Logan's Birth Story

Labor and Delivery called Tuesday night to tell me to be at the hospital at 7:30 am for my version. I had to come fasting just in case they ended up needing to do a C-section.

When we got there Wednesday morning they did a quick ultrasound and he was still head down (hooray!), so we got to skip the version and start the induction process. They got the oxytocin and an antibiotic going (because I tested positive for group B strep this time) and I started my Gilmore Girls marathon. I was starving the whole time and Rog will tell you I was not very happy about that! I ate about a million cups of ice chips with snow cone syrup to try to fill the empty void that was my stomach, but it really didn't help other than to give me something to do!

Around noon I got my epidural and around 1:45 Dr. Drewes broke my water. With Peyton it only took an hour from when he broke my water to when she was born, but this time it took a little longer because I was only dilated to a 3 or 4 when he broke my water. Around 3:00 the nurse checked me and I was dilated to a 5 or 6. Soon after she left I started to feel a lot more pressure and pain, but it wasn't too bad until about 3:30 when it suddenly became almost unbearable. I was screaming for Rog to get the nurse in there to check me. She finally came and said I was to a 10. Everything was set up, but Dr. Drewes still had to get dressed. Finally I was able to push. Logan basically just slid out and was born at 3:48 pm.

He started crying immediately, but was very purple. After 4 minutes he was still purple, so they called the NICU team in. They got him looking a lot better, but still wanted to take him to the NICU to help him transition. While they were working on him, we were all wondering how much he weighed. He was 8 pounds, 13 ounces which I took as a victory.

I got to hold him for just a minute before they took him off to the NICU. (If it looks like I was crying, I was. I think it was the lack of food more than anything, but I couldn't stop crying for a few minutes after he was born.)

Rog went with Logan to the NICU and my nurse got me a box lunch which at the time seemed like the best meal I've ever eaten in my entire life!

Logan had a lot of fluid in his lungs, but they kept saying he'd be out of the NICU in no time. We'd experienced this same thing with Corbyn, so we really weren't too worried. I got to stop in the NICU to see him before going down to my room in Mother & Baby. 

After dinner my parents brought the kids to see us. My dad went up to the NICU with Rog to give Logan a blessing. They were still saying that he'd be out of the NICU soon, but did an X-ray of his lungs just to be safe. After the kids left, I went up with Rog and the NICU doctor told us that from his X-ray it looked like he had pneumonia and would likely be in the NICU for 7-10 days. I was completely exhausted and totally unprepared for that news. 

As soon as we woke up the next morning we went up to the NICU and found a much improved baby. Over night they had given him some medicine to open the vessels in his lungs (they gave the same medicine to Corbyn immediately, so it makes us wonder what would have happened if they did the same for Logan) and he was soon taken off the breathing machines. They did another X-ray that looked much better and the test for pneumonia came back negative. Because he had officially been admitted into the NICU, he had to stay there for the rest of his hospital stay, but luckily it wasn't going to be the 7-10 days they had told us the night before.

He was still hooked up to a lot of wires, had a feeding tube down his nose, and an IV in his umbilical cord, but at least we could hold him. I was able to start nursing him and he caught on immediately! I was so relieved! From that point on I spent the rest of my hospital stay going up to the NICU every 3 hours to feed him. I didn't tear at all during delivery, so my recovery was pretty quick - a huge blessing because I was going back and forth a lot! 

The kids came to visit again Thursday afternoon. They had just started letting kids visit Mother & Baby again, but they still weren't allowed to visit the NICU, so they couldn't meet Logan yet.

Friday morning was crazy in the NICU. They got about 6 new babies (all tiny and in scary condition), so I didn't know if they'd have time to get Logan discharged that day. Luckily we had an awesome nurse who worked her tail off all afternoon to get him discharged. I was officially discharged at 4:00 and then we spent the next 4 hours up in the NICU getting Logan discharged. He had to sit in his car seat for an hour and a half and pass a bunch of other tests to prove he could go home. I'm sure this is warranted for the "real" NICU babies, but it seemed a little extreme for our healthy baby who was pretty huge by NICU standards.

We finally got him home and the kids were literally bouncing off the walls because they were so excited to finally meet their brother!

They took turns holding him...

And then insisted he try out his swing!

We are so grateful we got to bring him home with us and that he is healthy and doing so well. Corbyn said Heavenly Father made the medicine magical and I believe he is right. I am grateful for the Priesthood and the many prayers that were offered in our little boy's behalf. We love our little Logan and already can't imagine our family without him in it!