delivery though because of the C-section.

The next part was kind of scary. My monitor kinda started going crazy and the nurse came to check on it and got kind of worried and buzzed for help. The baby's heart rate was going from the 60's to 150's and jumping back and forth. As she was waiting on the other nurses, she gave me my catheter (usually she likes to wait longer after the epidural, but she was worried they would immediately need to take me to surgery...I didn't feel anything). So, 2 other nurses hurry in there and they have me roll to my left side and right side ...back and forth. Remember, I now have my epidural so I am having to pull myself using my upper body. They put me on oxygen and paged my doctor (kind of frantic). That is when Grant said he got nervous. So, as they are rolling me from side to side to try to get the baby's heart rate down, I ask them "Should I be nervous?" and one of the nurses (not mine) says very adamantly "YES". So, that was not very helpful...I mean...I appreciated the honestly, but at the same time, I am obviously distressed here. My nurse tried to cover up her blatant disregard for my feelings and ATTEMPTED to make me feel better. Then they told me to take off any jewelry because they might have to roll me back for a C-section right then. 

Long-ish story short, they got the baby's heart rate down when they turned off the pitocin. My doctor came in shortly afterwards and checked a few things, put a heart monitor on the inside (maybe on the baby...not sure) and said that, for now, I was good but he wanted to wait for a while to turn the pitocin back on to see if I progressed. 

So, probably about 11:00 a.m. they tried turning the pitocin back on (for those of you who don't know what pitocin is...I wouldn't have before this...it's what kind of forces your body into labor). After they turned the pitocin back on, Maksim's heart rate spiked again so they decided to keep me off of the pitocin for good. 

Well, turning off the pitocin made me not progress at all for four hours...I went in at between 1-2 cm dilated and I was stuck then at 4 cm dilated. It was at that point that they decided to give me a C-section. I honestly did not want a C-section at ALL and I had made that clear to Dr. Kennedy that the only reason I would want a C-section is if the baby was in danger and so I trusted him when he made the call. The reasoning for giving me a C-section were two: 1. Failure to Progress and 2. Fetal Distress....so Maks was in distress. So, when he made the final call, I think Grant was relieved that in less than an hour we would be holding our baby, but I was scared out of my mind. 

But, they wheeled me back to surgery...made Grant go in another room for a bit and when they wheeled me back there I got nervous even more...I was still crying at this point but luckily a lady from our church, Kerry Griggs, was there with me the whole time and so was my favorite nurse (who's name I forgot).

Sidebar...my favorite nurse was actually not going to go with me into surgery. Guess who was? The "YES" lady! I made a face when she told me that lady was coming and a few minutes later she came over to me in private and asked me if I was uncomfortable with the "YES" nurse and I told her yes. Earlier that day, the "YES" nurse had been rude to my family and friends when we were one person over the limit in my room. That one person was Hudson, a 1 year old! Come on! So, after I told my favorite nurse that I was uncomfortable with the "YES" nurse, my favorite nurse made plans to come to surgery as soon as she could. She had another patient that required her attention as well at the same time. But, she really did bend over backwards to be there for me. I have GOT to remember her name!

ANYWAYS, going into the surgery room was intimidating because it's stark white with all of those big lights. I was relieved when they let Grant come back. So, because of the epidural, obviously I was numb, but I could feel them tugging hard (well, it felt hard to me). One of the anesthesiologists told Grant that if he wanted to see, he would tell him when he could stand up and he did and Grant was amazed! We video taped it ..see below...just kidding. But, we did video tape it and it was pretty cool! I didn't hear him cry when he first came out but Grant says he did. Maksim automatically peed first thing and it made Dr. Kennedy chuckle!

They weighed him in at 5 pounds 14 oz! I was shocked because I was told he would be around 7! One of the nurses looked at Maks when he was born and actually said "OH, there's no way he was going to make it down the birth canal"...so that reassured me that we did the right thing with the C-section. I guess more of my stomach was my fat than it was Maks! I definitely have a more healthy plan for eating with the next one...you don't want to know what I gained. It was just me having an excuse to not really watch how much I ate...I still at "healthy" I thought, but portion control pretty much went out the window. 

Well, we were stuck back in recovery until almost 7:00 p.m. which was ridiculous! Maks was born right around 4:00 p.m.  Our nurse in recovery had just switched over to a new computer system and was taking her sweet time. That was annoying. But, so we FINALLY got to see our friends and family... there were a TON of them when they took us off of the elevator and back to our room! It was great! If you known Grant and I, you know we are people persons and we loved that we had that many people to greet us! 

So, that's that! We were in the hospital from Wednesday to Saturday...and did I mention that Grant was the sickest he had been in a while...bad timing! Breastfeeding went GREAT! If you know me, you know I was bound and determined to try to breastfeed and it's been a success! Still going on that. We will see how long I can make it, but my goal is 6 months. If I can go that long then I will set a new goal. I AM back at work now, so that makes it more difficult considering I have to pump now, but it's doable. Someone told me that it is the least selfish thing I could do and the most beneficial for my baby! So I am going to keep pressing on for Maks! 

OOOH, and since I said I would be straightforward...the C-section did not hurt the day of because I was on meds, but the following 3 days were not fun at all. I don't know if I was not told or what, but I just assumed after a major surgery that the hospital staff would just automatically give you pain medications to keep you comfortable...but no, you have to ask for them...so for some reason, I thought "the longer I wait, the better"...umm...no.... get that pain medication every 4 hours (or as soon as you can). There is no shame in that. I don't know why I thought I had to be tough. BUT, I still don't understand why they don't give it to you automatically...at least for the first day after surgery! 

The day after my C-section (I think it had to be 12 hours after), the nurse took out the catheter and that part didn't actually hurt, it was the fact that I had to go to the restroom after that and literally couldn't for an hour... that was pretty painful. So, I did walk like an old lady with a bad back for a few days because that's all I could do. 

But, our friends and family were ...and still are!...AMAZING! And, Maks is SUCH A GOOD BABY! We got lucky with this one! My overall experience at Baptist Women's Hospital was a great one (besides the "YES" nurse). 

Ok, I think this long post makes up for all of the time I have spent away. 

Til next time!